By Liam McKeone
The Milwaukee Bucks have been a league-wide joke for a while now. They haven’t been relevant since they traded Ray Allen for the elderly Gary Payton. While swapping one Hall of Famer for another is usually a win-win, Payton should’ve been retired at that point while Allen was just entering his prime. The Bucks have been a laughingstock since that trade, occasionally rising to mediocrity but always falling—quickly—back into the basement.
Those days are no more. Milwaukee is filled with young, hungry players who want nothing more than a chance to prove themselves. They’ve had a tumultuous season, but as the playoffs approach, the Bucks are locked in and are making everyone else in the Eastern Conference very nervous. The front office has assembled a team of athletic freaks, players with long arms and the size to defend multiple positions. They’ve gone 14-4 in March, a huge turnaround for a team that looked lost after leading scorer Jabari Parker went down with a torn ACL in early February.
The season looked bleak following Parker’s injury, but shooting guard Khris Middleton’s return has been a game-changer for the Bucks. Middleton is a knockdown shooter who, at 6’8”, can defend nearly every position at a high level. Losing Parker hurt, but getting Middleton back from a torn hamstring made this team into what it is. Malcolm Brogdon, a second-round rookie out of Virginia, has been playing like a 10-year vet, doing whatever his team needs to in order to get the win. Thon Maker, the Bucks’ first-round pick this year, was considered a project, but has been contributing down the stretch, providing spacing on the offensive end as a 7’1” center who can shoot the three ball. Giannis Antetokounmpo has been doing his usual thing, rampaging around the court in a whirl of long arms and legs.
The team has come together beautifully at the end of the season. The formula the Bucks are trying to create is simple: gather as much length on defense as you can and figure out the offense part later. When the Bucks put out a lineup of guys who all have 7-foot-plus wingspans, they can close passing lanes in an instant and contest nearly every shot. The Bucks are looking to crowd every attempt and make the shooter uncomfortable. This isn’t a revolutionary idea, but they can execute it better than anyone in the league as a result of the length they’ve gathered.
The Celtics saw firsthand on Wednesday why no one wants to play Milwaukee. They’re incredibly difficult to play against defensively, and are playing with a massive chip on their shoulder. They’ll struggle to score when the intensity gets ramped up in the playoffs, but they have a good balance of shooting and inside scorers that they can make it work. If the Bucks hit their stride in the postseason, LeBron and Boston better watch out. The Bucks are announcing their presence in this league.
