Why This Bucks All-Star Considers 2023-24 His Hardest Ever

The Milwaukee Bucks presently occupy the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed with a solid 43-24 record. Their .642 winning percentage would be good for a 53-win record across the entirety of a full season. In the offseason, club general manager Jon Horst made some huge tweaks to the team’s roster, offloading Jrue Holiday and Grayson Allen while acquiring ex-Portland Trail Blazers All-Star point guard Damian Lillard.

Milwaukee also inked aging veteran starters Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez to lucrative new long-term deals, a set-up that has worked swimmingly for Lopez, who remains an elite rim defender and a solid stretch five, but has worked out poorly for Middleton, who has been stymied by injury issues yet again, and seems to have lost some athleticism from his All-Star prime. The team also signed Malik Beasley to a veteran’s minimum contract, which has proven to be a coup, as he has emerged as an elite three-point shooting threat this year, following a down season with the Los Angeles Lakers. The team also replaced championship head coach Mike Budenholzer with Adrian Griffin, who had long been Nick Nurse’s lead assistant with the Toronto Raptors. That experiment didn’t last long, as he was ultimately let go midway through the year and replaced by Doc Rivers.

All-NBA Bucks power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, the club’s best player, explained why its 2023-24 run has been perhaps his toughest year yet during a fresh chat. The perennial MVP candidate spoke with Sam Amick of The Athletic about his struggles. Antetokounmpo continues to look like one of the league’s best players, though as he detailed, it’s been a trying time.

“Yeah, it’s … it’s … it’s hard. I feel like for me, this has been the hardest season that I’ve played — not only physically, because I had the procedure done on my left knee in the end of June,” Antetokounmpo said. “And I had to get back to myself. I feel like when the season started, I wasn’t (myself). And the reason was that I hadn’t played basketball until like the second week of training (camp). I had to get back to being by myself.”

“But emotionally, and mentally, it’s been draining. I’m not going to lie to you. It’s been extremely tough, from Coach Bud (Mike Budenholzer) being let go (after the Bucks fell to Miami in the first round of the playoffs) to Coach Griff coming in, being let go, then (interim) Coach Joe [Prunty] for three games, Coach Doc coming in, and then you have Dame. It’s been tough.”

Individually, at least, Antetokounmpo has remained excellent on the floor. Through 64 contests, the two-time MVP is averaging 30.8 points on 61.6% shooting from the field, 11.2 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 1.2 steals and a block per bout. Although Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are the probable favorites to net MVP honors this year, Antetokounmpo’s output and his team’s success (despite the coaching changes and the Bucks’ defensive slippage) seem likely to make him a top-five finisher for the accolade yet again.

“But at the end of the day, I think when you face adversity in life, that’s when you excel the most. So I’m just trying to, as a leader, as a basketball player, as a person, just trying to do what I do, keep on enjoying the game of basketball, keep on hanging in there, keep on trying to improve my game, doing the right thing. And hopefully, step by step, I get where I want to go and I’m able to help the team get where we want to go.”

“We’re not playing to make the playoffs,” Antetokounmpo said. “Obviously, when we go to the first round, we’ve got to compete there, then go to the second round, go to the third round. We’ve got to do it step by step. That’s how it works. But at the end of the day, we have a goal in our head that we’re trying to accomplish.