Bucks must look in the mirror to avoid bitter end to Giannis' golden era

The Milwaukee Bucks need to take accountability for how they ended up in this situation. It's a simple statement with years of reasoning, as Milwaukee has somehow gone from a championship-winner in 2021 to a team that's now lost in the first round in three consecutive postseasons.

With speculation running rampant that Giannis Antetokounmpo may have played his final game for the Bucks, the front office must look in the mirror if it hopes to avoid that disastrous ending.

Antetokounmpo is one of the greatest players in NBA history. At 30 years of age, he's already an NBA champion, Finals MVP, two-time regular-season MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and six-time All-NBA First Team honoree who could receive a seventh nod for his 2024-25 campaign.

That individual success has somehow not led to much on the team front in recent years, with the 2025 first-round loss to the Indiana Pacers epitomizing Antetokounmpo's experience in Milwaukee.

An all-time individual series that somehow ends in five games can't be the end of the Antetokounmpo era—but if the front office fails to take accountability, it will be.

Milwaukee must take ownership of how mistakes have tanked Giannis era

The Bucks have made an abundance of decisions that have led them down the road they're currently on. That includes firing Mike Budenholzer just two years after he won them their first championship in 50 years, parting with Adrian Griffin with a 30-13 record, and going 65-53 under replacement Doc Rivers.

Rivers, of course, had gone 11 seasons since he'd last made it past the second round of the playoffs when he took the Bucks job—and has now extended that streak to 13.

Furthermore, the decision to trade Jrue Holiday for Damian Lillard has resulted in a polarizing chapter in Bucks history. It's hard to blame the front office for going all-in on a Hall of Fame point guard, but Holiday went on to play a key role on a title-winning team with the Boston Celtics, while the Lillard fit has been questionable in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee operated with the right intentions, but even the decision to part with oft-injured star Khris Middleton resulted in the franchise taking on multiple seasons of a costly Kyle Kuzma contract.

Kuzma has two seasons and $42,775,757 remaining on his contract. He also played just 29 minutes between Milwaukee's final two games of the 2025 NBA Playoffs. Kuzma is a talented scorer, but this isn't necessarily a departure from his reputation as a volume player who didn't fit with the Bucks.

Compounded by Milwaukee's underwhelming track record in the NBA Draft and its tendency to wait too long to trade for upgrades, the latter stages of the Antetokounmpo era have been defined by insufficiency.

If Milwaukee is going to convince Antetokounmpo to give them another season before potentially requesting a trade, it needs to own up to its shortcomings. It can't afford to pretend that there haven't been misfires, as this is the time to show the franchise player that the future is worth staying around for.

After extending general manager Jon Horst and enduring another first-round exit, the clock is ticking for the Bucks to take accountability and show Antetokounmpo that the future will be different.