The Milwaukee Bucks have played just 10 games in the 2024-25 regular season, yet it might already be time for the team to hit the panic button. Milwaukee entered the campaign with championship expectations, but the Bucks find themselves near the very bottom of the Eastern Conference standings with a record of 2-8.
The Bucks also squandered an opportunity to earn what likely would have been a confidence-boosting win over the Boston Celtics on Sunday. Milwaukee was up by as many as 17 points against the defending champions but went on to lose by six after it was outscored 55-38 in the second half.
After Milwaukee suffered yet another tough defeat on Sunday, Brian Windhorst of ESPN reported that the Bucks are making trade calls to other teams, though it seems Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard are not on the table.
“So, I was talkin’ to people in the league about the Bucks, and I started hearin’ from people who were sayin’ to me, ‘Yeah, the Bucks called us about trades,'” Windhorst said when discussing Milwaukee’s slow start to the campaign. “I go, ‘About who?’ And they’re like, ‘Not Giannis and not Dame.’ In fact, I was talkin’ to one team — I think on Thursday — and I was on the phone with this team and I go, ‘Hey, have the Bucks called you yet?’ And they’re like, ‘No — no they haven’t called us.’ I go, ‘Well, I just talked to four teams in the last day the Bucks called.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, well they haven’t called us.’ And then he’s like, ‘Wait a minute — Bucks on the other line, I gotta go.'”
The Bucks seemingly could benefit greatly from acquiring an established third scoring option to complement Antetokounmpo and Lillard. After all, Milwaukee’s supporting cast hasn’t done all that much scoring so far this season. Bobby Portis is the lone player for Milwaukee — outside of the team’s dynamic duo — who’s averaging double digits in points on the season, and he’s scoring 12.5 per game off the pine.
As for an internal solution regarding the Bucks’ lack of complementary scoring, perhaps Khris Middleton will provide a much-needed jolt to Milwaukee’s offense once he makes his return after getting ankle surgeries in the offseason. He has yet to make his season debut for the Bucks after he averaged 15.1 points per game across 55 contests in the 2023-24 regular season.
But at the same time, there is reason for skepticism about the notion that Middleton still has what it takes to be one of the top scoring options on a title contender. He played just 88 games in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons combined, and he hasn’t averaged 20-plus points per game since the 2021-22 season when he averaged 20.1 points per contest.
The Bucks will try to stem the tide and get back in the win column against the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night.
