Bucks offseason preview: Three challenges facing Milwaukee going forward

The Milwaukee Bucks are NBA champions for the first time 50 years. This team will likely remain a contender going forward, especially with Giannis Antetokounmpo locked in for five more seasons… but it will still be challenging getting back to the Finals assuming good health to the rest of the top of the Eastern Conference.

The botched Bogdan Bogdanovic sign-and-trade would’ve dwelled over the franchise had they not won. At the same time, maybe it was better things worked out this way because the hard cap issues wouldn’t have allowed them to sign Bryn Forbes and Bobby Portis. They also wouldn’t have been able to use the mid-level exception, meaning they would’ve had difficulties matching salaries for PJ Tucker in a trade while remaining under the hard cap.

Head coach Mike Budenholzer made an impressive 180 going from potentially not being with the team anymore to likely locking himself in for the foreseeable future. Milwaukee will still be facing challenges improving this roster against age-related regression with little-to-no flexibility going forward.