The Whiteboard: It’s now or never for the Milwaukee Bucks

If the Milwaukee Bucks are hoping to keep Giannis Antetokounmpo for the long haul, it’s probably about time they put together a real postseason run.

The Milwaukee Bucks have been a trendy pick to be a team on the rise for multiple years now. The problem, of course, is that the rise just hasn’t happened yet. Milwaukee has been seventh, sixth, and 12th in the East over the last three seasons. Not exactly a top tier team.

Although they were close last postseason, the Bucks have not advanced past the first round since 2001, when Ray Allen was the franchise’s featured star. That role now belongs to Giannis Antetokounmpo, a player who seems poised to become one of the NBA’s best few, if not the outright best player.

For Giannis to truly attain that status, he needs to have some playoff success, especially in the destitute Eastern Conference. The Greek Freak has, to this point, avoided most of the talk about not being a winner due to Milwaukee’s (and Jason Kidd’s) general ineptitude.

Kidd is gone now, with Mike Budenholzer in his stead. Bud is one of the most respected coaches in the NBA, and he steered an Atlanta Hawks team lacking a true superstar to 60 wins back in 2014-15. The auxiliary players are set in Milwaukee, with Khris Middleton, Eric Bledsoe, and Malcolm Brogdon all assembled around Giannis.

Bucks fans would’ve liked to see flashier moves than letting Jabari Parker walk while adding Donte DiVincenzo, Ersan Ilyasova, and Brook Lopez this summer, but this team still has the talent to make a real postseason run thanks to Giannis. The excuses are over.

Antetokounmpo is still young, but he’s no longer got the look of a player figuring out what he’s capable of. Giannis is probably the Eastern Conference’s best player. He can lock in that status by herding a currently slept on Bucks squad to real relevance in a conference headlined by Boston and Kawhi Leonard.

If the Bucks have yet another disappointing season, though, things could get ugly. Middleton can hit free agency in the summer of 2019, and it’ll cost a whole lot more than $14 million annually to keep him. Giannis is locked up until 2021, but as we’ve seen countless times a superstar can get out pretty much whenever they want.

Antetokounmpo has preached nothing but loyalty to Milwaukee, but that won’t stop the Bucks from sweating if they haven’t accomplished anything by next summer. The Milwaukee Bucks need to come through on all the potential they’ve promised for the last few summers, really soon, or the Bucks will have to start answering some really uncomfortable questions.

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