Giannis Antetokounmpo has returned. After we were all tricked into believing a trade was imminent just a month ago, the Bucks' superstar is back in the lineup. For the time being, all the Bucks can do is play the games on their schedule — and with Giannis, they're obviously far too good to tank.
There won't be many questions about Giannis's production over the next month and a half. Even after a semi-serious injury, he remains a top-five player in the NBA. That can pretty much be penciled in.
But that doesn't mean the roster as a whole doesn't have questions even with Giannis back in the fold. The all-encompassing question, of course, is how good this team actually is at full strength. Obviously, Giannis raises the floor of this team considerably. But he's played just 31 games this year with a brand new team, and there isn't much of an identity. Can Myles Turner look more like Myles Turner with Giannis sharing the frontcourt with him? Can Ryan Rollins be even better when there's less defensive attention paid to him?
With just 22 games remaining, and a 4-game hole to climb out of for the final play-in spot, does Giannis raise the ceiling that much? It's a stretch. It's possible, but things need to change in a hurry. In the words of Zach Lowe:
"I think in the next 10 days, we're going to know if this is anything alive for the Bucks, and if it's not, even if they go .500 in those games, if they don't make real progress up the standings and up the tiebreakers, I could see Giannis getting shut down..."
Bucks could be an annoying play-in team
They just have to get there first. Every year, fans love to say that if a team will be dangerous in the play-in. It's not always true. But if the Bucks do, somehow overtake the scorching hot Atlanta Hawks or Charlotte Hornets for that final spot, they would clearly have the best player in the play-in — and probably the best player in a first-round matchup against Detroit, depending on how highly you think of Cade Cunningham.
Another one of the big questions for the Bucks to answer in the next few weeks is just how good a Ryan Rollins and Giannis duo can be. If Rollins — who was sensational in February — continues to play that well, and Giannis looks anything like himself, that's suddenly one of the best guard-big duos in the Eastern Conference.
Giannis will provide answers for this team; but how everyone around him responds to his return will tell us if this season will be a wash.