When should fans of NBA teams start worrying about their squad's chances of achieving greatness? If you ask fans of the Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers, they would say right now — less than a month since the 2024-25 NBA season began. Both the Bucks and 76ers find themselves at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, with Milwaukee at 2-6 and Philadelphia at 1-6 overall after many anticipated them being the main contending threats next to the Boston Celtics at the top of the league rankings.
To keep things simple, nothing has gone right for either squad to this point. With this said, opportunity was there for the taking for Milwaukee and Philadelphia in several of their games this season. The Cleveland Cavaliers are 9-0 on the season, the last undefeated team in the NBA, after picking up back-to-back victories over the Bucks. These two wins were by a combined margin of three points. On the Sixers' side of things, what looked to be a key road win over a red-hot Phoenix Suns team turned into a two-point defeat.
Unlike the Western Conference, which is swamped with 13 real teams that have a shot at making the play-in tournament at the least this season, the Eastern Conference is a polar opposite. There are certainly talented teams in the middle of the standings that have yet to find their footing in the East, which ultimately drags down the way we view this conference. However, we might as well throw the Bucks and 76ers into this same equation, even though both teams reside at the bottom of the league standings.
If Milwaukee and Philadelphia were in the West, they would be roughly six games back in the win column from being in third place. As things stand right now, the Sixers are just three wins back from the Indiana Pacers and Brooklyn Nets, who occupy third place in the conference at 4-4 overall. With a win over the Utah Jazz on Thursday night, the Bucks are two wins behind these squads.
Sure, this may be easy to say, but the fact of the matter is that the deficit that both teams currently face is not insurmountable to the point where neither side is capable of coming back. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid are two of the best players in the entire world. If any team in the league is capable of going on win streaks, it is those led by either of these two players.
While other factors, such as injuries, surely influence the Bucks and 76ers' capability of getting back on the right track, it is just way too early to write them off this season. Whether or not it is time to full-scale panic is up to their fans, but I am here to tell you that there is a lot of reason to remain optimistic about the chances of both the Bucks and Sixers still being playoff threats in the East.
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Bucks' panic meter
The Bucks defeated the 76ers in their first game of the season, so I guess we can say they are better, right?
Well, Milwaukee has gone 1-6 since this first game of the season. Their only win was over a struggling Jazz team that entered Thursday night with one win as well. A lot of Milwaukee's misfortunes to begin the year is in large part thanks to their lack of intensity. If you don't look like you want to win, chances are that you won't win.
Every time Milwaukee takes the court, nobody on this team looks like they want to score other than Giannis and Damian Lillard. On the opposite side of the floor, the Bucks are allowing way too many downhill drives towards the rim, and they aren't stopping the point of attack from the perimeter. Maybe inserting Andre Jackson Jr. into the lineup, who is known for his defensive prowess, will create the spark that this team needs.
What stands out about the Bucks in a good way is that Antetokounmpo and Lillard are looking much better alongside one another than they did a season ago. Whereas Giannis always had the ball in his hands and Dame oftentimes deferred to him a season ago, Lillard is now asserting himself and taking charge of the offense to take pressure off his counterpart. All the Bucks truly need is the secondary guys like Gary Trent Jr., Brook Lopez, and Bobby Portis to start knocking down shots.
Nobody in Milwaukee appears to be concerned right now about their rough start, as Giannis, Dame, and head coach Doc Rivers are all still very optimistic.
“We will make the playoffs,” Rivers said prior to the team's win over the Jazz. “I’m not worried about that.”
Five of the Bucks' next seven games are against teams that missed the playoffs last season, and they also have matchups against Boston and New York sandwiched in-between. Expect to see a more urgent approach from Milwaukee and more will to fight, especially when they play the two teams picked ahead of them to begin the year in the East.
- ALSO: For those of you who are looking for a Khris Middleton update: he has been working hard behind the scenes to get up to a level where he is pain-free, league sources told ClutchPoints. Middleton is still dealing with discomfort from his offseason ankle surgeries, which has prolonged his absence to begin the year. Initially expected to be ready for the start of the 2024-25 season, there is now hope that the Bucks All-Star will be able to make his season debut sometime around Thanksgiving, but there is truly no timetable in Milwaukee because this is now a pain-tolerance issue. He won't return until he has practiced 5-on-5 for days, which Middleton has not done at all to this point.
76ers' panic meter
Joel Embiid has yet to play for the 76ers this season and is already suspended three games for striking a member of the media in the locker room. Paul George recently made his debut after missing the first five games and basically the entire preseason with a knee injury. On top of all of this, Tyrese Maxey is now out for a few weeks with a hamstring injury he suffered against the Los Angeles Clippers, George's former team, on Wednesday night. You just can't make this stuff up!
On the Maxey front, the 76ers are optimistic that the young star guard avoided a serious injury, sources said. While he will still miss time to rest and recover, Maxey's hamstring injury will not result in a prolonged absence like Embiid's knee issues throughout the preseason and into the start of the regular season. The team revealed late Thursday evening that he would be reevaluated in a week, yet the initial thought is that Maxey will return sometime close to Thanksgiving, assuming he doesn't suffer any setbacks.
It is really hard to judge the 76ers right now simply because they are reminding us all of the Suns from a year ago. Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal struggled to remain on the floor together because of injuries, which resulted in their underwhelming record and first-round playoff sweep.
Synergy means a lot in basketball, and you have to be able to play among one another in order to build chemistry. Right now, the 76ers are a team searching for their identity, and they can't find it simply because their stars aren't playing. When Embiid returns from his suspension on Tuesday against the New York Knicks and can play alongside George in their first NBA Cup game, this team will start to look like what many projected them to be. At the same time, there is reason to be concerned about Embiid's availability.
Panic isn't the right word to use for the Sixers right now, as their fans should be cautiously optimistic that things can work out. After all, you can't jump to conclusions without seeing this roster in its complete form.
Heat to be active on trade market?
Despite beginning the season 3-4, their only wins coming against Eastern Conference foes that missed the playoffs a year ago, the Miami Heat are not in a terrible spot. After all, they lost their last two games to the Kings and Suns by a combined four points, both results being determined with under a minute left in the game.
Erik Spoelstra has his same core group of Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Terry Rozier, and Tyler Herro together, but the key question that seems to be the elephant in the room right now revolves around whether or not this is their last chance to prove something.
Pat Riley is never one to hide his true feelings, and after publicly saying that the team wasn't going to commit to a long-term deal with Butler, who wanted an extension in the offseason, cracks in South Beach appear to be forming. Of course, winning solves all, and Riley simply wants to see his team successful to the point where they can once again contend for a championship after coming up just short in 2020 and 2023.
A sense of urgency has formed in southern Florida with the Heat owning the league's ninth-highest payroll this season. What is interesting about Miami is the fact that they do have flexibility, even though almost the entirety of their roster is under contract long-term. Butler is making $48.8 million this season before he has a decision to make on his $52.4 million contract. Adebayo recently put pen to paper on a three-year, $166 million extension in the offseason. Herro is set to be with the team through the 2026-27 season after being dangled in trade conversations for Lillard last summer.
If there is one thing known around the league about Riley and his Heat, it is that he is going to be aggressive in terms of putting his team in the best position possible to win both now and for the long haul. That is the interesting caveat with the Heat at this juncture since this organization has the capability of moving pieces around between now and the trade deadline.
While Miami was relatively quiet this past offseason as far as moves go, this front office put out many “feelers” around the league to figure out which star players were available and which could become available in due time. Trae Young, Brandon Ingram, and Donovan Mitchell were the three big stars to hear their names mentioned in trade rumors this summer, yet the Heat never expressed interest in Young, league sources said. Mitchell was a player the Heat were prepared to pursue before he signed an extension to remain in Cleveland.
Going after the best of the best is always the name of the game for the Heat, which is why nobody should be surprised to see Anthony Edwards, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and De'Aaron Fox be some of the names that this organization is intrigued by. While none of these three All-Stars will be traded this season, all of them carry question marks about their immediate futures with their respective organizations.
If things go south in Minnesota after dealing Karl-Anthony Towns and all the ownership questions that exist, could Edwards seek new digs? Will Antetokounmpo ask out of Milwaukee if they fail to steer the ship in the right direction, and does Fox potentially hit the open market after not agreeing to a new extension with Sacramento? These are situations that the Heat are monitoring and keeping their options open for moving forward.
It is worth noting that teams had made calls to Miami last season about Adebayo's long-term outlook, sources said, to which the Heat made clear with their recent extension. The team even went as far as to hang a banner for his gold medal at the Olympics. Bam is a player the Heat value and love from a cultural standpoint, which is why it's hard to envision them having any desire to move him in the near future. Then again, there are some outside of South Beach who believe Miami extended Adebayo when they did in order to create flexibility and a path to matching another big contract in a potential trade if need be.
Naturally, everything will be decided by what the Heat do with Butler. Various teams, including the Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors, and Los Angeles Lakers, have expressed interest in Butler dating back to the offseason. One executive named the San Antonio Spurs as a dark-horse landing spot for Butler if he hit the trade market, due to their young core highlighted by Victor Wembanyama.
The only way that the Heat would potentially trade their star wing is if the organization decides that an extension is not in the cards next offseason. In that instance, the team would be looking to salvage value and restock on lost assets from previous trades in order to make a push for a different superstar.
All options are on the table for the Heat during the 2024-25 season, especially if there is a superstar who becomes available on the market.
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