Bucks begin their title defense after abbreviated offseason

Updated Oct. 12, 2021 4:15 p.m. ET

Associated Press

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Milwaukee Bucks sure didn’t get much time to celebrate their first NBA championship n a half-century.

Just three months after

The offseason was particularly brief for Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday, who

“It was crazy,” Holiday said.

They got just a little time to come home and rest before beginning the process of trying to repeat. They realize the necessity of maintaining the same tenacity that helped carry them to the franchise’s first championship since 1971.

The Bucks open the season against the Brooklyn Nets, who would have eliminated them in the second round of the 2021 playoffs if

“It’s a challenge,” Middleton said. “I think we have to find a way to stay hungry, not be satisfied by what we accomplished last year, to find a way to do it again.”

Throughout their championship run, the Bucks were driven by their past postseason failures. The Bucks no longer have that as incentive but say they’ll remain as motivated as ever.

“Teams are going to be coming for us,” Antetokounmpo said. “But we have to have that hunter mentality ourselves.”

Milwaukee returned most of the key players from last season, though

That depth could be tested.

The Bucks may need to monitor their top players early in the season because they had so little rest during this abbreviated offseason.

Antetokounmpo, who

“They’re usually pretty good at being able to read guys and their bodies,” Holiday said. “Not only that, they’re good at maintenance and maintaining.”

Milwaukee hopes preaching caution early leads to another memorable finish.

“It was a storybook ending for us, right?” guard Pat Connaughton said. “But stories have sequels. Stories have trilogies. At the end of the day, it’s about continuing the next story, continuing the next book.”

DiVINCENZO’S COMEBACK

The Bucks are banking on a successful return from Donte DiVincenzo, who

WELCOMING ALLEN

Allen didn’t exactly get a warm reception from local fans when the Bucks acquired him from Memphis during the offseason. They remember how Allen ruined Wisconsin’s national championship dreams by scoring 16 points as Duke beat the Badgers 68-63 in the 2015 NCAA Tournament final.

“When I was first traded, 30 minutes later, I would say about 80% of my mentions were angry Wisconsin fans not happy I was coming to Milwaukee,” Allen said.

HILL’S RETURN

This marks Hill’s second stint in Milwaukee. He played for the Bucks from 2018-20 and provided quality 3-point shooting off the bench before getting included in the four-team trade that brought Holiday to Milwaukee.

“They had to make that trade to get a guy like Jrue, which is a no-brainer in every situation,” Hill said. “He’s the best point guard in the league in many people’s eyes. There’s no hard feelings.”

Hill also was one of the leaders of the Bucks’ 2020 protest in the bubble that led to a temporary postponement of NBA playoff games.

PUTTING UP POINTS

The Bucks are coming off a season in which they scored 120.1 points per game. That made them the NBA’s highest-scoring team since 1983-84, when the Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs both exceeded that average.

FAMILIAR TERRITORY FOR BUDENHOLZER

Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer knows the demands involved in trying to win a second straight NBA title. Budenholzer was part of four NBA championship teams with San Antonio while working as an assistant on Gregg Popovich’s staff from 1996-2013. Those Spurs teams never won back-to-back titles.

“You acknowledge that, yes, it is different,” Budenholzer said. “There are going to be things that are a little bit unique following a championship. But there’s going to be a lot of things that are very much the same – the competitive nature of the league, the way people are going to come after you. I think our players always embrace that competition and the need to kind of raise to that level.”

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