National Sports

Bucks’ expectations suddenly drop without Giannis

MILWAUKEE -- Tyler Herro understands the skepticism surrounding the Milwaukee Bucks now that they’ve traded away Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-time MVP who led the franchise to its first title in half a century.

“People feel like we’re not going to win games, we’re not going to be in the talks of anything that has to do with winning,” said Herro, one of the players who came to Milwaukee in the trade that sent Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat. “I feel like that’s the opposite of what we’re thinking. We’re trying to win.”

The Bucks undoubtedly will have a tougher time winning without Antetokounmpo, who finished in the top five in the MVP balloting for seven straight years before injuries limited him to a career-low 36 games last season. Most preseason projections have the Bucks finishing at or near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings.

New Bucks coach Taylor Jenkins doesn’t talk about potential win totals when he discusses his expectations. He instead focuses on competing together and getting better so that the Bucks build an identity that can guide them for years to come.

“We truly are invested in building the next great era of Bucks basketball,” said Jenkins, who went 250-214 with the Memphis Grizzlies from 2019-25. “It’s not just a tagline. That’s something shared throughout the entire organization.”

That mission starts with improving a culture that had deteriorated lately.

Backsliding

Milwaukee won a championship in 2021 and had the NBA’s best regular-season record in 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2022-23. The Bucks’ slide started with a stunning postseason loss to Miami in 2023, which began a string of three straight first-round playoff exits.

The bottom fell out last season, when the Bucks snapped a string of nine straight playoff appearances by going 32-50 in a season dominated by speculation about Antetokounmpo’s future. By the end of the season, Antetokounmpo was squabbling with management over whether the nine-time all-NBA forward was healthy enough to play, a standoff that led to an NBA investigation.

Doc Rivers exited as coach immediately after the season. Milwaukee got the replacement it wanted in Jenkins, who becomes the Bucks’ fourth coach in five seasons.

“We had a lot of pointing fingers last year,” forward Kyle Kuzma said. “That is a recipe for disaster. I think that we’ve got vibes this year. We’ve got real vibes.”