Running it back again

The Milwaukee Bucks took care of business when it came to retaining their biggest free agents

Feel free to breathe a sigh of relief, Bucks fans. Now that free agency has both started and pretty much ended, by and large, at least from a Bucks perspective.

The Bucks entered this free agency period with two big things on their to-do list, that being retaining both Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez. They have been core members to the team as Milwaukee climbed to championship heights and they play their part in continuing to make this a golden era for the franchise over the last five years, in particular.

Retaining both, though, came with its own set of challenges in a variety of ways. Middleton’s 2022-23 season was marred by injuries, all of which stemmed from his personal truncated playoff run from the year before, and personal difficulties that only made a grueling year that much harder for the three-time All-Star. By the time he was on the court and as healthy and as productive as he could be, given the circumstances, the Bucks’ season was rumbling towards collapse.

Lopez, on the other hand, bounced back from an injury-riddled season in 2021-22 to put forth one of the best in his lengthy career in 22-23. Averaging 15.9 points per game, hitting 37.4 percent of his threes, a personal best with the Bucks, and averaging 2.5 blocks per game, the runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year defied the odds and showed that, at 35 years old, he was capable of showing new tricks.

Going into free agency on different ends of the spectrum, both Middleton and Lopez stood as the primary focus for the Bucks. Even while they had other rotation pieces enter free agency with Jevon Carter, Joe Ingles, Jae Crowder and the still unsigned Wesley Matthews (as of this writing).

It’s very clear this free agency is and was going to challenge the Bucks on two fronts. First, the NBA landscape is currently changing in rapid speed, now with a Collective Bargaining Agreement in place, which will only affect how they build the team moving forward. The second threat, however, is the never-ending struggle of having to retain good-to-great players.

While there always has been an undercurrent of speculation that Middleton might be interested in plying his trade elsewhere, he continued to show he’s never been interested in doing such a thing. Agreeing to a three-year, $102 million contract, with a player option on the third and final year, Middleton has now signed his third contract with the Bucks, which proved to be as team-friendly as can be for someone who has been very valuable to this core, injury concerns notwithstanding.

Holding on to Lopez, who clearly leveraged his comeback season to the best of his ability, didn’t come as easy as we’d like. The Houston Rockets, in their quest to return to becoming a respectable franchise again and with more than $60 million in cap space going into free agency, tried to vulture away the big man amid other centers getting big money. Yet, sanity and continuity prevailed and the Bucks and Lopez agreed to a two-year, $48 million deal that very well could see Lopez finish his career in Milwaukee.

Remember the year: 2025

It’s very easy to get caught up in the player movement side of free agency. Following along with the NBA after all of this time, we know that’s where the action lies. There’s a thrill in the chase, and yet, it does not guarantee success. It does not guarantee that things will work in the first place, even as teams can win a day in July when they are standing atop the headlines.

The Bucks know that more than anything. They’ve taken this patient path of building around superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. That does not mean Bucks general manager Jon Horst has not shown to be aggressive either, whether it’s been the flurry of additions he’s made at trade deadlines, going all in on Jrue Holiday or even parting ways with their championship coach, Mike Budenholzer, two months ago.

No matter what has changed for the Bucks, whether over these five years or even last five months, the Bucks’ core of Antetokounmpo, Middleton, Lopez and Holiday, otherwise known as the core four, are all that matters. It’s why any backup plan the Bucks may have had in the scenario that both Middleton or Lopez walked or if they retained one player, but not the other, would have been disastrous for both the present and future of Bucks basketball.

It certainly wouldn’t have given new Bucks head coach Adrian Griffin the best or most talented roster to work with as he acclimates and establishes himself within the team. And any hope of coming out of the East and contending for championship next season would have been greatly hindered, no doubt.

This is the cost of doing business for where the Bucks stand. Even after their stunning fall from grace last season, they still have earned their right to be standing near the top of the East next year. We are approaching two years since they won the second title in franchise history, and while some things have changed, Antetokounmpo, Lopez, Middleton and Holiday, along with Bobby Portis and Pat Connaughton, were all popping and spraying champagne bottles in the halls and locker rooms of Fiserv Forum.

There will always be an element of rewarding those core pillars for past production and championship feats. Again, it’s what comes when players like Middleton and Lopez have been there every step of the way as the Bucks have asserted themselves as one of the most successful teams of the last five seasons. And it’s what happens when the Bucks have no other viable way to lure or poach free agents, given their own cap situation, or little draft assets that they own and control.

With all of that said, there is a big theme that continues to emerge with every big contract that has been signed by a Bucks player, especially since Antetokounmpo signed his massive supermax extension in December of 2020. All of the core four’s contracts, plus Portis, Connaughton, run up until 2025. The minor exceptions to consider on this front is Antetokounmpo having a $51.9 million player option for 2025-26, while Holiday and Connaughton have player options for the 24-25 seasons, respectively.

Forecasting just how long this journey goes on for this current iteration of the Bucks may be fool’s gold. There is always room for twists and turns, and as long as Antetokounmpo is in Milwaukee, there will be a sense of improving the roster by any means necessary when it means keeping no. 34 a Buck for life. Yet, the proof itself may be in the financials. There’s no mistaking that we are closer to the end than we are to the beginning.

We can still smell the champagne from two years ago, but the grace period from winning a championship closes a lot faster than we’d like, now that we have experienced it. The focus right now may be on Dame or Harden after their trade requests, but don’t think for a moment it won’t be long before the NBA media start circling again and doing the same thing with Antetokounmpo the moment the Bucks start to age out and head into a precarious phase.

The Bucks had no choice but to go full steam ahead. They’ve made their big change this offseason. They replaced their championship coach with a first-timer who has big shoes to fill and clearly has inspired and imaginative ways to play. And while there is still plenty of time between now and the start of the 23-24 season, the core pillars remain in place for the Bucks to do exactly what they have done the last five seasons: contend for an NBA championship.

It’s the least they could do.