Despite all the clamor after the Damian Lillard acquisition, the Milwaukee Bucks have been struggling to get their season going. In 10 games played, the franchise has racked up an underwhelming 6-4 record, good for just sixth in the East. On several occasions, both Lillard and team superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, have addressed this. Recently, ‘Dame’ said the following on the matter, as seen in the X (Formerly Twitter) post by @GiannisWorld.
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Dame: “There’s going to be teams and there’s going to be individuals that in the beginning of the season it looks one way and when you get to game 40 people are going to forget how this looked right now, it’s going to be about who can sustain it, who can be the best version of themselves over the course of a long season…”
Considering the Bucks’ lack of good performances so far, many have found themselves in agreement with Lillard’s comments. ‘The Greek Freak’ was no exception to this either. In fact, during a recent press conference, he expressed the following, as seen in another post by @GiannisWorld.
“[We have to] try to figure out what works for us. Try to find our identity… At the end of the day, one thing I know for sure is that we gotta get better. We are not even close, I believe, in what we can do as a team. We have to get better, we have to keep on working on ourself, keep on watching film, keep on trusting our gameplan, keep on guarding, keep on helping one another defensively. Offensively we gotta know our spots, we gotta know what plays work for us, and what doesn’t really work for us…”
The fact that both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard have a clear vision as to how their season is supposed to look will likely comfort many fans of the franchise. That said, the problems the franchise has had at the moment, while treatable, are worrying.
The problem with the Milwaukee Bucks
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard were supposed to take the franchise to new levels together. However, so far, they haven’t had too much time to build chemistry yet. Even in this young season, Lillard has had to miss time due to right calf soreness, causing their time to be lower than the already small period so far.
Further, even when the two have taken the court together, they have not run nearly as many pick and rolls as many expected. However, that may be another nod to their lack of chemistry at the moment, which is likely to improve with time. Still, NBA analyst Zach Lowe was forced to admit that the Bucks ‘don’t look right’.
Ultimately, the NBA community does seem to agree that it is only a matter of time before things work out in Milwaukee. That said, there is a possibility that things won’t work out in time for them to win the 2024 NBA championship. And with the Philadelphia 76ers and Denver Nuggets, along with a host of other teams, looking as dangerous as they do already, this instance is starting to look likelier by the day.
