The Milwaukee Bucks Contend in the NBA's Age of Parity
The NBA is in a golden age of parity, and the Milwaukee Bucks have to keep up with an ever-changing landscape of contenders
When the Milwaukee Bucks made their rise from a franchise stuck in futility to a power to be reckoned with in the East, the NBA, as we now know it, was changing.
The power balance that had shifted towards the super teams that were built all throughout the 2010’s saw its logical end with the Golden State Warriors.
They built a superpower with the historical addition of Kevin Durant nearly eight summers ago, and battled the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers for four straight NBA Finals. When the Warriors no longer had Cleveland to contend with, they battled amongst each other. Kevin Durant’s Achilles tear during the 2019 NBA Finals ended his time in the Bay Area, reverted the Warriors back to its original form, and changed the NBA landscape all over again.
As we all know, and lament in the years since, the Bucks could have been the ones to dethrone the Warriors in their quest for domination, and three straight NBA championships. Instead, the Toronto Raptors held that title after bucking Milwaukee for four straight wins in the 2019 Eastern Conference Finals after being down 2-0.
It’s very likely that season will stand as the biggest missed opportunity in this current era for the Bucks. The Bucks rose to the top on a league-leading 60 wins, an MVP season for Giannis Antetokounmpo, a Coach of the Year campaign for Mike Budenholzer, and NBA Executive of the Year award for Jon Horst.
For the Bucks to truly stand atop of the NBA, they had to take their lumps, starting with that meltdown to Toronto in the East Finals five years ago. They were conquered by the Miami Heat, and the bubble, before going through a challenging gauntlet on their way to the 2021 NBA championship.
Milwaukee has benefited as much as anyone as NBA’s changing of the guard into an era of parity. The kind of which hasn’t been seen since the league was battling with the ABA, and mired in a labor dispute with the players’ union that fought against the merger during the 1970’s. But it’s becoming evident that not all teams have to lose in big moments in order to win in big moments, as the Bucks themselves typified.
Starting with that Raptors title in 2019, there will be six different NBA champions after the Denver Nuggets saw their run to repeat go up in flames against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The NBA’s final four teams this year consist of a Wolves team that made their only trip to a Conference Finals two decades ago. The Indiana Pacers, who haven’t won a title, nor made the Conference Finals in a decade. The Dallas Mavericks, that — after winning the 2011 title over the Big 3-era Miami Heat — hadn’t won a playoff series for 11 years until they went to the West Finals two years ago. And a Celtics team that has appeared in every other Conference Finals throughout league history, but has won one title in nearly four decades.
Boston’s Sisyphean run of coming up short these last few years has been the frustrating anomaly in an NBA that has never been more open for any team to make a run towards the Finals, and a championship. Home court advantage is eroding, injuries are mounting, and the talent that has spread around the league has shrunk the margins between the teams of destiny and the teams that have struck lightning in a bottle come playoff time.
The Bucks’ place within all of that has changed as a result, even if the circumstances at play are what happen to all contenders as they age out. Injuries, personnel changes, and the absence of good fortune have played a part in the Bucks’ playoff stumbles since that title nearly three years ago.
They have shaken up their core, and had a revolving door of coaches in the last year. Now, this summer presents a chance to settle a Bucks team needs time to grow with the likes of Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, and Doc Rivers at the head of the snake.
The defining trait of the NBA, and what has separated itself over any of the major North American sports, has been the dynasties. The teams that get people to tune in, the stars that define ring culture. Challengers have courted intrigue as people tune in to see whether the Davids can slay the Goliaths. That has been the way it had worked for so long, and what resulted in the NBA’s cultural boom in the first place.
Now, the NBA is in the middle of uncharted waters. The uncertainty is what gets you to tune in, to gravitate towards the teams and franchises that have rarely, if ever, gotten this far in the first place.
It’s harder to distinguish between the haves, and the have nots these days, and it won’t always be this way forever. The looming expansion that will come to the NBA will certainly shake this like a snow globe, and a new order or way of team building will surface when the dust, er, snow settles (to keep with the analogy).
But until otherwise, the idea of a dynasty reigning in the NBA at this current juncture is a pipe dream. Nothing is guaranteed for those who have reached the NBA’s summit, including the Bucks. They have gone to great lengths to get ahead of the drop off, and trying to delay the inevitable.
Now, as the work begins to regain that special something that made them whole just a few years ago, the challenge of staying ahead in today’s NBA is making sure you haven’t fallen behind.