The Milwaukee Bucks Are Still Here + Bucks Trade Deadline Primer

I look back at the Bucks last 20 months leading up to this point and preview what their trade deadline could look like. Also some Pistons cap notes at the end.

The Milwaukee Bucks are the 2024 NBA Cup champions after defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder. What do they get? A trophy, some bragging rights, and mostly the extra earnings that come with it. Most importantly, this should reinforce their belief that they still are championship contenders.

And after a rough 2-8 start to the season, and a generally bumpy last year and a half, the timing of this couldn’t be better.

While Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton had spent a decade with the Bucks, their championship window began in 2018 when they hired head coach Mike Budenholzer and signed Brook Lopez. They later acquired Jrue Holiday in 2020, the missing piece to their championship puzzle.

2022-23 was the fifth season with the Bucks core as we know it, which is a long window by today’s standards in the NBA. And despite Middleton, Holiday, and Lopez all entering their early-to-mid 30s, there was no sign of significant age-related regression.

If anything, it seemed like they were only getting better over time. Lopez had arguably his best season that year at age 35! They dominated the 2022-23 regular season and looked like the clear favorite to win the Eastern Conference. And then they were defeated by the Miami Heat¹, an 8 seed that would reach the NBA Finals after elevating their play in a way they gave no indication was coming.

2023 was rock bottom for this group. And a couple of major changes would follow².

But there’s one change they narrowly prevented that was so consequential I had to write about it. Brook Lopez was heavily courted by the Houston Rockets that summer and nearly signed with them. The Bucks couldn’t afford to lose him.

They re-signed him for two years, $48 million. It significantly increased their luxury tax penalties and made them second apron teams these past two seasons. In the long run, it’s a reasonable cost to pay to keep the deal short. Lopez is still one of the league’s best rim protectors but will also turn 37 this season.

Losing Lopez would’ve been catastrophic because they had limited flexibility and trade assets to adequately replace him³. That reality, along with the coaching churn they went through⁴, is a looming reminder of this core’s fragility.

But their recent resurgence, along with this moment, is a load lifted off a team many around the league have been monitoring to blow it up⁵.