Requiem for a dream

The Milwaukee Bucks stand on the brink of calamity in their first round series against the Miami Heat

Unprecedented. Demoralizing. Agonizing.

It’s been a week-and-a-half since the Milwaukee Bucks’ playoff run left the starting gate and somehow, they face elimination as they go into a win-or-go home Game 5 versus the Miami Heat Wednesday night. Save for the Bucks’ Game 2 win when they tied an NBA record by hitting 25 threes, it’s been Miami who has been the better team, has had the best player in the series by a country mile (Jimmy Butler), and who has continuously risen to the moment through each and every game.

In a week-and-a-half, the Bucks’ league-leading 58 wins and home court advantage throughout the playoffs has been rendered a non-factor. Health hasn’t been on their side, of course, as superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo is playing through plenty of pain and put in a heroic triple-double performance in Game 4, even as the wheels fell off in Miami late. Players like Pat Connaughton, Brook Lopez, Joe Ingles and Grayson Allen have all had their moments or performances that have helped the Bucks keep their head above water, yet the ship keeps taking on water as we speak.

Antetokounmpo’s absence through the first three games of the series has put more pressure on Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday to level up. Middleton has sprinkled in his bucket getting and playmaking while the Bucks have tried everything in their favor to save him defensively, and even then, it’s been rough on that end for the two-time All-Star. Holiday, meanwhile, has been under siege with having to defend Butler extensively to little success and has been a shell of himself on the other end. The cream hasn’t risen to the top for the Bucks and it’s played a big part in why they’re staring at a 3-1 deficit going into Game 5.

The precarious position the Bucks have thrusted themselves into has made a dream season quickly turn into a nightmarish ending. No crueler twist has ever been given to the Bucks quite like this one throughout their 55-year history. They have certainly undergone playoff collapses throughout their years, and many will probably be quick to point out this current era in particular. The closest might be the 1972-73 Bucks team that won 60 games, won a controversial tiebreaker over the Los Angeles Lakers to take the #1 seed in the West to only fall to the Golden State Warriors in six games. That came after holding a 2-1 lead after Game 3 while similarly seeing a couple of their top players (Oscar Robertson, Bob Dandridge) labor through injury by season’s end.

Of course, there is still time for the Bucks to rewrite history. Yes, the climb looks insurmountable. Not even two weeks ago, we stood looking to the road that laid ahead for the Bucks and how they could carve their path towards returning to the NBA Finals. Now, it’s about simply trying to salvage a series that could see this team falter in epic proportion.

Where do we go from here?

Disclaimer: I realize it’s borderline futile to try and predict just what the future holds for this Bucks team while their season is still alive (though, barely). That’s part of the point, honestly. Living in this moment that we do with this team currently has opened the door for speculation and there is no question that a whole set of possibilities await the Bucks if the Heat finish the job on the Bucks’ home floor in Game 5. Frankly, if this series ends any other way than the Bucks miraculously moving on to the next round.

A calamitous ending such as this potential one always ends in a long look in the mirror and almost certainly a fall guy, in some shape or form. Based on a couple of scrolls, there is no question whom Bucks fans are looking at to be the fall guy for this.

It is unsurprising to see all the social media fury envelop Mike Budenholzer once again. It’s been a familiar theme throughout his time in Milwaukee, almost always happening this time of the year when the Bucks have slogged through playoff runs that have ended with the Bucks not holding the Larry O’Brien trophy. Hell, it happened numerous times WHEN the Bucks held the Larry O’Brien trophy at the end.

Being the coach of someone like Giannis Antetokounmpo’s superstardom or these Bucks teams offers you very little in patience from the outside when you have fallen short of the ultimate goal of winning a championship. Anything less than, in the eyes of some, is considered a failure and repercussions need to be felt, per some Twitter burners.

Things changed so quickly for Bud that over the course of his first season in Milwaukee onwards, it was not about the journey, it became about the destination. Where the Bucks ended up and not how they got here. What little success Milwaukee experienced in the two decades prior to Bud’s arrival in the spring of 2018 mattered little when the Bucks thrust themselves back into title contention on the shoulders of Antetokounmpo and down the line. Bud brought the Bucks into the modern ages by prioritizing spacing, shooting, building a defensive foundation that was the backbone to their title run and much more. The Bucks have enjoyed a natural progression to becoming a yearly contender as a result. Saying all of this as a Bud apologist, I’d like to think all of that means something, present circumstances notwithstanding.

Yet, suddenly nothing feels secure, now that the offseason may just be days away. I couldn’t tell you one or another whether Bud lives to coach in Milwaukee beyond this series, and even in the event that he does, it won’t be done comfortably. The same goes for the players too, especially those whose futures aren’t secured beyond this season (Lopez and Middleton first come to mind). A playoff loss such as this will be worn like a scarlet letter for all involved and this does have the makings of an inflection point, one way or another.

It’s on that note that brings us to the same familiar discourse that surrounds the Bucks right now as the ship is sinking. The same reactionary refrains, whether it’s ‘Fire Bud,’ or ‘Blow it up,’ or ‘Trade Giannis’ (Yeah, I have seen that). It’s this part of the experience that exhausts everyone involved, and frankly, it doesn’t actually do anything to solve the problems that have enveloped the Bucks at this moment. It’s the easiest thing that anyone can do in this moment. To point the finger at those who are to be blamed, extract them from the picture, and feel like everything will be solved from there on. Life, much less basketball, simply just does not work that way.

With all of that said, the time is nigh for uncomfortable questions to be asked of the Bucks’ present and future as they try and answer the challenge of not being the third 1-seed in NBA history to fall to an 8th seed in the first round of the playoffs since they adopted the Best-of-7 format. Bud’s future almost certainly heads up the list, and whatever coaching candidates you might have in mind, it’s important to consider this.

The parallels of going from Jason Kidd to Bud don’t match up presently. Bud adopted a Bucks core that had gone through their ups and downs, but suffered through middling results under a taskmaster in every sense of the word. They didn’t how to win because they hadn’t yet, certainly not in the playoffs. Yet, they were young and hungry, and most of all, ready to put the mediocrity behind them.

Now, many faces have changed, but the most prominent, Antetokounmpo and Middleton, have seen it all. The same goes for all of Lopez, Connaughton, Bobby Portis, Holiday too. They may have not shown it for much of this series, but this Bucks team has grown older, wiser and have gone through real experiences that led them to the promised land. And for all of the joy and triumph that has given us over the last few years, especially in the summer of 2021, the Bucks have certainly shown their age in this series and all throughout this season.

No one knows what might be in store for the Bucks beyond this series. Staving off elimination is all we want to see as Bucks fans and all of the anguish and frustration we all feel after seeing the carpet get pulled from underneath the Bucks, largely at their own doing, does nothing to change that.

Personally, what I looked forward to most this postseason was the Bucks jumping at the chance to prove themselves to be a modern-day dynasty. They have had the best regular season record in the NBA since Bud jumped aboard. We have seen the Bucks grow before our eyes and have given the city of Milwaukee a rare taste of being on top of the world when they won their second NBA title in franchise history. And if I am being truly honest, there probably won’t be another Bucks team or core that I will personally connect in the same way that I have had done so with this team. Especially not after having seeing them rise above the greatest of adversity time and again.

I feel as though it obviously won’t happen, but the unthinkable is still possible, even while we fear for the next Jimmy Butler supernova, or Erik Spoelstra coaching clinic. The Bucks may still get back on course and make this a series again. All I know is that for Game 5, a game I’ll be watching in person at Fiserv, I’ll be ready to cheer on the Bucks while the specter of the unknown hovers overhead. A man can dream, right?