As the 2024-25 season approaches, we take a look at some of the players we’re most interested in keeping an eye on. First up, an aging superstar trying to give a fading contender one last boost.
There are many explanations for why the Milwaukee Bucks underperformed last season, whether it was poor perimeter defense, a poorly designed schematic overhaul, poor communication from the sidelines that led to a midseason coaching change, a lack of functional depth, or their two best players being sidelined or handicapped in the playoffs.
But the bigger reason is that Damian Lillard, for whom the Bucks traded Jrue Holiday and virtually all of their remaining tradeable draft assets on the eve of training camp, wasn’t quite the offensive powerhouse his new team needed, nor the one he had been for the previous decade in Portland.
By his lofty standards, Lillard had a rough year as a three-point shooter and struggled from mid-range. He shot the ball less often and less efficiently than in recent seasons, posting the lowest shooting frequency of his career. He had his least efficient pick-and-roll shooting season in eight years. For those reasons and othersThe two-man game between him and Giannis Antetokounmpo never really worked, though it gradually improved after a particularly rocky start. For Milwaukee, trading Holiday for Lillard meant accepting a significant defensive dropoff, and the team’s offense hasn’t improved enough to compensate.
The big question heading into a new, high-pressure campaign is whether this down year was an exception or Lillard’s new baseline. Lillard insisted it was the former, citing a combination of lifestyle changes (he moved for the first time in his career), the short runway to acclimate before the season begins and personal issues behind the scenes. He also just turned 34, so an age-related decline can’t be ruled out, even though he arguably had the most potential. best season of his career the year before.
Milwaukee can only hope Lillard is right and a rebound is coming.
Other factors could push the Bucks up the ladder of their potential outcomes, including better injury luck in the playoffs, a healthier campaign from Khris Middleton overall, a slight upgrade from Malik Beasley to Gary Trent Jr. at the fifth starting spot, and a full season with someone other than Adrian Griffin at the helm. But those factors alone won’t put them back at the top of a suddenly crowded field of Eastern Conference contenders. Right now, it’s hard to put Milwaukee ahead of Boston, New York or Philadelphia. If the 2022-23 Lillard reemerges, though, it’ll be a different story. His performance is one of the most important variables not just for the Bucks but for the entire league.
On the plus side, a disappointing season still saw Lillard average 24.3 points and seven assists with above-average efficiency while racking up free throws and remaining a killer in crucial moments. The Bucks outscored opponents by 16.6 points per 100 possessions in 677 minutes with him, Antetokounmpo, Middleton and Brook Lopez on the court together. And they pushed a quality Pacers team into the first round despite Antetokounmpo being out for the entire series and Lillard’s aggravated Achilles injury that forced him to miss Games 4 and 5 before limping back for Game 6.
We got another glimpse of when Dame Time transcended this series, including a 35-point first half in Game 1. He averaged a ridiculous 1.46 points per possession as a pick-and-roll point guard in the four games he played. He didn’t have a real offseason last year, and getting one now could help him further develop his offensive partnership with Antetokounmpo. He already has great pick-and-roll chemistry with Lopez.
The Bucks have as good a chance to make it through the 2024-25 season as any team in the NBA. They’ve sacrificed every ounce of future capital and every ounce of financial flexibility to win big now. And their core is aging. Lopez remains Milwaukee’s defensive backbone — and was often the only thing keeping the team halfway to this level last season — but he’ll be 37 in the spring. Middleton is 33, and injuries have cost him 76 games over the past two seasons.
Antetokounmpo is still in top form heading into his 30th season, and his offensive game is as potent as ever, but his defense is struggling. This is also the final year before his gargantuan contract extension kicks in; he and Lillard will make $127 million (roughly 82 percent of the projected salary cap) between them in 2025-26. The second apron looms as an obstacle to increasing or even maintaining the team around them.
There’s a reason Bucks management acted with such urgency, a reason they felt it necessary to trade a player as highly regarded as Holiday, fire a coach as successful as Mike Budenholzer and fire his replacement It’s only his first half-season, despite a 30-13 record in that time. If Antetokounmpo wants to win another title in Milwaukee, it’s now or never. And if it’s now, he’ll need everything his co-star has to give.
Lillard has never faced this kind of pressure before. He obviously faced pressure in Portland, where the Blazers relied heavily on his nightly production to remain respectable, but this is different; the expectations are in a whole other stratosphere now. This could very well be the most important season of his Hall of Fame career. That makes him arguably one of the most interesting players to watch in 2024-25.
Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore
