Orlando Magic Playoff Preview: Meet the Milwaukee Bucks with Behind the Buck Pass

How did last year’s playoff experience and falling short of the Finals shape this team? In what way did that adversity make this team better or change them?

Jordan Treske (@JordanTreske): To be completely honest, I am not sure all of those questions have been fully answered at this point and it is the $1 million question burning for the Milwaukee Bucks going into this playoff run.

Don’t get me wrong, the Bucks’ Conference Finals collapse from a year ago has lurked in the background of everything they have accomplished, and multiple Bucks players and head coach Mike Budenholzer have openly talked about the lessons they have learned from that series. And obviously, before the season suspension, the Bucks did not let the end to last year affect them from being an even more successful team than what they were in 2019.

But for as much as the Bucks have only reinforced the many things that made Budenholzer’s first year so transformative, I think we will have our answer to the biggest question of them all in terms of whether they have can execute the lessons that all Bucks holdovers learned against the Toronto Raptors.

Adam McGee (@AdamMcGee11): Jordan nailed it. The only questions left for the Bucks to answer can only be answered in the playoffs.

The picture has certainly been complicated significantly by the unique and unprecedented nature of how this postseason will play out, and we have perhaps already seen some signs for concern in the Bucks’ play on that front.

The Bucks are waiting to learn if their key players can take them over the line when it matters most, whether their defense will hold up or their offense will prove strong enough to ease some of the pressure on that defense, and more simply whether the shots that did not fall a year ago will go down this time. It has been a long and arduous waiting game, but now we’re going to start to get some answers.