COMMENTARY: What's up with Milwaukee?

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The 2014-2015 season has not officially started yet, but the Milwaukee Bucks seem to be bound for yet another upsetting season that may only lead the struggling franchise into a deeper drench. The team seems to be currently relying on two particular names to save their upcoming campaign, and possibly their entire organization from taking an exit out of Milwaukee.

The biggest off season pick ups for the team is in their new head coach, NBA champion and former New York Nets coach Jason Kidd, and their second pick of the 2014 NBA draft, forward Jabari Parker.

Kidd is stepping into the job after quite a hasty and bizarre exit from the Nets organization and Parker is a nineteen year old rookie who has to worry about finding his footing in the NBA before he takes charge of an entire team. I could only wonder if this is enough for the Bucks to bounce back from the last two years.

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Currently on the roster, the Bucks have veterans Jared Dudley, O.J. Mayo, Jared Bayless, and Ramon Sessions, along with some younger athletic talent in Brandon Knight and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who have both showed some promise and potential last year. On paper, the team actually seems quite decent but Milwaukee is just a place composed of parts and pieces of what it wants to be; it cannot function as a unit. It is a place where both decently skilled and athletic players land but play with no rhyme or reason. Players that often find there way into Milwaukee play for the single purpose of showcasing their talents in hopes that another team may notice.

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The team plays as though they are not an organization that is looking to rebuild in hopes of winning a championship, instead, it is an organization with players that are screaming to get out. There is not a single player that has been drafted by the team that has stayed on the team in the last five years. Point guard Brandon Jennings, who was the face of the Bucks for awhile, found a new home in Detroit and never looked back.

Even worse, the fans turned their backs on the team when attendance seemed to hit all time lows last season. According to Bleacher Report, the team ranked 29th in attendance with only about 14,437 fans going to each Bucks home game. At one point, they actually offered the rest of the 2014 home games, 26 in all, for only $99. This meant that fans could attend the games for only $3.81 a night.

I am all for underdog stories and I would love for the Bucks to come back strong, but if they want to, the team has to find the time to get together and seriously consider the idea of working to achieve a common goal. First and foremost, players have to show their commitment by investing in the system that Kidd imposes on the team. Secondly, they must trust each other and understand that the floor and the ball must be shared.

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This is the perfect time for the veterans to step it up and change their solid careers into great ones. Mayo has a shot of becoming an elite player that can pose as a leader. The position is up for grabs and it is there if he is willing to take it. So can guys like Jerryd Bayless and Ramon Sessions; they already proved to be more than capable athletes, now it is time to prove that they can focus on more than just their own individual skill sets.

Parker will likely draw some attention but he is playing for the Bucks who, as an entire organization, will not get much media coverage. He will also have the opportunity to turn some heads without the initial pressure of having all eyes dazzled onto his number 12 jersey come October.

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In addition, Knight and Antetokounmpo had their taste at NBA action and will only improve as they tag on more and more NBA contests. If they are willing to stay with the Bucks, the organization may possibly build off of them as well; throw in a solid center into the mix and the team is looking pretty good against other respectable NBA teams.

I do not think that it is a long shot to improve any NBA team, it just takes time and commitment which comes with the management and the players. The Bucks organization has to get serious about contending for a championship rather than using their team to get reasonable players to survive a season or two with decent standings before shipping them out for similarly skilled players. At the same time, players have to feel like Milwaukee is a place where they are willing to invest their effort in playing for. You put those two things together and sure enough the attendance will increase and team could very well be looking at a promising future, or at least one that is not similar to what NBA fans have witnessed in the past few years.