The Milwaukee Bucks have started what's going to be the long and arduous processor rebuilding the team by trading Giannis Antetokounmpo for a haul from the Miami Heat and making several smart draft picks in Brayden Burries and Nate Ament, but even if they've established a good foundation of young talent, that doesn't mean they'll be destined for major success anytime soon. 

They're coming off one of the worst regular seasons in franchise history and their first time missing the playoffs in a decade and while the return they got for Antetokounmpo, including Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kasparas Jakucionis, is good, they've still given up one of the best players in the NBA, even if Antetokounmpo was held back by injuries last season. 

It's hard to come back from that for any team and for the next few seasons, the Bucks' focus won't be on fighting for the top spot in the Eastern Conference or shooting for a playoff spot, but rather focused on building chemistry and finding the right fits while they develop their premier young talent. 

That will certainly be head coach Taylor Jenkins' priority. He has hired by the Bucks in part because his renowned skill at developing players, building up Burries, Ament and even Ryan Rollins, who is older than the two 2026 draftees but still has a long way to go, will be the main focus. 

A rebuild can be very successful when done right, but doing it right also means there will have to be some growing pains along the way. Even the young talent that the Bucks picked up from the Heat may not have a permanent place on the team and could be flipped for picks or players in the future. 

The Bucks don't have a roster that's built to win now, nor should they. Adopting that kind of mentality changes the way a front office operates and shifts the focus away from young talent and toward making short-term acquisitions to jump-start the latter half of the season. 

Milwaukee doesn't have the roster to do something like that, which requires a proven foundation, and making any move like that would only put a bandage on the organization's wider problems and cause them to neglect the issues that made them one of the worst teams in the NBA last season in the first place. 

As painful as the prospect of several years without touching the playoffs may seem to a fanbase like Milwaukee's, which has gotten used to winning throughout the Antetokounmpo era, rebuilding at the bottom of the conference is a worthwhile price to pay to one day build back to that standard of success.