Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo: We Don’t Have An Identity Right Now

October 28, 2024

This hasn’t been the way the Bucks wanted to start the 2024-25 NBA season. Uneven, great only in stretches, never really knowing what to expect.

No less than Giannis Antetokounmpo can tell you that.

“How are we going to win the game? Are we going to defend for 48 minutes? Are we going to move the ball for 48 minutes? Are we going to attack?” Antetokounmpo asked NBA reporters after a loss to the Nets dropped Milwaukee to 1-2. “We’ve gotta find an identity. We don’t have that right now.”

Antetokounmpo speaks the truth. Granted, it’s incredibly early, but the Bucks seem to be picking up right where they left off in the Antetokounmpo-Damian Lillard era. You never knew what you were going to get last season.

This is also the first full season under coach Doc Rivers, who left the ESPN broadcast booth at the start of the year to try to get the Bucks back to championship form.

But this roster is getting older, with the likes of Lillard, Brook Lopez and others. It should be using experience and chemistry as its advantages. But as Antetokounmpo stated, the Bucks aren’t quite there yet.

Rivers seemed to agree.

“The last two games have been very disappointing,” he said. “It’s the third game still. You still gotta keep fighting, but these are games you should win.”

The Bucks pay a visit to the reigning champion Celtics on Monday night, before hosting the Grizzlies on Thursday and the Cavaliers on Saturday.