Wrapping your brain around how far the Milwaukee Bucks have sunken can be a disorienting experience. Despite Thursday's win. the Bucks still pulsate the vibes of a Stephen King adaptation,. The essential premise of King’s original horror story, The Monkey, is that a drummer monkey toy wreaks havoc whenever it claps by causing grisly deaths. It’s also an apt description for the Bucks since the NBA approved Jimmy Haslam’s purchase of 25 percent of the organization from co-owner Marc Lasry in April of 2023. At the time, Milwaukee was 58-24 and owned the best record in the league. They’re been plunging towards rock bottom ever since.
Two weeks later after Haslam became minority owner, the Miami Heat eliminated Milwaukee in a first-round upset. They jettisoned head coach Mike Budenholzer after a first-round exit. In the offseason, they intercepted Damian Lillard en route to Miami by shipping Jrue Holiday to Portland. The injury-ridden Bucks were run off the court in the first round while Holiday celebrated his second title.
Before the 2023-24 season began, Terry Stotts, the top assistant to the new head coach Adrian Griffin bounced right before the season as a result of Griffin's insecure reaction to his rapport with Giannis Antetokounmpo and his former star player, Damian Lillard. Three months later, Griffin was replaced by Doc Rivers. Post-Griffin their record was worse than it was before his firing. Their downward spiral just gets steeper the more they attempt to course-correct.
In the last two weeks, they’ve sent Khris Middleton into the irradiated Washington Wizards organization without a hazmat suit on. They also traded first-round picks from 2022 and 2024 to the Clippers and Wizards respectively and now have just one homegrown player in their rotation. That player, guard A.J. Jackson Jr. is averaging a meager 3.9 points and 1.5 assists per game in 17 minutes a night.
On Thursday, the league handed down a 25-game suspension to Bobby Portis for violating the league’s banned substances policy. Portis, who was thought to be a likely trade asset in the weeks leading up to the deadline confused a league-approved painkiller Toradol with Tramadol, which is on the NBA’s banned substances list.
It’s that sort of negligence that has plagued the Bucks this season on the court. Most of these inauspicious events can’t be traced to Haslam’s interference in organizational decisions. However, he's had a personal hand in poor decisions that continue to plague the Bucks. Curiously, the Bucks passed on this season’s frontrunner for Coach of the Year, Kenny Atkinson twice.
Once was during the summer of 2023. The Bucks got a second shot at Atkinson after showing Griffin the door. However, Haslam was reportedly one of the leading voices who supported hiring Doc Rivers, months after he flamed out in Philadelphia.
In one offseason, Atkinson molded the Cleveland Cavaliers offense into the second-most efficient offense in league history. They've also led the Eastern Conference for nearly an entire season. For a decade, Haslem's stewardship of the Cleveland Browns has been one of the most cursed in all of professional sports and it's overflowing into the Bucks. Haslam is the monkey’s paw for two organizations. His sheer proximity has rained bad karma upon the organization and his instincts cost them a superior coach. Antetokounmpo isn't leaving Milwaukee anytime soon, but Jimmy Haslem should consider it.
Giannis Antetokounmpo isn't happy
Given the turmoil that has occurred within the Bucks organization over the past two years, Shams Charania’s report this week that hinted at Antetokounmpo's growing dissatisfaction felt like the beginning of the end of the winning culture they'd established over the last decade.
Shams Charania says Giannis Antetokounmpo wants to stay in Milwaukee, but if he doesn’t see sustained long-term success there, he will look elsewhere
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) February 20, 2025
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Who could blame him? The idea of a franchise cornerstone playing for a single franchise their entire career is enticing until they’re staring down the back half of their career with no apparent path to title contention. Bucks general manager Jon Horst has been willing to comply with Antetokounmpo’s requests, but his vision has been erratic. He’s failed to land rotational talents or playable 3-and-D players, forcing the Bucks to rely on keeping vets Portis and Brook Lopez ambulant for as long as possible.
Coupled with Antetokoummpo’s quippy comments after Luka Doncic’s trade about wanting to see a European superstar in every big market, a trend was developing. The acquisition of Damian Lillard quelled Antetokounmpo’s concerns enough to get him to sign a three-year $186 million extension that includes a player option for the 2027-28 campaign, but what has Horst done since then to supplement them except acquire Kyle Kuzma in exchange for a player who belongs on their organizational Mount Rushmore?
On Thursday, Antetokounmpo publicly doused the crackling rumor mill with a statement to COSMOTE TV broadcasters Vassilis Skountis and Rigas Dardalis during All-Star Weekend that reiterated his commitment to Milwaukee.
"NBA is business, if I got traded I would do my job, but I don't think that I would ever text (and ask for a trade), I am not this kind of guy, they would have to kick me out," Antetokounmpo explained in comments translated from Greek.
All that should keep the ravenous media calm until this summer but where there’s smoke there’s fire. The Bucks front office can’t keep flailing if they want to keep Antetokounmpo content past 2027.