The Milwaukee Bucks may have finished the 2023-24 NBA regular season as the Eastern Conference’s third seed, but they aren’t the juggernaut that most expected to be at this point of the year.
Milwaukee decided to gamble to increase their title odds, swapping out Jrue Holiday for Damian Lillard in the offseason to give Giannis Antetokounmpo a true superstar running mate.
However, Antetokounmpo and Lillard haven’t quite meshed as the organization hoped, and coupled with head coach Doc Rivers’ inconsistency from the sidelines the Bucks are as vulnerable as ever in the postseason.
Milwaukee is favored to beat the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the 2024 NBA playoffs, but the latter can easily win the series considering how they’ve looked offensively throughout the year.
At this point, the Bucks have no choice but to go all-in on titles but this year doesn’t look like one where they’ll emerge victorious.
Paul Pierce didn’t mince words when it came to describing the season the Bucks have had, via All the Smoke Productions.
“The Bucks have been one of the most disappointing teams to me in all of basketball,” Pierce said.
“The Bucks have been one of the most disappointing teams to me in all of basketball.”
How far can the Bucks go without Giannis?
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— All the Smoke Productions (@allthesmokeprod) April 21, 2024
Pierce defends his former head coach by saying it’s hard for anyone to come in midseason and implement their schemes and systems.
Rivers deserves some slack for trying to come in and do the things he wanted to do for a team that already was winning games before he got there.
However, it doesn’t change the fact that Milwaukee doesn’t have the look of a contender and might need to go into the offseason to make some additional changes.
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