By: Mark Buerger
Just like clockwork, the Milwaukee Bucks’ routine of being eliminated in the first round continued last month. To make matters worse, it was the Indiana Pacers who remained a thorn in the Bucks’ side, eliminating them in five games in the opening round of the 2025 playoffs.
It was the second consecutive year that Indiana eliminated Milwaukee in the first round of the playoffs, and the third straight year that the Bucks were sent home packing after just one series.
As the years pass from Milwaukee’s illustrious 2020 championship run, it feels like Father Time is finally kicking in for the Bucks.
Star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and guard Damian Lillard are only getting older, with the former being 30 years old, while the latter is 34 and now facing an extensive recovery for a torn Achilles injury.
With two stars only getting older and the surrounding pieces not coming together for the Milwaukee Bucks, is it time to press the ‘rebuild button’ on the franchise?
It all begins with the draft.
“It takes seven years for negative information to disappear from a credit report. Start the clock for the Milwaukee Bucks. They owe picks or swaps on each of their first-round picks until 2031, which means winning the draft lottery would only benefit their former trade partners,” Fansided’s D.J. Dunson wrote following the team’s first-round exit.
Without owning the rights to their first-round until 2031, the Bucks currently have no future to build around Antetokounmpo and Lillard. The fact that the Bucks have to “owe or swap” first-round picks for the next seven years shows that creating a future around their two stars is nearly impossible.
While younger talent could help offset Milwaukee’s depth and financial woes, there doesn’t seem to be a direct avenue to achieving that path in the near future without the requisite draft capital.
So, how did we get to this stage of repeated first-round exits for the Bucks?
Things kicked off with a major trade prior to the 2023-24 season, as Milwaukee made a massive move for Lillard, moving fellow point guard Jrue Holiday, a future first-round pick, and two future first-round pick swaps in return.
While the move brought a second star to Milwaukee, it further sent them away from the vision that won them a championship back in 2021.
The move depleted the team’s draft capital, making it tougher to improve the roster in other ways, and eventually forced the team’s hand in trading forward Khris Middleton for Kyle Kuzma to gain salary-cap flexibility.
However, the team’s roster decisions haven’t been the only consequential moves for Milwaukee. Instead, it’s been the revolving door of coaches that has really set the team up for repeated failures in the playoffs.
First, the Bucks fired championship coach Mike Budenholzer, replacing him with former Toronto Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin. That move initially seemed to pay off for Milwaukee, which started the 2023-24 season with a 30-13 record.
However, after the promising start to the 2023-24 season, Griffin was fired in a shocking move and was replaced by longtime veteran coach Doc Rivers, who had served as an informal consultant to Griffin midway through the year.
Since Rivers’s hire, the lack of success cannot be a Milwaukee has been through back-to-back first-round exits in the playoffs, raising questions not only about the team’s future, but also that of star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Bucks’ roster is aging. Not only are Lillard and Antetokounmpo continuing to age, but starting center Brook Lopez is 37, and rotational pieces Bobby Portis, Taurean Price, and Pat Connaughton are all at least 30.
Therefore, given the lack of draft control and lack of a true identity, it is time for the Milwaukee Bucks to dismantle the roster and head towards a rebuild. By trading Lillard and Antetokounmpo, the Bucks can free up cap space and get much-needed draft capital in return that they can use to build their new future.
After back-to-back first-round exits, it may not be the future that Bucks fans envisioned, but it might be a necessary one, given the team’s struggles with the current roster.