FROM OBSCURITY TO CHAMPIONS
How two raw, unknown prospects lifted the Bucks to the top
On July 20, 2021, the Milwaukee Bucks took home the Larry O’Brien Trophy after defeating the Phoenix Suns 4-2 in the 2021 NBA Finals. One superstar, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and star sidekick Khris Middleton, as well as two-way combo guard Jrue Holiday, formed a trio that finally broke through under head coach Mike Budenholzer after years of postseason disappointments for Milwaukee. However, the development of Antetokounmpo and Middleton over the past eight years has been most instrumental in the Bucks’ first ring in 50 years.
Antetokounmpo was a raw, obscure prospect from Greece who was considered a major reach as the 15th overall pick of the 2013 NBA Draft. Middleton was a supporting piece in a 2013 trade with the Detroit Pistons that sent “Bucks in Six” originator Brandon Jennings to the Motor City in exchange for guard Brandon Knight and himself.
2013-14: Two rail-thin youngsters on a bad team
Jennings may have started a prophecy with Bucks’ fans with his outlandish, tongue-in-cheek prediction of the 38-44 Bucks matchup with the top-seeded, defending champion and LeBron James-led Miami Heat, but he and fellow guard Monta Ellis both wanted out of Milwaukee following the inevitable sweep. The trade of Jennings and Ellis’s decision not to re-sign led to a mass exodus of players and a ragtag team thrown together for 2013-14.
Milwaukee surprised many when they drafted Antetokounmpo, a very green 18-year-old prospect without a lot of game tape but whom some experts saw tremendous upside (spoiler alert, they were right). However, he had ample opportunities to develop during his rookie season in which the Bucks finished with a league-worst and franchise-worst 15-67 record. He was obviously not fully ready for the rigors of the NBA but displayed many flashes of his endless potential.
Middleton became a key piece of the Bucks’ rotation almost right away during the team’s lone season under former Atlanta Hawks’ coach Larry Drew. He showed his potential as a two-way wing who could score from anywhere on the court, but his game, while more developed than that of Giannis, still needed a lot of work.
The Bucks may have been a dismal team in 2013-14, but it had what eventually became the foundation for a bright future in those two skinny prospects with untapped, overlooked upside.
2014-15: New ownership, new coach, secured future
The 2013-14 on-court product was bad enough, but there was also much speculation on the team’s future in Milwaukee. Former Wisconsin senator Herb Kohl was still the team’s owner and was desperately looking for buyers that would guarantee the team’s future would remain in the city. That issue was solved at the end of the season when two hedge fund investors from New York, Marc Lasry and Wes Edens, purchased the team. Lasry and Edens were impressed with Milwaukee and saw an opportunity to build a winner.
There also was pressure from the NBA to build a new arena to replace the Bradley Center because of its lack of amenities compared to other arenas in the league.
New coach Jason Kidd, a recently retired point guard who came to the Bucks after one year coaching the Brooklyn Nets, was instrumental in helping the team plead its new arena case on the court. Giannis and Middleton took huge steps forward as players, rookie Jabari Parker looked up to his billing as the No. 2 pick of the 2014 draft before losing the majority of his rookie season to a torn ACL, and other players stepped up to help produce a surprising 41-41 season and No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Bucks lost in six to the third-seeded Chicago Bulls.
The unexpected improvement and Parker’s addition helped secure support from around the state for a new arena. Lasry and Edens pledged $200 million of their own fortune and Kohl added $100 million from his. From there, then-Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the state legislature passed a bill securing the public funding needed for the new facility currently known as the Fiserv Forum.
Milwaukee’s drastic improvement in 2014-15 not only was instrumental in locking up the team’s future in the city but fostered high expectations for the team the next season. However, despite continued improvement from the two big guns, the Bucks had a very disappointing 33-49 season. Parker spent a lot of the season getting his groove back following his knee injury. Michael Carter-Williams, a point guard acquired in a trade that jettisoned Knight, was very disappointing. Big ticket free agent center Greg Monroe was instrumental offensively but was a liability on defense. The team was also missed some of the veterans who helped the team to its surprising success the previous year.
2016-18: Signs of future success, end of Bradley
2016-17 looked similar to the previous season for most of it. The Bucks were 22-30 a bit more than halfway through. Kidd then tried a new wrinkle. The team had a glaring weakness at point guard and Giannis was given a point forward role, which was instrumental in developing the facilitating part of his game that became key in his future dominance. Antetokounmpo broke through in general, as he earned his first NBA All-Star appearance and was voted the NBA’s Most Improved Player. Parker also showed signs of stardom, averaging 20 points per game before suffering another ACL tear. However, Middleton came back from a hamstring tear the same game that Parker went down, which helped the team absorb the loss of Parker and play much better down the stretch. Milwaukee finished 42-40 and earned another No. 6 seed and lost in six games again, this time to the third-seeded playoff nemesis Toronto Raptors.
In the offseason, general manager John Hammond took the same job with the Orlando Magic, giving way to current GM Jon Horst for 2017-18. The Bucks remained around .500 for much of their last season in the Bradley Center before the team made a drastic move. Kidd was fired 45 games into the season, with top assistant Joe Prunty taking over for the rest of the year. Giannis took another step into becoming a full-blown superstar, Middleton had his first season averaging 20+ points per game, and the Bucks finished with a 44-38 record. However, an improved Eastern Conference caused Milwaukee to slip to the No. 7 seed and into a matchup with the second-seeded Boston Celtics. Both teams defended the home court the entire series, with the Bucks losing in seven games.
2018-19: New arena, new success, Giannis’s first MVP
Milwaukee opened Fiserv Forum with an absolute bang in 2018-19. The Bucks hired another former Hawks coach in Budenholzer, who ushered in a system that allowed the team to run much more in transition and look for open 3-pointers and dunks. This new offensive philosophy made the Bucks the most potent offensive team in the league, with Giannis becoming unstoppable in the open floor and allowing Middleton to thrive on the perimeter. Brogdon, the 2017 NBA Rookie of the Year, became one of the better shooting guards in the league before losing over 30 games due to injury. Bledsoe utilized his strength and quickness on both ends of the floor as he was one of the league’s top penetrators at the point and, along with Antetokounmpo, was a first-team All-NBA Defensive team honoree. 7-foot free agent signee Brook Lopez filled the center spot, earning the nickname “Splash Mountain” because of his ability to knock down 3-pointers and was a disruptive force in the paint defensively, averaging over two blocks per game. All of this led to a breakthrough season as the Bucks finished with the best record in the NBA at 60-22.
Giannis averaged 27.7 points, 12.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.3 assists per game and shot a career-high 57.8 percent from the field in 2018-19. This earned him his first NBA Most Valuable Player award along with his third consecutive All-Star selection.
The unprecedented success continued into the 2019 playoffs. Milwaukee made mincemeat of the eighth-seeded Detroit Pistons with a sweep in which they outscored them by a combined 85 points. The fourth-seeded Celtics shocked the Bucks with a 22-point shellacking at the Fiserv in Game 1 of the next series, but Milwaukee responded by winning the next four games to set up a matchup with the second-seeded Raptors for an NBA Finals berth.
Milwaukee stormed out of the gates against Toronto, winning the first two games, including Game 2 in dominating fashion. However, the Raptors switched their defensive philosophy to build a “wall” in the paint to stop Giannis’s penetration and force the Bucks’ perimeter players to beat them. This led to a huge turnaround, as the Bucks went cold from 3 and had a tough time dealing with Toronto’s increased physicality on both ends of the floor. Raptors star two-way forward Kawhi Leonard carried the load on both ends, scoring at will on the Bucks’ defense and admirably defending Antetokounmpo despite his size disadvantage. Leonard, along with surprise bench contributors Fred VanVleet and Norman Powell, led Toronto to four straight victories and a six-game victory over Milwaukee. The Raptors went on to defeat the Golden State Warriors in the Finals for their first ever championship.
2019-20: Bubble blues, another MVP for Antetokounmpo
The Bucks appeared to be on a revenge tour following the disappointment against the Raptors in 2019-20. Milwaukee won 53 of its first 62 games before the season was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Giannis earned his fourth consecutive All-Star appearance and averaged nearly 30 points per game en route to his second consecutive MVP honor. Middleton, after seeing his scoring average dip to 18.8 points for 2018-19, returned to the 20-point club in 2019-20. Bledsoe continued to produce well on both ends at the point, but his ill-advised decisions and intermittent inefficiency began to irk fans who began to question his ability to be a point guard for a championship team.
Milwaukee lost its final three games before the league (and the world) was shut down, which proved to be a sign of things to come. The Bucks, with Middleton and Giannis not having much, if any, basketball activity during the lockdown, simply were nowhere near the same dominant team from the first part of the season. Milwaukee went 3-5 in the eight regular season games in the NBA Bubble in Orlando, Fla. However, the team still finished with the best record in the NBA for the second consecutive year. The early-playoffs dominance did not repeat itself. The Bucks sent the eighth-seeded Orlando Magic packing in five games after losing Game 1 but did not look anywhere near as stellar as expected in doing so. The fifth-seeded Heat took full advantage of the Bucks’ lethargy, as they jumped all over Milwaukee to a 3-0 series lead. The Bucks, playing without Antetokounmpo, managed to squeak out a Game 4 victory before losing in Game 5 and putting a premature end to what many fans and analysts thought could be a championship season.
2020-21: THE CHAMPIONSHIP
The Bucks previous two playoff disappointments labeled them a regular season team that could not handle the pressure of the postseason. Milwaukee looked to change that perception by doing what many fans wanted after the 2020 playoff disaster, as they jettisoned the underachieving Bledsoe to New Orleans along with two future first round picks and two more first round pick swap rights for Holiday in a four-team trade. Pressure was mounting on the Bucks to build a team capable of winning a championship in order to persuade Giannis to sign a supermax contract extension to stay in Milwaukee, which prompted the Bucks to make a few roster moves in the offseason, which included the acquisitions of high-energy power forward/center Bobby Portis Jr. and sharp shooting guard Bryn Forbes. They nearly acquired shooting guard Bogdan Bogdanovic in a trade, but the deal was botched, which prompted Budenholzer to play third-year guard Donte DiVincenzo at the 2, who was initially part of the trade for Bogdanovic.
Milwaukee’s regular season success level declined a little as the revamped roster took its lumps attempting to gel. Giannis and Middleton continued their Batman and Robin attack on opponents, but needed to adjust playing with a different backcourt, Holiday in particular. Antetokounmpo was used to being a primary ballhandler in previous seasons, but Holiday’s presence forced Giannis to spend more time in the post, where he could be much more effective in a half court offense. Middleton benefitted a lot from playing with Holiday and Giannis on the block, as he was able to diversify his game offensively and had two teammates who could set him up from inside and out. He also greatly improved his shot creating abilities in both 2019-20 and 2020-21. DiVincenzo looked to be a breakout player offensively early in the season, but his offense regressed late. However, his energy on defense and loose balls was big for the Bucks all season.
The team eventually figured out how to play together and finished strong for a 46-26 record, good for the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Bucks opened the playoffs in style, getting huge payback on the sixth-seeded Heat with a sweep, including dominant victories in the last three games after a Game 1 that went into overtime where Middleton knocked down a jumper in the final seconds that broke a 107-107 tie.
In the next round, the Bucks faced their toughest test against the second-seeded and star-studded Nets. Brooklyn featured a trio of all-world players in forward Kevin Durant and guards Kyrie Irving and James Harden. Brooklyn, despite losing Harden to a hamstring injury in Game 1, looked to be too much for Milwaukee with dominant victories in the first two games.
The series returned to Milwaukee for the next two, where the Bucks jumped out to a huge lead but had to gut out an 86-83 victory in Game 3 after a clutch shot by Holiday before comfortably winning Game 4 to even the series. Irving suffered an ankle injury in the fourth game.
The Bucks took their momentum back to Brooklyn for the first three quarters of Game 5 and got out to a 17-point lead. However, a historic 49-point triple double performance from Durant keyed a huge Nets comeback that resulted in a 114-108 victory.
Milwaukee returned home and won Game 6 to force the decider in Brooklyn. The Bucks made a couple key mistakes that nearly ended their season, but Durant’s long-distance shot to end regulation was on the three-point line, which forced overtime instead of giving the Nets a one-point win. Giannis and Middleton hit two clutch shots in the overtime period to give the Bucks a 119-115 Game 7 victory to advance. Harden returned for the last three games of the series but was nowhere near full strength.
Milwaukee faced a surprise matchup in the Eastern Conference Finals against fifth-seeded upstart Atlanta. The Hawks gave the Bucks a rude welcome in Game 1, as star guard Trae Young dropped 48 points to lead the underdogs to a two-point victory.
The Bucks responded in the next two games, with Middleton scoring 20 of his 38 Game 3 points in the fourth quarter of that game, and Milwaukee appeared to be on its way to a five-game victory. However, Atlanta came out firing and the Bucks were flat to begin Game 4 and disaster nearly struck. Giannis hyperextended his left knee in a gruesome scene early in the second half of the series-tying game. The injury was not as serious as it appeared, but the Bucks had to get to the NBA Finals without their superstar. This proved to not be an issue, as four players dropped 20+ points, including 33 from Lopez, in a Game 5 victory in Milwaukee. The Bucks then went to Atlanta and withstood a late Hawks rally to give the team its first six-game series victory since Jennings’ proclamation.
Awaiting the Bucks in their first Finals appearance since 1974 were the Western Conference’s No.2 seed, the Phoenix Suns, who were led by their own star trio in shooting guard Devin Booker, future Hall of Fame point guard Chris Paul and center Deandre Ayton. That trio got off to a fast start, with double digit victories in the first two games. Paul dropped 32 points and dished out nine assists in a 118-105 Game 1 win, while Booker added 27 points and Ayton had 22 points and 19 rebounds. Giannis countered Ayton with 20 and 17 in his return from injury and Middleton led the Bucks with 29. Middleton and Holiday were both cold in Game 2, which allowed the Suns to take a 2-0 lead despite Antetokounmpo returning to superstar form with 42 points. Wing Mikal Bridges gave the Suns another scoring threat in Game 2, dropping 27 points in a 118-108 victory.
Milwaukee responded emphatically in Game 3 with a 120-100 victory behind 41 and 13 boards from Giannis and 21 points and 9 assists on efficient shooting from Holiday. Game 4 was much tighter, as Phoenix held the lead for the majority of the game. Booker returned from a bad Game 3 with a 42-point barrage. However, Middleton had his Finals breakout, as he dropped 40, including countless clutch buckets during Milwaukee’s fourth quarter comeback. Giannis made sure his teammate’s offensive exploits translated into a victory with one of the best defensive plays in Finals history when he rotated to block a dunk attempt on an alley-oop from Booker to Ayton that preserved a two-point lead with one minute to play. The Bucks eventually won, 109-103 to even the series.
The Suns looked to have their mojo back for Game 5 in the early going with a 37-21 lead after a hot-shooting first quarter. However, the Bucks changed their defensive strategy and began to shoot better in the next two quarters, turning that 16-point deficit into an eventual 14-point fourth quarter lead. However, Phoenix had one final push behind a 40-point Booker performance. However, all three of the Bucks’ trio was dialed in, as Giannis, Middleton and Holiday had 32, 29, and 27 points, respectively. Holiday came up with another huge defensive play when he stripped Booker while the Bucks had a one-point lead in the final seconds and threw a lob to Antetokounmpo, who dunked and was fouled to help secure the 123-119 victory and get Milwaukee within a win of its first championship since 1971.
Back at the Fiserv for Game 6, the Bucks appeared primed to roll after the first quarter with a 13-point lead. However, the Suns tightened up defensively and Paul got hot to help Phoenix outscore Milwaukee by 18 in the second. Giannis channeled a Michael Jordan-like mentality and took matters into his own hands in the second quarter and throughout the second half, as he dropped 50 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, blocked five shots and surprisingly knocked down 17 of 19 free throws. Middleton, despite struggling to find open shots, knocked down a crucial shot and two free throws to give the Bucks an eight-point lead with less than a minute to go, and the Bucks coasted from there to send Milwaukee into a frenzy. Antetokounmpo was awarded NBA Finals MVP honors for his efforts.
STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM NOW WE HERE: MJ and Pip 2.0?
The 2021 championship was the culmination of eight seasons worth of work to bring the Bucks not only to relevance, but to the promised land. After years of mediocrity and roster building for playoff appearances, the Bucks drafted Antetokounmpo and traded for Middleton. No one at the time, not even anyone closely affiliated with the franchise, could have imagined what those two players would eventually produce. Giannis and Middleton, combined with optimistic new owners, a new arena and a rejuvenated fan base, produced the best result any NBA franchise can achieve. The cultivation of the two stars is somewhat reminiscent of the Bulls’ development of Jordan and Scottie Pippen in the 1980s that eventually produced six championships the next decade under head coach Phil Jackson. It remains to be seen if Giannis and Middleton can duplicate that level of dominance under Budenholzer, but 2021 and the years leading up to it certainly bode well for the future of the Milwaukee Bucks.