- Khris Middleton hasn’t played in the preseason but that appears likely to change on Friday. The Bucks swingman, who has been working his way back from right knee surgery, says he’s good to go for the preseason finale, according to Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “As of right now, I definitely feel like I’ll be out there playing tomorrow,” Middleton said. “Don’t know how long, how many minutes, but I do expect to be playing, which is exciting for me.”
Terry Stotts isn’t retiring, even though the 65-year-old coach is exiting Adrian Griffin’s staff with the Bucks, Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
Stotts wasn’t comfortable with his fit on Milwaukee’s staff. Griffin claimed they got along just fine.
“It caught all of us off guard, of course, but again, you just support him,” Griffin said. “He was a terrific guy. I learned a lot from him in a very short time. He was really good at what he does. He made a decision – a personal decision – and we just have to respect that.”
However, The Athletic’s Eric Nehm and Shams Charania report that Stotts and Griffin had a tenuous relationship. That included a shootaround incident in which Griffin yelled for Stotts to join the coaches’ huddle when Stotts was about to have a conversation with the team’s star players. That highlighted the potential difficulty of Stotts adapting to an assistant role under rookie head coach Griffin. Conversely, it also spoke about the treatment and level of respect that Griffin needed to show Stotts, considering his lengthy coaching career.
We have more from the Central Division:
- The Pistons paid Monty Williams a lot of money to coach their team, and their star player, Cade Cunningham, has bought in to Williams’ hard-driving style, Keith Langlois of Pistons.com writes. “I love the way he pushes us,” Cunningham said. “He calls things the way he sees them. I think that honesty and that bluntness towards us, that’s huge. Especially for a young team. The systems that he’s put in, the way that he’s made it around our abilities and the personnel we have has been great for us. It’ll continue to get better as he learns us and we learn him.”
- Rookie second-round pick Emoni Bates has led the Cavaliers in scoring during the preseason. Coach J.B. Bickerstaff told Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com that he’s thrilled Bates dropped to the No. 49 overall pick. “I believe if Emoni had gone in the lottery he’d have been the type of player who’d have been in the Rookie of the Year conversation,” Bickerstaff said. “We are extremely fortunate that he’s here with us and we look forward to working with him.”
- Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen is showing progress from the right ankle injury that has sidelined him during much of training camp. On Thursday afternoon, he went through post-practice shooting drills and then went through an individual workout, according to Fedor. He is set for re-evaluation this weekend and there’s hope he can return for Cleveland’s regular-season opener on Wednesday night.
- Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard went through a full practice this week and is on track to play in the team’s preseason finale on Friday, Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files tweets. Nembhard is working his way back from an ankle injury.
The Bucks have added Elijah Hughes and Kihei Clark to their roster, with both players receiving training camp contracts, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. The signings are official, per RealGM’s transactions log.
A 6’5″ wing, Hughes was the No. 39 overall pick in 2020 after playing three seasons of college ball at East Carolina and Syracuse, respectively. He holds two years of NBA experience with the Jazz and Trail Blazers, averaging 2.9 points in 9.2 minutes (54 games) while struggling mightily with scoring efficiency (.328/.280/.769 slash line).
Hughes was out of the league in 2022/23, having signed a training camp deal with the Bucks to secure his G League rights for the Wisconsin Herd, Milwaukee’s affiliate. He struggled with efficiency again during last fall’s Showcase Cup (.372/.284/.733 slash line in 14 games), but played better for the Herd in the regular season, averaging 16.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.1 steals on .426/.355/.853 shooting in 25 games (18 starts, 33.1 minutes).
Clark, meanwhile, went undrafted in June after five college seasons at Virginia. The 5’9″ guard averaged 10.7 points, 5.4 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.0 steal on .399/.352/.767 shooting in 33 games (33.2 minutes) as a “super senior” in ’22/23.
Assuming Hughes and Clark signed Exhibit 10 deals, which seems likely, they would each be eligible for a $75K bonus if they’re waived before the season starts and spend at least 60 days with the Herd. Exhibit 10 deals can also be converted into two-way contracts, and the Bucks do have a two-way opening after waiving Omari Moore.
The Bucks’ roster is now full, with 21 players under contract.
2:10pm: The signing is official, according to RealGM’s official NBA transactions log.
12:10pm: The Bucks plan to sign veteran swingman Glenn Robinson III to an Exhibit 10 contract, a league source tells Eric Nehm of The Athletic (Twitter link).
A former second-round pick (4oth overall in 2014), Robinson holds seven seasons of NBA experience, having played for the Wolves, Sixers, Pacers, Pistons, Warriors and Kings. The 29-year-old has been out of the league since 2020/21, when he made 23 appearances with Sacramento, averaging 5.3 PPG and 2.0 RPG on .424/.364/.913 shooting in those contests (16.0 MPG).
A 6’6″ wing, Robinson holds career regular season averages of 5.9 PPG and 2.6 RPG on .457/.373/.779 shooting in 304 games (105 starts, 17.4 MPG).
In August, Robinson reportedly worked out for the Warriors and Celtics in an effort to make it back into the NBA. While he was unable to land a contract with those clubs, he’ll be given an opportunity with Milwaukee.
However, the Bucks have 15 players on guaranteed standard contracts and Robinson is ineligible for a two-way deal due to his extensive experience. That means he will likely be waived in the coming days and start 2023/24 with the Wisconsin Herd, Milwaukee’s G League affiliate. The Exhibit 10 clause in his contract would entitle him to a bonus worth up to $75K if he’s released and spends at least 60 days with the Herd.
Once the signing is official, the Bucks will have 19 players under contract, two shy of the preseason limit.
Terry Stotts won’t continue in his role as an assistant coach with the Bucks, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The former Trail Blazers head coach had been out of the league for two years before agreeing to join Adrian Griffin’s new staff in Milwaukee. The Bucks had been searching for an experienced assistant for Griffin, who is in his first year as a head coach.
The 65-year-old Stotts compiled a 402-318 record during his nine seasons as head coach in Portland. He took the Blazers to the playoffs eight times, including a trip to the Western Conference Finals in 2019. Stotts was previously a head coach in Milwaukee, as well as Atlanta, and holds a career record of 517-486.
No explanation has been given on why Stotts decided to step down less than a week before the start of the regular season or if (and how) the team plans to fill the coaching vacancy.
The Bucks have trimmed their preseason roster from 21 players to 18, announcing today in a press release that they’ve waived guards Omari Moore and Jazian Gortman, as well as forward Drew Timme.
Although teams are permitted to carrying 18 players into the regular season (15 on standard contracts and three on two-way deals), Milwaukee’s roster isn’t ready for opening night. Gortman and Timme were on training camp contracts, but Moore was a two-way player, so the Bucks are now carrying 15 players on guaranteed deals, one (Marques Bolden) on a camp contract, and a pair on two-way pacts.
The decision to waive Moore comes as a bit of a surprise, even though he hadn’t made much of an impact on the court in Summer League or the preseason. The undrafted rookie out of San Jose State signed a two-year, two-way contract with the Bucks in early July — that level of team control is rare, since most two-way deals only cover a single season.
Gortman and Timme also joined the Bucks as undrafted free agents this summer after playing for Overtime Elite and Gonzaga, respectively. Both players were on Exhibit 10 contracts and now appear on track to become affiliate players for the Wisconsin Herd, Milwaukee’s G League team. If Gortman and Timme spend at least 60 days with the Herd, they’ll each earn a bonus worth $75K.
It remains to be seen whether the Bucks will set their regular season roster by simply converting Bolden to a two-way contract or whether they have more moves on tap in the coming days.
Bucks stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard gave the league a preview of what their new partnership will look like as they played their first game as teammates on Sunday night, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. They already look comfortable together on the court, McMenamin notes, taking turns handling the ball in the pick-and-roll. They also recognize how playing together can benefit each of their games.
“I’ve never been this open,” Antetokounmpo said after a win over the Lakers. “And first of all, I’ve never seen anybody being double-teamed from the first possession of the game.”
“Having another guy out there that’s just dominant,” Lillard added. “He can dominate a game and win you a game. … First couple plays, they blitz me, they trap me and the guy that I’m releasing the ball to is Giannis. So I’m just like, ‘Uh, we can do this all night.’ You know what I mean?”
Antetokounmpo scored 16 points in 15 minutes while shooting 7-of-10 from the field before resting in the second half. Lillard had 14 points, four steals and three assists and got a chance to run the team in the third quarter without the former MVP on the court.
“Today was a great first step in the right direction,” coach Adrian Griffin said. “You can see those guys love playing together already. And not just Dame and Giannis, but everyone was just pulling for each other.”
There’s more on the Bucks:
- Prior to Sunday’s game, Antetokounmpo discussed a variety of topics with Marc J. Spears of Andscape, including the potential to form an all-time great combination with Lillard, the disappointment of losing in the first round of the playoffs and the difficulty of parting with Jrue Holiday as both a teammate and friend. He also addressed his future in Milwaukee, saying he hopes to spend his entire career in the city and denying that offseason comments about putting winning first were an ultimatum to the organization. “The words that I say, I feel like sometimes they’ve been taken out of proportion because I’ve said these words for four or five, six years now. And I don’t know why it’s different this time,” Antetokounmpo said. “… But when your extension comes around, it’s like, ‘Oh, he might leave.’ No, no, no. It’s not the case. I want the best possible team. I want to wake up every single day when I come to work and know that I have a chance to win. And I want the organization to be on the same page and not to be comfortable because we won one (title).”
- The Bucks are being cautious with Khris Middleton after offseason knee surgery, but general manager Jon Horst stated Sunday that he may play in the preseason and will definitely be ready for opening night, tweets Jim Owczarski of The Journal-Sentinel.
- Griffin joins ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on The Woj Pod to discuss the pairing of Antetokounmpo and Lillard, expectations for the upcoming season and the long road toward getting a head coaching job after about a dozen interviews.
- Although forward Khris Middleton has been the Bucks‘ second offensive option behind Giannis Antetokounmpo for years, he’s happy to take a step back to allow recently acquired guard Damian Lillard to play the role he’s accustomed to, he tells Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “I mean, you’ve seen how good that guy is,” Middleton said of Lillard. “It would be selfish to try to compete with him for shots and touches when a guy like that wants to come and help us win. Everybody knows that I’m about winning, so I have no problems with putting my pride to the side, sacrificing a couple things for the team to succeed. I think that’s what it’s all about.”
Fans will get an opportunity to see Bucks stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard share the court as teammates for the first time on Sunday in the preseason, head coach Adrian Griffin said on a recent episode of NBA Today (YouTube link). Milwaukee brought in the 11-year Trail Blazer in a September blockbuster trade, and now he’ll suit up as a Buck for the first time against the Lakers.
The start of the Antetokounmpo-Lillard era in Milwaukee is significant not only for the duo’s star power, but because it also realizes the efforts of the Bucks to remain firmly in the title hunt going forward. Offseason comments from Antetokounmpo caused a vortex of rumors regarding his future with the Bucks. Appearing on the same episode of NBA Today, however, general manager Jon Horst dismissed the notion the organization made the blockbuster move because of them.
“Really not at all,” Horst said when asked if Antetokounmpo’s comments fueled their pursuit of Lillard. “I think we’ve done everything we can over the past few years to put the best product we can on the floor with Giannis, for Giannis, for our organization. There’s no doubt we are invested in him and this entire team and we felt like getting Damian Lillard was the best thing for the franchise now and going forward.”
The next move for Milwaukee is to secure Antetokounmpo, who has a player option for the 2025/26 season, to a long-term deal. The Bucks, who swung for the fences when they traded for Jrue Holiday in 2020 before winning that year’s championship, are hoping this trade pays off in a similar fashion.
“I think it’s important to understand that Giannis and what he says publicly and privately are very much aligned with what we believe as an organization,” Horst said. “It’s not just something recent. We’ve done everything we can every step of the way to put the best team on the floor each and every day, to constantly push the limits and try to compete at the highest level. … We think this trade is the most recent example of that.”
We have more from the Bucks:
- The environment around Bucks practices has been more physical and fired up than in previous years, Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes. Griffin is pushing to have a more aggressive tone and environment in practice, according to Owczarski. “The way we approach training camp and the way we approach practice so far has been incredible because we are literally changing our identity,” Antetokounmpo said. “We’re being a little bit more scrappy. We will help one another. Obviously, we’ve been one of the best defensive teams in the league the last five years, so it’s not that you gotta come here and you change a lot of things, but I feel like, you just got to sharpen the tool, you gotta add more edge to the team.“
- Last season, Bucks forward Jae Crowder began the year by sitting out as a member of the Suns, spending the first four months of the season away from the team before he was traded to Milwaukee at the deadline. This year, Crowder isn’t taking playing time lightly, Eric Nehm of The Athletic writes. Now, he’s trying to help set the aggressive tone of Milwaukee’s training camp with his mindset. “I’m taking this training camp very seriously this year,” Crowder said. “Obviously, knowing that I missed last year. Just trying to blow it out in the terms of both ends, conditioning and learning-wise. Just trying to learn as much as possible before the real games start. So I’m taking this training camp more seriously than I would in the past few years.“
- Lillard opened up about his first week as a Buck in an interview with Nehm. The seven-time All-Star is seeing plenty he likes with the organization so far. “The discipline that I’ve seen, it’s not just this guy or that guy; it’s like everybody is on top of their stuff,” Lillard said. “And I think collectively that just equals success. I don’t see how it doesn’t. Nobody is like, ‘Look at me.’ Or, ‘Oh, I gotta do this.’ Or, ‘I gotta do that.’ It’s just like everybody is on point with what they have to be doing and it’s like adults, professionalism and people that care about it and take it serious.“
The NBA’s newest superstar duo will be in action for the first time this weekend, according to Malika Andrews of ESPN (Twitter link).
Appearing on NBA Today on ESPN on Wednesday, Bucks head coach Adrian Griffin confirmed that the plan is for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, who sat out the team’s first two preseason games, to be active on Sunday in Los Angeles when the Bucks visit the Lakers.
Here are a few more notes from around the Central:
- Malik Beasley, long known as a three-point specialist, is making his case for a spot in the Bucks‘ starting lineup by working on improving his defense, according to stories from Eric Nehm of The Athletic and Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Beasley is on a minimum-salary contract, but is confident that a strong season with a title-contending team will help secure his long-term future in the NBA, writes Owczarski. “The market right now is not that good and I read into all that and I’m betting on myself like I did for my first contract,” Beasley said. “If things go as planned, and God forbid an injury or anything like that, I’ll just let the work do itself.”
- New Pistons head coach Monty Williams values having a mix of veterans and youngsters in his lineups, which is a key reason why guard Jaden Ivey may find himself coming off the bench when his second NBA season begins, writes Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press. “Putting in too many young guys on the floor, I think, is a disservice to them,” Williams said on Tuesday. “You have to have some really good vets who know how to play. They settle us down a little bit, their voice is good on the floor, they know how to space, they know how to make the right plays.”
- The Cavaliers are still working out their plan for rookie Emoni Bates, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said he trusts the coaches with the Cleveland Charge (the Cavs’ G League affiliate) to develop Bates, but would like the 19-year-old to spend a good amount of time with the NBA team too. “I think there is value in him being around the caliber of people and talent we have in that locker room,” Bickerstaff said.