D'Amato: The 2017-'18 season for the Bucks was a big disappointment
This was supposed to be the season in which the Milwaukee Bucks took a step toward becoming an elite NBA team and built momentum and excitement for the move into their new arena.
When evaluated against those expectations – realistic or not, the team’s goal was to reach the Eastern Conference finals – the 2017-’18 season was a bust. The Bucks went down meekly in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series against the undermanned Boston Celtics, who inarguably wanted it more.
Based on what you saw for six months, did you really expect a different outcome?
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton aside, the sum of the Bucks’ parts is not nearly good enough. They’re incapable of being a winning playoff team as currently constituted.
Malcolm Brogdon, who operates in the no-spin zone, acknowledged as much Sunday.
“I think we’ve got some things to figure out,” the guard said. “There are always changes to make in the off-season. Game 7 (of the first round) is somewhat of an accomplishment but it’s not what we set out to do. We played hard but we had some flaws.
“I didn’t think we performed as well as we should have. The results speak for themselves.”
What has to change? Just about everything, starting with culture. The Bucks preached effort, energy and accountability but one or more was lacking too often and the fixes were always temporary. At times, even when they played hard, they lacked the cohesiveness or awareness or chemistry – pick your descriptor – exhibited by winning teams.
Brogdon vaguely referenced distractions, said the players had to do a better job of “embracing each other” and “focusing on the right things” and said it was “hard to fathom” the team’s tendency to make the same mistakes over and over.
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General manager Jon Horst faces an off-season in which he’ll make several decisions critical to the franchise’s short-term and long-term futures. That’s what every GM has to do pretty much every year, but in the Bucks’ case, with the team projected to be up against the luxury tax and about to move into a new arena – and with a significant portion of the team’s fan base at least mildly disillusioned – Horst can ill afford to make mistakes.
Priority No. 1 is addressing the coaching situation. Joe Prunty is a good man who was thrust into a difficult situation after Jason Kidd was fired in January and considering the team’s shortcomings did a commendable job. But it’s a given he won’t be back.
The Bucks need a coaching change. They need a head coach who will fix a broken defense and an ineffective half-court offense, one who will energize the fan base as the team leaves the BMO Harris Bradley Center behind and moves into the shiny new behemoth next door. Horst has to get this one right, or three to four more years of Antetokounmpo’s prime will go to waste.
But no coach can win big with this roster.
Horst must decide whether Jabari Parker, who will be a restricted free agent, is worth an enormous investment. And Parker must decide if he can be happy as the No. 2 or 3 option, as a supportive piece instead of The Man. His decision to go public with frustration over his playing time after Game 2 had to be profoundly disappointing to management and to his teammates.
To Parker’s credit, he played hard the rest of the series and was a factor in the Bucks’ three victories at home. Still, one has to wonder if there’s a disconnect there, something that could trigger a bigger problem down the road.
Do the Bucks overlook Parker’s defensive shortcomings, project him as a long-term starter and commit as much as $80 million to him? I just don’t see it. A sign-and-trade seems likely, unless the new coach is adamant he can make it work.
Horst also must turn over every stone to try to fix the Bucks’ problem at center. John Henson has neither the skill set nor the mean streak to get the job done. In Game 7, the Celtics’ Al Horford manhandled Thon Maker, who at this point in his career should be a 15- to 20-minute role player off the bench.
Maker had his moments in the series, and his feistiness and commitment to improve are nice traits. But he lacks the bulk to guard big men down low, doesn’t have quick enough feet to stay with smaller men on the perimeter and isn’t a strong rebounder. There’s a good chance he’s nearing his ceiling, despite Kevin Garnett’s prediction that a league MVP is in his future.
Did Eric Bledsoe show enough to convince Horst and the new coach that the Bucks can contend for a championship in the next three years or so with him at point guard? Nobody played harder than did Bledsoe in Game 7, but his lapses in concentration and propensity for turnovers are bothersome.
Finally, can Horst find a game-changing three-point shooter, either in the draft or through a trade? The team failed with Rashad Vaughn and Mirza Teletovic, who wasn’t the answer even before pulmonary emboli derailed his career. Tony Snell was practically invisible in the playoff series.
Though the Bucks have a handful of players who can knock down the occasional three, I wouldn’t consider any of them a cold-blooded perimeter assassin. Middleton is a superb scorer, but his strength is his midrange game.
The bottom line is that the Bucks are no closer to winning a championship now than they were in October. It’s on Horst to get them back on track.
Antetokoumpo is still young. But he’s not going to get younger.