There has been a palpable air of disappointment surrounding the Milwaukee Bucks this season, especially as of late. Despite trading for one of the best point guards in the NBA in Damian Lillard, the Bucks haven't exactly separated themselves from the pack of contending teams, and to make matters worse, there seems to be internal strife within the franchise as seen in the abrupt firing and hiring of Adrian Griffin and Doc Rivers, respectively.

Moreover, there's been plenty of speculation that Lillard and the Bucks' best player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, haven't gotten along as well as one would hope given the franchise's investment in both players. Nonetheless, Lillard has utmost belief that both his and Antetokounmpo's greatness will shine through even as they figure out how to best work alongside one another.

“We’ve had moments where we’ve had great stretches of pick-and-rolls, great stretches of playing off of each other. […] We’ve had stretches and we’ve had moments of doing it,” Lillard said, per Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. “I did think we’d be rolling a lot sooner than this. But I know we can get there.”

As hopeful as Damian Lillard is of the Bucks' championship hopes, he did not mince words about how difficult of a season it has been for him. After all, Lillard made the biggest transition of his career at age 33. But the veteran floor general is an ardent believer in that he'll get back what he's putting in, and knowing how hard he works, he remains optimistic about his chances of receiving great reward for his troubles.

“I’d be the first to tell you it’s been a challenging year, but the kind of person I am, when stuff like this start happening, I start thinking there’s a reward coming. That’s how I think because I do s— the right way. I don’t change. I don’t mistreat people. I don’t cheat my process. I still go to the gym at night. I do my stuff, my body, I do everything,” Lillard added.

The Bucks still have a few weeks to go in the regular season to optimize lineups and figure out how to create greater synergy between Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo, and as uneven as their past few weeks have been, their talent makes it so ruling them out of true title contention is a fool's gambit.