Following the Bucks’ 127-95 loss to the Spurs on Saturday, their playoff hopes are officially over with no possible path to the 10th seed.
At 11th in the East (29-44), this season can only be classified as a failure, given that this was a team with championship aspirations before opening night. With that in mind, head coach Doc Rivers spoke to the media on what it means and how it all went wrong despite initially showing so much promise.
“It’s been disappointing, obviously,” said Rivers, via Eric Nehm. “Since I’ve been here, I haven’t had a healthy stretch, and it’s been your key guys. It’s been Giannis. It’s been Dame. And you hope you can play through that, but we just haven’t had the ability. This year, having only one quote-unquote star, every other team has two or three. We needed health. We were thin. We knew that before the season started, and it just didn’t go our way.”
For Rivers, the injuries are the biggest factor. Since he arrived, the team has been beset by health issues, forcing them to try and adjust on the fly. In the end, despite their best efforts, the Bucks just don’t have enough talent to play through all the absences, and it has put all the burden on Giannis to carry the load. Of course, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing good to come out of this campaign for Milwaukee.
“All the talk and all that stuff probably didn’t help either,” added Rivers. “But I always try to look at silver linings, and Ryan (Rollins) is one of them. Pete Nance is another one. Ous (Dieng) is one of them. And we gotta rehabilitate or get AJ Green going again. He’s a good player. He’s played too many minutes. We’ve had no choice, and I think that’s put him in a tough spot, and I feel bad for him at times. Bobby was Bobby. He’s been a pro throughout this year. We had a great talk today about it before the game. I’m just so proud of him as a leader. He tries to do the right stuff. He tries to say the right things in the locker room. So, there are some good things in there.”
All in all, despite whatever positives Rivers might try to extrapolate, the Bucks cannot escape the reality of their failure this season. What started as optimism with Giannis, Myles Turner, and Kyle Kuzma has quickly turned into misery as their entire future hangs in the balance.
With the Greek Freak himself now reconsidering his loyalties, the team’s struggles could have implications that stretch far beyond the final regular-season game. In short, this could be the start of a massive rebuild for the Bucks, ending the Giannis era in shambles just a few years after winning the title.
It’s not the ending anybody had in mind for the Bucks, and it won’t be easy for them to find a way out. But with Giannis still under contract, they’ll have one more shot to convince him to stay this summer, or it could be the last straw for his tenure in Milwaukee. The same could also be said for Doc Rivers, who is reportedly contemplating retirement.
