The 2025-26 NBA season is here! Over the next few weeks, we’re examining the biggest questions, best- and worst-case scenarios, and win projections for all 30 franchises — from the still-rebuilding teams to the true title contenders.
2024-25 finish
Record: 48-34 (fifth in the East, lost to the Pacers in the first round of the playoffs)
Offseason moves
Additions: Myles Turner, Gary Harris, Cole Anthony, Amir Coffey, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Mark Sears
Subtractions: Damian Lillard, Brook Lopez, Pat Connaughton
(Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
The Big Question: Can Milwaukee craft a new framework for contention around Giannis Antetokounmpo?
It’s not just that the home-run swing didn’t put the ball in the upper deck — that after moving heaven, earth and Jrue Holiday to put Damian Lillard next to Antetokounmpo, the Bucks wound up without a 50-win campaign or a playoff series victory in the Giannis-and-Dame era, and with just three total playoff game wins over two seasons.
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It’s that, as someone smart recently reminded me, Lillard’s tragic Achilles rupture in the opening minutes of Game 4 of Milwaukee’s first-round series against the Pacers eliminated one potentially fruitful pathway to a brighter future: the possibility the Bucks could have rerouted Lillard for more raw materials with which to fashion a new, more competitive version of the team.
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Even in the doldrums of a personal and professional downturn, Lillard averaged 24.6 points on .604 true shooting, 7 assists and 4.5 rebounds in 35.7 minutes per game across two seasons in Milwaukee, made consecutive All-Star appearances, and finished 10th in the NBA in points and assists per game and 11th in offensive estimated plus-minus last season. Even with two years and $112.6 million left on the contract of the 35-year-old Lillard, there’s a decent chance that general manager Jon Horst could’ve found a trade partner willing to part with some real stuff that would re-stock a Milwaukee cupboard that’s awfully bare; thanks to the 2020 trade that made Holiday a Buck and the 2023…
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