Milwaukee Bucks Observations

The Bucks were a pre-season fave to make the playoffs in the East this past year but never really came together and fell to 12th overall. A disappointing campaign after such a surprising run the year before. Carter-Williams still struggles to score, Parker was fine but nothing superlative in his sophomore season, Monroe seemed out of sorts in that lineup and the rumors about Coach Kidd's behind-the-scenes power plays just keep coming. How do they get back in playoff form next year?

Their free agents are SG Mayo, PG Vasquez, PG Blake, PG Bayless and C Plumlee. I suspect none will be back next year though Plumlee and Bayless might be affordable options for depth and continuity.

They hold picks #10,#36,#38 in the upcoming draft. #10 might give them Marquette's PF Henry Ellenson, Utah C Jakob Poetl or Gonzaga PF Damontis Sabonis. At any rate that picks looks to be going to size rather than another Guard while those 2nd round picks look to put them in the neighborhood of a plethora of Guards: Kentucky's Tyler Ulis, Syracuse's Michael Gbinje or Notre Dame's Demetrius Jackson.

Right now they're starting five for next season looks like PG Carter-Williams, SG Middleton, SF Antetokounpo, PF Parker, C Monroe with F Henson, PG Ennis, SG Vaughn and whoever they get at #10 off the bench. The buzz is that Coach Kidd is eager to try Antetokounpo at a point-forward type thing and I am all in favor of that. The more that kid has the ball, the better the chances that the Bucks score points (and the more I watch Bucks basketball). Carter-Williams is a nice looking athlete but, man, that kid cannot shoot to save his life--he makes Rajon Rondo look like Reggie Miller! The rest of those top 6 players make a nice nucleus but the Bucks need to make moves if they're going to get back into the playoffs. They need to either add a for-real PG or add scoring to go with Antetokounpo and they need bench depth at all positions. Milwaukee is not a particularly attractive market, they're still too young to lure the big dogs and Coach Kidd's reputation may or may not help in laying out the sales pitch.

Sure, they'd love to snag Durant (not happening) or Batum (Bucks are not in my top 20 if I'm Batum) but can they convince Mike Conley that he's a perfect fit? He kinda would be great with that roster but I'm guessing he'll get bigger money in a cooler city with a better team. I think their best bet for a 'splashy' kinda name is Eric Gordon, one of the worst contracts in the league over the last few years and in desperate need of a comeback, he might pair nicely with Antetokounpo's point-forward routine and he may be amenable to Milwaukee's charms. Evan Fournier could be a nice scoring option to go with Antetokounpo's play making. After that it's a motley crew of possibilities: If they can bring in Timofey Mozgov at a reasonable price then maybe they can move on from Monroe's big money, Marreese Speights could give the Bucks some scoring off the bench, Randy Foye could give them nice PG minutes off the bench, Luis Scola gives them a backup C, Tyler Zeller could give them some rotation size, they could take one last look at Anthony Bennett or give Seth Curry a shot. Not exactly the cream of the crop, none of them are guaranteed to be interested in the Bucks and all they'd do is round out the bench minutes anyway. Not looking pretty.

If they could package Monroe with one or two of those draft picks maybe they could get back something spicy but I'm not really seeing it; they could barter with the Knicks or Nets to bring back a Lopez twin but does that really upgrade anything in the near or long term? If the Celtics strike out in the off-season, they might be up for Monroe for a future draft pick or something but that doesn't help the Bucks this season.

So to answer the initial question (how do they get back in playoff form?)...uh, they don't. If Carter-Williams takes a drastic leap as a scorer then the Bucks could be a pretty good squad and challenge for a playoff spot. But unless that happens or unless they can convince big time free agents to come play with Jabari and the Freak, I'm thinking the Bucks could be picking in the top five next summer.