Are Bucks Being Underrated Ahead of the 2026-27 NBA Season?

When the Bucks sent Giannis Antetokounmpo to Miami on June 22, the national reaction treated Milwaukee like a team punting on the next five years.

Co-owner Jimmy Haslam pushed back on that idea while speaking with reporters after a Browns training camp practice in Berea, calling Giannis a generational player who won a championship while explaining that the franchise felt the need to get younger and that he was the best asset they had.

"We had mortgaged our future going forward [with trades for Jrue Holiday and Damian Lillard] and I think we got four really good players and we got two draft picks; No. 1 draft picks, a couple swaps and a second," Haslam said.

He described his own outlook as cautious optimism, which sounds about right.

The full return was Tyler Herro, Kel'el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, the 2026 first-round pick that became Nate Ament, unprotected firsts in 2031 and 2033, a 2030 swap and a 2033 second.

Look at what the new core has already done in the league.

Herro averaged 20.5 points in 33 games last season, was an All-Star in 2025, and carries a career average of 19.5 points into next season at 26 years old.

Ware is a 22-year-old center coming off a season of 11.1 points and 9.0 rebounds a night on 53 percent shooting.

Jaquez and Jakucionis add two more young pieces to the mix, Ament gives the franchise a brand-new first-round talent, and Milwaukee has also been connected to Nuggets forward Peyton Watson, with Jeremy Lambert laying out what a sign-and-trade could look like.

A rotation built on Herro's shot-making and Ware's size does not resemble the bottom of the East.

It resembles a young team that could be a handful every night while its draft capital compounds in the background.

The honest answer to the question in the headline is yes, with limits.

There are questions about the ceiling and floor for this group, and there have been some predicting the record and playoff chances, and the range of outcomes is wider than most national coverage admits.

Nobody should expect a title chase in year one without Giannis.

A play-in push is a different story, because Herro is a proven scorer entering his prime, Ware looks like a long-term answer in the middle, and young teams with real talent tend to outrun low expectations.

The smartest thing Milwaukee did was refuse to pick between winning now and building later, since the picks keep the future open while the players keep the present respectable.

Teams that get written off in June and quietly stack usable talent are exactly the ones that surprise people in April, and these Bucks fit that description better than almost anyone.

Nobody in Milwaukee should promise a parade, but nobody should accept the word rebuild without a fight either.