Even though it has been a bad year for Milwaukee thus far, Mitch Pratt and Charlie Tritschler will provide you with a bi-weekly update on the Bucks ranging from recaps, links and other neat stuff.
Quick Recap:
Monday at Toronto: Raptors 116 Bucks 94 -
After the Bucks played to a somewhat competitive loss (by "somewhat" I mean it wasn't as bad as you'd think it would be on paper) in Oklahoma City, the Bucks hopped on a plane toward Drake's hometown of Toronto, Ontario to play the Raptors who, the Bucks' defense, are one of the hotter teams in the Association right now. Any NBA fan knows that they're 12-6 since they traded Rudy Gay's contract to Sacramento.
Kyle Lowry continues to play really solid basketball despite being in the midst of trade rumors himself. Lowry had 23 points and five assists against the Deer. He shot a very efficient 6-8 from the field and got to the line seven times, knocking them all down. He's a physical guard that I wouldn't mind seeing in a Bucks uniform next year as he's set to become a free agent.
See, the Raptors are in a really funky place. Basketball fans know that new GM Masai Ujiri wants to tear it down and start over but now that they'll probably win the Atlantic (Titanic) division, I say go for it. They're too good a team, especially in the East, to find themselves in the Wiggins sweepstakes by year's end, in my opinion.
For the Bucks, Ersan Ilyasova had a big game, scoring 29 points in the loss. This should help his trade value but he's got to string a few good games together to really help the Bucks.
Wednesday vs. Memphis: Grizzlies 82 Bucks 77 -
The Bucks are now 7-31 on the year. That's really bad but it's not the worst record in NBA history after 38 games. The 1997-98 Denver Nuggets (led by LaPhonso Ellis and Johnny Newman) were 2-36 after 38 games and only finished with 11 wins that year. The way things are going for the Bucks, that's where I think they might finish this year.
Brandon Knight continues to fill it up, scoring 27 points on 10-17 shooting, but can't distribute to save his life. Knight had four assists last night but that's a little on the high end for him. This is concerning to me because Bucks GM John Hammond recently appeared on an episode of Bucks Live pregame and said the most important thing is "keeping the young core together" (!!!). He explicitly said in an article by Andrew Gruman on FSWisconsin.com: "(Knight's) a guy that can run a team, he's capable of doing that. I know he wants to get better at that."The saving grace in that quote is that last sentence. I'm sure Knight wants to get better at it and I think he wants to be a great player. He's a film junkie, a gym rat and a high character guy (and any other cliche you'd like to use). The problem is, I don't know if he's going to ever get any better at setting his teammates up. His tunnel vision is nearly beyond repair. He's in his third season but maybe a different coach can get through to him.
I'm not saying that I want to get rid of Knight. If the right trade comes along (perhaps landing a true PG), then by all means, don't let Knight be the guy to hold it back but I think he's got a role going forward. I feel like I've beat this to death but I really want him to be around, just in the correct role.
Appropriate YouTube video: Knights packs home a dunk in the early going last night:
Links
Here's the article referenced above on Knight being the point guard of the future for the Bucks.
This is a video of Greek basketball columnist Nikos Papaioannou talking about why last night's game was huge for the game in Greece. There were three Greek players in the game: Giannis Antetokounmpo for Milwaukee, Kosta Koufos and Nick Calathes (Greek-American, played at Florida some years back. Also, he's really, really bald for 24 years old) for Memphis.
Here is a new article on SaveOurBucks.com, I'm guessing to respond to Hammond's recent comments about the young core of guys. As always, it's well written and thought out about how the front office now needs to execute some good asset management to build around this core, something that has been lacking in the John Hammond era. Naturally, you have to wonder who exactly Hammond considers to be part of the young core.
What to watch
I'm going to continue to monitor Larry Sanders' behavior. He's been very temperamental lately and I think he needs to really get it together and be a better leader. I'm all for having a crazy guy on the team but he needs to be on the court as much as possible. As I stated in our podcast that just went up, I don't think it's really a wins and losses "team cancer" type of mentality. He's just wired a little differently.
What's next?
The Bucks will head down to the Lonestar State for a "Texas Two-Step" as it's affectionately known. They'll be in Houston on Saturday night and then head to San Antonio for a Sunday night game against the Spurs. I highly, highly doubt they win either contest.
-Big Money
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