3 Bucks who can't be back next year if Milwaukee wants to keep Giannis

The Milwaukee Bucks are back to the drawing board after a heartbreaking Game 5 loss to the Indiana Pacers.

It's hard to imagine a more catastrophic end to Milwaukee's season. The Bucks lost Damian Lillard to a torn Achilles in Game 4. Then, the team made the most of a makeshift lineup in Game 5, taking a seven-point lead with 38 seconds left in overtime — only to collapse in the most classically Doc Rivers fashion imaginable.

A truly confounding meltdown.

Milwaukee was outmatched front to back in this series despite a Herculean effort from Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks failed their two-time MVP at every turn. Giannis, to his credit, never took his foot off the gas pedal. If not for the inadequacy of his teammates down the stretch, this series would be going back to Milwaukee with a trace of hope.

Giannis trade rumors are about to reach a fever pitch, but the Bucks don't control their first-round pick until 2031, so the front office does not have much incentive to deal away a top-3 player. Milwaukee will do everything it can to keep Giannis happy and convince him to embrace another campaign in Cream City. Even if it means cutting ties with a few key pieces.

Here's who Milwaukee needs to part ways with.

3. Taurean Prince is no longer a rotation-level wing for the Bucks

Taurean Prince started 73 of 80 appearances for the Bucks season, which is exemplary of Milwaukee's core issue. The Bucks are too old; there's no reason to sugarcoat it. The Dame trade stripped the Bucks of all roster flexibility, which meant Jon Horst was forced to turn to desperate half-measures (the Kyle Kuzma trade) and veteran minimum ring-chasers.

Prince was starting a lot of games for the Lakers last season, so he continues to earn the trust of his coaches. It's no coincidence that Darvin Ham, the much-maligned former head coach in L.A., was Doc Rivers' top assistant with Milwaukee this season. Prince hit 43.9 percent of his 3s in the regular season and mostly looked the part of a passable rotation wing, but he vanished in the playoffs.

The Bucks need fresh legs in the worst of ways. Prince was removed from the starting lineup in Game 3 of the Pacers series and used sparingly afterward. He went scoreless in three of five games, logging less than five minutes twice. The defense fell off a cliff. The jumpers weren't hitting. There's no reason to bring him back, even if it means getting creative to find suitable depth on the wing.

2. Bucks need to upgrade the Brook Lopez minutes if at all possible

Brook Lopez has been a staple of this Bucks lineup for a while, but we've reached the point of no return. This is obviously contingent on Milwaukee finding a "better" option, which will be difficult given their lack of resources. But Lopez, at 37 years old, just cannot offer the consistent two-way value he once did.

Not long ago, Lopez was a DPOY candidate and an integral part of the Bucks' 2020 championship run. Those days are long gone, unfortunately. He didn't play more than 20 minutes once in the Pacers series, despite starting four of five games. He hit 37.3 percent of his 3s in the regular season and averaged 1.9 blocks, so he's still an effective 82-game player, but Indy's up-tempo offense left Lopez on an island. For the first time in his Bucks career, Lopez was effectively schemed out of a series.

Milwaukee turned to Bobby Portis Sr. in Game 5 to get more juice in the starting lineup. That may be the path forward. The defense takes a step back with Portis, at least in the regular season, but Giannis can patch up a lot of holes on the back line. If the Bucks can find a more youthful big to take Lopez's spot — and, again, that's a huge if — now is the time. The optimal version of this Milwaukee roster does not feature Lopez as a starter going into his age-38 season.

1. Bucks need to cut bait with Kyle Kuzma ASAP

The Kyle Kuzma trade did not age well for the Bucks. Khris Middleton returned to the Washington Wizards lineup and led them to a few too many wins down the stretch. Kuzma, meanwhile, was predictably ill-equipped for postseason basketball.

That trade made sense on the surface — the Bucks needed to get younger and more athletic — but what value Kuzma did provide was undermined by a poor feel for the game and leaky defense. He can heat up as a scorer, but Kuzma's overall decision-making and effort level was just not where it needed to be for the Bucks.

He was catastrophically bad in this series. That 0-0-0-0-0 stat line in Game 1 will live in infamy, but Kuzma's performance didn't improve much from there. He joined Lopez in the migration to the bench for Game 5, which almost paid off, but was too little too late. Kuzma is not the wing upgrade Milwaukee thought he was. That was a bad use of their few trade chips at the deadline.

Under contract for two more years at a hair over $20 million annually, Kuzma isn't exactly easy to offload. Still, he was a valued trade commodity just last season, so the Bucks need to explore all avenues and dump that contract if possible. There's always a dumb front office or two that's willing to engage.