- Bucks center Brook Lopez has been sidelined for a full month due to a back issue, but he tells Shams Charania of The Athletic (video link) that he’s been ramping up and believes he’s nearing a return. Lopez added that he has a “target in my mind” for his return, but didn’t specify a date. I imagine he’d love to suit up against his twin brother Robin Lopez and the Magic on Saturday and/or Monday, though it’s unclear if he’ll be ready to go that soon.
- Bucks guard Grayson Allen, acquired via trade in the offseason, is loving his time in Milwaukee, writes Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I know I’ve only been in Milwaukee and with the Bucks a short time but I’m really excited to have this extension here. It’s an incredible culture, incredible group of guys here. I’m really happy to be part of this group and extending my time here,” Allen said. He signed a two-year extension prior to the season and is averaging a career high 16.0 points and 3.9 rebounds in 14 games (29.9 minutes per game), with a .451/.438/.920 shooting line. He’s third in the NBA in three-pointers made.
- A handful of ESPN writers took a closer look at some underperforming teams to assess how concerned those clubs should be about their slow starts. The Hawks, Bucks, and Celtics are among the teams that shouldn’t be too worried quite yet, but the panic meter is already high for the Pelicans.
Bucks wing Khris Middleton is set to take the floor once again when Milwaukee faces the Lakers on Wednesday, according to Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Middleton has been in the NBA’s health and safety protocols since testing positive for COVID-19 at the beginning of the month.
The 6’7″ wing, a two-time All-Star, has not played for the Bucks since an October 30 loss against the Spurs. Middleton, who rejoined the team for a practice today, has missed eight contests so far. Across his healthy six games this season, Middleton is averaging 20.0 PPG, 4.7 RPG, and 4.5 APG, with a shooting line of .43/.257/.852.
The 30-year-old swingman is among several key players who have been sidelined for the Bucks. Starting shooting guard Donte DiVincenzo, starting center Brook Lopez, and reserve point guard George Hill are all currently absent with injuries. The reigning champs are just 6-8 this season, partially as a result of all these unavailable contributors. Starting point guard Jrue Holiday has also missed six games himself in this early going for the 2021/22 season.
Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer indicated, following a team practice today, that he would impose a minutes restriction on Middleton upon his return.
Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was named GQ Magazine’s Athlete of the Year, made some interesting comments to GQ’s Zach Baron as part of the cover story for the magazine. Discussing the championship the Bucks won earlier this year, Antetokounmpo seemingly opened the door to potentially leaving Milwaukee down the road.
“One challenge was to bring a championship here and we did,” Antetokounmpo said. “It was very hard, but we did. Very, very hard. I just love challenges. What’s the next challenge? The next challenge might not be here.
“… Me and my family chose to stay in this city that we all love and has taken care of us—for now. In two years, that might change. I’m being totally honest with you. I’m always honest. I love this city. I love this community. I want to help as much as possible.”
While Antetokounmpo’s comments will likely raise some eyebrows, his agent Alex Saratsis told Baron that he doesn’t believe the two-time MVP, whose five-year super-max contract began this year, will give any real consideration to leaving Milwaukee anytime soon.
“I don’t think it’s, ‘I’m thinking about leaving the Bucks,'” Saratsis said. “But I think he’s genuinely like: ‘Okay, I have reached the pinnacle. The next challenge is, let’s repeat.’ But what happens if you do repeat? What’s the next challenge? What is that next barrier? When you think about it from a basketball perspective, by the age of 26, this kid has accomplished everything. So sometimes you’re going to have to manufacture what those challenges are.”
Here are a few more highlights from the GQ feature on Giannis:
- Before he signed his long-term extension with the Bucks in 2020, Antetokounmpo was getting text messages from rival players encouraging him to leave, he told Baron. Some of those players haven’t talked to him since he decided to stay.
- Although the injury didn’t sideline him for very long, the left knee hyper-extension Antetokounmpo sustained during the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals has had a lasting effect on him, he told Baron. “My leg was the opposite way. To this day, I feel the effect, the traumatic stress,” he said. “I still feel it, and I think I’m going to feel it until I die.”
- Unlike many of his fellow superstars, Antetokounmpo insists he doesn’t view himself as a brand and isn’t concerned about how best to market himself, as Baron writes. “I don’t want to be the face of the league,” Giannis said. “I want to play great basketball. After that, if I disappear in the night, good. Don’t even talk about me, don’t even remember me. I don’t care.”
- Antetokounmpo owns a collection of framed jerseys from past and current NBA players, and James Harden‘s is among them. It’s “not true” that he has any beef with Harden, Giannis told Baron.
- The Bucks are off to a bit of a slow start this season, but newly-acquired wing Grayson Allen has been a bright spot, averaging 15.4 PPG and 3.9 RPG on .445/.419/.950 shooting in 12 starts (29.3 MPG). Eric Nehm of The Athletic takes a closer look at the impact Allen is having and the chemistry he’s developing with Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Knicks will be looking to pick up a win in Milwaukee on Friday night, but Julius Randle views the Bucks as a success story worth emulating, as Fred Katz of The Athletic details. Milwaukee won a title in Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s eighth season, having patiently built a championship-caliber roster around its star player without making any major splashes on the free agent market.
“It was beautiful to watch simply because the aspect of, they built it from the ground up,” Randle said. “They didn’t put a super team together or whatever it was. These guys were in the mud every day grinding the thing out. They took some lumps along the way there trying to figure it out.”
While the Knicks lack a bona fide superstar on the level of Antetokounmpo, Randle likes the idea of building the roster “organically” and believes that it an eventual breakthrough would be more rewarding.
“(The Bucks) did something that’s very unique, especially in today’s league, as far as building something like that and not putting a bunch of players together,” he said. “They really built it.”
Here’s more on the NBA’s two New York teams:
- Responding to news that Owen Phillips is joining the Knicks‘ coaching analytics team, Seth Partnow of The Athletic notes (via Twitter) that the franchise has gone from one of the league’s smallest analytics departments to one of the largest under president of basketball operations Leon Rose.
- Knicks center Nerlens Noel missed the first six games of the season with what was termed “knee soreness,” but he told reporters today that it was more of a hamstring issue, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News.
- The Nets have assigned Nicolas Claxton to the G League as he works his way back from an illness. According to Brian Lewis of The New York Post (Twitter link), Claxton still isn’t ready to play and will just be training and ramping up during his time with Long Island.
- While Claxton probably won’t play in any games for Brooklyn’s G League affiliate, a handful of the team’s rookies are expected to be regulars for the Long Island Nets this season. Chris Milholen of NetsDaily takes a closer look at the Nets‘ developmental plans for Cameron Thomas, Day’Ron Sharpe, Kessler Edwards, and David Duke.
Pat Connaughton can become a free agent next summer but he’s very comfortable playing for the Bucks, Eric Nehm of The Athletic writes. Connaughton feels his versatility is valued by the defending champions.
“I mean, that’s kind of what I’ve hung my hat on my whole career,” he said. “Obviously, high school and college is a different level of basketball than the NBA, but while stats in high school and college piled up for me, it was really about finding ways to win games and I would play any position that was needed. And I think the NBA is the NBA, it’s harder to crack that role. But I found a home here, I found a place where it’s valued and I’ve tried to find ways to impact winning throughout each and every single game.”
Connaughton holds a $5.73MM player option on his contract for next season.
We have more from the Central Division:
- All minutes restrictions regarding Pistons rookie guard Cade Cunningham have been lifted, the Detroit Free Press’ Omari Sankofa II tweets. The top pick in the draft missed the first four games due to an ankle injury and sat out the second game of a back-to-back this weekend. He’s now cleared to play on back-to-back nights. The Pistons face Brooklyn on Friday after playing Philadelphia on Thursday.
- Cavaliers forward Isaac Okoro worked out on the court before the team left for Toronto and joined it on the trip over the border, Chris Fedor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer tweets. There’s still no official word on his availability for Friday’s game against the Raptors, since he needs to be cleared by the medical staff. Okoro appeared in four games before suffering a left hamstring strain.
- Sixers coach Doc Rivers offered high praise for Bulls center Tony Bradley, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun Times relays. “He was one of our favorites last year,’’ Rivers said of the former Sixer. “I think it takes a lot of players, and sometimes they never figure it out, what they can do in their role. If they can buy into that and do it great they can have a long career.” Bradley signed a two-year, veteran’s minimum contract with Chicago this summer.
- Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s left knee, which he hyperextended in last season’s playoffs, is still bothering him, he acknowledged on Tuesday night (Twitter link via Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Antetokounmpo is playing through it for now, but the Bucks will likely do their best to manage his workload over the course of the season.
New Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan has proven to be a comforting presence on this Chicago roster thanks to his expert late-game play and overall leadership, writes Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times.
“I think having a guy like DeMar out there, he plays with a pace and a tempo and a poise,” Bulls head coach Billy Donovan said of DeRozan’s on-court contributions. ‘‘He’s a guy that has experienced a lot individually with the way his career has been and also has experienced a lot of winning, so he has been in a lot of different situations.’’
“I’ve been in a lot of games being down big on the road, seeing things happen that’s possible,’’ DeRozan said. ‘‘For me, it’s just keeping that calm, not getting rattled and sharing whatever experience I can to kind of keep us together, as well.’’
The 32-year-old DeRozan, who joined Chicago on a lucrative three-year, $81.9MM contract, is the team’s leading scorer at present, averaging 25.6 PPG, 5.7 RPG and 4.0 APG, with a fantastic shooting line of .493/.412/.870. The 41.2% three-point shooting percentage may not last forever: a career 28.3% shooter from deep, DeRozan has never finished an NBA season connecting on better than 33.8% of his three-point looks. Nevertheless, should he keep up this output and the Bulls keep winning thanks to the scoring of the small forward and his perimeter running mate Zach LaVine, DeRozan may be in line for his fifth All-Star appearance this season.
There’s more out of the Central Division:
- 2021 second-round Bulls draft selection Ayo Dosunmu, taken with the No. 38 pick out of the University of Illinois, is impressing his hometown team, writes Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. “He’s got a certain kind of makeup that I think is really special,” Chicago head coach Billy Donovan noted. “He just is fearless.” In Chicago’s latest outing Monday, the 6’5″ rookie shooting guard poured in 14 points on 6-of-6 shooting, and appears to have carved a legitimate spot in Chicago’s rotation with his energetic defense.
- Bucks swingman Khris Middleton has entered the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols after testing positive for the novel coronavirus, per Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Middleton also missed game action for Milwaukee over the weekend due to what appeared to be a non-COVID-19 illness, per Eric Nehm of The Athletic (Twitter link). “We thought he had a head cold or some type of non-COVID illness,” head coach Mike Budenholzer said. “And then (he) didn’t feel good again the next day. And got tested and has come back positive (for COVID-19).”
- Tomorrow, Pacers point guard Malcolm Brogdon and swingman Caris LeVert are scheduled to play together for the first time since an April 29 home loss to the Nets, writes David Woods of the Indianapolis Star. Brogdon is recovering from inflamed tissue around his hamstring while LeVert is recuperating from a stress fracture in his back. “There’s not going to be many backcourts as good as us,” Brogdon said.