The Milwaukee Bucks are one of many groups to watch within the NBA offseason.
2024-25 got here to an abrupt finish for the Milwaukee Bucks with an extra time Recreation 5 defeat on the highway on the Indiana Pacers.
The loss was a second successive first spherical exit for the Bucks, and this one has a very bitter tone after Damian Lillard suffered an Achilles harm in Recreation 4, that would sideline him till the 2026-27 season.
With continued postseason shortcomings and Lillard’s grinding restoration, the Bucks are dealing with an vital summer season to reassess their course transferring ahead.
With the Bucks set to enter a pivotal offseason, many consider Giannis Antetokounmpo will lastly stroll away.
The franchise star has hammered his dedication to the group a number of instances already, however Milwaukee’s current and upcoming state of affairs could immediate him to lastly take his abilities to a different staff.
For the reason that Bucks have been eradicated within the NBA Playoffs wherein he ranted about his legacy, many groups together with the asset-heavy Brooklyn Nets have been linked.
Whereas everybody’s consideration are directed in the direction of Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee may lose one other notable star.
ESPN knowledgeable Bobby Marks factors out this might actually be it for Brook Lopez as a Buck.
“I’m an enormous Brook Lopez fan. I drafted him, a part of the group that drafted him in Brooklyn, and was with him for seven years with the Nets, and he had a terrific profession in Milwaukee.
“I feel the times of him in Milwaukee are over,” he remarked throughout his Bucks offseason preview
“I simply assume the type of how they must play, actually with a standard heart, and I feel you may get away with that with Bobby Portis so far as what you need to do there.”
Lopez simply turned 37 from final month and is slated to turn into an unrestricted free agent this 2025 offseason as he holds an expiring $23 million wage.
Thought of because the Bucks’ greatest and most important free agent signing ever, Lopez arrived in Milwaukee in 2018 and performed an instrumental position to the staff’s rise to energy.
A key a part of the Bucks’ success for seven seasons, highlighted by their 2021 championship victory, he has been a significant revelation within the NBA, opening the door for large males to stretch the ground and adapt the capturing emphasis of the trendy period.
Though he remained productive this common season by showing for 80 video games whereas averaging 13.0 factors, 5.0 boards, and 1.9 blocks, the age and decline of Lopez was utterly uncovered all through the Bucks’ five-game sequence in opposition to the Pacers.
He was a legal responsibility for Milwaukee en path to tallying an terrible 5.0 factors in 36.4 p.c capturing in 14.8 minutes for the entire first spherical. Within the Recreation 5 eventual loss, he was demoted to a bench position by Doc Rivers, wherein Bobby Portis Jr. stuffed the beginning heart spot.
Ought to they finally half methods, the Bucks can solely hope they will determine an ideal alternative who would fill Lopez’s large footwear. The veteran large man’s imposing body, capturing means, and rim safety have been as soon as important to the staff’s identification, and will probably be robust for Milwaukee to search out all of that from anyone else.
