Bucks thrilled with continuity at deadline
Maybe you wanted the Milwaukee Bucks to take a big swing at the trade deadline. Maybe you absolutely didn't want that, but you thought they should make a move on the fringes to shore up their bench. Maybe that first-round pick they got from the Indiana Pacers over the summer is burning a hole in your pocket and you would have liked to see them use it as trade sweetener to make an upgrade.
None of those things happened. The trade deadline came and went at 2 p.m. Thursday and the Bucks weren't part of the craziness. While Twitter lit up with the announcements of Andre Iguodala going to Miami and getting a contract extension, the Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves swapping the max contracts of D'Angelo Russell and Andrew Wiggins and the Los Angeles Clippers fortifying their frontcourt by adding Marcus Morris, you probably didn't get a push notification mentioning the Bucks.
No matter how you felt about that, the Bucks – from the front office to the locker room – were happy with how their day went. Most importantly, reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo was thrilled to be able to continue this season and quest for a championship with all the same teammates.
“I think we’re the best team in the NBA; we have the best record in the NBA,” Antetokounmpo said after Thursday’s 112-101 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. “For me, I think there should not be any change and thank God there wasn’t. I think the guys that we have, the chemistry we have on the team is amazing right now. The guys that we have are playing great and these are the guys I’m going to war with, these are the guys I’ve been going to war with the whole season. I’m happy we still have the same team.”
The Bucks indeed have the league’s best record at 44-7 heading into Saturday’s 4 p.m. clash with the Orlando Magic at Amway Center. They’re the standard-bearers for the league, with the best defense and second-best offense to date. Amazingly, it’s possible the Bucks could clinch a playoff spot before the all-star break if they keep up their 70-win pace.
None of that happened overnight. The foundation has been built over the years as Milwaukee identified its core players, namely Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. Then Jon Horst moved up to the general manager position, traded for Eric Bledsoe to serve as the team’s long-term point guard and brought in coach Mike Budenholzer prior to last season.
Under Budenholzer’s watch, the Bucks have consistently been the league’s best team the past season and a half, doing so while staying relatively stable. Nine players who started the 2018-19 season in Milwaukee are still with the Bucks. George Hill arrived shortly into last season and re-signed this summer, adding another layer of continuity.
“The continuity means a lot to us,” Budenholzer said. “We’ve been together for a season and a half, a lot of us, so I think we feel like that’s an edge and an advantage that we have . ...
“Obviously what they’ve done to date is impressive. Excited that we can get better and this group can continue to grow. You see it every day, how they work, how they get along, how they compete. I feel really great about our team.”
Milwaukee’s bet on continuity is one that plays well with everyone in the locker room, not just Antetokounmpo. Middleton pointed out that with no trade-deadline deals – this is the first time Milwaukee hasn’t made an in-season trade since 2015-16 – everyone feels an added sense of confidence. Whether individuals have played well or not played at all, they feel like the front office and coaching staff still believe in them.
Injecting a bit of confidence into an already harmonious locker room probably isn’t a bad thing, either. It also probably doesn’t hurt to maintain a situation where everyone fits together, knows their roles and players 1 through 15 believe they can – and at times have – impact a game when given the chance.
“I do think one of our strengths is our depth, is our chemistry,” Bucks veteran wing Kyle Korver said. “In a day of analytics, where everything is figured out in a formula, you can’t do that with chemistry and you can’t do that with some of the relationships that we’ve built on this team.
“You could make the argument that maybe there was some piece we needed, and you could also make the argument that taking out someone could disrupt the chemistry we have. You could make an argument either way. We have a pretty good thing going. I don’t think there was a desperate need to do anything.”
Last year, the Bucks took a big swing at the deadline, sending out Thon Maker, Jason Smith and four second-round picks to land Nikola Mirotic. It was a ceiling-raising move that ultimately didn’t pan out as Mirotic – like many other Bucks – ran into a cold streak in the Eastern Conference finals.
Horst and his front-office staff spent this year’s run-up to the trade deadline working the phones and trying to discern if there was an available move that could move the needle for this year’s squad, but ultimately decided against doing anything.
Standing pat was a common theme among the top contenders in the Eastern Conference as the Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers also didn’t make moves.
Meanwhile, the Heat made a big splash by adding Iguodala, Solomon Hill and Jae Crowder while sending out oftinjured wing Justise Winslow and seldom-used players Dion Waiters and James Johnson. The 76ers adding some shooting to their bench, bringing in Glenn Robinson III and Alec Burks from the Golden State Warriors.
Those moves could affect the Eastern Conference playoff race, but the Bucks will likely still enter the playoffs as the No. 1 seed and prohibitive favorite to reach the NBA Finals. While other teams tried to load up for the stretch run, the Bucks watched knowing that many of the moves made before the deadline were intentionally done to catch or to matchup with them.
It’s a good position to be in.
“A lot of teams they’re getting players so they can play against us, they can guard us better, just do better against us,” Antetokounmpo said. “Just seeing every other team scrambling and try to get players so they can go against us and go against other great teams in the NBA, that makes us feel good.”