Does Jon Horst have an Executive of the Year case for Milwaukee Bucks?

Milwaukee Bucks team performance this season may help build an Executive of the Year case for Jon Horst

With the Milwaukee Bucks currently sitting in the 4th seed slot, their team performance doesn’t look too great for an award like Executive of the Year. However, when taking into account other factors that the team has dealt with this season, where they currently stand will start to look more impressive.

The Milwaukee Bucks have not played a fully-healthy lineup in any game all season. The closest that they’ve been to a fully-healthy team was in their season opener against the Brooklyn Nets. The Bucks were not at full strength in that game, missing Semi Ojeleye and Bobby Portis. To make things worse for the team when it comes to health, they would lose Brook Lopez in that game and it remains as the only game that he has played in all season.

In December and parts of January, the team dealt with a wave of COVID that had a lot of players in and out of the lineup. The omicron variant ravaged a lot of teams in the NBA, but with the Bucks already being down key players, the spread only made matters worse for Milwaukee.

The team has struggled to find any sort of rhythm this season. With so many moving pieces within the lineup, they have struggled to find any consistency.

The silver lining in all of the injuries this season is that the team has been largely successful when the trio of Antetokounmpo, Holiday, and Middleton are on the court together.

Despite not being healthy in many games this season, the Bucks still sit two games behind the top seed in the Eastern Conference. If the Bucks can get Brook Lopez back and keep their stars all healthy, they may be able to claim that top spot in the East.

Horst has done an excellent job this season by keeping the team within striking distance of all of the contenders. He will have a chance to make a further mark for an Executive of the Year case at the trade deadline coming up soon.