FanPost

Ultimate Rebuild: Image, Team and Stadium

The one thing that just keeps flashing through my mind when it comes to the Milwaukee Bucks is "patience". Whether it be patience battling through the worst record in franchise history, patience in battling through what likely will be another lopsided losing season, or patience in waiting on the announcement of that grand new arena.

What is the worst part about needing so much patience? Knowing there is the possibility that it wont work out. The players might not develop like we feel they can or that the stadium plans might crash down to earth with a thud. What needs to be flashing in my mind right alongside that word "Patience" is another word; trust. It is going to take as much trust as patience in the plan that is now in the works.

As I feel myself getting frustrated with the thoughts of losing more and more games, there is a calmness that engulfs. It is from but a single phrase that Bucks fans plan on hearing over and over in the years to come, "Jabari and Giannis!". The promise of better days is just too euphoric to let the frustration take over all together. It is still there obviously, it always will be there when the L's outweigh the W's, but it is in the background instead of the forefront like so many previous years.

What we are about to go through is what the Bucks should have done years ago. It is the ultimate rebuild the likes of which few sports teams have ever been brave enough to undertake. Most of the time when teams are trying to rebuild they concentrate on one aspect at a time, not all of the aspects at once. The sheer audacity of believing that so many intricate layers can be changed at once is what has me already loving the ownership group of Marc Lasry and Wes Edens.

I suppose when you already are hedge fund billionaires the audacious just becomes the everyday norm, but to me it is still new and still glorious. The very thought of our Milwaukee Bucks going through a true rebuild of the team is one that seemed but a dream that awaits the blare of the alarm clock. Counting down the seconds until the time to awake comes, it's hard to really come to grips with the very fact that we are not sleeping. This is real.

Years and years had gone by with the team stuck in neutral. The fear of losing outweighing the need to contend, the Bucks stayed stuck in the between. Sure, sometimes they would make the playoff's but was there ever a season in my lifetime where we could really thought that this was our year, our time? Not for me, and I consider myself to be one of the more blissfully ignorant optimists in my sports rooting.

The fact was, it was never going to happen without drastic changes. The team just was not capable of getting the talent it needed to succeed if they were to toil away in the between of NBA teams. Never getting far enough to attract the top level free agents, while consistently getting too far to have a chance at the top draft picks. It was a never ending circle of almost and too far.

This is a new age now though. The Bucks have turned that corner and found the path they need to become a contender. It is a winding road but one that leads to that beautiful trophy, shining and magnificent. With the luck of others missing on Giannis and a tanked season netting them Jabari Parker, the very base of a championship has formed in Milwaukee. Now it is building on top of that foundation that must take place.

Besides the player foundation that is formed now, they also have a coach that seems perfect for the job here. Jason Kidd with all his flaws and all his indignities might just be exactly what the doctor ordered for this team full of youth and clamoring for direction. The one thing that Jason Kidd always brought to the court is exactly what this rebuild requires, VISION.

It takes a certain type of vision to see the pieces in play and get them into their proper positions. Nobody saw the court better in his playing days than Kidd, and nobody is more attuned to seeing what needs to be done with this team better in his coaching days. The experience of being a Hall of Fame point guard and facilitator is the very thing needed to lead this team into the promised land, though whether he has the patience to last through the negatives is yet to be seen.

It isn't just the team and it's coach changing though, it is the image of the Bucks all together. Have you seen the commercials for ticket sales yet? The excitement, the modern touch, the art of them. They are the start to the image rebuild, and they are full of promise of what is to come.

This ownership group knows marketing, and marketing is something that the Milwaukee Bucks have never really had. They had players that marketed themselves in the glory days of Lew Alcindor and Oscar Robinson, and they had players that were marketed again in their almost glory days of Ray Allen, Glen Robinson and Vin Baker. What they never really had was marketing of the team itself and the City it resides in.

Let's face it, nobody wants to go through a Wisconsin winter here in Milwaukee. Hearing the word Wisconsin is often an eliminator in and of itself with potential free agents. This is where Marc and Wes are really going to make their mark, with their plans on rebuilding a stadium and with it a City. A new brand based off of a champion that has hit the canvas but is just now starting to get their legs back under them.

What people don't know about the City of Milwaukee is that it has character deep within it's soul. It has places like Brady Street with it's shops and the Glorioso Market that makes you feel like wonders in the world happen. It has the lakefront with it's beautiful views of Lake Michigan and it has art and theater, concerts and food. What it needs is a downtown worthy of the beauty of the city, a skyline just waiting for a paintjob. That is where the mark of Marc and Wes awaits, that is where the ultimate rebuild becomes a savior for a City long forgotten as a key to America.

With that stadium, with this team, and with that new found image of today the ultimate rebuild can become the reality we all hope and wish for. These next couple years will be hard but the payoff will be worth it. The timing of it all coming together promises to be absolutely extraordinary. The team should be ready when the ribbon to that new stadium is cut, the image will be built and the fates will be willing. Let the Ultimate Rebuild commence.

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