The Bucks' formula remains the same

This may no longer be a No. 1 seed threat. But get them in a playoff series and you might find out.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Lady Lloyd and Her Son, Richard Savage Lloyd, of Hintlesham Hall, Suffolk; 1745-46; Thomas Gainsborough

In consuming preseason NBA content, there are a lot of questions swirling around the Milwaukee Bucks, who do not strike me as a particularly mysterious team.

The core rotation is mostly retained from last season, a campaign in which the team could have secured the No. 2 seed in the East in the waning days of the regular season, but crashed out when Giannis Antetokounmpo got injured. Giannis didn’t recover for the playoffs, Damian Lillard went out with the Bucks down 3-1, and Milwaukee lost the series to the Pacers 4-2.

The key factor here is that when Giannis is available, the Bucks are a very good team and when he is not, the Bucks are average at best.

To wit, the Bucks have the fourth best record in the NBA over the past five years. (The Suns, Celtics, Nuggets and Bucks are all within five wins over each other over the past 320 or so games.) Over those five years, the Bucks are 177-87 (.670) when Giannis plays and 27-27 (.500) when he doesn’t. Last season, the Bucks were 45-28 (.616, 50-win pace) with Giannis and 4-5 (.444) without him. The scale was a little different last season compared to the several prior under Mike Budenholzer: the upside is lower, the downside is about the same. As the Bucks’ supporting cast has atrophied, the margin for error is smaller.

Much of this can be attributed to two things.