The defending world champion Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo are better than a season ago.

The Bucks are only 8-8 on the season, but the roster that the front officee has built, is better than a year ago. The Bucks are only 8-8 on the season because they've played most of their games without Khris Middleton, Jrue Holiday, and Brook Lopez.

There are many reasons why the Bucks are a better team this year. They have better spacing, the championship drought is off their chest, Grayson Allen has proved that he's one of the best 3-point shooters in the league next to Giannis, and their coaching staff saw what was needed to win come playoff time.

Let's take an in-depth look at these four reasons that make the Bucks a better team than their championship season.

Four Reasons The Bucks Are Better Than Their Championship Team

The spacing

Although the three-point shooting hasn't been as good as the Bucks would like this year, their three-point shooters as a whole is much improved. They lost Bryn Forbes but they went out and added Grayson Allen who's been sensational for them this season. They are only shooting 34.9% from three which is the 13th highest in the NBA, but they have done this without Khris Middleton who's the team's best 3-point shooter. Also add in the fact that Bobby Portis hasn't played much this year, and had one of the League's best 3-point shooting percentages last season, and you walk away that the Bucks spacing is better this year.

When you have Giannis Antetokounmpo on your team, the Bucks are always going to get open looks. Defenses have to collapse on Giannis every time he touches the ball because if they don't, he's getting a free 2 points, and the defense is probably going to foul him. Giannis is the best in the world at getting to the rim. The Bucks noticed this a season ago when they decided to get rid of Eric Bledsoe for Jrue Holiday as Holiday can open the floor more.

Add in the fact that Pat Connaughton has the most confidence that he's had throughout his entire career from three-point range, and this is the best 3-point shooting team that the Bucks have formed around Giannis throughout his entire career.

Championship drought is gone

It's been 50 years since the Bucks won their last championship before last year. Although Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton made it seem like there was no pressure on them, there had to have been. When you are a two-time MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and arguably the best player in the world, not having a Championship under your belt will always give you pressure.

That's all gone this year for the Bucks and the easiest way to tell that is by what the coaching staff is doing. They have noticed that they don't need to take the regular season as seriously as years before. Their health is their priority to win a championship. Milwaukee understand that no matter what they do in the regular season doesn't matter until playoff time. Having a championship under their belt allows them to do that. Giannis is also able to work on other parts of his game. We've seen that this season as he's taking more threes per game than he has throughout most of his career.

Grayson Allen

Grayson Allen has been the most low-key pick up of the offseason for any team. He's averaging career highs with 15 points per game for the Bucks and shooting over 42% from 3 on eight attempts per game. He's a major addition over Bryn Forbes because he can also play defense. Last season the Bucks couldn't play Bryn Forbes in some important spots of the playoffs because when he was in the opposing offenses were targeting him.

Not only can Grayson Allen be an elite catch-and-shoot shooter like we've seen so far, but he also is a good shot creator by himself. Milwaukee fans saw this when they were taking on the Boston Celtics. Grayson Allen hit a step-back 3 to send the game to overtime.

The craziest part of all this, the Bucks traded Grayson Allen for Sam Merrill and a future second-round pick. They were obviously the winners of that trade and it looks like Grayson Allen is going to be the starting shooting guard. Maybe even when Donte DiVincenzo comes back.

Coaching staff

Just like the players, the coaching staff was starting to feel the pressure too. Coach Mike Budenholzer understood that if he didn't win an NBA championship last season, he wasn't going to be the Bucks head coach.

The Bucks coaching staff also made key adjustments last season that was part of their downfall in previous years. Coach Bud and the rest of their coaching staff allowed the Bucks stars to play 40-plus minutes a night. In years prior, the Bucks had nights where Giannis and Khris Middleton were hardly playing more than 30 minutes a game.

Milwaukee is definitely in a better position to win an NBA title than they have been throughout Giannis's entire career. When you have the players around him that they do, a coaching staff who finally knows what they need to do to win an NBA title, it makes the world much easier for the best player in the NBA to win another NBA title.