Bucks Buzz: March 6 - Tank or No Tank?

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 vs. Utah: Bucks 114 Jazz 88 - 

The Bucks looked really good once again on Monday night against the visiting Utah Jazz. I happened to be #blessed enough to be there and it really didn't seem like anything special to me. It was pretty much the opposite of the Bucks' blowout losses: instead of looking up and they were down by 20+, I looked up and they were up by 25. Honestly, I'll attribute that to not really caring about what the score is at all throughout these games. I just watch players and don't care about the score.

Anyway, Homeless Ersan found a shelter for the night as he shot 13-14 from the floor on his way to 31 points and didn't play in the fourth quarter. Zaza Pachulia had another solid game. Giannis made his usual couple of highlight plays but also continues to show youth and inexperience, which is to be expected. The additions of Jeff Adrien and Ramon Sessions have proved to be great as they are role players that PROBABLY weren't promised much in the way of playing time but have earned it. 

Wednesday vs. Sacramento: Kings 116 Bucks 102 -

The tank came back strong Wednesday night against Sacramento. If you listened to our podcast from yesterday (you should), Charlie and I both made it a forgone conclusion that the Bucks were winning two straight for the first time this year. It was up there with death and taxes. But the Bucks' team defense said, "not so fast, my friend."

The Bucks allowed the Kings to get whatever they want, especially in the second and third quarters. If the Kings weren't scoring in the half court, they were at least getting to the line constantly. I mean, Ray McCallum was 7-10 last night. He shoots 36.8 percent from the field on the year. 

The Bucks were led, if you will, by Brandon Knight once again. Knight is up to averaging 17 and 5 (assists) on the year, and 20 and 6 in his last ten games. I think it's helping him to be playing off the ball a little more. 

Speaking of Adrien, he has been getting more minutes than John Henson lately, who has seemingly regressed in the past few weeks. This is pretty concerning as Henson hasn't seemed to develop any other scoring method, other than his lefty hook. The hook is effective but if it's all you can do, teams will cut it off. 

Henson's last five games: 6.0 PPG on 42 percent shooting (yikes), 36 percent from the free throw line and just 22.8 minutes per game. Something to monitor.

The concerns of the Bucks losing the tank rank, can go on hold for the next 48 hours. However, if Philly wins more than two games the rest of the way, I'd be catatonic.

Links

Have to start with a hell of a piece from Amos Barshod of Grantland, who absolutely shut it down. It's yet another feature on Bucks' rookie Giannis Antetokounmpo, but it's not just about Giannis. It's also got some tidbits about the Bucks' organizational ineptitude within. It's very in-depth and well done with several quotes that stick out in my mind. Must read.

Save Our Bucks is putting together an event to get a decent amount of Bucks fans to go down to the Arena Task Force meeting that is happening on Tuesday, March 11. Information can be found on the Facebook event page. 

An article from SLAM about Gary Neal being happy to be away from "tanking" Milwaukee. F*** Gary Neal, man. He's the one that signed here in the first place. Granted, the poor guy had no idea what he was getting into but still, be quiet. I'll say this Gary, the tank misses you.

What to watch

I touched on watching John Henson's play over the last six weeks of the season. We need to see what we've got. I hate to use lip service as a reason for Henson to be playing more than Adrien/Pachulia but he should be playing, more no matter what.

I'm conflicted in wanting the Bucks create some momentum heading into next year but I also don't see a point in going on winning streaks right now. After last night's dreadful performance, I don't think we'll be seeing any winning streaks.

What's next?

The Bucks head to the Big Easy for a showdown with Anthony Davis and the Pelicans on Friday night. Then, they return home once again to take on the Washington Wizards. The Wizards are an intriguing, young Eastern Conference team that is on the rise. Should be a loss for Milwaukee.

Bucks Buzz: January 30 - We Have a 'Rising Star' on Our Hands

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 vs. Los Angeles Clippers: Clippers 114 Bucks 86 -

The Bucks looked completely listless once again, for all intents and purposes. This was mainly due to Blake Griffin getting angry after Giannis poked the ball away from him after a whistle and then got angry. Griffin scored 11 points in the last few minutes of the second quarter and essentially took the wind out of the Bucks' proverbial sails.

It's unfortunate that this keeps happening even after coach Larry Drew seems to be harping about "energy" after every game. I'd rather not harp on coach Drew, given his situation, but it's becoming more and more apparent every night that he's PROBABLY not the best coach for the Bucks going forward.

Anyway, Khris Middleton got in the starting lineup again and had a solid game with 14 points on 7-15 shooting. Ersan, however, did not. Turkish Thunder had 16 points to lead the team (!!!) but he shot just 6 of 22 from the field. He needs to get it going.

Wednesday vs. Phoenix: L Suns 126 Bucks 117 -

For what it's worth, the Bucks played with much more life on Wednesday against Phoenix than they did on Monday night against the Clippers. They continued to fight and claw against a very well coached team that is on a roll. Suns' coach Jeff Hornacek was trying to limit some of his starters' minutes being that they were in the midst of a four games in five nights stretch but when he needed to put the Bucks away, he went back to Dragic and he was tremendous in the final minutes of the game.

Ersan Ilyasova had arguably his best game this year last night, scoring 27 points on 7-15 shooting. On Monday, he had just 16 points on 6-22 shooting. It seems like Ersan is just going to shoot his way back into stride this year. For some reason, I don't mind a chucking Ilyasova. He might be missing shots but, for the most part, he takes open shots which is something a few of the Bucks can't always say.

Appropriate YouTube video: Giannis with a break away slam. You can never have too many Giannis highlights.

Links

Bucks' rookie standout, Giannis Antetokounmpo, has been named to the Rising Stars. Here is a link to an article about it on JSonline. The sky's the limit for this kid. I hope he goes down to New Orleans and scores 25 points.

This is a link to a story on Yahoo! about Doc Rivers being nice to Larry Drew because they're friends. He offers some words of encouragement for the first year coach.

Another post on SaveOurBucks.com. This time it asks who the Bucks' "Bob McGinn" is. Bob McGinn is seen almost as an "investigative" reporter when it comes to his Packer coverage. The Bucks really don't have a similar kind of reporter. My question in response is: what comes first, the chicken or the egg? No one cares about the Bucks but is that because they don't have a dogged reporter? I doubt it.

What to watch

The team's energy. It seems that this is going to be the difference between a competitive loss and a blowout loss every night. The team isn't good enough to accidentally beat anyone (as I've noted in the past) so they have to play their hardest every night to keep it close. You never want to accept losing.

What's next?

The Bucks will head to Orlando to face Tobias Harris and the Magic on Friday night. Then, they'll head up the Bible Belt to Memphis, TN and face off with the Grizzlies. The Magic game is huge for the tank as the Magic aren't that far behind in the Tank-a-thon this year. They haven't really taken the next step as many of us thought they would.

-Big Money

Bucks Buzz: January 23rd - We Got One!

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:

Wednesday vs. Detroit: Bucks 104 Pistons 101 -

Yes, that's the final score. You read that correctly. The Milwaukee Bucks notched their first victory of 2014 after losing nine in a row since their win in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve. Had the Bucks blown this one, it would have marked their second ten game losing streak of the season but nope, the resilient Bucks held off the reeling Pistons for a nice victory.

Caron Butler had arguably his best game as a Milwaukee Buck, on his bobblehead night naturally. The Racine native had 30 points, seven boards and five assists on his line in front of a nice crowd at the BC. Butler said after the game to FSWisconsin's Telly Hughes that he "just wants to play" and that he "earned his minutes" which I'd agree with. It sucks that Giannis didn't play a minute in the fourth quarter but he still played 26 minutes, which is probably enough right now.

Miroslav Raduljica threw in a really productive 20 minutes (8 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals) off the bench for the Bucks last night as well. I never really thought I'd say this but when he's banging around and being a nuisance for other teams' bigs, he's really fun to watch. He gets a nice game ball honorable mention from Sportandfashion-news.

Former Buck, Brandon Jennings, made his second trip back to Milwaukee and had a pretty good game...we still don't miss you though, Brandon.

By now, everyone knows that I'm especially on the tank bandwagon but I've had an epiphany of sorts the past few days to a week; I have no problem with anyone who roots for the Bucks to get a W and indeed, I will be rooting for them every night. There are two reasons for this: 1) I'm pretty certain that the youth has become the focal point of the front office by now (Caron's big game last night, on his bobblehead night, hopefully won't derail that) and 2) They are so bad that typical "tanking" measures don't really need to be taken. The team is healthy finally, for the most part, and they are still trash. 

Links

Here's is a column from Bucks' insider Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times that says there's a 70 or 80 percent chance the Bucks get a new building and remain in Milwaukee, according to sources.

Caron Butler talking after the game last night. Even though I'm not thrilled he went to the media to voice his frustration about playing time, I don't think he's a locker room cancer by any means. He's clearly a leader in the locker room and somebody the younger guys should look up to.

What to watch

Now that the Bucks have a victory this calendar year, we'll have to watch if they can build off of it. As I previously stated, the youth movement appears to be locked in so at some point, you'd like to see them hop out of the tank and stretch out a bit. Perhaps we'll see a stretch where they win three out of five or so.

What's next?

The Bucks will head to the metropolis of Cleveland for a Friday night fight with the Cavaliers. The Cavs haven't been playing great, so could we see the Bucks get their first back-to-back Ws of the season?

Then, Saturday, the Bucks return home to face the Atlanta Hawks who are in the top half of the East by default. 

Toodles.

-Big Money

Bucks Buzz: January 16 - John Hammond Weighs In

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

Bucks Buzz: December 12 "Out-Tanked"

The Bucks Buzz is a bi-weekly Sportandfashion-news post featuring Charlie Tritschler and Mitch Pratt. Charlie writes the Monday post while Mitch handles Thursday. This could change, but they both bring a unique style to the post.

By Mitch Pratt

Quick Recap:

Tuesday at Chicago: Bucks 78 Bulls 74 - This game was pretty atrocious from start to finish. Yes, the Bucks got a victory but someone had to win this game. The Bucks shot 40 percent from the floor while the Bulls' glorified D-League squad shot 37 percent for the contest. The Bulls essentially out-tanked the Bucks in this one. Without superstar PG Derrick Rose, I can promise you the Bulls are going to do their best to get another decent pick this year. Elite wing defender, Jimmy Butler, is currently on the DL as well and Luol Deng is "day-to-day" and will be for as long as humanly possible. Joakim Noah was pretty much a phantom scratch in this one also. As one would expect, the Bulls are pretty awful when those four guys are inactive.

I feel like this is going to happen to the Bucks regularly. Not necessarily getting "out-tanked" but that good teams are going to rest their good players as much as possible against arguably the worst team in the league. It makes sense for good teams to do this and it's not really a new concept but just keep an eye out.

For the Bucks, John Henson had another breakout game, scoring 25 points and adding 14 rebounds on the Noah-less Bulls. Brandon Knight had another solid game, recording a double-double but he still seems to struggle with some basic point guard skills. Also, the Bucks' starters played a ton of minutes in this one. Knight and OJ Mayo played 44 minutes a piece in this one and Henson played 41 himself. They're pretty young, so there shouldn't be much concern in heavy minutes.

Wednesday vs. Spurs: Spurs 109 Bucks 77 - They might have well just not even played this game. It was bitterly cold in Milwaukee and the contest was over when they tipped off. The Spurs jumped out to a 9-0 lead quickly, and I think it was 17-4 at one point in the first quarter. The Bucks were down by 38 after three quarters.

Silver lining: We saw a lot of Giannis Antetokounmpo in this one. He put up his best statistical game of the season. Surprise, surprise Giannis would do that when given 33 minutes. Giannis showed that he can get to the line and given his impossible length, this isn't a shocker.

Spurs' head coach Gregg Popovich's group was able, once again, to dominate to heavily that he could keep his stars minutes down.

Appropriate YouTube video: North Korean Children Playing Guitar



-Just seems like, in San Antonio, if you screw up, you are dealt with...if you know what I mean. This video is largely popular because of its downright creepiness from the fact that these are toddlers that play classical guitar essentially perfectly.

Links

Not sure if this has been recognized on Sportandfashion-news but here is a link to a Hulu Original Series called "Behind The Mask". It features the personal side of team mascots and Bango (the Bucks' mascot) is featured in the series.

Here is an article from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about neighboring Waukesha County's Executive Committee voting 7-0 against tax for a new arena in Milwaukee. Really, it's not a surprise to me and I won't disclose why at this time. I may save that for a future post.

To your right is a picture that John Henson himself posted to Instagram this morning. Pretty classic shirt, if you ask me.

What to Watch

Henson continues to put up numbers now that he's been given full reigns in the Bucks' front court. It'll be interesting to see if he takes continues to start even after Larry Sanders returns. To me, it's a no-brainer that he start at the power forward spot but I guess there are some concerns that he and Sanders can co-exist down low.

What's next?

The Bucks will turn around and host the Chicago Bulls once again on Friday night and then they'll head to Dallas on Saturday as Juice Mayo will make his return to the Big D to take on Monta Ella and the Mavs.

-Big Money