Milwaukee Bucks Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Bucks Notes: Middleton, Holiday, Matthews, Tucker, Hill

May 6th, 2022 at 12:55pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Bucks have confirmed that Khris Middleton will miss Games 3 and 4 of their series with the Celtics, but they’re not speculating about his availability beyond that, according to Steve Megargee of The Associated Press. A report last week indicated that Middleton was likely to be sidelined for the entire second-round series and could be in jeopardy for the conference finals.

“We feel really good about where he is,” coach Mike Budenholzer said after Thursday’s practice. “We continue to hope he makes progress.” Budenholzer responded, “We’ll see,” when asked if Middleton could possibly play against Boston.

Middleton suffered an MCL sprain in his left knee on April 20 during Game 2 of Milwaukee’s first-round playoff series against Chicago. An examination was set for this week to reevaluate his condition and determine when he might be able to return. He averaged 14.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 7.0 assists in two playoff games against the Bulls.

There’s more from Milwaukee:

Jrue Holiday and Wesley Matthews have become the destructive defensive duo they talked about forming nearly five years ago, writes Eric Nehm of The Athletic. When Holiday was with the Pelicans and became a free agent in the summer of 2017, Matthews tried to convince him to join the Mavericks. However, New Orleans made Holiday a five-year, $150MM offer that was too good to pass up. “It was pretty close,” he said. “But I ended up staying with New Orleans. Money wins.”
In an interview with Marc J. Spears of Andscape, Heat forward P.J. Tucker says he felt disrespected by the Bucks’ offer after helping the team win an NBA title last season. Tucker added that he loved playing in Milwaukee, but management wasn’t willing to risk going into luxury tax territory to keep him. “For me, it wasn’t even about money,” he said. “It was more about respect because they basically told me to go find an offer and they would match it. After hearing that for me, I’m not coming back even if I had to take less money. To me, that was disrespectful. So, as soon as they said that, I told my agent Andre [Buck], basically, ‘We are moving on, whatever we get out of that, that’s what we’re doing.’”
George Hill is making progress toward returning from an abdominal injury, Nehm tweets. “He’s getting close. We’ll see how he responds to today,” Budenholzer said on Thursday. “He pretty much did all of practice and did some extra, a play group, afterwards. I think we just gotta see how he comes out of that.”

Marcus Smart: “Strong Likelihood” Of Game 3 Return

May 5th, 2022 at 11:55am CST by Rory Maher

Speaking on Thursday to reporters, including Jared Weiss of The Athletic (Twitter link), Celtics guard Marcus Smart said there’s a good chance he’ll return for Saturday’s Game 3 against the Bucks.

“Strong likelihood I should be back for Game 3,” Smart said. “We’re just dealing with the last part of it getting that restriction of the knee and the joints so I’ll be able to bend it. Once that goes away, I should be back to myself.”

Smart missed Game 2 with a right thigh contusion, but he said it was close to his knee, leading to fluid buildup.

“I’m better than I was. Some of the swelling’s gone down…I did get beat up, but it’s part of the game. It’s just the quad, the fluid. Where I got hit was closer to the knee area, so a lot of the fluid went to the knee,” Smart said, adding that he was “a little sore” after testing it out today due to the fluid (Twitter thread courtesy of Weiss).

The 2022 Defensive Player of the Year had been grappling with the thigh injury ahead of Game 1 and it was aggravated during the contest after he got hit in the thigh a couple of times in short succession. The series is now tied at one game apiece after Boston blew out Milwaukee in Game 2.

After averaging 12.1 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 5.9 and 1.7 SPG on .418/.331/.793 shooting during 71 regular season games (32.3 MPG), Smart’s usage rate has increased in the playoffs (18.3% to 21.6%) and he has averaged 15.2 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 6.8 APG and 1.4 SPG on .397/.289/.786 shooting through five games. He was limited to 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting in Game 1, but hopefully the extra days of rest will help him be closer to full strength.

Saturday’s Game 3 in Milwaukee tips off at 2:30pm CT on ABC.

Hornets To Interview Charles Lee, David Vanterpool

May 4th, 2022 at 5:57pm CST by Rory Maher

The Hornets have been granted permission to interview Bucks assistant coach Charles Lee and Nets assistant David Vanterpool for their head coaching vacancy, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

Lee, 37, played four seasons at Bucknell from 2002-06 prior to making international stops in Israel, Belgium and Germany. He started his NBA assistant coaching career in 2014 with Atlanta, and has spent the past eight seasons working with head coach Mike Budenholzer, winning a championship with Milwaukee last season.

Lee was reportedly a finalist for head coaching jobs in New Orleans and Washington D.C. last summer, and he has continued to receive interest this season. He recently interviewed for Sacramento’s opening, but didn’t make the final cut.

An assistant for CSKA Moscow from 2007-12 after spending time with the Russian team as a player, Vanterpool made the move to the NBA in 2012. He served as an assistant coach on Portland’s staff for seven years from 2012-19, then spent two seasons as the Timberwolves’ associate head coach, first under Ryan Saunders, then under Chris Finch.

When the Wolves replaced Saunders with Finch during the 2020/21 season, some league observers expressed surprise that the team hired an assistant from another team (Finch had been part of Nick Nurse‘s Raptors staff) in the middle of the season rather than promoting Vanterpool, who has received consideration for other head coaching openings in recent years. Instead of sticking around in Minnesota, Vanterpool decided to join Steve Nash‘s staff in Brooklyn last summer.

Lee and Vanterpool are the fifth and sixth candidates set to interview for Charlotte’s vacancy, joining Mike D’Antoni, Kenny Atkinson, Darvin Ham and Sean Sweeney. The team is also rumored to be interested in a few other possible candidates.

And-Ones: Coaching Candidates, Kirkwood, Garuba, Embiid

May 4th, 2022 at 11:39am CST by Luke Adams

Suns assistant Kevin Young, Bucks assistants Darvin Ham and Charles Lee, Celtics assistant Will Hardy, Grizzlies assistant Darko Rajakovic, Heat assistants Chris Quinn and Malik Allen, and Warriors assistants Mike Brown and Kenny Atkinson are among the assistants around the NBA who are viewed as potential head coaching candidates by league insiders, according to ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz (Insider-only link).

A number of the names on Arnovitz’s list have been linked to one or more of the NBA’s three current head coaching openings. Ham and Brown, for instance, all believed to be under consideration by all three of the Hornets, Lakers, and Kings.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Harvard senior guard Noah Kirkwood, who declared for the 2022 NBA draft as an early entrant, has decided to remain in the draft and go pro rather than using his final year of college eligibility, according to agent Ronnie Zeidel (Twitter link via Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports).
Rockets forward/center Usman Garuba said in an interview with Spanish outlet AS.com that he’s committed to representing Spain at this year’s EuroBasket competition, as Eurohoops relays.
In an intriguing bit of international basketball news, an RMC Sport report indicates that Sixers center Joel Embiid is exploring the possibility of obtaining French citizenship and representing France in future international events. Embiid was born in Cameroon, but has family from France and has never suited up for the Cameroonian national team.

Hill Remains Out For Game 2

May 2nd, 2022 at 7:32pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Celtics only have one player listed on the injury report for Game 2 against the Bucks on Tuesday but it’s a significant one. Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart is questionable due to a right quad contusion, according to Andrew Lopez of ESPN.

Bucks guard George Hill won’t play in Game 2, coach Mike Budenholzer told Eric Nehm of The Athletic (Twitter link) and other media members. Hill has an abdominal injury. “He was doing a vitamin, doing some individual work,” Budenholzer said. “He’s doing a little bit more in his vitamins, but not anything significant or any kind of new update.”

Central Notes: Bucks, Tatum, Brissett, Pistons

April 30th, 2022 at 2:55pm CST by JD Shaw

Guarding Jayson Tatum will require a team effort from the defending champion Bucks, Eric Nehm of The Athletic writes. Milwaukee will open its second-round series against Boston on Sunday, playing the only undefeated team remaining in the postseason.

As Nehm notes, Jrue Holiday was Tatum’s primary defender this season, but a lot has changed for both clubs. Milwaukee is expected to play without Khris Middleton (MCL sprain), which likely means Bobby Portis will continue to start for the team.

With Holiday, Wesley Matthews, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Portis and Brook Lopez starting, the Bucks held the Bulls to an average of 92 points in three games last series. Starting Portis would also allow Milwaukee to match Boston’s big men and designate Antetokounmpo as Tatum’s primary defender.

The Bucks will certainly miss Middleton, the team’s second-leading scorer at 20.1 points per game this season, but as Nehm writes, it’ll take a full team effort to slow down Tatum and the Celtics.

Here are some other notes from the Central Division:

Zach Lowe of ESPN lays out why the Bucks will need absolute peak Giannis Antetokounmpo to beat the Celtics. Antetokounmpo is coming off a season where he averaged a career-high 29.9 points, 11.6 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game, shooting 55% from the floor. Boston tends to play two big men at all times (starting with Al Horford and Robert Williams III), making it difficult to score at the rim. When you combine this with Middleton’s absence, Milwaukee will certainly need a group effort on both ends to win this series.
James Boyd of the Indianapolis Star explores why the Pacers should consider turning down Oshae Brissett‘s $1.85MM team option. By declining the option, Indiana could make Brissett a restricted free agent this summer instead of an unrestricted free agent next summer. The Pacers would be able to match any offer Brissett gets from a rival club. He averaged 9.1 points and 5.3 rebounds in 23.3 minutes per game in 67 appearances this season.
Keith Langlois of Pistons.com examines a number of Pistons-related notes in his latest mailbag, including which team may express interest in Jerami Grant and the chances of a Killian Hayes trade. Detroit finished the season 23-59, but it still has a young core headlined by No. 1 pick Cade Cunningham.

Hill Out For Game 1; Bud Hopeful He'll Return Vs. Boston

April 29th, 2022 at 9:49pm CST by Rory Maher

George Hill (abdominal strain) was unable to practice on Friday, per Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer. He’s out for Game 1 but the team is hopeful he might return during the second-round series against Boston, tweets Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The veteran guard missed the entire first-round series against Chicago with the injury and hasn’t played since April 8.

Lakers To Interview Darvin Ham For Head Coaching Job

April 29th, 2022 at 5:39pm CST by Rory Maher

The Lakers have requested permission to interview Bucks lead assistant Darvin Ham for their open head coaching position, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times confirms Charania’s report, citing a person close to the situation who says the team has been granted permission to interview Ham.

Ham started his NBA career as a player, appearing in 417 games from 1996-2005 and winning a championship as a bit player for the Pistons in 2004. As Bill Oram and Eric Nehm of The Athletic note, Ham first made the transition to coaching in the G League as an assistant, and later as a general manager and head coach.

The 48-year-old has ties to the Lakers organization, as his first role as an NBA assistant coach came with L.A. from 2011-2013. Ham has spent the last nine seasons working under head coach Mike Budenholzer in Atlanta and now Milwaukee, winning a title with the Bucks last season.

Ham was considered a top candidate to become the Wizards’ new head coach last July, but Washington ultimately decided to hire Wes Unseld Jr. instead. The Kings also intend to interview Ham for their head coaching job, which is unfilled after Sacramento parted ways with interim head coach Alvin Gentry earlier this month.

There have been rumors that the Lakers are interested in Jazz head coach Quin Snyder, but he’s still under contract with Utah. Ham is the first coach to be officially linked to the vacancy in Los Angeles.

Poll: Boston Celtics Vs. Milwaukee Bucks

April 29th, 2022 at 9:05am CST by Luke Adams

The first of the NBA’s four second-round matchups to be locked in is also one of the most intriguing. The Celtics, the No. 2 seed in the East, will face the No. 3 Bucks, with the series scheduled to tip off on Sunday night.

The Celtics were comfortably the NBA’s best team during the final two-and-a-half months of the 2021/22 regular season. After putting up a .500 record in their first 50 games, the C’s went 26-6 from January 29 onward — no other NBA team lost fewer than nine games during that stretch.

Boston’s advanced statistics backed up the team’s dominant record. The club led the league in both offensive rating (120.7) and defensive rating (105.9), resulting in an eye-popping 14.8 overall net rating. The next-best teams during that stretch were Memphis at +8.8 and Phoenix at +6.8.

The Celtics have carried that momentum into the postseason. With many experts forecasting the No. 7 Nets to pull off the upset, Boston became the only team to complete a first-round sweep. It was Jayson Tatum – not Kevin Durant – who looked like the best player in the series, averaging 29.5 PPG and 7.3 APG with a .456/.419/.868 shooting line, compared to Durant’s 26.3 PPG and 6.3 APG on .386/.333/.8985 shooting.

Tatum will face another serious challenge in round two, when he and the Celtics go up against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the defending-champion Bucks. The Bucks lost Khris Middleton to a knee injury in Game 2 of their series vs. Chicago, but somehow looked even better after that, making quick work of Chicago as Antetokounmpo led the way with 28.6 PPG, 13.4 RPG, and 6.2 APG on 56.8% shooting.

Middleton isn’t expected to be back in the second round, which is a tough blow for the Bucks. But this is a deep, dangerous team even without the All-Star forward.

The Bucks have shown they’re capable of winning while shorthanded in the postseason, having gone 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals last year without Antetokounmpo before dominating the Bulls in three games without Middleton this year.

It’s Milwaukee, not Boston, that has posted the best defensive rating (94.4) and net rating (+13.8) of the postseason so far. But the Celtics will have home court advantage in the series, which could be a factor — the teams split their four regular season meetings, with each club winning two games at home.

Which team will advance to the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals? We want to know what you think. Vote in our poll, then head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts on Celtics/Bucks!

Khris Middleton Expected To Miss Second-Round Series

April 28th, 2022 at 7:36am CST by Arthur Hill

APRIL 28: Middleton is expected to miss the Bucks’ entire second-round series vs. Boston, Shams Charania of The Athletic confirms (via Twitter). According to Charania, Middleton’s recovery timeline would also jeopardize his availability for at least the start of the Eastern Conference Finals, if Milwaukee makes it that far.

APRIL 27: The Bucks may have to get through a second-round series without Khris Middleton, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said in an appearance on “NBA Today” (video link).

Middleton, who suffered an MCL sprain in his left knee during Game 2 of Milwaukee’s playoff series with the Bulls, is scheduled to be reevaluated next week, roughly 14 days after the injury. However, sources tell Wojnarowski that the exam is likely to just be a “benchmark,” and there’s no expectation that Middleton will return to action right away.

“There’s not a sense that he’s going to get reevaluated at two weeks and then all of a sudden be back at practice and be ready to play,” Wojnarowski said. “That’s a benchmark in this process. But the Bucks certainly, they’re on the cusp of getting by the Bulls here. They may have to get through another series, a conference semifinal, before they may have the opportunity to get Khris Middleton back in this season.”

Middleton played a huge role in helping the Bucks capture the NBA title last season, averaging 23.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 5.1 assists during the playoffs. He followed that up by being selected to the All-Star game this year for the third time in his career.

Middleton recently told Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that he’s optimistic about returning soon, but he has confidence in his teammates if the recovery process takes longer.

“We did it last year as a group,” Middleton said. “When Giannis (Antetokounmpo) went down (in the Eastern Conference Finals) everybody stepped up and played a major part, so I expect nothing less. I feel like guys are ready to step up and play. They know right now it’s win or go home time.”