Enjoy Golden Age Of Milwaukee Bucks Basketball

At one point in your life, you went out to play with all your friends for the last time and nobody knew it. You all went outside to play whiffle ball, a game of driveway basketball, or simply to mess around in the neighborhood. Wouldn’t it have been nice to know it was the last time you’d all be together? Would you have enjoyed it just a little bit more?

I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom. I simply want to point out that we should hit pause on the Milwaukee Bucks, take a big inhale, and enjoy the moment because this is the Golden Age of Bucks’ basketball. It literally doesn’t get any better than this.

Milwaukee enters the 2022-23 NBA season as the fifth-straight year they are legitimate NBA Championship contenders.

The early 1970’s Bucks were in this same boat before Kareem Abdul-Jabbar flexed his muscles and forced his way out of Milwaukee. That iteration made two conference finals, lost in the NBA Finals and won the NBA Finals in a five-year span before being blown up.

The franchise also had a strong run at the end of that decade when they at least made it to the conference semi-finals in nine out of 10 years from 1979-80 to 1988-89. However, those teams never won an NBA championship nor even made it to the NBA Finals.

The current version of the Bucks trumps those two eras due to one man: Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Antetokounmpo is arguably the greatest player to ever suit up in a Bucks’ uniform. At 27-years-old, he’s accomplished everything an individual player could think of. He’s made multiple All-NBA teams, won Defensive Player of the Year, won multiple MVPs, an NBA Finals, an NBA Final’s MVP…the list goes on. And he still has at least two-to-three years of his prime remaining. It wouldn’t be shocking to see him win two more MVPs and two more Finals in the next three years.

Antetokounmpo is here for the long run. That much we know. What will need to be answered in the coming years, however, is how will the core around him change.

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Of the 15 players who will make their final roster, eight of them are at least 30 years old including starters Khris Middleton (31), Jrue Holiday (32), and Brook Lopez (34). Rotational players Joe Ingles (35), George Hill (36), and Wesley Matthews (36) are in that category as well.

The main concern are Antetokounmpo’s primary running mates. Although the Greek Freak has been the sun the team orbits around, Middleton, Holiday and Lopez have been played crucial roles to ensure his gravity pays off. They each dominate different spaces on the basketball court and fill in the gaps one man can’t cover.

Lopez has been the defensive key to a scheme that shuts opponents down every postseason. He’s the long arm of the law that swats or alters nearly every shot around the basket. Opponents always know where he is and do their best to avoid him.

With Lopez prowling near the hoop, Holiday presses the opposing team’s ball-handler into hell. He has the strength, quickness, and ability to swipe the ball away that makes him an absolute nightmare for lead guards and wings alike. He can also knock down enough shots—either behind the three-point line or at the basket—to provide the Bucks with a viable third scoring option.

Middleton might be the second-most important player behind Antetokounmpo. He’s not a defensive stud like Holiday or Lopez, but provides them with enough size on the wing to avoid being a pushover defensively. At the other end of the court, he’s the Buck best equipped to create his own shot and put the ball through the hoop even when the defense is in his face and making life difficult. He hit a bunch of tough shots in their championship run.

With those three aging on a different timeline than the Bucks, Milwaukee will soon be faced with the question about how they’ll replace them and extend their championship window while Antetokounmpo is still at or near the top of his game. It’s a bit too soon to answer that question, but it means the future brings unknowns.

For now, let’s celebrate what’s known: The Bucks are a serious championship contender once again. It’s important to enjoy the little things in life and hit pause every now and then. In a few decades, we will look back at this time period and say, “remember when…”.

As the NBA season progresses, take an extra moment to enjoy this golden era of Bucks’ basketball. Because it’s like the country music star Cody Johnson once said, “If you got a chance, take it, take it while you got a chance. If you got a dream, chase it, ‘cause a dream won’t chase you back. If you’re gonna love somebody, hold em as long and as strong and as close as you can. Til you can’t”.