NBA Season Preview 2019-20: Every team’s biggest question

Milwaukee Bucks: Are they ready for the NBA Finals?

Perhaps no team has a higher bar to clear than the Milwaukee Bucks this season. This team needs to be in the NBA Finals, and they probably need to win it, too.

These are the expectations that get saddled on a team that wins 60 games but loses in the Eastern Conference Finals. The 2018-19 Bucks were the best regular season team in the NBA by a substantial margin, but after two fairly effortless series wins to open their playoff run, they ran into a brick wall in the form of Kawhi Leonard. The Raptors sent the Bucks packing in six games, and went on to claim their first ever NBA title over the Golden State Warriors. With how high the Bucks set the bar for themselves, the ignominious end can only be seen as a letdown.

Well, Leonard is in Los Angeles now, and then-contenders like Toronto and Boston have faded, so the Bucks’ window appears to be as open as it ever has. Milwaukee will enter the season as the presumptive favorite in the East, with only the new-look Philadelphia 76ers appearing likely to stand in their way. It’s time for the Bucks to deliver.

There’s another factor in play here: The Bucks are inching ever closer to the all-important 2021 offseason. Giannis Antetokounmpo is ticketed to be an unrestricted free agent that summer, and the dreaded mutterings have already begun. Will Giannis commit to five more years in Milwaukee, or will the allure of a market like Los Angeles or New York prove too compelling? It may be too soon to tell, but it’s never too early for the Bucks to make their case, and an NBA championship would doubtless make for a strong selling point.