Bucks know patience is key on road to a championship
Patience.
The virtue is a tough ask in professional sports, especially when a fan base has been waiting five decades for a championship celebration and nearly as long for even a chance to play for one. Coaches and players feel the weight of the expectations and excitement while trying not to be toppled over by them.
This is where the Milwaukee Bucks are as they head into the pandemic-impacted 2020-21 season.
They have won 74.8% of their regular-season games the last two years as the Eastern Conference's best team. They have the two-time reigning most valuable player player and reigning defensive player of the year. They have four all-stars on the roster and three all
defensive team members.
The handful of free agents who signed this offseason spoke of the organization's winning culture and the very real chance to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy as league champion as reasons why they came.
But the Bucks know they can't just skip ahead to July, perhaps more than any team in the league the last few seasons.
“Obviously everybody wants to win a championship,” superstar forward Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “I'm not playing not to win a championship. I'm not playing to be second, third or fifth. I'm playing to be the best.
"Obviously want to be at the end, the last team standing. But you've got to take steps to that. This never has been a team, you're just going to go to the championship and get it easy. You've got to work for it. You've got to hurt to get it.”
And the Bucks have hurt.
The 60-win season of 2018-19 and 2-0 series lead over Toronto in the Eastern Conference finals ended in heartbreak. The 53-12 record last season when the pandemic stopped play was followed with a 3-5 end to the regular season in the bubble and a surprising second-round playoff defeat at the hands of the Miami Heat.
“You sit back and you reflect and you think about the missed opportunity we had in the bubble and the season before and you get a little bit angry,” forward Khris Middleton said. “You're always a little angry, a little upset when you lose, but you have to use that as fuel and motivation for the upcoming season.”
What the team is confident in has been the salve applied by general manager Jon Horst in acquiring guard Jrue Holiday from New Orleans and reshaping the bench via free agency with shooter Bryn Forbes, point guard D.J. Augustin, defensive-oriented wing Torrey Craig and energetic scoring option Bobby Portis.
“I mean, I have that expectation,” Craig said of contending for a title. “I expect it. We have a talented team. A twotime MVP. Khris Middleton is an allstar. Young talent on this team. We have all the right pieces. I don't see why not. In my opinion we are contending for a championship and we have the team to do it.”
At the start of training camp, head coach Mike Budenholzer acknowledged that excitement as the players began filtering into the practice facility. He believes they are a better team than a year ago, and there is a hunger there. Returning players such as Antetokounmpo, Middleton, Brook Lopez, Donte DiVincenzo, Pat Connaughton and D.J. Wilson know their hurt.
Craig's team in Denver lost in the Western Conference finals in the bubble. Forbes reached the West finals in his rookie year in San Antonio in 2016-17, and Augustin played on the Indiana team that pushed Miami to seven games in the 2012-13 East finals. Holiday has reached the second round of the playoffs twice, and Portis has played six career playoff games.
“We understand how hard it is,” said Budenholzer, who was part of four championship teams as an assistant in San Antonio. “And then I think it's just, it's a different feeling than the conference finals. And you appreciate getting there, getting to the NBA Finals, winning a championship, how hard it is. You get to the playoffs, everybody wants it.”
And that's the challenge for this Bucks team.
Can they fit all the new pieces together early enough to secure the bulk of, if not all, their postseason games at Fiserv Forum? Can they be playing their best basketball as the playoffs begin and then continue that?
“We're trying to find a way to turn our regular-season success into postseason success,” Middleton acknowledged. “We're finding a way to do that. It was a disappointing season with the way we went out – it always is when you don't win and you're not that last team standing.
"We have to find a way. I think we're a great team and we added a lot of nice pieces that can help us improve and get to that goal, so I'm excited for the season.”
They are the answers they seek to find but are impossible to calculate until the moment comes.
“We all have the same goal and we're just out there every day trying to put ourselves in the best position to achieve that,” Lopez said. “I don't think anyone is really overthinking it or anything like that or worried about the inverse of that, or the opposite of winning a championship or anything like that. We're just out here trying to prepare ourselves for that moment.”
Patience.
In the short term, Antetokounmpo and Holiday have said it will take time for this year's team to coalesce and find itself.
Over the long term, the Bucks will embark on a 72-game regular season beginning Wednesday night in Boston and will have to account for adjusted practices and shootarounds due to daily COVD-19 testing. They will play the same team on back-to-back nights or twice in three days as the league tries to mitigate the risk of the pandemic, forcing quick adjustments. Routines have been altered. Experiments in chemistry have been fast-tracked.
“It's definitely us trying to get ready for a quick season, a quick turnaround, a sense of urgency,” Augustin said. “It's always going to be some type of pressure. I don't feel like it's win now or bust, but we definitely want to win a championship, man.
"You can definitely feel the energy here in the building when you come to practice, shootarounds and games. It's different from what I've been used to in the past four years. It's not just like let's just get to the playoffs and get to the second round and see what happens. It's like championship or not a great season for us. That's the expectation.
"I can tell that guys that's been here, they feel it and they sense it and I'm just happy to be part of it and help out as much as I can to get to that ultimate goal of a championship.”
And Antetokounmpo preached longterm patience after signing his supermax extension, acknowledging the reality it may take the length of his new deal to finally get that chance to win a title.
But he knows another shot at it comes this season.
“We've got to take it step by step,” he said. “I don't believe it's a championship or bust situation. Obviously everybody wants to win a championship.
“I want to win a championship. Nobody wants to win a championship more than me. I can guarantee you that. But there's steps to that. You've got to keep improving. You've got to keep getting better. Hopefully we can get that this year.”