The Milwaukee Bucks needed a change. Last season was their worst in a decade for multiple reasons. Looking at the numbers, they had their finish in a decade and missed the playoffs for the first time as well.

They suffered a fallout in real time in one of the biggest stars in franchise history in Giannis Antetokounmpo, with their franchise power forward not only suffering a multitude of injuries that caused him to miss the most games in a season of his career, but on top of that Antetokounmpo was loudly complaining about the Bucks to the media the whole time.

Antetokounmpo's discontent led to issues and lowered energy in the locker room and fueled trade rumors that cast a shadow over the entire season and eventually manifested into Antetokounmpo being traded to the Miami Heat this offseason. 

It was a shift that proved to be necessary and after moving on from Antetokounmpo and adding a new head coach in Taylor Jenkins to help guide a new crop of young players, the Bucks have put themselves in the position to rebuild their team and invest in a future of success. 

But that future might be far off.

The point of a rebuild is not to instantly catapult to success after a bad season, but to slowly and steadily reinvent the team into something that could be successful in the far future. The Bucks do have talented young players like Tyler Herro and Jaime Jaquez Jr. and their two first-round picks from this past draft Brayden Burries and Nate Ament look promising, but that doesn't mean the Bucks will be true contenders anytime soon.

By trading Antetokounmpo, the Bucks committed to what may be a long and arduous process and rebuilding the team, both structurally and culturally, from the ground up, and that process does not typically involve the pursuit of a championship.

The next few seasons are not going to be about wins and losses for the Bucks nearly as much as they will be about building chemistry and finding fits for all the young talent that they've added. The future for the Bucks may have the potential to be bright, but it will take work to find out if that's true. 

They no longer have a true superstar that can dominate the league, but rather a more deeply built cast that have to learn how to play with each other in the hopes of cultivating future success. 

It will be a long process, but hopefully one that works out for Milwaukee. Until then though, the Bucks' championship window is firmly closed, while the rebuilding process has just begun.