MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Bucks will not play on Christmas Day this season, the first time since 2017 the team was not scheduled on, perhaps, the NBA’s marquee of regular-season games.
Their absence from the schedule was noted by coach Doc Rivers during the team’s media day Monday to underscore a sentiment shared by some of the leaders in the Bucks locker room — that they are being overlooked in the 2024-25 season.
“I think we’ve been overlooked,” Bucks forward Khris Middleton said. “We should have had a Christmas Day game, I think. But the NBA felt different. I don’t need that as extra motivation … but it was a little disappointing.”
“We’ve always been overlooked,” Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo added.
“We’re all paying attention to it,” Rivers said. “We see it, we read it… I don’t think I’ll have to use it, it’ll use itself, if you know what I mean.”
Both the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers made splashy offseason additions for All-Star players to improve their rosters this summer. The Boston Celtics just completed a historic run to the NBA championship.
Meanwhile, the Bucks were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs after injuries bogged down their team during a series against the Indiana Pacers. After flipping their roster before training camp in the offseason to acquire Damian Lillard and making a midseason coaching change to hire Rivers, the Bucks had a relatively quiet offseason.
However, they enter the season expecting to compete with the best of the NBA.
“We’re definitely in that group,” Middleton said. “You have Dame and Giannis, for sure. You include myself, Brook, the rest of the crew — we’re definitely one of the top contenders in the East, no matter who else they have. [added] out there or who else has won in the past. I’m sure those teams feel the same way about themselves.”
A big reason the Bucks expect to have a bounce back year is because they will enter the season with some stability.
After being traded from Portland before training camp in 2023, Lillard called his first season in Milwaukee “a blur” and said he felt much more comfortable coming home to report for camp this year. He reported that he felt in much better shape this year after not working out consistently last summer before the trade.
“They went to get the real version of me this year,” Lillard said.
Lillard has kept in constant contact, but hasn’t had a chance to spend any time with Antetokounmpo this summer. Antetokounmpo spent the summer playing for Greece in the Olympics — “one of the best experiences I’ve had as a basketball player,” he said — rehabbing an injury he suffered during the games and then marrying his longtime partner, Mariah, this – in summer. But the two Milwaukee stars both said they have a foundation to build from last season instead of starting from scratch.
They also have Rivers in place as coach from the beginning of the year. When he started last season at the end of January, he acknowledged how difficult it would be to lead a team after joining mid-season. That’s why he wanted to host a training camp at UC-Irvine in California this week to help foster bonds with the team before the start of the season.
“Last year, we felt like we were all over the place,” Antetokounmpo said.
Rivers also named health as one of the biggest challenges the Bucks will have to face this season. Milwaukee has one of the oldest rosters in the NBA with four projected starters over 30, including Middleton, who had surgeries on both ankles this summer.
The Bucks were optimistic about Middleton’s status heading into training camp on Monday. Middleton said he feels great and will participate in some activities during training camp even though he has not been cleared to play live 5-on-5 action. Middleton has been limited to 88 regular season games over the past two seasons.
“I think I’m going to miss some significant time with the 5-on-5 action, but everything else I’ll be able to be out there,” Middleton said. “That’s important for all of us to be together on the court, going over reads, talking, figuring out where our gap is.”
Middleton said those training camp reps will be important for the Bucks before the start of the season to continue building on their foundation from last year.
“I just feel like it’s great because we’re not playing catch-up,” he said. “Last year, we tried to play catch up as much as possible and then also, we learned on the fly. During games we tried to learn each other. To have a full year last year where we got a little. feeling, this summer we could talk , now have this training camp, I feel like we’re in a smooth transition to the season.”
