At first blush, the NBA Finals doesn’t have a particularly endearing pairing, with the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns facing off in one of the unlikeliest matchups. The Bucks haven’t won a championship since 1971 and the Suns never have won a title — and they’ve been a league laughingstock for most of the time since they last made the playoffs in 2010.
The Suns were the No. 2 seed in a grueling Western Conference bracket and had the toughest road to the Finals. They knocked off the defending-champion Lakers, Nuggets and Clippers, dropping just four games along the way. That included a surprising sweep over Denver in the second round.
Milwaukee’s path had an eye-opening, seven-game series against the highly favored Nets, and they only lost five games in their three series. More impressively, they won the final two games against the Hawks without Giannis Antetokounmpo, who sustained a knee injury.
The NBA’s marketing people likely aren’t celebrating having two smaller-market teams, especially when Los Angeles and Atlanta were the other two teams were in the conference finals. Pistons general manager Troy Weaver can smile, as can the traditional have-not teams, who can draw some inspiration and map out a blueprint based on the Bucks’ and Suns’ paths.
Each team drafted its franchise foundation — Devin Booker and Antetokounmpo — near the middle of the first round, and they constructed their rosters by putting the right pieces around them. The Suns got Deandre Ayton with the No. 1 pick in 2018, they traded for Cameron Johnson and Dario Saric the following year, and they poached another core piece, Mikal Bridges, from the 76ers in a draft deal.
Aside from those deals, the Suns haven’t drafted well, with rookie big man Jalen Smith, the No. 10 overall pick in 2020, playing sparingly. Their other top-10 picks, Josh Jackson (fourth in 2017), Dragan Bender (fourth in ’16) and Alex Len (fifth in ’13) didn’t pan out for them.
Of course, getting Chris Paul in the offseason, on the heels of an encouraging season-ending finish in the bubble last year, was the most notable deal, and adding Jae Crowder was another underrated addition in free agency.
In short, all the Suns’ moves were reasonable. There wasn’t some bandwagon move of two superstars banding together like mercenaries to help build a contender. That should be heartening for the general managers around the league who are staying the course and trying to build slowly.
The Bucks were a little more deliberate about building their roster. After drafting Antetokounmpo and trading for Khris Middleton in 2013, they couldn’t get out of the first round of the playoffs until 2019, with the arrival of coach Mike Budenholzer. They made the conference finals in ’19 and lost in the second round last season, before pushing all their chips in the center of the table last offseason.
They paid a hefty price to add Jrue Holiday and P.J. Tucker as the final pieces this season, and it has paid off handsomely. After Antetokounmpo’s injury, their core solidified, and they got outstanding contributions from their acquisitions in free agency, Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis.
In the draft, the Bucks haven’t had many of their young players stick, but they’ve mortgaged their young players and future picks to win now. Credit general manager Jon Horst for having the gumption to go for it all when he sensed that they were close.
Sprinkle in some credit for Suns general manager James Jones, who was selected as executive of the year, for taking a chance on Monty Williams as head coach and for pulling the Paul deal when he sensed they needed one more piece.
Having these two teams in the Finals is a hat tip to good stewardship in the front office and staying the course, even with a few years of disappointment. That’s something that the Pistons and Weaver can glean from the playoffs — there is no one way to get there.
Playoff success doesn’t have to mean getting multiple superstars like LeBron James and Anthony Davis or hoarding Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden. Those were short-term solutions for bigger-market franchises, but there’s hope for the underdogs to piece together a roster and still be able to be relevant.
The caveat is that there has to be some creative management in the salary cap, some luck in drafting the right franchise player — ahem, Cade Cunningham — and being smart enough and flexible enough to get the final pieces when they become available.
This year could signal a new era in the NBA, where more teams like the Hawks — who had a similar construction, with drafting Trae Young and some other key pieces, then fitting veterans around them — is the new template. It could also be an anomaly, where the pandemic-shortened seasons led to more injuries, which played such a huge role in the regular season and playoffs.
Either way, it’ll be a chance to see the next tier of young stars — Booker and Middleton are two of the key pieces on Team USA for the Olympics — vie for their first championship. It’ll be the first time that many fans in the mainstream get to know them, and whether Antetokounmpo plays or not obviously will determine how the Finals play out.
And that’s OK, too.
Prediction: Suns in 7.
rod.beard@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @detnewsRodBeard