That was it? A Bucks season that started with promise and high expectations ends early again

INDIANAPOLIS – In retrospect, there was probably no more fitting way to begin the 2023-24 Milwaukee Bucks season than the way it did. On Sept. 30, fans were asked to congregate on the plaza outside of Fiserv Forum to welcome future hall of famer Damian Lillard, acquired days before in a stunning trade.

The fans gathered, a churning cocktail of excitement, disbelief, expectation and wonder. They waited. And waited. Occasionally they were told, don’t worry, it’s happening. Be patient. They waited some more. Be patient. They waited a bit more.

Of course, he arrived. It was undeniably cool.

Then it was over.

Though it wasn’t really anyone’s fault, when the realization set in and the schools of people began to slowly filter to their cars, the common feeling in their wake was, “That was it?”

Thursday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the Bucks fell 120-98 to the Indiana Pacers to lose in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs for the second straight year. But in the run up to it, there were some really cool moments. Giannis Antetokounmpo's record 64-point night. Khris Middleton climbing up the Bucks all-time scoring list. Lillard's all-star game MVP.

But after a dominating win over the Pacers in Game 1, a series-turning bad loss at Fiserv Forum in Game 2, close calls in Games 3 and 4 and a hopeful win in Game 5, the hobbled Bucks ran out of gas in Game 6.

Rather suddenly, it's the offseason again.

That was it?

Unfortunately, yes. This past season felt like the Bucks were a high-performance vehicle with a hybrid engine, hesitating, lunging and stopping as the software tried to tell the hardware what exactly needed to happen when the gas pedal was compressed.

"I don't know where my thoughts are right now," Buck coach Doc Rivers said after the Game 6 loss. "I really like this team. Obviously we're going to have to do some things, right? But, never really having the chance to do any of the two-man game with Dame and Giannis. We did it on the West Coast trip and it was starting to cook and then Dame went out, then Giannis went out. Never, ever, I don't think we had but (six) games with all three guys? So we never got a chance to run the three-man. We never really had a chance to create our offense that we wanted to create."

The Bucks never really had a chance to come together

This team was just never connected enough, for long enough.

The sudden departure of Jrue Holiday via trade had a personal effect in the locker room, and fundamentally affected how the team would – and could – play days before training camp began. Top assistant Terry Stotts quit right before the season started. The players were unhappy and first-year coach Adrian Griffin scrapped his entire defense after just a week. By the end of January he was scrapped, too.

Griffin was ultimately the wrong choice for head coach, but the team was remarkably healthy the first half of the season. The Big Three of Antetokounmpo, Lillard and Middleton played 32 of the first 43 games together for 540 minutes and the Bucks went 30-13.

Talent was winning out, but too often players wondered what they were supposed to be doing, and why.

The team tried to rectify the underlying schematic issues in January with the hiring of Rivers, and perhaps that was enough time – but then bad luck struck with major injuries. Whatever cohesiveness he hoped to create turned into just getting by game-to-game.

It's not a stretch to say it looked and felt like the team coalesced in its first-round playoff series, but at that point they were in too deep of a hole to climb out.

The Big Three were injured and rarely on court at same time

From Rivers’ first day on the bench on Jan. 29 through the May 2 playoff finale, Antetokounmpo, Middleton and Lillard played a mere eight games together. The combination of Danilo Gallinari, AJ Green and Pat Connaughton played two more.

The Big Three managed to finish just six of those games together, playing 176 total minutes. The trio of Bobby Portis, Jae Crowder and Malik Beasley played more together.

The Bucks went an unsurprising 19-23 in those three-plus months, including another disappointing first-round playoff exit.

From the beginning of the season, with heated locker room discussions and discontent under Griffin, the team played under a dark cloud. Rivers evened some things out, yet it felt at times the team was in quicksand. And once the best players started to get hurt, they didn’t have enough to get out of it.

At the all-star game in February, Antetokounmpo publicly said how draining the season had been, but the reality was his tank had been emptied months before. Lillard wasn’t shy in explaining how difficult the season was in moving away from Portland after 12 years. And the pair never quite bonded on or off the court, which could be traced to a disjointed training camp and start of the season.

Then the injuries stretched out whatever cohesiveness they had begun to build after Rivers’ hiring.

"Every year you want to win. But you can't win every year. You can't control who's going to be on the floor with injuries and what not," Bucks forward Khris Middleton said. "I've said, I think a couple times already, I try to focus on what I can control and the guys out there, I think everybody gave as much effort. The effort was intense the whole time. Everybody gave it their all. Just wasn't good enough.

"I mean, there's going to be years like that, where you're going to be great with the players you have on the floor. You're going to be great with the players you don't have on the floor and vice versa. We weren't good enough with Dame missing a couple games and Giannis being out as a team. That's just part of it."

Maybe if it was just one thing, they could’ve broken out of it. Maybe if it was just the coaching situation. Or just trying to incorporate an all-time individual performer, as opposed to multiple starters. Or navigating just one injury. But all of it? It was just too much.

That was it?

The Bucks championship window isn’t closed

Well, yes and no.

Antetokounmpo ended a playoff hobbled for the fourth time in five years, but he put together a record-setting regular season as the first player to ever average 30 points per game while shooting 60%. Lillard ended his season battling injury but was an all-star.

In their all-too-brief moments together after Rivers’ arrival, their potential as the most destructive two-man pairing in the game could be seen. And if there is a silver lining to their shared spectatorship against Indiana, it's that they've spent more time together and have begun forming offseason plans with one another.

"You look at it and say, man, we didn't get much time together," Lillard acknowledged. "Get more time together it's probably a better product. But for me, I just understand that's just the way it goes. It might happen again. You don't know that. Injuries are a part of the game. You neve know what's going to come up in an NBA season.

"I'm definitely more of a 'look forward' kind of guy, but I don't ignore what happened prior. I do think it's important for us to be able to be on the floor more together. And we just weren't able to do that this season."

Middleton ended the year as, effectively, the last man standing, carrying the Bucks through the series against the Pacers with an incredible individual effort. If not for a Kevin Durant flagrant foul that sidelined Middleton for 16 games, he looked like the healthy all-star he had been in the past. Portis was a sixth man of the year finalist again and Lopez earned all-defensive team votes again.

With stars like Antetokounmpo and Lillard, the national noise will center around their happiness and if they should desire trades out of Milwaukee. But while they both admitted at different junctures that this season has been frustrating and did not go as expected, such thoughts will not be entertained. Lillard is already excited for a full, proper offseason knowing where he will be playing, including for and with whom.

Rivers is set as the head coach. He now understands what will and will not work with his three stars. He will have a full offseason to revamp his staff and truly incorporate his style, and holding a full training camp with a dedicated mission will only do this team good.

"We'll have that chance," Rivers said. "We'll have a camp. And so I'm looking forward to it."

General manager Jon Horst has been connected to a job in his native Michigan as the potential head of basketball operations in Detroit, but whether he remains in Milwaukee, leaves on his own volition or is left holding the bag after another early playoff exit is almost beyond the point. This core group can without question raise another banner.

The stars of the team and ownership need only look to their neighbors to the north in Minneapolis to see the virtues of a summer of patience, as difficult as it may be swallow.

It was just a year ago that the Minnesota Timberwolves acquired a Hall of Fame individual in Rudy Gobert and offloaded a haul of draft picks to do so. But injury and rough fits of style and personality saw them stagger into the playoffs with 42 wins, only to be dispatched in five games. They stayed the course and after a full offseason together the Timberwolves won 56 games and have steamrolled into the second round.

It's not quite apples-to-apples, but it’s in the same produce aisle.

There will be obstacles, sure. The league waits for no one, and change is inevitable.

The Bucks will be another year older and will again have the longest teeth in the NBA next season. They will be hamstrung in roster building by a new collective bargaining agreement that will stifle their ability to sign and trade for players.

The margin for error on the fringes of the roster are the slimmest they could ever be – and the right players must be fit around the core four of Antetokounmpo, Middleton, Lillard and Lopez. The pileup of soft tissue injuries the last few years, particularly in the calf muscles of players, needs to be evaluated and addressed. But it is not hopeless, nor is the window closed.

But is fair to sit back and think, that was it?

For this year, yes.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks season that began with promise ends again in first round