Somewhere along the line, the Milwaukee Bucks lost their way.
On April 10, 2023, they were the best team in the NBA, getting ready for what looked like another run at an Eastern Conference final. There was no question who they were or what they were about.
On April 13, 2026, they’re one of the 10 worst teams in the league, set a franchise record for blowout losses in a season and suffered eight of the 50 worst defeats since the team was founded.
It was a gradual descent, the team winning fewer and fewer games in the regular season and playoffs before ultimately landing in the NBA draft lottery this spring. The Bucks’ draft position in June will be only the latest example of the dissolution of a winning environment.
Suffice to say, a hard culture reset is needed.
We can point to a myriad of intentional decisions and bad luck that led the Bucks to this crossroads, where there is real internal debate over whether to keep the greatest player in franchise history and inarguably one of the top five basketball players on the planet, or set off on a meandering path of trying to find the next franchise cornerstone.
Regardless of which direction the ownership group led by Wes Edens and Jimmy and Dee Haslam chooses in the coming weeks or months, one thing is certain: They need to rediscover what they lost.
What are they about? What will they hang their hat on, on either end of the court?
Too often in the last few years players have asked those questions, and quite publicly. After practices and games, it’s been a familiar refrain:
What’s the mission? What are they trying to accomplish? What are we doing?
The answers have nothing to do with whether Giannis Antetokounmpo is on the team or not. It’s bigger than that, which even he has acknowledged in more than one interview. And in an end-of-season conversation with the Journal Sentinel, he cited the mentalities Boston coach Joe Mazzulla and Greek national team coach Vassilis Spanoulis created:
“We are here to give everything that we have,” Antetokounmpo described. “We are here to bond together. We are here to figure out ways to win. No excuses. Move as a group and you move as a unit.”
The Bucks did that once.
And they can get there again.
Just remember that early in 2018, they fired a head coach (Jason Kidd) and were bounced in the first round of the playoffs, but settled on Mike Budenholzer as their next head coach. A few “low level” acquisitions (see: Brook Lopez and Pat Connaughton) later, the Bucks were the best team in the NBA, a powerhouse.
Just like that, a new, winning culture was established.
Yes, the roster then was different. Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton were about to start their rapid ascent to the peak of their powers. Budenholzer was the right guy to get them there.
That’s the thing this offseason: Find the right people to give this team an immediate identity. The general manager and head coach must be in lock step in terms of what kind of players should be on the team to accentuate that.
If Antetokounmpo is still the centerpiece, a coach needs to be capable enough to not only maximize his still-explosive talents but push his game to a new level. There is room for growth, and the superstar wants to see that realized. GM Jon Horst knows how to accentuate Antetokounmpo’s talents and mitigate his shortcomings. This can be done, because we’ve seen it done.
If the Bucks trade Antetokounmpo (particularly if they do so to a team in the Eastern Conference), they will no longer be a championship contender, but the new coach will be tasked with making the team greater than the sum of its parts. This would be uncharted roster-building territory for Horst, so the coach much be strong and convicted in the type of players they need to have to compete.
If there is one thing that could help the Bucks get to this place, it’s that it feels like ownership and Horst know this culture reset is needed.
They knew it when they fired Adrian Griffin despite a 30-13 start early in 2024. In just that half season, the team’s identity had been blurred and he was not the leader to sharpen it. Ultimately, Doc Rivers’ hiring was a high-risk gambit that busted out. That identity never crystallized, and in fact only got more lost.
Culture is one of those nebulous things. You can’t see it or touch it, but you can feel it. You know when it’s there, and when it’s absent. It clearly has been missing. It’s why change is needed this offseason.
There’s a saying in sports, “if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse,” and the Bucks used to be about “getting better every day.” That has long ceased being the case. The proof is in the results.
But a new day brings with it a new chance to improve, and the Bucks need to quickly identify with whom, and how, they will get back to doing so.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: After a lost season, the Milwaukee Bucks need a hard culture reset
Reporting by Jim Owczarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
