The Milwaukee Bucks have officially been eliminated from NBA playoff contention for the 2025-26 season.
The franchise had not missed the playoffs since the 2015-16 season but will now instead land in the NBA draft lottery.
Center Myles Turner and the Bucks fell to 29-44 on the season after losing 127-95 to Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday. Milwaukee is 11th in the Eastern Conference standings as of Saturday afternoon.
“It’s been disappointing, obviously,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers told reporters. “Since I’ve been here, I haven’t had a healthy stretch and it’s been your key guys. It’s been (Giannis Antetokounmpo). It’s been (former Bucks guard Damian Lillard). And you hope you can play through that, but we just haven’t had the ability.”
The Bucks waived Lillard before the season, and the team has been playing chunks of this season without Antetokounmpo.
Antetokounmpo has not played since March 15, and the team has won just one of its last six games in the absence of its star player.
Rivers added that he believes his team is playing at a deficit with “only one quote-unquote star” while “every other team has two and three.”
The team made additions to the roster, acquiring Turner in the offseason, in an attempt to produce a winner, but the team continued to be plagued by injuries this season.
“We needed health,” Rivers said. “We were thin. We knew that before the season started, and it just didn’t go our way. All the talk and all that stuff probably didn’t help, either.”
“The talk” was presumably alluding to Antetokounmpo’s future with the franchise. The team officially out of the playoff picture will only fuel more speculation about Antetokounmpo’s future with the team.
Bucks co-owner and governor Wes Edens told ESPN that the Bucks will likely pursue one of just two outcomes regarding Antetokounmpo this offseason: either the team will sign the star to another extension, or he will be traded. Antetokounmpo is eligible for a contract extension on Oct. 1.
Rivers has tried to see the silver linings this season, starting with some of the younger players on the roster, including Ryan Rollins, Pete Nance and Ousmane Dieng.
Rivers also credited Bobby Portis for his effort in a leadership role this season.
“He’s been a pro throughout this year,” Rivers said. “We had a great talk today about it before the game. I’m just so proud of him as a leader. He tries to do the right stuff.”