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: Monday March 3rd

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.  

Hot Recap Takes

Thursday: Pacers 101 Bucks 96 -  Remember how in the last game between these two teams I said it was encouraging how Roy Hibbert did not go off for a bevy points? Yeaaah that did not happen with this one as Hibbert had 24 points, 12 rebounds and a couple blocks being the difference for Indiana in this one. Paul George had another good night at the office with 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists with a +17 PER. But what was encouraging is the Bucks fought again in this one playing competitive once again. Brandon Knight had a nice night at the office with 23 points on 10/20 shooting with five assists. Khris Middleton was also strong in this game with 22 points on 9/15 shooting. One of the first real ugly nights from Zaza Pachuila as he got dominated by Hibbert defensively as well missed seven shots. You don't want that from Mr. Zaza.

Saturday: Nets 107 Bucks 98 - Another competitive loss for Milwaukee where they got beat by Brooklyn's bench more so than anything else. Marcus Thornton is a Bucks killer. I swear he always go off when playing the Bucks. Thornton had 25 points making four threes on only 13 shots. The inexcusable stat line of the night is Andray Blatche having a 19 points and 13 rebounds off the bench. I mean I know Dre been good for Brooklyn but I would never expect that from him. Ramon Sessions continues his good start in his Milwaukee revival as he had 16 points with most of them coming from the free throw line. Giannis Antetokounmpo had a nice night with 12 points, three rebounds, assists and steals. Gianni just knows how to fill up the box score. Jeff Adrien deserves some dap for pulling down 10 rebounds, but honestly, someone needs to stop the interior scoring, please someone.

Why exactly did Colin Cowherd delete his Bucks tweet?   
This is not one of the more popular ESPN personalities, and he likes to do things to piss people off. He had this tweet about the Bucks.. "Ever watched a Bucks regular season game for a few minutes and wondered..am I the only person in America currently doing this?" Honestly, I find it kind of funny and in no way disrespectful. But obviously some people were mad, and then Colin deleted the tweet. Then he went full heel towards Bucks fans and sent out this one with a classic Bucks reply.

@ESPN_Colin yeah, that accidental delete button gets us every time.
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) March 3, 2014

Look to be mad about Cowherd's tweet is stupid. We know there are Bucks fans, and there is a loyal base just not a casual base. It was a simple attempt to rile up people and so many simpletons took the bait with complete ease. National media outside of the NBA diehards do not pay attention to the Bucks. Simple as that.

Links


Another week of #ALLGIANNISEVERYTHING where he kicked a soccer ball and won a fan a scooter which is awesome. Like that the city is moving him around to different places. I have to assume he will be at at a Brewers game or two. .

This is about how Giannis will not be the only Antetokounmpo in the league as Kostos is considered to be one of the best for 2016 and Thanasis Antetokounmpo will be drafted likely nice year.

What to watch
Sessions and Adrien are playing great for Milwaukee so far. I would have expected them to mail it in and they have done the complete opposite. I look forward to seeing how they do against two weaker teams in the NBA.

Upcoming schedule
Major week for the tank as Bucks host both Utah and Sacramento this week in two very winnable games. Could this be the chance for the first winning streak of the season?

Charlie.

Bucks Buzz: Monday February 24th

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.  

Hot Recap Takes

Thursday: Nuggets 101 Bucks 90 -   Pretty much from start to finish, Milwaukee received a beatdown again from Denver. They were outscored in the first quarter and the ball kept rolling downwards from there. Kenneth Faried had his way with Milwaukee defenders going 11/15 from the field and had 26 points taking Ersan Ilyasova's lunch money for the whole game. J.J. Hickson had a double-double with 14 points and 10 assists. Randy Foye had one as well with 12 points and 10 assists. Seven of eight Denver players had a positive PER while Milwaukee had only one player reach a zero PER with John Henson, the rest were in the negatives. Giannis Antetokounmpo filled up the box score nicely with eleven points, four rebounds and assists, three blocks and two steals. A nice game from Henson as well with 12 points and seven rebounds. But overall, a pretty putrid performance from Milwaukee.

Saturday: Pacers 110 Bucks 100 - This is one of those 'atta boy' games for the Bucks. They hung with Indiana for the whole game with an admirable comeback in the end of the game. Basically, their best players beat Milwaukee with Paul George and David West both having 30 plus points with Lance Stephenson adding 24 points. Given their struggles against big men, it was interesting to see Roy Hibbert have a marginal game with only four points going 1/9 from the field. Indiana was just too good for Milwaukee on Y2K night. As for Milwaukee, a game where you get really excited about Brandon Knight. He had 30 points and eight assists with no turnovers. He played great throughout the game and make people wonder just how high his ceiling is with Milwaukee and for his career. Jeff Adrien had a strong debut pulling down eleven rebounds off the bench. Good start to what might be his short career with Milwaukee.

Three Bucks land on Bill Simmons' Worst Contracts List 
This is a yearly column from Simmons and it was not very kind to Milwaukee. O.J. Mayo and Ersan Ilyasova definitely deserves to be there. Mayo is proving to just be a guy that wanted to cash a check and thinks it is a good excuse to be fat. Ersan knows he can mail it in and the owner will not take umbrage with his game. Milwaukee will be better place when he is off the team. Larry Sanders' addition to this is a little harsh. This has just been a bad season for Larry, but he is still worth that contract. Almost every team in the NBA would want Sanders if he was healthy because he is not as much of a problem as people like Simmons and others are making him out to be. Sanders had just started to come on with his season before breaking eye bone. He will be just fine next season. Biggest encouraging thing for Sanders which Simmons missed out on, he became a veteran leader for Giannis. If you want an example on why Mayo belongs on this list, see this Vine from K.L. Chouinard.



Links
Here the stuff on Ersan I referred to the previous paragraph. If this is true, it would be yet another red mark against Herb Kohl as an owner.

If David Kahn becomes involved with the Bucks, they should end the Save Our Bucks movement and start pleading with investors to take this team to Seattle.

For the Y2K night, the Bucks found the 'Light Em Up' video. Tim Thomas lit more up than baskets if you know what I am saying. Also where is the one with Mark Pope. We need that version.

What to watch
Milwaukee plays Philadelphia on Monday night and I feel like that could be social media's finest hour. Will people watch this game just to see how bad the effort will be from both teams? Will one team actually get blown out? Will I become legitimately concerned if the Bucks win?

Upcoming schedule
As I said, they play Philadelphia on Monday and then they play Indiana again on Thursday. Thanks NBA schedulers for two Indiana games in the span of a week, appreciate it.

Charlie.

This Ain't Your Father's NBA

I love the NBA as much as anyone, but I've been needing to rant about its current state.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how bad of a league the NBA is at the moment and this past All-Star Weekend pretty much confirmed my thoughts and perhaps took my concerns to a whole new level. 

All-Star Weekend, for all intents and purposes, was a dud. 

The Rising Stars game on Friday night was just as bad as the celebrity game that came before it in terms of effort and defense. Then, Saturday night, The "Shooting Stars" competition was a waste of time, as usual, and the skills course was over before it began with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Demar DeRozan being eliminated in a heart beat. DeRozan pretty much lolligagged through the course while Giannis showed some competitive spirit. Giannis missed a couple times while trying to pass the ball through the hole but DD crawling through the course was really costly. Again, this shows a lack of effort.

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but the dunk contest has nearly jumped the shark entirely. The format this year was ridiculous and it seems to get more and more redundant each year. In the recent contestants' defense, some that have come before have set the bar so high, that it's tough to live up to some of these dunks (see Vince Carter below). There's only so much a human being can do, and a lot of it has been done.

Vinsanity in the 2000 Dunk Contest:

John Wall had a nifty dunk that won the competition but it was pretty boring. What needs to happen is the superstars of the NBA need to swallow their pride and enter the competition, I'm looking at you "King" James. 

If the NBA could roll out a dunk contest with names like James, Blake Griffin and Dwight Howard, it would be a little more exciting. Back in the '80s and '90s, Michael Jordan, Julius Erving and Dominique Wilkins were dunk contest regulars. These days, we can say that Jeremy Evans, Gerald Green and Fred Jones have more dunk contest titles than LeBron James.

The three-point shootout might have been the coolest part of the weekend, having the largest presence of contestants that are actually known for this skill. Steph Curry, Damian Lillard and Kevin Love are all superstars who are known for their ability to shoot from deep. Marco Belinelli, of all people, ended up winning the contest but there was a bit of drama and guys wanted to compete.

Having said all that, I understand All-Star Weekend is basically a big party for everyone involved, but it was still disheartening and segways into what I really wanted to get into: everyone in the NBA is buddy-buddy.

I recently listened to a BS Report (the podcast hosted by ESPN's Bill Simmons) featuring Dominique Wilkins, the Human Highlight Film. Simmons asked him a series of questions about his playing days, among other things, and Wilkins said something that really stuck with me when asked about his relationship with other stars in the league. 

The Human Highlight Film

I'm paraphrasing here but it was something to the effect of:

"In the offseason, we'd go out to California to hang out with Magic Johnson and play but during the season, I didn't like those guys."

He just came across as your typical old school athlete and now, it's like NBA players are more concerned about their social status across the league and updating their Instagram account than they are with beating their opponents. 

The collegiate product has become much more enjoyable for fans of the game of basketball, complete with passing, than the NBA game where it's almost encouraged to play hero ball and "swag" your way to 30 points on 9-28 shooting and several free throws on superstar treatment.

Speaking of "superstar treatment," this is another problem with today's NBA. It probably happened back in 'Nique's day as well but it truly is one of the more annoying things in the game. Guys who are much better than the guy guarding them, get anything and everything called in favor of them. 

This phenomenon also typically applies to large market or more marketable teams, which drives fans of small market teams out of their minds. I've probably beaten this one to death but the easiest example of this was the Kings-Lakers 2002 Western Conference finals, when the Kings' big men were called for so many ticky-tack fouls and it took most of them out of the game with foul trouble. The Kings were left with Lawrence Funderburke (6'9" 230 pound PF) to guard Shaquille O'Neal (7'1" 325 pound C). In case you hadn't guessed, Shaq did well with that matchup.

I think that if guys get back to playing with some grit and determination for every minute of every game, we can get the product back to where it once was. 

With David Stern stepping out of the NBA commissioner's office for good, things may have a better chance of balancing out. 

Maybe I'm just jaded from a season where everyone is tanking because the 2014 Draft has been touted for several years as being one of the best in a while. This has watered down the product because no one wants to be on the mediocrity tread mill (right Herb?) to be the whipping boy for the Heat and Pacers, among others, in the first round of the playoffs. More often than not, a team has to bottom out before they can compete for a championship in the future. 

The Eastern Conference is horrific and the conference finals are all but decided. I honestly think that everyone in the East, outside of the Pacers and Heat (and Knicks and Nets because they don't have a first round pick), will try to lose as many games as possible for draft positioning. Luckily for us, the Bucks are so bad that they are pretty much going to finish with the worst record no matter what, guaranteeing them a top four pick.

I'm hoping next year can be the start of a new competitive NBA but I really have no reason to believe that will be the case.

There are some guys that you can tell are ultra-competitive. Guys like Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and even LeBron, to some extent, have a cutthroat mentality and a killer instinct. Giannis even shows his desire to win and an emotional competitiveness that the Bucks have been missing probably since Andrew Bogut was traded two years ago.

Obviously, the team isn't winning as much as he'd like but you can just tell, he can be the emotional leader of this team as they grow. However, the league as a whole has lost a lot of that competitive spirit and I want nothing more than to get it back.

Adam Silver wants the NBA to compete with the NFL in popularity. He's got a long way to go but to get anywhere near it, he needs to find a way to get as much competitive balance as he can. The "Big 3" in Miami has hurt the Association, in my opinion. They're (were) a super team that most teams have no chance to beat because of the Heat's sheer talent.

The NBA in general has five to seven teams that are really competing for a championship and the rest of the league are nothing more than the Washington Generals, if you will, and just fodder for the great teams.

To fix this, I think something needs to be done with both the playoff format and the draft format, more so the playoff format. If they could go to a six team format, like the NFL, more of the teams that actually make the playoffs have a chance of advancing. Having over half the league make the playoffs is pretty pointless and in a horrible Eastern conference, you end up with teams under the .500 in the postseason.

They've got to find a way to make the draft have a little less incentive for tanking. I don't think you can ever fully eliminate tanking because one guy can change a team's fortunes so much so you'll always get a team or two looking for that kind of impact in the draft. I can't think of anything that could truly work off the top of my head that I really believe would help as everything I do dream up, I can also shoot down.

Guys that get paid (a lot) to think about this should be able to figure it out. In the meantime, we have to suffer with 38-44 teams like the '12-'13 Milwaukee Bucks taking on the indestructible Miami Heat that never even let the Bucks have a lead in the brief four game series.

I'll stop there. I'm sure I'll revisit a lot of these ideas over time.

10 Things to Watch for NBA's Final Two Months

With the NBA season turning the final corner, we need to look at some of the storylines that might be heavily involved in the final two months. There are a lot of them plus since I am sucker, I make my predictions on what might happen this season.  

Could Philadelphia out-tank Milwaukee? - Everyone will find this weird, but I keep having flashbacks of the Milwaukee Brewers closing out the season with a strong final month and ensuring they would not get a top five draft pick. I do not think it will happen with Milwaukee, but Philly is bad right now plus they will get worse when the trade deadline rolls along.  Personally, it is down to these two teams for the worst record in the league, and it is not even close.

Andrew Bynum with the Pacers - The much-maligned center will likely make his debut with the team in the coming weeks, and from all that being said by their players, Indiana does not feel it will be a problem. Given what we found out about Cleveland, Bynum got off the hook a little bit for his antics with how dysfunctional everything was there to begin with even though Bynum is not completely there. With the team and the coaches around him, I have a feeling Bynum will flourish with this squad.

Russell Westbrook with the new KD - Let's face it, Kevin Durant is a different player than he was when the season started. Durant became the definite leader of this team. With Russell Westbrook back on Thursday, are we sure he will be okay with all of this?  Remember Russ can be a type of player that tries to do too much costing his team and freezing out Durant late in the game. I feel like these two have such a good working relationship that this will not be an issue, but one little dispute and the media will be all over their asses.

Trade deadline deals - I do not believe Pau Gasol, Carmelo Anthony or Rajon Rondo will get moved this week. Those are the big three that people are going into ESPN's Trade Machine and trying to figure out how they fit on their squad.  I do think Philadelphia will deal one or two of their players whether it be Evan Turner, Spencer Hawes or others. Milwaukee should move a piece or two with all their available veterans. Brandon Bass from Boston is probably elsewhere by Thursday.

Will Giannis make a case for Rookie of the Year? - Looking at the rookie crop and there are not many great players with the ability to snag Rookie of the Year. You would probably say Victor Oladipo and Michael Carter-Williams are the favorites at this point. If Giannis Antetokounmpo comes through with a big March and April, will he garner some votes?  Probably because he would need to be special almost every time he went  on the court.

How the Eastern Conference will play out  - In a weird way, I find the Eastern Conference more fascinating than the Western Conference because truly anything can happen.  There are four possibly five teams vying for the three seed right now along with others whom are multiple games under .500 slotted into playoff spots. It is a great heaping bag of mediocrity after Indiana and Miami. Although those two teams will be battling out to see what team gets the top spot to see who will take homecourt advantage for the entire playoffs.

Kyrie Irving and Cleveland  - This does not always happen but after a guy comes up big in an All-Star, it translates into a strong stretch of games for him. Cavs need to make a push at some point. They need to get their shit together and throw their name in the hat for one of the bottom seeds in the Eastern Conference. Despite how poorly the Cavs have played this season, they are only three games back of the eighth seed. It is possible they could sneak in there. Even though, I have someone else at the eight seed, I could see Cavs getting hot for a couple weeks.

Kevin Durant and LeBron James going boxscore for boxscore - These players are in separate conferences, but at the same time, everybody is putting both of these guys on a pedestal. Durant's comments on LeBron over the weekend tells me he wants this MVP to escape from LeBron's shadow. KD is sick and tired of it and wants to make a difference. But then there are reminders like last Wednesday night where James reminds the world he is the best player in the world and will be making a run at the MVP crown. It should be great when these two square off on Thursday night.

Playoff Predictions - Eastern Conference - 1. Indiana,  2. Miami,  3. Toronto  4. Washington  5. Chicago  6. Brooklyn  7. Atlanta  8. New York

Playoff Predictions - Western Conference  - 1. Oklahoma City, 2. Houston  3. LA Clippers  4. San Antonio 5. Portland  6. Golden State  7. Dallas  8. Phoenix.

Charlie.

Condensed Thoughts From All-Star Weekend

Instead of doing a big wordy column about the All-Star Weekend, I just wanted to give some thoughts about different people involved with the weekend. I guess it would look like #HOTALLSTARTAKES, but whatever, enjoy.  

All-Star Game - The game was fantastic. I realize defense did not get played much at all, but that's exactly what you want in this game. TNT's Reggie Miller described it as 'The world's greatest pick-up game' and I think that's the best way to describe. I also think this is the ultimate 'Give the people what they want' game where all that is needed is big dunks, points and fun combinations.

Kyrie Irving - Big game for Kyrie as he continues to be one of the young stars of the game in terms of a marketability standpoint, but now is the time Kyrie needs to start getting some victories under his belt. All of his Pepsi ads and now an All-Star Game MVP trophy are good, but it does not mean shit in the grand scheme of things. Cavs need to do something to ensure their star player does not get away in the coming years like LeBron James.

Skill Competition Duos - Saturday had a ton of faults which we will get to some of them in this blog post, but the skill competition adding the teams was awesome. I almost think they could add one more team to the mix or make it a complete relay with teams of three. There are a lot of things the NBA can do moving forward with this aspect of All-Star Weekend.

John Wall - Since he is sort of a quiet dude, does not do many commercials, casual fans are not really on board with Wall. After Saturday night, I think people are on his bandwagon more so than ever before. We talked on the podcast a couple weeks ago whether you want Wall or Irving and this seems especially given what happened at All-Star that this could be the next great rivalry. Maybe Cleveland can make some noise and be the sixth seed this year... Naaaah.

Blake Griffin - Sure he had a ton of dunks so everybody will act like Griffin did what he normally does, and while that's true, this continues Blake's big run in Feburary. We talked about it in the Roundball Wrap-up, but Griffin continues his hot month even if all he did was throw it down. I keep telling people how he is making a push at being one of the better all-around players in basketball yet people just keep throwing shade at him. Okay.

Giannis' Baby Bro - Thanasis is the Johnny Drama to Giannis' Vincent Chase.



Money Ball Rack - This is pretty much won Marco Belinelli the 3-point contest and it is complete BS. If it were not for the 3-point racks, he does not get to his dominant tie-breaker round. Marco might be the most obscure 3-point contest winner. Somewhere Jason Kapano gleams when you say it wasn't him.

Damian Lillard - I would say this was a sub-par weekend for Lillard. He won the Skills competition which is good, but he did nothing in the other events. No one came away from All-Star talking about Damian Lillard which is a shame because he is a good player but also a reason why people might stay away from doing everything events.

Dunk Contest - Kazz already covered it this morning. He is completely right.

Charles Barkley's hangover - No one has looked more hungover on television than Sir Charles. I am not mad at him, I get it but good God man, get some better cures for the hangover.

Tapping The Keg Podcast Episode 75

The first ever Tapping The Keg Podcast with a guest.... The guest is not someone famous, but he thinks he is as Nolan Murphy joins us from Cleveland. We talk about the recent news regarding Green Bay Packers then Murph takes us through what a mess it is in Cleveland with the Browns along with whom they might be drafting in May. Our podcast gets going with the usual topics between Charlie and Mitch as they discuss the enjoyment of Sunday Fundays, Michael Sam and what could transpire in the coming months, Milwaukee Bucks possibly getting new owners, Marcus Smart situation along with a couple other college basketball notes. We finish out with the Olympics and the most American ending.

Charlie.

Bucks Buzz: February 13 - Potential Buyer(s)?

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. Boston: (L) Celtics 102 Bucks 86 - 

The Bucks did a fine job of hanging around and keeping it close, as they were down 70-68 heading into the fourth quarter. However, the Bucks did their usual thing and started to turn the ball over at an alarming rate, Jeff Green got hot and next thing you know they're down by 12 points in the span of about a minute.

The Bucks were led by John Henson and Brandon Knight in that one. Henson had 16 points on 8-12 shooting but seemed to roll his ankle pretty badly in the second half. Hopefully, he'll be back soon. Knight continues to put up points for this team but his assist totals have been rising to a respectable level of late (6.4 assists per game over his last ten games).

Personal anecdote: this was my first game as a fan this year, so I was looking forward to cheering/saying things I shouldn't (we crushed some pints beforehand). Naturally, a pair of eight year olds (with their dad) sat down right next to me so I had to keep it as PG as possible. I ended not saying much of anything.

Wednesday vs. New Orleans: (L) Pelicans 102 Bucks 98 - 

They, again, hung around in this one and actually a rare 49-46 halftime lead. The third quarter, again, was the demise of the Bucks. This time, they actually came out with some energy (the word of the season) but eventually gave up 37 points in the quarter. Alex Ajinca and Luke Babbitt did the majority of the damage for the Pelicans in the third. Not exactly household names.

Brandon Knight had another good game scoring, as he lead the short-handed Bucks with 22. He's averaging 22 and 7 over his last five games. I continue to go back and forth about this guy. I don't think I'll ever see him as a starting NBA point guard but the guy is a high character gym rat that wants to be good. Don't even underestimate that quality. I feel that guys like Knight are few and far between in the Association. I really would like to see him stay long enough to fit in his proper role but I wouldn't hesitate to trade him if the right deal came along.

Potential buyers

The Racine Journal Times' and WSSP's Bucks insider Gery Woelfel was on the post game show last night and announced that Herb Kohl had a few different suitors ready to stake their share in the Bucks, one of which could take over at "anytime and clean house." He mentions that the group ready to take over at anytime is led by a former NBA GM. 

After some research, there are a few different possibilities here. 

First the ideal one: it's a group led by Donnie Walsh. 

Walsh is a former GM with the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks. As GM of the Pacers, he drafted Reggie Miller with his first draft pick at the helm. That turned out pretty well and the Pacers made the playoffs in 16 of his 17 seasons.

With the Knicks, Walsh cleaned up the mess that Isiah Thomas left and landed Amar'e Stoudamire in free agency and pulled the trade that got Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks. These don't look like great moves at the moment but the Knicks enjoyed a great year last season with the team that Walsh assembled.

Walsh is back with Indiana as a consultant to President of Basketball Operations, Larry Bird. They are currently the best team in the NBA.

The interesting cog that ties this idea together is current Bucks' assistant GM David Morway. Morway was with Indiana during Walsh's first tenure in Indiana and is in touch with today's NBA. Ideally, if Walsh was the buyer, he'd have Morway take over as GM and move John Hammond into a head scout role. By all accounts, Hammond is probably best in that role but one would probably have to convince him to take a demotion.

Now, the less than ideal one: it's a group lead by Mike Dunleavy, Sr. 

Dunleavy, Sr., for the most part, has been a trainwreck in any position of power, save for a few years with Portland. He was the GM/head coach of the Bucks in the early-mid 1990s and they were not good, ever.

He seems to be fine with tanking, which is about the only difference we'd be looking at with Dunleavy, Sr.

Woelfel mentions Dunleavy, Sr. in the interview but it doesn't seem as if it's actually him. It's plausible, however, because Dunleavy had interest in buying the New Orleans franchise when they were for sale a few years ago.

Dark horse: Mark Attanasio

Maybe there's a former GM out there that's been talking with Milwaukee Brewers' owner Mark Attanasio about going in on the Bucks. I doubt it but Attanasio hasn't ever flat-out said no when asked about the Bucks.

Links

Here is the link to Gery Woelfel on the Bucks' post game show last night. Hear it for yourself. Interesting stuff indeed.

This is an article from ProBasketballTalk about Mike Dunleavy, Sr. being interested in the New Orleans franchise from two years ago. The team ultimately went to Tom Benson, who also owns the New Orleans Saints football franchise.

Here's a video from Bucks.com of Giannis driving with a Bucks employee. Giannis passed his driver's test on February 11.

The Bucks hosted a basketball clinic for 100 Special Olympics athletes this week. Always nice to see the team doing good things in the community.

What to watch

Giannis at All-Star Weekend in New Orleans, obviously. The Greek Freak will be a participant in both the Rising Stars game on Friday and in the skills challenge on Saturday night. This is the first time the Bucks have had anyone participating in anything at All-Star Weekend in a few years. Good for you, Giannis.

What's next?

With the All-Star break finally here, the Bucks won't be in action again until Tuesday when they'll host Tobias Harris and the Orlando Magic.

Bucks at the Break

It is finally the All-Star break, or “Black Super Bowl Weekend” if you choose, and Bucks have stumbled right up to it as expected. For the year, they are 9-41, a truly astonishing number. Our current record has Milwaukee dead last in the league. And Bucks are the worst at a number of things too, for instance:

•  Bucks are the worst rated offensive team with a rating of 99.68, no one is below them.
• Bucks garner the worst attendance rating but Aaron Rodgers attended a Bucks game with my uncle, so that was cool.
• Bucks have six less wins then a Philadelphia 76ers team that was just outscored 66-33 and 69-30 in the first half of consecutive NBA games against Los Angles Clippers and Golden State Warriors. Milwaukee are technically worse then this team somehow, someway.
• Bucks have 24.9% chance of receiving the 1^stpick in the lottery. The highest of all teams. This situation is kind of like having an argument with your girlfriend. You are fighting, she is winning, you finally think of something awesome and totally true to stick her with it, you stick her with it, she flies off the handle, possibly slaps you because your right and women are confusing. But the fact is that what she was bitching about to you could be justified in the first place, and so for awhile it is just weird as you both lick your wounds and don’t want to be around each other, and hate each other (The following has been a metaphor for having to watch the Bucks in case you are wondering), but then after a long tumultuous week of no sex and hating, the make-up sex happens and everyone breaths a fresh of new air (the eventual Draft Lottery). It’s been a sexually frustrating season in Milwaukee.
• Bucks have the worst Adjusted Net Rating. (Net Rating takes into consideration estimated point differential per 100 possessions and then it is adjusted in terms of strength of opponent. I like this stat because there are only two teams in the West that rank lower then 18^th, and only five teams outside of the top fifteen, and it is very apparent the West is far superior to the East. The Bucks hold an adjusted net rating of -10.75. To compare, Oklahoma City Thunder are the best at +8.48, and Atlanta Hawks are middle of the road at +0.68. In other words, Milwaukee loses games and generally, they lose pretty big.

So as you can see, some things have not worked out at all. The belief was to begin the year Milwaukee would not tank the season. Before the year, they brought in NBA veterans like Carlos Delfino, Brandon Knight, Gary Neal, OJ Mayo and Zaza Pachulia, it looked inevitable that paired with a decent frontcourt of John Henson, Ersan Ilyasova and Larry Sanders, this would be a team competing in the Eastern Conference. A team that seemed destined for the eighth seed. True Bucks fans sighed winds of depression thinking about how they were about miss out on the highly touted upcoming draft class.

Instead of competing though, Bucks got injured, losing Delfino, Sanders, Knight, Pachulia, Neal, Butler and Mayo, all at different and overlapping times over the first month and a half of the season, and the next thing you know, it's the end of December and Milwaukee is 7-24 becoming the front-runners in Tanksville.The injuries have been peculiar. Sanders broke his hand in a bar fight and just recently broke the orbital bone in his face. Pachulia broke his foot. Henson sprained his ankle terribly, and Knight popped a hammy two minutes into the season.

None however, make as little sense as OJ Mayo. In late January, Mayo missed some games due to the flu. He returned to play in back to back games on January 24th and 25th and has sense been day-to-day on the injury report with “the flu”.It is now, February 11^th and he still has the same flu. Like Mayo, I too reside in Wisconsin, but I haven’t heard of anyone else getting the three week flu like Mayo. Which leads me to question a few things.I hit up my uncle recently asking him if he had heard anything more about Mayo. He laughed and replied Mayo is fine. So take that, as you will. I’m just waiting to see how fat OJ Mayo gets by April.

Bright Spots

As Milwaukee tumble on through the season, a couple of positives have come to light. One is Brandon Knight. I was pretty skeptic on Knight. In Detroit, he did nothing that was memorable, aside from getting baptized by DeAndre Jordan but that is not exactly a positive thing. For the season, he has led the team in scoring, at 16.5 ppg. He has been a decent distributor (numbers-wise) averaging 4.8 assists per game but has also shown that he is much more of a two guard, that is just a hair small to only play the two.

I hope he can develop a sense to really command a team as a point guard, and not just as a scorer. As Coach Larry Drew has more time with him, I’m hoping this becomes a reality. Especially if they are surrounding him with blossoming players like Henson, and Giannis Antetokounmpo and a future number one or two overall draft pick. The development of Knight could prove crucial to this team in there or four years. 

Another bright spot has been John Henson. Henson is arguably skinnier than Giannis, but he is just as long. He gets pushed around on defense when guarding the stronger players in the league (Guys like Dwight Howard, Joahkim Noah, and Roy Hibbert), but his length is a constant problem for defenses. For the season he has averaged 2.2 blocks per game.On offense, Henson has been Milwaukee's second option, scoring 11.8 points a game on 52% shooting. He legitimately uses a lefty skyhook that makes Kareem smile. When it is on, it’s beautiful.  He has also been a sturdy rebounder at 8.1 per game and leads the team with a 19.5 PER.

I’m really high on Henson. I think he will be a playmaker in this league for a while. My only real complaint is he seems very laid back, and nothing seems to bother him. Not even losses. I don’t want to question his drive, but I don’t want him to become like Corey Maggette and become so used to losing that it doesn’t phase him. But that is me really knit-picking. Realistically I have nothing but love for Henson.

The Rookie Class

I may be biased when I say this, but I think it’s safe to crown Milwaukee kings of the 2013 Draft. Milwaukee nailed three players. Bucks obviously drafted Giannis Antetokounmpo, whom is an Internet sensation, and a player on the rise. While he is still raw and learning at the tender age of 19, he managed to score 7.1 ppg and 4.6 rpg. Those numbers are modest, but I can assure they are the most exciting seven and four in the league. Every time Antetokounmpo grabs a rebound and starts to run up court on a one-man-fast break, the city of Milwaukee wins. He alone has made a 9-41 season delightful. There is not another rookie that can say that.

While most NBA heads have heard of Giannis by now, another solid move was drafting Nate Wolters in the second round. Milwaukee threw Wolters into the fire forcing to play a lot early on due to injuries and proved that he does in fact belong in the NBA. He does not turn the ball over often and has shown a knack for filling up the stat sheet. While his minutes haven’t been consistent, in games he has played for longer stretches, it pretty common to see a stat line consisting of seven points, nine assists and seven rebounds or 7/10/4, or 11/3/4, just a little bit of everything. A 6’ 4” and 190 pounds he is a big powerful point guard that defends and makes plays. Before the season, I compared him to Goran Dragic. Dragic has since exploded this season averaging over 20 points and six assists per game, and while I don’t know if Wolters will ever average that, I think he will be a very, very reliable point guard in this league for years. I mean, could not you see Wolters being the pivotal bench player as a member of a contending San Antonio Spurs team? I sure can.

Our draft doesn’t stop at two players however; Milwaukee also drafted a brute named Miroslav Radjulica. The man is a mountain. He is like Nikola Pekovic but a little swifter. He sports a tremendous arm sleeve tattoo and can drink over a gallon of vodka in 2 hours[1]. While he does not average many minutes, he has been ultra efficient, with a PER of 16.7. Radjulica honestly has great ball skills and soft hands. He is pretty good pluus he just looks so strong that I cannot say anything bad about him in fear that if he were to meet me and know I said bad things about him, he might strangle me. And quite frankly, I don’t want to go out being strangled by a guy named Miroslav. I have always envisioned my death way different then that.

A Mid-Season Outlook

We know this season is done. It would be beneficial to lose every single game from here on out, but we as Bucks fans will probably settle on winning like four or five more games; a modest and fair amount.

Hopefully this season can be the turning point to more glory days in Milwaukee Bucks basketball. Although it is often forgotten, even by Milwaukee's own fans, Bucks were an original NBA franchise and have a very rich history in the league, despite only winning one championship.

If they are lucky Bucks will land the coveted first pick that becomes a franchise cornerstone. If Milwaukee is really lucky, the draft pick, Giannis and Henson will stay in town for awhile. And if the Bucks are really really, really lucky, they will an NBA championship in the next five years.

But for now, let’s just cheer for Giannis as he represents for Milwaukee during All-Star weekend.

~Andrew

---

[1]Okay, I made up the vodka part.

Bucks Buzz: Monday February 10th

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.  

Hot Recap Takes

Saturday: Rockets 101 Bucks 95 -  A rather competitive effort from Milwaukee's professional basketball team. A bad second quarter plagued Milwaukee, and that's a microcosm of the season where Milwaukee has one bad quarter screwing up everything else. Houston received a big game from Dwight Howard with 27 points and 13 rebounds continuing the trend of big men having huge games against Milwaukee. Jeremy Lin had a great game with 18 points on 8/15 shooting with a +9 PER. As for Milwaukee, they had double-doubles from John Henson in his second game back from an injury, and Zaza Pachulia had 12 and 10 off the bench. Quite possibly the most encouraging performance came from Nate Wolters. He started again with a career high 19 points with 9/15 shooting with seven rebounds and only two turnovers. Granted, Houston's perimeter defense cannot guard a gargoyle, but still maybe this will jumpstart Wolters' confidence to be more of a shooter. Even though the Bucks lost, I am happy they put up a decent effort at home for the fans on Saturday night.

Cool thing Bucks did on Saturday was put their MVP season ticket holders on the center line. I like that move a ton.

As part of @BucksMVP Appreciation Night, MVP season ticket holder names were placed on center line at tonight's game pic.twitter.com/zIyFyKtuOb
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) February 9, 2014

Revisiting the Bucks trade block 
We are about a week and half away from the trading deadline. Gary Neal did nothing for his trade prospects, but I have to believe he gets move at some point. Ersan Ilyasova bothered by a bad back, but still there is a chance he might get moved with two years and 15 million dollars left on his contract. Caron Butler is beloved by some people in Milwaukee, but he is another piece that could be on the move. I doubt Milwaukee moves Larry Sanders or Zaza. Additionally, I think no one wants the albatross contract of O.J. Mayo although I am sure no Bucks fans would be sad to see him go elsewhere. Ilyasova would probably gain back the most stuff for Milwaukee, but I doubt any of their pieces will gain them an extra first-round draft pick.

Links
There were multiple Giannis Antetokounmpo articles out there this week. Scoop Jackson wrote one for ESPN about how much he truly enjoys the game of basketball.

The other Giannis article I speak of is a Q and A with a Greek reporter. The biggest thing discovered in here is Milwaukee needs a Souvlaki spot.

What to watch
Milwaukee started a lineup of Wolters, Brandon Knight, Khris Middleton, Henson and Sanders. That seems like a dream lineup for Milwaukee fans, and if Sanders is fully recovered from his blurred vision as he got an elbow to the eye early in the game. It would be interesting to see it play out for a full game versus the first four minutes of the game.

Upcoming schedule
Before the All-Star Break, Milwaukee has two home games this week against Boston tonight and New Orleans on Wednesday night. Maybe they could grab one to get to double-digits before the break.

Charlie. 

Tank for Thon Maker

This went viral over the weekend as the world outside of the college basketball recruiting world were introduced to Thon Maker, a 7'1 high school sophomore. He has all the skill in the world. He can take it to the lane as well as hit deep threes. Maker looks great handling the ball, and obviously, he can block shots with the best of them.  The comparison will be Kevin Durant who ius 6'10 and Giannis Antetokounmpo who is 6'10-6'11, with an opportuntity to grow even more. I see a lot of Kevin Garnett comps as well but he never had a handle like Maker. I worried about that with Giannis, but after watching Maker at 7'1 doing things Giannis can do on the court, it makes me feel more confident if he kept growing. Trying to think about how a team stops in college basketball or the NBA is damn near impossible. The only concern would be if he can stay healthy with his legs and feet. Always a worry with big men no matter their skill set.

Charlie.

NBA's Attempt to Grow Giannis Antetokounmpo's Brand.

When Giannis Antetokounmpo entered the league, the expectations were not very high for him. Everyone
saw him as raw talent needing time to develop in the league. Many Milwaukee Bucks fans were pleased with Anteokounmpo being an eighth or ninth man off the bench getting valued minutes and learning how to play the game while contributing a little bit as well. No one saw this coming from the rookie out of Greece. Anetokounmpo will now be involved with two All-Star events as he will be in the Rising Stars Game on Friday night along with the Skills competition Saturday night. The National Basketball Association knows they want to push Giannis and build the Milwaukee team brand harder than ever before in the Internet era.

Honestly, none of this would have happened if the Bucks were a competent basketball team. If Milwaukee with their veterans like O.J. Mayo, Caron Butler and others played .500 basketball, I have a hard time seeing Anetokounmpo making this much of an impact. When Milwaukee had injuries to begin the season, head coach Larry Drew's hand was forced to play Giannis with extended minutes. He responded to the trial by fire with great passion for the game including some big performances. Drew continued to play Antetokounmpo and it has been history since then.

For the season, Anetokounmpo is averaging seven points a game with four and half rebounds a game. The numbers do not jump off the page yet he always seems to fill up the stat sheet with points, steals, rebounds, blocks and assists. But more important than his scoring or anything in the stat sheet is he is beloved by the fanbase. Milwaukee has its first fan favorite in a long time. Just like Milwaukee Brewers when Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder were starting to develop in true talents, kids had to have their jerseys and shirt jerseys. The same thing is happening right now with Giannis. This summer, over 50 percent of kids will have something on their body saying 'Antetokounmpo', hell half adults will have something on their body too.

Best thing for the city of Milwaukee is this is not a localized love. Giannis is loved all over the Internet. He is the golden child of NBA Twitter where everyone fawns over cool stuff Anetokounmpo says on Twitter or what he might do on the court. For example, he had over 2,000 retweets for proclaiming his love for smoothies earlier this season. Speaking of which, if a Milwaukee smoothie place has not come up with 'The Giannis', they are doing it wrong. NBA more so than any other professional sport pays the closest attention to what goes on with the Internet. Having Giannis for two nights of NBA All-Star Weekend will be beneficial to them as people want whom already love the guy and he will gain fans in the process whom have not watched a Milwaukee game all season long (Do not blame those who have not seen the Bucks all year).

Remember, this is only the second time a forward is competing in the skills competition and the other one is ... LeBron James. Let that soak in. Also with the NBA's savvy international presence, they know Antetokounmpo can be the first Mediterranean star capitalizing on another part of Europe, they have not been able to get in with original talent. Greece has a huge basketball following yet there is not been a star out of Greece or Italy yet. The closest thing to it is the wealth of talent out of Turkey yet Greece and Turkey mix about as well as tuna fish and peanut butter. Greece needs its own star and this is what Giannis brings the NBA. I would be stunned if Milwaukee does not play an exhibition game next season in Greece or somewhere near it. I can almost guarantee that will happen because it is clear to me the NBA wants to build Giannis's hallmark.

Will the growth of the admiration for Anetokounmpo bring a new arena to Milwaukee?  Honestly, there should be belief this will only help things. Investors might be more interested in the Bucks at a low price knowing there is a potential star with a huge following from Milwaukee and around the world. It is Giannis' world and we are just living in it.

Charlie.

Tapping The Keg Podcast Episode 74

Tapping The Keg podcast episode 74 gracing the airwaves with Mitch and Charlie (Hi) per usual. We get into with talking about whether Favoring tweets between the opposite sex is flirting along with discussing what a favorite is and a BuzzFeed discussion. Moving from that, we touch on Seattle's Super Bowl win plus Charlie overreacts about the NFC's dominance while both of us fan the flames on dynasty talk for Seattle. We move on to the Milwaukee Bucks where the topics include Ersan Ilyasova wanting out, LARRY SANDERS! and flu talk. Next up is whether Pau Gasol will get traded to Phoenix as well as possibly moving Danny Granger there. We finish up with Joel Embiid talking about staying another year and a recommendation for Vanderpump Rules.

PS: The audio gets a little screwy in the last 10 minutes or so. My computer was acting up. Not too bad, but just a couple random jumps.

Mitch and Charlie.  

Bucks Buzz: February 6 - A Family Reunion

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. New York (W): Bucks 101 Knicks 98 

I say this about every team the Bucks actually beat but how bad are the Knicks? Carmelo Anthony and JR Smith were chucking threes on their way to 36 and 30 points, respectively. The rest of their squad could only muster 32 points? Tim Hardaway was only 2-10 from the field and Raymond Felton was just 1-7. This really doesn't surprise me, it's just that I need to make fun of another team other than the Bucks. 

Speaking of those Bucks, this was easily the best game of the season for them. It was the first game Bucks' rookie Giannis Antetokounmpo got to play in front of his family. The Antetokounmpo's had some visa issues to work out but are now finally Stateside for good and now it seems as though Giannis will finally be able to relax and play ball (or, as Brandon Jennings would say: "just hoop"). Yanni played well in front of Mr. and Mrs. A (highlights below, the last up and under layup is unreal), scoring 15 points on 5-9 shooting and was 5-8 from the line. Further, I feel like he's going to forever be a Knicks killer, which we all should love.

Appropriate YouTube video: Giannis Highlights versus the Knicks. Chills for days.

His little brother Kosta is on the left. He's 16 and is 6'7". What do they feed these kids?

Welcome to Milwaukee, Antetokoumpo's!

Wednesday at Denver (L): Nuggets 110 Bucks 100

The energy was pretty good in this game, once again. They played a solid Nuggets team all the way through and didn't roll over after a bad third quarter. Small victories like this are nice to see when your team is 9-40. Larry Sanders had his best game of the season scoring 25 points (a new career high) and grabbing 15 rebounds in the losing effort. 

LARRY SANDERS! might have earned that stylization back after his recent stretch of games. He's averaging 13.4 points per game (57.7 percent from the floor) and 10.4 rebounds per game over his last five games. He fouled out of the game on Monday but, in typicaly Larry fashion, he got the crowd on their feet before he exited, nearly getting a technical in the process.

If you want him to be traded, you're doing it wrong. Many people will hopefully come back around on the 25 year old big man after this recent stretch.

Links

An article by Charles Gardner of the Journal-Sentinel about Giannis and his family being here for good. You can tell he's so happy now and it sounds like his family will be at every home game. Let's get those roots firmly planted in the 414. And for the love of God, draft his brother, Thanasis, in the 2014 draft to get them all in Milwaukee. (Ed. note: Can we get Kostas to Marquette please? Thanks. - CT) 

Here's a post from Fansided about the Bucks potentially having interest in the Cavaliers' Dion Waiters, who has fallen out of favor in Cleveland. I'm not sure how I feel about him. He doesn't have eye-popping numbers in his short career and is a bit of a head case. However, as long as they don't make a stupid trade to get him, I might be alright with it. He's the kind of guy the Bucks' might want to target. He's only 22 himself and could possibly turn it around in a new situation.

What to watch

One thing I'm going to keep my eye(s) on is the continuing play of LARRY SANDERS! and Khris Middleton. Those guys have been on-fire over the last handful of games. Middleton is shooting 58.3 percent from beyond the arc over his last five and is scoring 16.6 points per game over that stretch.

Sanders just needs to play within himself and keep everything else in check to have a large impact.

What's next?

The Bucks have just one game over the weekend as they'll host the Houston Rockets on Saturday night. This is a somewhat controversial night for Bucks' fans as it's "beard night" and the team is conveniently playing against NBA superstar James Harden, who's known for his beard. Additionally, it's going to be a "red out" night as the Bucks are giving away a red shirt with a beard on it to all fans. 

Think of it what you will.

Bucks Buzz: Monday February 3rd

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.  

Hot Recap Takes
Friday: Magic 113 Bucks 102 - Nice fight from Milwaukee as they were down by 21 at half and started to march back in the second with a great effort from the bench from some of the unhappiest Bucks. Gary Neal whose somehow still on this basketball team had a productive night with 13 points going 50 percent from the field.  Caron Butler had 20 points with 7 of 12 shooting. It is nice to see like a white whale that Neal and Butler can come up with big performances every now and again. Also off the bench, Giannis Antetokounmpo had a big night with 15 points with seven rebounds shooting efficiently from the field. He also had a massive dunk in the fourth quarter during the Bucks comeback. Negatives, they missed 10 free throws and allowed Orlando to shoot over 50 percent from the field including a nice game from Arron Afflalo whose developing into a Bucks killer with a 21 points with five rebounds and a PER of +18.

Giannis' unreal slam. Gotta think he is in the dunk contest in under five years. (Full highlights of his night, dunk comes .57 secs in).



Saturday: Grizzlies 99 Bucks 90 - Man, the Bucks had a lead for most of the game until a bad late third quarter into an early fourth quarter. Nick Calathes fills in for an injured Mike Conley and goes for a career-high 22 points which seems ridiculous Milwaukee let happen but we will get to that in a second. Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph combined for 42 points and 16 rebounds inside which does not surprise me in the slightest with how bad they have been defending good big men. Good night from Ersan Ilyasova with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Brandon Knight had a nice night at the two guard position with 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists on 8/19 shooting. Bucks struggled with Memphis defense shooting way too many threes, shot 23 of them and they only shot 39 percent from the field. They could only compete with Memphis for about three and half quarters, and that feels just about right.

Best part of the night... Larry threw up the thumbs up again! (H/T @AnaheimAmigos) 



Nasty Nate's re-emergence as Bucks point guard
Calling a guy that looks like 'I like turtles' kid, 'Nasty' is absolutely perfect. Nate Wolters played a great deal early on in the season, and then Larry Drew sort of placed him on the bench forgetting about him as he only averaged about 13 minutes a game in January. He played well against Atlanta in a blowout, played solid against Phoenix then nearly filled up a triple-double against Orlando with eight points, nine assists and seven rebounds. It almost feels like Milwaukee needs to keep exploring the idea of having Wolters at the one and Knight at the two because that's their natural positions. Knight is not a point guard at this point of his career, and he needs to admit that to himself.  Additionally in Wolters two starts this weekend, he had one total turnover. My only worry with him is the lack of defense because Wolters is putrid at defending almost all point guards in the league.

Links
I do not have any links this week. I am sure there is good stuff out there, but nothing worth talking about it.

What to watch
Let's see if the Wolters-Knight experiment continues and what's up with John Henson's wrist as well as the return of Zaza Pachuila.

Upcoming schedule
Weird schedule for Milwaukee in the next two weeks before heading into All-Star Break. Milwaukee takes on New York at home tonight before heading to Denver for a one-game road trip on Wednesday.

Tapping The Keg Podcast: Episode 73

For whatever this is worth, I will file this under Super Bowl preview. As you can see SoundCloud has a new interface, let me know if you like it because they still have the old one as well. Personally, I LOVE it.  Mitch and I (Charlie) spend the first 10 minutes or so talking about the other stuff with the Super Bowl, food, halftime performance, etc. We spend the next 15-20 minutes on the Super Bowl itself breaking down Seattle and Denver's respective chances to win. Our discussion moves to the Bucks where we talk Giannis Antetokounmpo's 'Rising Star' nomination and a little NBA Draft talk. We discuss All-Star reserves as well before moving to some Grammy's discussion because why not? This podcast goes in about 17 directions, but really fun.

Charlie.

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: Monday January 27th

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.  

Hot Recap Takes
Friday: Cavaliers 93 Bucks 78 - The hope was going into this one Milwaukee could win a second straight game for the first time all season.  That dream died in the second and third quarter when the Bucks put up a collective 32 points in both quarters while Cleveland pulled away from them. Five different Cavs players were in double figures including double-doubles by Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson. All five Cleveland starters were in positive double-digit PER numbers as well.  As for Milwaukee, they hurt themselves with getting outrebounded 52-34 and allowing Cleveland to get a stunning 21 offensive rebounds.  Probably the only encouraging thing was how well Giannis Anetokounmpo played filling up the stat sheet before re-injuring his back in the final quarter.

Saturday: Hawks 112 Bucks 87 - Even though Milwaukee fell the night before, it appeared they may be catching Atlanta at a good time with the Hawks not having Jeff Teague who sprained his ankle on Friday night against San Antonio. That did not happen as Milwaukee delivered one of its worst performances of the season. Bucks looked completely out of it and without a care in the world. Milwaukee had 19 turnovers and missed seven free-throws in the game as well as having a piss-poor effort on the defensive end.  Six Hawks were in double-digits including a big night from Paul Millsap as he had 20 points and eight rebounds. Lou Williams delivered a big game off the bench with 18 points and five assists. This is now three Saturday night games where I can remember the Bucks getting completely outclassed at home with Minnesota and Charlotte also coming to mind. Want to drive away fans? This is exactly how to do it by laying complete eggs on Saturday night.

Officially I feel bad for Larry Drew
I truly believe Larry Drew is the right coach for Milwaukee and anyone questioning that should have a long chat with themselves. Success does not come overnight, but this is a terrible way to start your coaching tenure with a team. It does not help things when your team does not get up to play against your old squad for the first time all season. LD is taking some massive lumps this year as a coach, and I really do not think he deserves any sort of vitriol.

Links
I am going to link this article, but at the same time, I have an issue with it. Bob McGinn is one of the best because Green Bay is one of the best teams to work/write for while the Bucks... is not at this point. But to criticize Charles F. Gardner's technique and rewriting his questions feels awkward to me as someone who has done interviews with higher ups (More so in Education, but still). Here's the thing I feel like this article lacks... 1.) You don't know how many questions Gardner got ask of John Hammond. 2.) Hammond could have controlled the interview saying 'I will not talk about x, y and z.'  For whatever it's worth, Ted Thompson rarely talks to McGinn nor anyone else in the Green Bay media so there should be a little more gratefulness towards the fact Gardner even landed an interview with Hammond. (Save Our Bucks) 

What to watch
Bucks play four games in six days. I am curious as to the stamina of the team. Larry Sanders is coming back from being sick. Giannis has a bad back. Drew will definitely has his hands full this week.

Upcoming schedule
They bring Los Angeles Clippers and Phoenix Suns to Bradley Center this week. Hopefully, the cold outside will translate to two of the better Western Conference teams going cold from the field. Also let's not have this happen to Brandon Knight again... Thanks.

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