This should be a happy time for Milwaukee Bucks fans. They're coming off a massive turnaround, vaulting from an NBA-worst 15-67 record in 2013-14 to a .500 mark at 41-41 and a shocking playoff berth last season. New head coach Jason Kidd and assistant Sean Sweeney led a complete point-prevention overhaul in Year 1, lifting Milwaukee from the NBA's second-worst defensive efficiency mark in '13-'14 to its second-best last season.

General manager John Hammond bolstered an intriguing and long-limbed young core featuring the tantalizing Giannis Antetokounmpo, 2014 No. 2 overall pick Jabari Parker, former Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams and rim-protecting big man John Henson by re-signing restricted free agent swingman Khris Middleton and pulling a somewhat shocking coup by landing unrestricted free agent big man Greg Monroe.

Suddenly, the Bucks are getting referred to as "an 'it' team" and "a destination" for talented young players who want to contend. There's new talent, new logos, new threads, a new court, a brand new level of excitement about a long underwhelming franchise. And yet, there's still the same old problem — the one related to the building that will house all those fancy new flourishes.

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When they bought the Bucks from former U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl for $550 million in the spring of 2014, hedge-fund billionaires Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens said they were "committed to the success of the Bucks and the identity of the team as a part of the city of Milwaukee." They opened up their tenure by putting more of their money where their mouths were, committing an additional $150 million on top of the franchise's purchase price toward the development of a new arena in Milwaukee; Kohl, determined not to see his decades-long stewardship of the franchise end in relocation, pledged $100 million on his way out the door, too.

There's just one problem: the Bucks' proposed new gym, part of a planned $1 billion downtown development project, is expected to cost $500 million. That means the owners' commitments only get the Bucks halfway home, and that means the Bucks are reaching out to John Q. Taxpayer to bridge the gap in a "public-private partnership" that amounts to the franchise asking state, city and county governments to find $250 million ... or else.

Two and a half months after telling local realtors and shopping center executives that "the Bucks will be gone from the state of Wisconsin" if politicians don't approve legislation that will fill in the $250 million gap, Bucks president Peter Feigin reiterated his doomsday stance on Monday. He told lawmakers that if the public arena funding package doesn't pass soon, "the NBA will move the team to another city," according to Mark Kass of the Milwaukee Business Journal:

At an informational hearing held by the state Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, Feigin said the Bucks owners' purchase agreement for the team includes a provision that construction of a new arena start in 2015. If that does not occur, he said the NBA will buy back the team for a $25 million profit and move them to "Las Vegas or Seattle." [...]

"The window is closing," Feigin said. "We can't wait months, even weeks to start the public process." [...]

Feigin said the team needed to start construction by October or November to avoid the NBA starting a process of seeking buyers for the team. The team's lease at the BMO Harris Bradley Center expires in 2017, he said.

"The NBA does not want the Bucks to extend the lease in an inadequate facility," he said.

View photos Bucks President Peter Feigin presents images for a new arena in Downtown Milwaukee on April 8, 2015. (Gary Dineen/NBAE/Getty Images) More