The Milwaukee Bucks are not built to compete at the highest level and the front office is to blame. Giannis Antetokounmpo is a transcendent talent, but the team surrounding him has gotten progressively worse since this team won the NBA Finals in 2021, and now they're closer to a full teardown than they are to competing for an NBA title.
There aren't any massively horrible decisions you can point to as evidence of this front office's struggles. They haven't had any big lottery misses (because they haven't really had lottery picks), there aren't any giant free agent contracts that immediately aged poorly, and the trades they've made — like last year's deadline deal for Kyle Kuzma — at least make sense in theory.
But that's the thing; great teams are built in large part because their front offices can find talent in places that other teams can't. Look at the Thunder rotation, which features Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe, Jaylin Williams, and apparently Ajay Mitchell now, too. None of those guys were obvious rotation players, but the Thunder take risks, find talent, and take development seriously. Can any of that be said about the Bucks?
When a team isn't finding success around the margins and isn't hitting the home runs either, it leads to an unhappy medium, which is what the Bucks might experience this year.
Bucks aren't finding talent like other elite teams are
In 2020, the Bucks traded for Jrue Holiday, and it proved to be one of the best moves the franchise has ever made. In the past five years, Jon Horst, the rest of the decision-makers, and team ownership haven't made any moves that are nearly as impactful as that one. And I know that trading is hard in the NBA; but teams become successful when they can find those deals and get them done. The Bucks did that in a big way, but haven't replicated that, while other teams have.
Jon Horst was awarded a contract extension by the team at the end of last year, and I think that's in large part because he hasn't made horrible moves. But there's a big gray area between a front office not making horrible moves, and making great ones. And right now, the Bucks occupy that gray area.