The Milwaukee Bucks are not playing on Christmas Day this year, which is a surprise to no one given how the last year has gone for the franchise. As rumors swirl about their future, their offseason looks more and more like a colossal mistake.
As Christmas dawns, the Bucks are 12-18, not only out of the playoff bracket but the Play-In Tournament entirely. Superstar forward Giannis Antetokounmpo is still a top-5 player in the league, but he has also been limited to just 17 games this year as he battles a number of maladies. The most recent, the terrifying calf strain, would be holding him out on Christmas Day even if the Bucks were scheduled to play.
As the losses pile up, so does the uncertainty about where the franchise is heading. For years since the Bucks delivered Milwaukee its first championship in a half-century in 2021, the mission has been simple: make every desperate move necessary to ensure Antetokounmpo didn't demand a trade.
The Bucks made a big move this summer
That included a huge swing this summer. With Damian Lillard likely to miss the entire season due to a torn Achilles, the Bucks didn't accept a gap year but instead waived and stretched his contract, ensuring a $22.5 million dead cap hit for each of the next five seasons. They used the short-term financial flexibility it afforded to sign stretch center Myles Turner away from the Indiana Pacers.
Turner has been fine, but he is also not the seamless fit into Doc Rivers' system that the franchise hoped he would be. That minor issue is exacerbated by the more massive one that the entire roster is not to the level of competing for a title, which has always been Antetokounmpo's publicly stated goal for his career.
Now the team appears to be at a crossroads; they have supposedly been pushed to this point before, but something feels different about the swirling rumors this time around. Antetokounmpo cannot look around and convince himself this group can, now or moving forward, contend for a title. He is likely closer than ever to making the official trade request that would motivate the Bucks to act.
Turner made the Bucks a better team, but the cost was exorbitant. Unless that signing was going to propel this team up into contention, it was always going to put a ceiling on what this group could accomplish. Milwaukee has no flexibility to make another move, in part because they have already tapped out all of their assets trying to keep Antetokounmpo happy in years past, and in part because they have $22.5 million of dead salary they cannot do anything with, this year or for the next half-decade.
If and when Antetokounmpo does demand a trade, they are then stuck with a massive payout that limits their ability to compete without him or truly reset the roster. Having a bad contract on your books at least allows you to trade it at some point; they cannot touch the money owed to Lillard now clogging up their books.
It was a desperate move, and deserves some credit for its boldness, but it hasn't worked. Antetokounmpo wasn't convinced, the team isn't good enough, and things are hurtling toward a breakup. In any scenario, the Bucks' financial position is a disaster. It was a Hail Mary throw and it was caught - but at the 5-yard line, not in the end zone, and the Bucks are now being tackled.
It was a colossal mistake that will weigh heavy on the franchise for years to come.