NBA Offseason Guide 2022 - How the Milwaukee Bucks should approach the offseason

There is no shame in how the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks' season ended.

A tough seven-game series against Boston, with the Bucks missing All-Star Khris Middleton, only confirms that Milwaukee should be one of the favorites to win the championship next season.

The priority for Milwaukee this offseason should be retooling its bench.

Roster status: Championship-caliber starting five, but a bench that needs to be addressed

When you have a franchise player like Giannis Antetokounmpo on the roster, the window to compete for a championship is open for the foreseeable future.

However, as the recent playoffs proved, Antetokounmpo's brilliance alone cannot bring the Bucks to a championship without a strong supporting cast.

Khris Middleton's injury played a huge role in the Bucks' exit from the playoffs, and it highlighted an Achilles heel within their roster: the bench.

Because of Middleton's injury, the Bucks had only two NBA-ready players whom they could rely on off the bench: Bobby Portis and Pat Connaughton. George Hill averaged 16.3 minutes but shot 20% from the field, averaging 1.3 points per game.

The offseason presents an opportunity for Milwaukee to reshape its roster.

The player options of Portis and Connaughton will dictate how it accomplishes that. Milwaukee is a luxury tax team, and if both players defect, the $6.4 million tax midlevel and the veteran minimum exception are the lone resources to replace them in free agency.

The Bucks do have their own first, which they can keep or trade the night of the draft, along with $26 million in the combined contracts of Hill, Brook Lopez and Grayson Allen.

Portis and Connaughton now enter the offseason with decisions to make regarding their futures.

Each has a player