Keeping the band together gives Bucks lofty expectations

Matt Velazquez
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Khris Middleton (from left),
 Malcolm Brogdon, Jabari Parker (12) and  Giannis Antetokounmpo are just part of a Bucks team that has stayed mostly in tact from last season.

In the scope of the NBA, which is regarded as the major sports league with the wildest, most dramatic off-season, the Milwaukee Bucks had a pretty quiet summer. They made a change at general manager and expressed interest in numerous free agents, but in the end there were no major changes.

Milwaukee's big splash of the summer — if you can call it that — was bringing back free agent Tony Snell, an understated, solid part of their playoff team from last year. Snell's return, along with the re-signing of veteran Jason Terry, meant the Bucks will bring back at least 12 players from last year's squad, the most returning players in franchise history.

With the limited changes, continuity was the theme of the day at Monday's media day festivities at the Sports Science Center, the Bucks' new practice facility across the street from the new arena being built.

"It's intentional," GM Jon Horst said of the low roster turnover. "We saw a team that was the youngest or second-youngest in the league last year. ... We knew we were going to come into this year with a top-10 type player on our team (Giannis Antetokounmpo) with a still extremely young core and said, 'Why would we change this?' "

While the roster will largely stay the same, the expectations for the team have not remained static by any stretch of the imagination. Principal owners Wes Edens, Marc Lasry and Jamie Dinan promised to build a championship-caliber team when they bought the franchise in 2014 and that's still the plan.

Back in 2014, that felt far off, with talk of success being part of a years-long rebuilding plan after a franchise-worst 15-67 season. Now, entering their fourth season, the owners believe the franchise has stayed the course and built a squad that's certainly capable of contending with the best teams in the league.

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"The goal and the dream of winning a championship, I guess today is far more real than it was when we first bought the team," Lasry said. "That was our hope, that's still our hope, but today you can see that there's a great foundation there."

With the bulk of their roster coming back, the Bucks, who are coming off a competitive first-round playoff exit against the Toronto Raptors, enter the 2017-'18 season with high expectations. Multiple players expressed goals of winning 50 or more games, getting home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs and winning the franchise's first playoff series since 2001.

Terry went as far as to say that reaching the Eastern Conference Finals is one of the team's "big goals" for the campaign ahead.

Those goals aren't out of the realm of possibility. While the Bucks stood pat, numerous stars, including Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Carmelo Anthony and Paul Millsap, moved from their Eastern Conference squads to ones in the West. Meanwhile, multiple teams, including the Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks, made moves that clearly signaled they're more interested in building for the future via the draft than contending for playoff positions.

By staying their course and counting on growth from their young core, the Bucks saw their stock rise. They hope to head into the season with the advantages that come with having pre-established chemistry — especially since both training camp and the preseason have been shortened to accommodate a longer regular season with more off-days.

"I think that gives us an advantage as a team because we don't need to take that step where we try to figure out things," Antetkounmpo said. "The same players are back and I think the front office did a great job with that. That gives us an advantage because in the first game we play people we're going to be ready. We've played together for a year now so we know what we've got to do."

The benefits of the Bucks' continuity have already begun to bear fruit. In early September, nearly the full team made the decision to get together in Santa Barbara, Calif., for a minicamp with all but two players making the trip. According to multiple players, they were able to immediately hit the ground running.

"It makes it easier because you know what you're there to do; we just got to do work," second-year center Thon Maker said. "Lifting in the mornings, strength and basketball in the afternoons and then went to team dinners and team yoga. It was kind of really cool to see us just jell, but we already had that relationship from the previous year. We didn't have to introduce anybody. It was kind of easy-going."

How much fruit the continuity bears remains to be determined. The Bucks have all the pieces in place to battle for one of the top four seeds in the Eastern Conference, but the still-youthful roster needs to turn its potential into tangible results.

"I think when you talk about expectations that's just a part of the gig," head coach Jason Kidd said. "For us, we worked extremely hard to put ourselves in this position of (having) the expectations, but being the second-youngest team in the league we still have to take steps in the right direction."

With the Bucks' new arena about a year from opening, the initial promises of the new ownership group — to build a new arena and practice center, revitalize downtown with a thriving entertainment district and build a championship team — are beginning to take shape. The messages of "Own the Future" and looking ahead to brighter days have led to now, a season in which the Bucks are regarded among the legitimate challengers to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics in the East.

The patience of ownership, the front office and coaching staff has paid off and now the team's window seems to have opened. Staying together was the option chosen for this season, but it's not a feasible solution year after year.

So the questions become — what will the Bucks do with this opportunity, how long can they succeed by sticking together and how long will their window stay open?

"There's a window where you've got to compete," Edens said. "We've got Giannis just starting his new contact. We've got Khris (Middleton) for a couple years. It's not going to be forever. So you can't have 10-year plan. It's a much shorter thing. We really decided to play the continuity card, stick with what we think is really working. We thought the best thing we could do is get one year older.”