3 Milwaukee Bucks not coming back after latest playoff disappointment

What a strange, tumultuous 2023-24 NBA campaign it has been for the Milwaukee Bucks, who saw their season come to a screeching halt Thursday night after their Game 6 loss to the Indiana Pacers in their first-round playoff series.

After firing first-year head coach Adrian Griffin 43 games into his tenure with a 30–13 record, the Bucks hired Doc Rivers as his replacement, and the team went 17–19 to end the regular season.

However, things didn’t get better for Rivers and Milwaukee in the postseason. The team was plagued by injuries, including their two-star players Giannis Antetokounmpo (who missed the entire series) and Damian Lillard.

Regardless, the Bucks now enter the offseason with a host of questions with an aging and expensive roster. They enter the offseason expected to be a luxury tax team, currently over the second platform, according to Spotrac – this limits their ability to upgrade the roster based on the recently implemented CBA restrictions.

Nevertheless, the Bucks will likely continue to aggressively restructure their roster around Antetokounmpo and Lillard as they look to maximize their championship window. So these three players will be on the move after the team’s latest playoff blunder.

Many expected Jae Crowder to be a crucial addition to the Bucks rotation when the team maneuvered to acquire him as part of a three-team trade between the Brooklyn Nets and Indiana Pacers ahead of the 2023 trade deadline that would see five future picks were sent for the second round. for his services. But that has been far from the case during his time in office.

Crowder averaged 6.4 points and 3.4 rebounds in 22 minutes per game over the past two seasons in Milwaukee. But he was virtually a non-factor and saw his role diminish significantly in successive postseasons.

In eight playoff games with the Bucks, Crowder scored two points per game while shooting a modest 7.7 percent from beyond the arc on 1.6 nightly attempts.

Once considered an ideal prototypical 3-and-D wing for teams with championship aspirations like Milwaukee, Crowder appears to be losing his luster as he enters the final stages of his career. As he enters unrestricted free agency ahead of his age-34 campaign, the lack of usage in the playoffs suggests he will be out of the picture next season, especially considering he had a healthy clean sheet in the last two games against the Pacers .

As happy as the Bucks would likely be to welcome back Malik Beasley next season, he played out of their price range with an impressive performance in the regular season after betting on himself and signing a one-year deal for the minimum veteran ($2.7 million). ), showing he can make a positive contribution to a contending team as a scoring threat on the floor.

Beasley averaged 11.3 points per game while shooting a career-best 41.3 percent from beyond the arc on 6.9 nightly attempts while starting 77 of the 79 games he appeared in leading up to the play -offs, where he led the Bucks in 3s (224). However, like Crowder, he took a backseat as the stakes rose in Round 1 against Indiana. His scoring dropped to 8.8 points per game while playing just 21.8 minutes, compared to 29.6 in the regular season.

It’s hard to believe the Los Angeles Lakers turned down Beasley’s $16.5 million team for 2023-2024. They could have desperately used another perimeter shooter in their backcourt. Nevertheless, he will likely have a robust market as a premier 3-point shooter just starting his campaign at age 28.

Bobby Portis has become a Bucks fan favorite since first signing with the team as a free agent in November 2020. However, after finding himself in trade rumors before this year’s deadline, it feels safe to say Milwaukee will again explore upgrading the roster this year. offseason and dangle him into negotiations.

Portis is the most desirable bargaining chip the Bucks have, especially given their lack of draft capital and young players on the roster, and he should have plenty of candidates as a player who finished third in the Sixth Man of the Year and each of the past two seasons. He averaged 13.8 points and 7.4 rebounds per game in 2023-24, shooting 50.8 percent from the floor and 40.7 percent from long range.

A galvanizing force and crowd pleaser with playoff pedigree as a former NBA champion, Portis is now entering the final guaranteed year of the four-year, $48.58 million extension he signed in 2022 (with a player option for 2025- 2026). Considering his current price tag is well below market value, he will likely opt to command a more lucrative payday if he remains on the roster beyond next season. So trading him before he asks for a raise seems like the right move.