Milwaukee Bucks links for your perusal on May 6th, 2024
There is plenty to mourn about the half-unsurprising sudden close to the Milwaukee Bucks 2023-2024 season, but if there is one thing that stands above the rest for me it is the fact of how little we truly learned about this team.
We, of course, learned during the regular season that a dynamic backcourt pairing of Damian Lillard and Malik Beasley is the equivalent of morphing every opposing guard into an All-World talent. We learned that Khris Middleton continues to be banged up and unavailable for long stretches of time. We saw once again that Bobby Portis gives and takes in equal measure, and sometimes in painfully unequal measure as well. We found out that Brook Lopez anchoring the defense doesn’t work with every kind of personnel around him. We did witness Giannis Antetokounmpo slowly but surely meld his game with Lillard’s without any meaningful final payoff. We learned that the AJs, Green and Jackson Jr., have a pulse. And we confirmed that it’ll take a hell of a young talent or dire desperation to crack Doc Rivers’s rotation of veterans.
I guess we did learn quite a bit, actually.
But what we didn’t learn is how it all comes together. Consider that from Doc’s takeover to elimination the Bucks got a grand total of eight games of Giannis/Khris/Dame together. Eight. Giannis legged it out for 73 appearances this season while Lillard did the same (his best mark since 2018-2019), so there was crossover with the two that matter most, but whatever whole Jon Horst planned on taking the team to the promised land just… never happened?
So the team embarks on yet another offseason with far more questions than answers. And worst of all the data they’ve available is totally incomplete. Yet somehow falling back on the usual “run it back” strategy feels like asking for serious trouble, too. I don’t envy those making decisions, but there’s also a reason I’m writing this at home and they’re the ones who get to make the calls.
For all our sakes, I hope they make the right ones.
Let’s roundup!
Milwaukee Bucks Links
Milwaukee Bucks 2024 NBA offseason preview: It’s all about improving around the margins (Yahoo)
We were already quite aware of how constrained the team was going to be both cap-wise and roster spot-wise heading into this summer, but those problems could be grudgingly accepted in a world where Milwaukee made a run to the Finals. A first-round exit with very few established reliable facts to plan forward with besides the fact that guys are old and injury-prone? Yikes.
Laughed a bit at the idea that a key play will be offering Malik Beasley 120% of his $2.7 million salary to stick around after the summer (~$3.24 million). Unless he’s happy coming off the bench, I’m good on that experiment.
Bucks running out of time to fix aging roster before Giannis Antetokounmpo gets antsy again (CBS Sports) & When Does Giannis Watch Begin? (The Ringer)
So_It_Begins.gif for those whose browsers don’t auto-load gifs.
The rigamarole never really stops. It just had a little help from the team itself to start spinning up again.
Giannis Antetokounmpo: Tried best but wasn’t close to playing (ESPN) & Damian Lillard laments Bucks’ injuries after playoff exit (ESPN)
I applaud the team for all its gamesmanship around the injury situations — although how many more “verys” could Doc have used preceding “close” before the jig was up — but I guess it is a sort of cold comfort knowing Giannis wasn’t going to be back even if the team did force a game seven. I’m torn between acknowledging the work the remaining players did to win two games and also acknowledging that in spite of all that, they came out losers. Them’s the breaks, I suppose.
Mock Draft Prospect of the Week
Yves Missi – Freshman, Baylor – 7’0”, 235 pounds, 19 years old, Center
Consider this the debut of a new bit to help us conduct a little bit of scouting as we wait for the NBA Draft to arrive. I’ll do my best to scour a few mock drafts and find players mocked to be in Milwaukee’s range with a semblance of a fit with the roster as constructed.
This week’s candidate is one Yves Missi, a seven-footer who, true, has been mocked to go a bit higher than the Bucks selection at 23, but I’ve hope that the league’s obsession with guys listed 6’7” to 6’9” will have the league overlooking our newest center prospect. He appeared in 34 games for Baylor with 32 starts and averaged 22.9 minutes with 10.7 points (.614/.000/.616), 5.6 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks. From the highlights, it appears he is high motor and all gas with all the ups and downs that brings:
In general, he looks to have just the right combo of size, speed, and strength that should allow him to hang in the league from the jump, but it wouldn’t be a shock if he is easy to bait into fouls and generally is too chaotic to ever get into Doc Rivers’s good graces. The upside is that he could be a great immediate fit in a couple different defensive schemes running alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo. The downside is that he has no space to his offensive game at all and we haven’t seen that kind of big next to Giannis in years. Still, it would be an interesting change of pace stylistically, and an overabundance of athleticism/energy could bring a nice jolt to the rotation.
The Social Media Section
Checking in with Serge
Lotta very supportive comments on this post
I really don’t get upset by guys jetting off to nice spots in their offseason, but Bossmann didn’t need to post this to his story
The “become best buddies as part of the film narrative arc” piece
Giannis: “After I’m done with my rehab.. I’ll probably go down to Portland and spend time with dame, go workout together, talk, sit down, just spend time it doesn’t have to be basketball just spend time together.. spend time with coach doc talk about basketball, talk about… pic.twitter.com/uYsyCxo0Sr
— ³⁴ (@GiannisWorld) May 3, 2024
Don’t think this is anything new besides a little more confirmation of that Marc Stein rumor a few weeks back
The Pistons are planning to pursue Bucks GM Jon Horst as their new President of Basketball Operations, per @eric_nehm (https://t.co/bltoOgMRHn).
Troy Weaver and Monty Williams would report to Horst as the lead voice.
Horst began his executive career in Detroit back in 2017. pic.twitter.com/RBdw2ekrDQ
— Evan Sidery (@esidery) May 3, 2024
Bud back?
Mike Budenholzer, Kenny Atkinson, JJ Redick and Ty Lue, if he becomes available, are viewed as the Lakers’ top head coaching candidates, per @ShamsCharania (https://t.co/zGuhnIedNH). pic.twitter.com/Y7HP0T3phQ
— Evan Sidery (@esidery) May 3, 2024
I’ll be doing my best to come up with other sections to include in the MMMR to keep it fresh just as it enters its most difficult season of all: the offseason. But there is still plenty to keep an eye on between Giannis potentially at the Olympics (and/or qualifying), the draft, free agency, potential trades, whatever happens with GM Jon Horst, and much more besides.
If you’ve an idea for a recurrent topic you’d like to see me add to the column during the slow season, I’d love it if you shared below!
Happy Monday!