KPJ or Ryan Rollins, Kyle Kuzma and Chris Livingston’s Future Role(s) | 2025 Summer Mailbag (Part 2)

KPJ or Ryan Rollins, Kyle Kuzma and Chris Livingston’s Future Role(s) | 2025 Summer Mailbag (Part 2)

Kyle Kosma, the starting small forward for the Bucks, who starts at point guard. And more questions about the cap. We dig into another round of the mailbag coming up after this on Locked on Buck. You are Locked on Bucks, your daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome in to Longtime Bucks. I’m Justin Garcia joined as always by Camille Davis. We thank you for making this your first listen of the day. You can of course hear me on the Bucks Radio Network throughout the course of the season. You can find Camille on the LockNBA show and the Technical File podcast as well. And uh today’s episode is brought to you by our friends over at Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code lockdown NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Uh, Camille, it is time for round two of the mailbag. A mailbag session that’s probably going to expand maybe four, at least three rounds of the mailbag. And uh, I mentioned the cap questions at the top. Actually, we should backtrack on that because talking with Frank and I think you guys mentioned this on the first one as well. The last mailbag we do this summer is basically going to be a cap related one where the cap sheets can be updated. There was a question in there about uh all these guys on the OnePlus one like what happens next year. We are going to address that. It’ll come on the next round of the mailbag. But we figured why not dig into the hot button issues. the names like Kyle Koosma, point guard, our son Chris Livingston. So, those are the ones that we’re gonna take a look at on today’s episode of Mailbag. And let’s just rip the band-aid off here. Camille, let’s start with a question that came into us from Sam asking Ryan Rollins or KPJ. I like Ryan Rollins for his spot up shooting ability paired with Giannis. Will they keep Kyle Kosma on the bench? Can’t seemingly play him with Giannis. So, it comes back to that first question of, hey, who starts at point guard? We’ve kind of come in with the assumption it’s going to be Kevin Porter Jr. We saw Ryan Rollins doing that late in the season a year ago. So, have things changed there? Is Ryan Rollins the starter and KPJ is the guy to juice the bench or is Kevin Porter Jr. the starting point guard? I think that Kevin Porter Jr. is the starting point guard for the Milwaukee Bucks this upcoming season. Um, I think that if the Bucks did not get somebody like a Cole Anthony, uh, the conversation question, you know what I mean? Like the conversation could continue a little bit more, but I think that having Kevin Porter Jr. in there who we have seen be able to go and get his own shots, create for himself at times as well. Um, you you start with that because yes, I believe Giannis at point is the way forward for this team and that is the direction they’re going to go. But you still do need that secondary ball handler and it’s not that Ryan Rollins can’t do that. we saw that he can for sure. Um it’s just that Kevin Porter Jr. I think gives you a little bit more creation juice um than what Ryan Rollins can at this point. But I think that the reason people keep going back and forth between is it Kevin Porter Jr., is it Ryan Rollins is because Rollins skill set as kind of like an off ball guard would fit really really well next to Giannis as well. The defense that he can provide. Um we saw him too not afraid to attack the rim, try to touch pain himself. So, like there are a lot of qualities in Ryan Rollins game that you can look at and say he should start next to Giannis. But I think that uh it’s Kevin Porter Jr. at this point just to have that additional offense and creation out there. Um plus there are some numbers that point to that connection with Giannis and Kevin Porter Jr. and some of those other guys working really well. So I think that’s the way that they go and again having Cole Anthony as somebody who come off the bench along with Bobby Poris and kind of like your bucket getters makes some sense. Yeah, I I agree. I think it’s Kevin Porter Jr. that is going to be your starting two guard for the the Bucks this or two guard starting point guard for the Bucks this season. Um the talent is certainly greater and that isn’t to knock Ryan Rollins. The talent is certainly greater with Kevin Porter Jr. So in that sense there’s a higher upside. Um I think Ryan Rollins Yeah, I think Ryan Rollins is going to have a very impactful year. He’s going to be very important for the Bucks uh this season. And he’s a guy that, you know, I the tricky part is what you touched on in that in a black and white sense, he’s a perfect pairing for Giannis because of his ability to play off the ball. He’s a pretty good or was a good albeit smaller sample sizes, but was a good spot-up shooter for them last year and certainly what he brings defensively. So, I I think we’re going to see a decent amount of lineups where both he and Kevin Porter Jr. are on the floor together and some of those are going to include Giannis as well. Uh, but I do think I mean I I guess I don’t know how much it changed. Uh, because you got the sense that they were approaching this in the off season. We speculated and I think this has basically been confirmed but like the importance was we need Kevin Porter Jr. and Gary Trent Jr. back that those were probably their priority guys in terms of the internal candidates even with a Bobby Portoris guy because I think there were other areas where you could say well if we have to we can pivot but we need these guys. Um so I do think from the onset it was the assumption was we want Kevin Porter Jr. back and we want him back as our starting point guard, but I think the addition as you mentioned him of Cole Anthony just kind of cemented, okay, he can maybe he’s closer compl to Ryan Rollins, but he can do some of those same things where you can put the ball in his hands, he can give us some scoring off the bench where that conversation is minimized of maybe we’d like Kevin Porter Jr. to add some scoring punch for that second unit. I I don’t I’m not going to say you don’t need it, but you know, we talked before about, you know, this bench that they’ve suddenly built where you’re going to be able to get scoring from Bobby Poris. You’re going to get one of those games every once in a while from Cole Anthony where you look up and you think, man, Cole Anthony had 27 points in that game. Uh Gary Harris, we were told, is going to play the Pat Conetson role, which you know, he is more than capable of beating that guy and basically breaking t breaking case of emergency. And then you got Ryan Rollins to facilitate some things. Maybe this kind of leads into our next question. Maybe AJ Green or Gary Trent Jr. is coming off the bench as well and maybe Torian Prince. So you’re going to have scoring coming from that second unit which they haven’t really had to that level in recent memory. So to me that that minimizes putting Ryan Rollins in the starting lineup and Kevin Porter Jr. on the bench. Yeah. Because I think one of the biggest reasons of like, hey, let’s start Rollins over Kevin Porter Jr. is to have that scoring power off the bench. It’s like we have someone who can lead our second units. And when you do have a Cole Anthony, we mentioned Bobby Poris, like you have a little bit more leeway to play things a little bit differently if you so choose. And I think for the Bucks, and we’ve said it as free agency was beginning, like, excuse me, it’s important for them to have both Rollins and Porter Jr. because yes, they have some overlapping skill sets, but you want as many of these types of guards on your team as you can that can play that combo guard role for you because of how you plan to utilize Giannis this upcoming season. And we saw Rollins too with the defense and on the episode that me and Frank did of the first part of the mailbag and talking about what would it take for the Bucks to be a top two, top three team in the East. And the defense was a big piece of that of like can they be a top five type of defense and Ryan Rollins has some skill sets there where you’re like I love the way he plays defense with that wing what 610 611 wingspan on six pushing seven feet. Yeah. Yeah. As a 6’3 guy like that’s crazy impressive. we saw him use that. And the thing about Rollins that I’m excited for this upcoming season, we have to remember that he played a lot of last year hurt with the shoulder injury that he decided just I’m just going to play through this. He was in a spot last season where the two-way guy still had some playing time. Did not want to take that surgery and be off the court. So, he just played through it. I’m really looking to see what Rollins looks like a year when he comes in fully healthy, understanding what his role is going to be. And I think he’s going to play a big part for this Bucks, even if he’s not a starter. like there’s a big role for Rollins on this team with his defense. Um his ability to be a combo guard and like like you mentioned the catch and shoot ability like there’s a lot in his game to like for this team. Yeah. If he had the surgery, season’s done and then you’re going through the rehab process. Um I think the other thing too, not to to say that there’s no clarity because um you’ll hear that kicked around a lot and like these guys are told this is what we need you to work on. This is what we need you to do. This is what we envision your role being. So you do all those things, this will happen and then maybe uh there’s more of an opportunity. But for Ryan Rollins, that clarity where, you know, we touched on, hey, one of the important things that there’s going to be some negatives, there’s going to be some positives in the move to wave and stretch Damen Lillard. Obviously, there’s some negatives off the floor, but on the court, one of the positives is there’s none of that ambiguity where you have KPJ and Ryan Rollins kind of looking over their shoulder wondering when is Dame going to come back? What does that mean for me? And for Ryan Rollins last year, he was kind of in that trap as well where Damen Lillard goes down and okay, here’s more of an opportunity for you, but we just brought on this Kevin Porter Jr. guy and you were kind of exiled. So there was all these kind of start and stop moments last year. The injury was a part of that where he had his breakout performance, suffered the shoulder injury in that game. That stuff’s gone too where you look at this and you know you two guys are the non Giannis point guards for us. So we’re splitting up the minutes. It’s a competition between the two of you. We think Kevin Porter Jr. is going to start. It doesn’t mean we can’t change that. But you know it’s us two in a twoman rotation here. So there’s none of that. Do I have to outplay this guy? Is this guy gonna pass me? All of that is gone. And I think that’s only going to help both of these guys, but more so Ryan Rollins. Yeah. And I mean, some can point to like, hey, well, Coony’s in the mix, too. But like, I don’t think that Well, I shouldn’t I’m not privy to the the conversation the front office having, but it doesn’t seem likely that he’s coming in for a starting role, especially given that in Orlando he was moved from the starter to the bench and did his thing in that role, too. So, um, yeah, it’s it’s just it’s not just those two, but like there are two guys returning from last year who already have an idea of the system, what the Bucks are going to be expecting of them, and they have their marching orders. And you have Co-Anthony as another guard to throw into that rotation. Um, that should give them a different type of punch there as well because Coanthony competes on defense. He gives the effort for sure, but he’s a smaller guy, so sometimes it is what it is. But ultimately, I think for Rollins and and Porter, um, two young guys. I mean, also fits into that bucket as well, but just an opportunity uh to get some real minutes in Milwaukee this upcoming season next to uh all star, all world talent in Giannis. So, like I’m excited to see what that rotation looks like and how they and how they uh navigate that and what the competition does look like because we know competition and teams on teams can help fuel even better performances. So, hopefully those two, you know, have that relationship where they cool, but they’re also pushing each other along the way of like, well, I want these minutes, too. Like, we going to see who gets them in a friendly, competitive type of way. All right, we mentioned the name before. Uh, it’s time to talk about Kyle Kousma and the small forward position. We’ll tackle that question next. We’ve all been there, logging on early, waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale, only to lose your spot for a show you’ve been dying to see. 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Download the Game Time app. Create an account and use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem the code locked on NBA for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today. Lastm minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. All right, are you ready to uh put on the riot gear now and open up the smoke forward discussion? Let’s do it. Uh, all right. So, this one comes to us. I hope it’s from the tragic Johnson, but from Irvin Johnson 40 on Twitter asking why does it seem like Kyle Kosma will start over AJ Green? Such a bad move in my opinion. Also, Trent is going to start, right? So, a couple of different questions there. Uh, let’s start with the second one. I mean, I would assume yes, I’m 99.9% sure Gary Trent Jr. is starting. The interesting thing is whether or not you classify him as a two guard or a small forward in the the lineup that the Bucks play, but as you agree there, I’m assuming. Yeah, I definitely do. I think Trent starts this season. I know that was the expectation last year as well going into the season. Um, and it did not work out well, but again, he was dealing with some injuries to start the season. The three ball wasn’t falling for him. Um, just had to give him a little bit more time to get into the rhythm and the flow. Um, and also getting used to playing next to Giannis and what that role requires too. So, I think going into this upcoming season after the experience they’ve gotten after the playoff run last year against the Pacers, like Trent should be the starting small for or small shooting guard. Anything. He should be starting for the Bucks this upcoming season. And I won’t speak for you. I was definitely guilty of this a year ago as we have some time to reflect on it. Um the longer we got into the season where Gary Tren Jr. wasn’t starting and just kind of being okay with it too like I can see what we’re doing here and yeah I like his scoring punch off the bench where with the benefit of hindsight you look back at it and you think like well why why did we do that like why why did we prolong this and we would hear the things not just from Doc from others too of he’s getting comfortable in the role we like that and I do think there was some importance there but it reached a point where I I I think it clearly went on too long that that move should have been made much sooner. Yeah, absolutely should have been made sooner. And again, I was with you, too. Like it made sense while he was still getting his footing underneath him like he was bringing a scoring punch off the bench playing next to Dame. You’re like, well, you know, it it makes sense for Trent to be off the bench if you need to so you can kind of stagger. But like now in this situation here, like what were we doing? Yeah. Like let’s let’s not overthink it. Like start Gary Trent Jr. and and continue to go from there. All right. So, part one of that question, why does it seem like who’s will start over over Green? I’ll say this. I don’t know that it’s just Kyle Kosma versus AJ Green. I don’t think it is. I think Torian Prince has a say in there as well, which is certainly going to make people even more upset to say, well, wait a minute. It’s down to three guys and those are the other two options. But I mean this is going to sound like a copout. I I genuinely don’t know what their thoughts are there because I am inclined to think no. You will start AJ Green. We’ve heard John Horse talk about the importance. They want to extend him. They have some big plans for him. You and I have talked about the volume of threes and what we’d like to see from AJ Green. John Horst has talked about albeit small sample sizes of data, but the data that they built their off seasonason on with those guys playing together. So all of that would lead me to believe you’re starting Gary Trent Jr. and AJ Green together on the perimeter, but we’ve also heard them talk about their belief in Kyle Koozma. And look, this wasn’t just for second apron purposes. We targeted Kyle Kzman. wanted that guy. We’ve seen Kyle Kosman putting in work this off season. You bring back Torian Prince who I I think we can eliminate him. I don’t think Torian Prince is going to start for this team. I think you brought him back as valuable depth and a bench piece that was a 40 plus percent three-point shooter throughout the year. You need that type of depth for 82 regular season games. I don’t think he’s going to start. I do think it comes down to AJ Green and Kyle Kosma. And I think we’ve I’m not going to say heard them talk out of both sides of their mouth, but we’ve heard enough about each of those two that I genuinely don’t know who’s going to start. I mean, I I think we’re all aligned. If it were up to me, I would start AJ Green. Yeah. But I don’t know. And I I don’t think we’re going to know until camp starts. Probably not. And I think that’s probably like the most interesting camp battle of like who is that starting small forward for the Milwaukee Bucks because you do have Kyle Kosma and I think a reason that so many people just pencil him in um one look at the contract and you you expect somebody making that type of money to be starting for your franchise. I think that’s the first part of it and then two how he came into the franchise. You you come to Milwaukee because you’re traded for Chris Middleton. So it’s it’s like people assume that if you’re being traded for Chris Middleton, you’re coming in as the Chris Middleton replacement and we cautioned early like Kyle Kosma is not going to give you the same things that Chris Middleton is going to give you. But there are things that he can do that Chris at this point in his career could not do. So like let’s see how the Bucks choose to go forward and trying to utilize what talents that Coups can bring to the table. So I think those are the reasons why when you look at Kyle Koosma, that’s why people are still saying like he’s starting he’s your starting small forward. But a lot of my questions you already went over which is like we saw the sample data last year. We know that AJ Green, Kevin Porter Jr. um and Gary Trent Jr. those three with Giannis they make a a crazy forsome on the court that that the numbers back that up. So, it’s like you want to roll with that, but then it’s like, well, what is the role for Kyle Kosma if you are going that direction, which the comment that Horus made about seeing KZ as more of a four? Um, made me think like, well, if that is how they’re viewing this, maybe they are looking at him as like the backup for or someone they can play in the front court who has versatility to slide down to the three a bit, but primarily we’re trying to keep you in the front court. So, I’m really curious to see how it shakes out. I too like you if it was up to me if the starting lineup would be you know Kevin Porter Jr. Gary Trent Jr. AJ Green at that three spot or Gary Trent however you want to say that they are there with Giannis and Miles Turner in the front court. So if it was up to me, yeah, AJ Green would be would be starting this upcoming season as well. But I think training camp and what the Bucks vision for this team is is going to dictate exactly who does get that smart or starting small forward spot. Not to sidetrack it too much, but um in terms of like market growth and not not like a breakout because I think we would associate that with younger guys, but if a a a singular player were to take a giant step forward, would it be most beneficial if it was Kyle Kosma? Because if we’re anticipating, we think we’re going to see growth in expanded role from AJ Green and the rest of the young guys that we’ve touched on. Like if all of a sudden Kyle Koosma is closer to the bubble version with the Lakers, like is that ultimately what could unlock things for this team? It could. It would be a big help. And I I made a joke when he turned his number back to zero where I’m like, “Okay, summon some of that Lakers CS powers um back into Super Roll player Kyle Kosma is what the Bucks need.” And again, like we we mentioned the areas of his game that we were surprised about and things that can help the Bucks with his defense, his size that he’s able to defend with. um a little bit more playmaking than the Sun. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying like he’s out here, you know, Giannis or Magic or anything like that, but like he had a bit more in his game than what I expected. Um the shot selection still needs a little work from Cuz at times and just the overall finishing at the rim, if he can do that at a higher level, it unlocked so much for the Bucks because when you think about why he became unplayable too in the playoffs, um they did not respect him at all offensively. Um, and then on defense, it felt like he was getting lost at times along the way. So, if he can work on those things, I really do think it would raise the ceiling for the squad. I think um the Kyle Kosma experience last year for the Bucks could be summed up, and this is probably uh easier to digest for those of you viewing on YouTube, but it was could be summed up in like, okay, like, huh, all right, that worked that time. Oh, okay. You we’re really trying this. Like that’s what we saw. So, kind of finding the baseline a little bit this year is obviously of the utmost importance. Whether or not that’s in the starting lineup or coming off the bench, I suppose we’ll see. And and yeah, we’re we’re aligned in that. I don’t think we’re going to get a clear understanding of that until we hit camp, which is what, six weeks away? Um here, something like that. end of September going into the first preseason game. What, the 5th of October, somewhere around there. One more question to get to. You knew we couldn’t pass this one up. We’ll get into that coming up after this. Well, uh, Camille, we are simply not going to do a mailbag and ignore any question that pertains to my number one boy. So, this comes to us from Deer Fanatic asking, “If Chris Livingston gets a chance this season, what does he have to show to find a spot in the rotation like Ryan Rollins and AJ Green did?” I’m thinking defense and three-point shooting, cutting off the ball, passable ball handling. But what do you guys think? Um, I guess let’s just start with gets a chance. I think we talked about this. It might have been the three of us with Frank. It’s going to be a little bit tougher now for Chris Livingston. And we’ve seen them kind of tinker with him throughout the course of the past few summer leagues. We saw points Livingston. We saw uh Chris Livingston playing the five last year. We he was largely like playing the four at times two. Ultimately, the path for Chris Livingston to finding consistent minutes in the league is going to be as a three. that can defend fours as well with like we need to see some growth for him to be able to be a three. Obviously the shooting is a big piece of that. He’s somewhat willing to take those corner threes. You’d love to see the rate start to come up a little bit more, but if you’re going to be a three, you got to do things other than just catch and shoot like and not just the three at any position, right? we’ve talked so much about the league is can’t just be a one-way player anymore. Like there’s there’s no more Andre Robersonsons. The Bucks may have one or two of them on their roster, but those are the guys that we’re talking about. How do they get some floor time? Um so I think just finding something offensively, whether that’s a guy that just attacks the rim, he’s got to be able to put the ball on the floor. But to me, it’s kind of similar to the Andre Jackson Jr. discussion where you’d certainly say Andre’s defense is better than Chris Livingston. Um it’s probably a wash slight edge to Andre on offense at this point, but offense is where he’s going to have to find a niche because he’s the ideal size and body type to defend the guys that you really look at the roster and say this is what we’re missing, but he’s got to be playable offensively and there’s got to be more than just sit in the corner and shoot threes. Yeah, man. It’s like when you come in the game, can you change the energy up? Like not necessarily like you’re taking the game over, but like can you make your impact felt on the court when you’re on the game? And I think that’s the the key for like those types of role guys where when Andre Jackson Jr. was getting his playing time. A lot of people could point and be like, man, it feels different right now with him on the court because he’s bringing this energy. And Doc had even remarked a few games afterwards of saying like, well, Dre brought the energy. like we needed more of that and we shouldn’t have to need him to come in the game to do that. But like can you bring this to the team? And I think too for Livingston because they’ve played him at so many different uh positions in summer league and with the with the herd and everything like that. I also wonder in addition to the shot making, the three-point shot making, being quick with your decision making, the cutting, the finishing at the rim, uh the passing and the defense, like I think the other thing too is just like can you steal some possessions? Can can you also go in there and rebound a bit too? because as a player who has played in multiple different positions from three, four, and five, like can you affect the glass? Because one thing that we’ve talked about a bit um with this upcoming season without having Brook Lopez, who we know has had historically low rebounding numbers, but the team always would rebound better with him on the court because he’s boxing out allowing other guys to get the ball on this team with Miles Turner coming in. What does that rebound rate continue to look like? And we know rebounding can be a little bit of a sore spot for the Bucks time to time. Um, not like a whole season time to time, but game to game. Sometimes you can see it’s like, oh, we’re just not attacking the rebounds here. Like, can Chris Lemonson come in and do that? When you’re in your menace, can you also come in? Can you end possessions or can you extend a few of them along the way, too? So, like, you can just do things for Chris when you come into the game um and you make an impact positively, like continue leaning on those things. And I think if he continue to do those types of things like you’ll see him in that rotation a bit more because there is some compet in front of him like we mentioned we you can play Gary Tren Jr. AJ Green at that spot you have Kyle Cousin you have Torian Prince. So like there are some bodies in front of you but like what can you do to make an impact that shows like I have to be on the court because when I get on this court like I can do things to help this team win. He was an okay rebounder. I think it was around a 15% rebounding rate. um Odal that he had. He was pretty good on the defensive glass. Uh and that’s again a very very small sample size in the G- League where he played fewer games last year in the G-League than he did uh the year prior. The the NBA numbers aren’t really worth, you know, taking anything from how extremely limited those were, but his uh three-point shooting went down. He did take a higher volume a year ago, and this was 11 games versus 16 in the G-League the year prior, but his three-point uh volume went up, but efficiency went down to just 28%. Um, you know, that that number, he’s going to have to be 36 35% three-point shooter at least. Yeah. To find some floor time. Even with things like, hey, is he rebounding? Is his block rate going up? like you still need that offensive component. So like number one, you got to find a consistent shot. But once that settles in, you just you need to see more than just a catch and shoot uh guy. He was okay too in the tipoff tournament that the G-League runs every winter. um his numbers, his efficiency numbers went up in those games which brought with it a higher spotlight, but you just need to consistently find at least league average shooting from him to carve out a role because, you know, again, we both said ideally I think it’s at the three that you would play him. Well, you’ve got Torian Prince, potentially Kyle Koosma, either Gary Tren Jr. or AJ Green. All those guys are in front of him. If you say, “All right, well, maybe let’s slide him back to the four.” Kyle Kosma, Bobby Portoris, Giannis. So, like it the list goes on for him to really get an opportunity. And this goes back to the the cliche of like stay ready so you don’t have to get ready, but that’s really it. Like it’s going to take one of those games where somebody or multiple guys follow out and or an injury occurs where, hey Chris, it’s you’re called. Get up there and show us what you can do. And if you do that, that’s what opened the door for Ryan Rollins. Thrive in those moments where the coaching staff sees, okay, he’s gotten his feet wet. We can start to throw him some more. And then what do you do with it from there? Yeah. You got to star in the minutes that you do get. Like there might not be a lot of minutes to begin with. But like when you do get on the court, you have to make an impact. You have to be memorable in that way of like I’m showing the coaching staff here that I deserve more playing time. I don’t know where you gonna find this playing time because there are other guys in front of me. But like that’s your thing to figure out. I’m gonna come out here and do my job on the court. Y’all figure out how to get me more minutes because I’ve shown I earned them. And I think that’s going to be the route for for Livingston like you mentioned which we saw with other guys too. And even like when Doc got here halfway through the season, one thing he mentioned was like, hey, coming and coaching a team middle of the season, I leaned on the vets a little bit more because I had more experience with them and what they can do. like the young guys had to really show something in limited practice time and limited minutes on the court to show like I should be part of the rotation. And you saw AJ Green crack it. You saw Andre Jackson Jr. crack it that first year. Then next year you saw them have to earn it back again because it wasn’t just like hey we saw you do something good a little bit the end last year but now we need you know that carries like we need to see it consistently. So I think for Chris it’s just consistency for him. And you mentioned like the shooting numbers like I think in summer league this year he shot like 38%. Not a crazy volume, but like that’s what you need to see. You need to see stuff like that from Everything about Chris Livingston at Summer League was this is what we need to see. Yeah. And that was the same thing we said to the opposite for Andre Jackson Jr. Like it doesn’t mean it’s going to translate to the NBA level, but like for starters, we need to see this in summer league. And you did from Chris. We did it from Andre. Now in fairness, you know, we just mentioned all those names. We did not mention Andre Jackson Jr. I would still say Andre Jackson Jr. is in front of him right now in the pecking order. So you have to pass him as well that it’s it’s just to to paint the picture of it’s going to be tough for Chris Livingston to find any not even significant or consistent but just minutes in general. Uh Tyler Smith too is as you know we talked about is there a positional change and do you want him to play on the perimeter? He’s in the mix. So, there’s suddenly a lot of guys, maybe not great candidates, but still candidates you’re going to have to move past if you’re Chris Livingston to uh to carve out those minutes. I would love it obviously to see Chris Livingston become a big piece of this team, but he’s got his work cut out for him with the uh the makeup of this group. I mentioned we got a ton of cap related questions. One very very interesting one that I think we’ve kind of like tiptoed around and hinted at throughout the course of this off seasonason and the John Horse specials, the oneplus ones. Um, but we are saving all the cap specific questions to do what’s probably going to be a final round of the mailbag unless we continue to get an influx of them. By the way, continue to send them in. You can tweet them to Frank, Camille, and myself. You can send them to the email address as well. We have it listed on the YouTube page. Um, if you don’t want to go there, it’s it’s what? Mailbag.logmail.com. So, continue to drop those in, whether it be cap questions or not. We’re going to do a cap specific mailbag a little bit later here in the summer. Um, but yes, we still have a ton to get to. A lot of uh Bucks questions coming in here after a very, very incredibly chaotic start to the off seasonason. Camille, just looking back at all the interaction and views and comments that we got in that first what two weeks of July. Yeah. Especially um thanks to all the everydayers out there for sticking with us here throughout the summer. If you have not, if you landed on this um by accident, give us a like and subscribe as well. We’re the only daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast out there every single day, Monday through Friday, but year round. There’s no offseason for us here so far. Didn’t mention this at the top of the show. Um, bad job by me and we should have, but certainly everybody stays safe. We hope nobody was severely impacted by all the flooding that took place over the weekend. Our schedule may be a little chaotic because some of us are having to deal with that. Um, so you may see some solo shows or try to drag somebody else over and fill out the uh the time here this week, but certainly anybody impacted by that, our thoughts are um with you. That’ll do it for today’s show for Camille. I’m Justin. We’ll talk with you guys once again tomorrow on Locked on Box.

Bucks’ Starting Lineup Shakeup: Porter Jr. or Rollins at Point? Kuzma’s Role Sparks Debate.

Justin Garcia and Camille Davis dissect the Milwaukee Bucks’ roster, focusing on the battle for starting point guard between Kevin Porter Jr. and Ryan Rollins. They analyze Kyle Kuzma’s potential impact, whether as a starter or off the bench, and how his performance could unlock new possibilities for the team. The hosts explore the competition for the small forward spot, weighing the pros and cons of Kuzma, AJ Green, and Taurean Prince. Chris Livingston’s development path takes center stage as they discuss what the second-year player needs to show to earn minutes in a deep Bucks rotation.

Tune in for expert insights on how these roster decisions could reshape the Bucks’ strategy for the upcoming NBA season.

0:00 Intro: Kyle Kuzma and point guard questions
5:00 Kevin Porter Jr. likely to start at PG
10:31 Cole Anthony’s role off the bench
16:09 Debate over starting A.J. Green or Kyle Kuzma
22:59 Chris Livingston’s path to rotation minutes
34:01 Closing thoughts and schedule update

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