The No. 1 seeded Boston Celtics, who are 54-14 and 10 slots ahead of the 44-24 Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern league, appear to have secured the top seed in the league. The Bucks, who are presently ranked as the second seed in the conference, will be without one of their All-NBA players. Milwaukee has experienced a turbulent season for a No. 2 seed. Fans and analysts alike disregarded Lillard’s age and defensive flaws when the team traded All-Star combo guard Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers for All-NBA superstar point guard Damian Lillard in the summer, raising expectations of Milwaukee’s ceiling to legitimate title contenders.However, Lillard was added by the Bucks much later than expected, after their summer trade deadline had passed. Milwaukee had taken a number of steps to reinvest in Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez, their starting pitchers who were over thirty years old. It has been difficult to pay Middleton at least $93 million (worth up to $102.2 million with incentives) over three years since he hasn’t been able to see the floor much in the last several seasons. But for the most part of his six seasons with the team, Lopez has stayed the surprisingly resilient 3-and-D stretch five option. The Bucks signed minimal deals to acquire shooting guard Malik Beasley, who is already starting, and brought back reserve forward Jae Crowder.
By offloading Holiday and Grayson Allen late, Milwaukee sacrificed a ton of its perimeter defense to add an aging Lillard. The team also signed a first-time head coach, Adrian Griffin. The Lillard and Griffin additions seemed to inspire superstar Bucks power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who inked a three-year, $175.9 million contract extension in late October.
Griffin’s Coach of the Year case fell apart pretty quickly. The Bucks’ once-vaunted wing defense fell apart year-to-year, in large part because the club was starting Lillard and Malik Beasley, who aren’t exactly stopping anyone. Eventually, Milwaukee cut ties with Griffin in January, and brought in a longtime Eastern Conference head coaching titan in Doc Rivers, who seemed to have been enjoying his leisure time as a broadcaster and podcast with ESPN and The Ringer, respectively. Rivers instantly revamped the club’s point-of-attack defense (the addition of Rivers mainstay Patrick Beverley helped, too).
