Is this Season Laying the Foundation for the Next Competitive Era for Giannis and the Bucks?

Is this Season Laying the Foundation for the Next Competitive Era for Giannis and the Bucks?

Do gap years actually exist? And have we framed the conversation the wrong way? Plus, who’s the second best player on this team? We get the insights from Ty Windish coming up after this on Locked on Bucks. You are Locked on Bucks, your daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome into Lockdown Bucks. I’m Justin Garcia. You can hear me throughout the season on the Bucks Radio Network. Today’s episode brought to you by FanDuel. Football season around the corner. Visit the FanDuel app today and start planning your futures bets. Now, we are uh still coming at you live every single day here. The only live daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast you can find. Shout out to all of our everydayers out there who have been through yet another lengthy off season for this group. We are joined today by Ty Windish who you can hear and see on the Euroep podcast along with Rohan. Um, you guys did something interesting on your most recent show I want to get to, but I threw out the gap year thing and you and I were talking before we started recording that you had some thoughts, too. So, we’ll see if this aligns with where I’m at. But I’ve just been thinking the past couple of days and and talking with a few others um about, you know, gap year, hearing that and as soon as Dame went down, you saw that thrown out there. Maybe it’s a gap year for the Bucks. We’re hearing the Pacers and the Celtics talk about it, too. I mean, the Bucks can’t have a true gap year, per se, with the ambiguity surrounding Giannis. So, let’s get that out of the way. But I I think they’re going to be better this year than they were last year at at the very least as good as they were record-wise. Uh I think we’ll find out about the ceiling. I think we’re all excited to see how this team performs given that it’s going to play different. But when I say gap year, my thought is okay, is this maybe the gap year in the sense that we have a belief in this roster and John Horse talked about sample size. you don’t have it, but we believe in what we saw. We know pretty feel pretty strongly this is going to work with this group. So, let’s start to build something here. And then next summer, we have multiple draft picks we can trade. We have one pretty sizable expiring contract that in terms of sizable moves, and I I know they signed Miles Turner this off seasonason, but like next summer, we can do that. So, let’s just lay the groundwork, see how this works, and then next year we can make our big swing. So, when I say gap year, that’s what I mean. Is that somewhere along the lines of what you were thinking? Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think my Rohan and I talked about this a little bit and it it’s easier to say now post Turner and everything, but even going into the off season, um, I think Eric Dame of the Athletic does great work. I think he’s the one who we can credit with coining this. Yeah. I don’t think it’s something the Bucks would ever really go for. And I don’t think it’s something you could ever sell Giannis. And I I think your point is correct too of like, you know, oh, is he gonna say or not? I I truly believe Hor when he’s John Horse Bucks GM when he says like we don’t think about that like we’re just trying to build the best roster around Giannis. I just think so much of the conversation of the Bucks and less so in our Bucks corner, right? More so I think the National, which has been quite bad and always will be misses the fact he’s 30. Giannis is 30. He’s not in a position where even if Giannis said today like or even if he had said the day after they lose to Indiana publicly, I’ll never leave. I don’t care how bad we are next year. Like let’s I I still don’t think the Bucks would be like excited to say we’re going to take a step back on purpose because you just never know. He’s been extremely healthy. He obviously takes care of himself better than you know 100th percentile of all athletes or people in the world. You just never know. Like I think about Embiid and the fact that I don’t think it really lined up this way, but they kind of punted a year where Embiid was still playing at a very high level and it got them Paul George, which now you’re like, okay, that probably wasn’t worth it. And we don’t know when he’s going to play at a high level again. So I think, you know, certainly it’s it’s a restructure. It’s a step back in salary, you know, that sense, which does give you more flexibility later. But I I think there’s no part of the way horse is wired and the way Giannis is wired where they were ever truly going to say like, “Yeah, we’re we’re fine if we’re the ninth seed this year.” Like, I think they were always going to even if it’s not doesn’t look the same, even if there’s not the quote unquote star player to bring in, I think they were always going to like, “Okay, let’s build the best possible roster we can and see what happens.” It’s like I just think that’s how they’re wired to be and that’s the right call, you know, when your guy is 30, not whatever Hallebertton is, whatever Tatum is. Yeah. And I mean, gap year, that terminology is is we have to find something better for this scenario for the Bucks. Um, but gap year in the sense of I’m sure there’s some, but the majority of Bucks fans are not approaching this season saying they’re one of the best teams in the East. They’re going to win the championship or they’re going to win the Eastern Conference. I know there’s some they’re one of the best teams in the East because there’s there’s not a whole lot. Yeah. So, but let’s remove the East. They’re one of the best league. Like, you’re not approaching it with that expectation. And I know, you know, the goal is to win a championship every season. I don’t think the organization would tell you, “No, we don’t think we have a chance to win the championship this season.” But I think if you were able to get an incredibly honest John Horse and injected him with some truth serum, he would tell you, “Yeah, we probably have much less of a chance this year than we have in any of the past five years, basically.” So, in that sense, it’s we’re going to remain competitive. We still have an opportunity in the East. I mean, we can talk through Orlando got better. Cleveland is good. They were very good last year. I think they they at least stayed the same, if not got slightly better. When you bring in Lonzo Ball, the Knicks, I think there’s still a ton of questions about and and really the framing of the Knicks argument in the Eastern Conference, how everybody’s running with this is, you know, the Knicks and the Cavs, the two best teams on paper, sure, but what if the Knicks lose that series to the Celtics last year? And I think if you you simulate that series a hundred times, Boston wins a majority of the time there. What if they lose? We’re having a much different conversation over wow, the Knicks gave up all of that for Miles Bridges and Carl Anthony Towns and and now you’re going to have to pay Brunson again eventually. How long is his window? Like that’s how quickly things can change here. So I I think that also speaks to look if you find something and it works on both ends of the floor. Why can’t this Bucks team be what the Knicks were two years ago? Yeah, I think that’s that’s the other interesting thing, too, is I think the roster is too often dissected is like that’s the always the question and you led with it. It’s a good question. We talked about it on our show, but like who’s the second best player? And if you frame it in that sense, you’re like, “Okay, they have no chance.” When the other second best players in the conference are like France Vagner and whoever, which of the Cavs guys you want to say, probably Garland or Mobley, I would put Mitchell one or, you know, Carl Anthony Towns. And the Knicks have a lot of good players, but I think for the Bucks, they’re all starting though. They’re all starting. Yeah. For the Bucks, I think I think they’re set up to play defense in a way they haven’t since the Damen Lill era. the Damen Lillard era started and I’m really interested to see what that looks like and I do think that’s how Giannis prefers to play too and there’s just something like they clearly don’t have the second guys that the Thunder had last year the Pacers had or that the Nuggets have had. The Nuggets I don’t think they’re as far off as maybe people think but they don’t have someone as good as Jamal Murray but those teams are the ones that continue to win where it’s like they just fit really well. They have pieces that complement their key player the best possible. And they just have a lot of young athletic two-way players. And I’m just excited to see what that looks like before we put a ceiling on it. And maybe, you know, the season hasn’t started yet. They’ve added players in September before. Like I I don’t think they’re ever fully done. Like I think if the right Koozma trade emerged tomorrow with the Kings and their ongoing desire to do something, it could happen. I mean, they traded for Dame 3 days before camp, so anything could happen. But I I don’t think it’d be farfetched if they did a deal before the season at the deadline. Like I don’t think they feel like they need to, if that makes sense. But horse never turns the phone off as we’ve learned. But I’m excited to see just like this is just going to be a different Bucks team. And I think it is different in the way that they’re going to play like the good teams of this era play and that they’re deep, they’re younger, they are two-way players, they’re don’t have three old stars. And we’ve seen teams like that just not work more often than they have worked. I think the Bucks have kind of leaned into what’s worked around the league. Now, maybe the talent level just isn’t high enough, but I think framework-wise it makes sense and maybe you plug one more plus player in there and then suddenly it resembles those rosters that have had playoff success too. Yeah, there’s a couple interesting things you said there that I want to touch on um after the break and then also I mentioned you guys ranked one through 15 how you felt the roster was with your power rankings and it leads to a very interesting question for this group. So we’ll get to that conversation coming up after this on Locked on Bucks. August 26th is officially FanDuel Futures Day, a brand new holiday for football fans who live for bold predictions and pre-season hunches. For just 24 hours, FanDuel has given you deals on NFL season predictions. So whether you’re calling your MVP, eyeing a longot division winner, ready to crown your Super Bowl champ before week one even kicks off, this is your moment. Take a flyer on the MVP race for Jordan Love. Maybe crown the Packers as your Super Bowl champions in August. or parlay your division winner dark horses. Visit FanDuel and their app today to start planning your futures bets now because futures day is one day and one day only. FanDuel, play your game. I I think so. Getting back to what you just said before, I feel like there’s a lot of excitement for this group even if our expectations are tempered somewhat just because it’s going to be different and it’s going to be probably closer to what we saw, you know, basically during that run Sans the Damen Lillard era where even back then we were having similar conversations and look the guys that we were talking about I would say are better as number TWS than this group that we’re currently looking at, but it was the same thing of like, well, who’s the second best player on this team? Is Chris Middleton good enough to be that? And we saw it was a group that just fit together uh early on in the tenure, especially it was a younger athletic team that could play on both ends of the floor. And then that just kind of slowly started to slip away. And we’ve talked about the roster construction and the Bucks just really leaning into age. It felt like the last two years especially this group was getting into a business that was slowly going out of business. It would be like you’re getting into DVD rentals or something like well I don’t know how much longer this is. Like we’ve seen with the cap and the CBA super teams are not conducive. And I think the big learning point from this past postseason was you actually need depth now. Like you need to have multiple guys. It’s not just the old play eight and trust seven. I think you can extend that by one or two guys even. So depth is important but you really cannot have one glaring weakness in this league because of where the talent is and and what the coaching schemes are that you can find that and take advantage. And the Bucks clearly had a weakness for the past couple of years. Uh two years ago entirely on the defensive side of the floor. For two years, it’s not a knock on him. Damen Lillard’s a smaller point guard that you’re going to look at that and say, “This is the matchup we want to take.” So to take some of that away, I think kind of builds on that excitement to see, okay, to your point, this is a role where Giannis has really thrived. and to have those guys that can be defensive playmakers around him and set things up for transition versus just playing a slower style of play because when you look at the roster, I I think it’s safe to assume this team is going to play at a faster pace this season. Yeah. And I think the one obviously you’re upgrading defensively pretty much whichever of the three option. I think realistically one or I think probably KBJ starts. I think Rollins would be the other one who could. I’d be surprised if Anthony did. I think certainly in the first two scenarios, you’re better defensively there. I also think as great as Brook Lopez is, and I think he’s gonna look really good at in the Clippers in his backup role, certainly in like against modern teams, which as an ardent Brook Lopez defender throughout the whole tenure, it in the earlier days it was like, yeah, he’s going to struggle against, you know, the speedier stretch fives, but not that many teams have those. It’s starting to become a bit more prevalent, especially the good teams. The good teams can stretch out you pretty much at any point. Um, and I just think they become a lot more matchup proof now. Not in the sense that like they’re going to shut down every team and have the best defense in the league, but I just don’t think there’s going to be a style of play that particularly bothers them. Whereas in the past, like a stretch five, you just know like, okay, either that guy’s going to get open shots. I mean, the Knicks are a great example of this. The Bucks just could not defend the Knicks at all. And even when they tried to go smaller with Big Bob, like Bobby Poris couldn’t really hang with with Towns either. Now, I just think you’re gonna have Giannis and Turner out there for probably the whole game against him. Your floor of just being able to match up with any kind of lineup because that’s I think that’s really what people say when they say lineup kind of versatility, right? It’s like how stretchy can your five get? That’s the real determinant. If you have a five or you know your least stretchy player, like if you’re playing Ben Simmons at the one, you don’t really have it anyway, but it it’s, you know, your weakest link. How stretchy are they? Can they attack off the dribble? Can they shoot? whatever. I just think the Bucks now are so well equipped to say we’re always going to have someone who can guard those players and we’re never going to have a huge liability defensively. Their worst defender who I think they’ll play in big minutes is like I don’t know is it going to be Cole Anthony? Is it going to be maybe Bobby Poris who they don’t really use at the five anymore. So I really thought down the stretch his kind of defensive shortfalls were really mass. They just kind of used him as a big wing and I think he’s okay at that. I don’t think he’s bad at that. I I just think now it’s like they’re very solid defensively. They don’t have the defensive player of the year players outside of like Giannis on the perimeter, but I think that just being solid, it may be a worthwhile trade for them to your point of like the weak link theory defensively. Um, I mean, what do you think the ceiling is for their defense? I I think they could be a top five defense. Um, I think I think I think the base I think they’ll be baseline if they’re like 12th, that’s like the low end of where I see this group. I think so too. I think defensively the anchor the front court should be as long as those guys play which I think you know 60 to 70ish games each like the Giannis Turner front court I think it’s just going to be nasty. Like I think we saw a lesser version of it just with Pascal who I think is a very good defender and and and uh Turner but I think Giannis obviously is just better and can do even more and I I think those two are going to set the tone. You worry a little bit about the two three or at least I do. Like I think Trent is is fine. I think green is fine. If they start together, you’re a little small. But we did this exercise of like what teams, especially in the East are really going to kill you if if you, you know, if you don’t have like two great there’s not that many forwards that you can really point out and say like, “Oh, that guy’s going to be a huge problem with his teammates as well.” Like there’s a lot of skilled guards. There’s a couple of forwards, but there’s not many where you’re like, “Oh, you know, there’s just no way Giannis and one of these other guys could guard those two players with the Boston injury.” That would be the one team. Uh, but obviously Tatum won’t play. I was I mean that conversation always came back to well how do you match up against the Celtics because you have to find somebody to take Tatum and then if that means he’s taking him who’s taking Jaylen Brown and now that’s probably not going to be the case this season. I know John Carales has has said I’m not ruling out Jason Tatum playing this year. Which we’ll see. I I still kind of feel like with this roster the Celtics might be quiet quitting on this season. Yeah, if you’re starting like Chris Buchet or like Luca Garza at the five, I I don’t think you’re you’re all in. Uh is is how I would put that. I I would agree with you. Um so, we mentioned the second best player and and kind of ranking this roster. Again, you and Rohan did this on your most recent show, right? It was over an hour that you guys really dug into it. I think your your top three were identical on each side. Uh, and then it was largely the same, but we saw some some variance. So, it was it was literally to spoil it, it was exactly the same, except we flip-flopped 14 and 15, which was a great debate at the end of the show. Rohan wouldn’t even get into it with me. And he had he had Koosma and literally everything else was the same. And we reacted like we had entirely different lists one through 15 because usually we end up agreeing on everything. I would uh I mean obviously I I have to side with you because you pick Chris Livingston as 14 versus 15. Um Tyler Smith being 15. I think after summer league that’s where everybody would would kind of clock in there. But your top three that you guys had in this order were Giannis, Miles Turner and Gary Trent Jr. So I uh I think Gary Trent Jr. is going to be up there. I think right now you would have to say Miles Turner is the second best player on this team. If that were to change at season’s end where we look back and say, “Wow, this guy was the second best player.” I take it you think it would be Gary Tren Jr. that would be that surprise or one of the point guards. Um yeah, I would say like I think what you guys had um Kevin Porter Jr. eighth on your list. Yeah. Um I would say he’s probably somewhere around like five for me, but I think he has the highest variance where I could see him finishing the season as the second best player. I could see him finishing the season like around eight. Like well, you saw a lot of good, but we saw a lot of turnovers. We saw a lot of the bad as well. Yeah, I think he is de him and Kuzmar are the two where I think people have the most diverging opinions. I mean, Porter Jun opinions on Kyle Kosma. Well, Rohan has him fourth, so there’s there’s there’s there’s at least one other one. Um, but the KPJ thing is like I think you could put him almost anywhere. I mean, obviously not one, and I I wouldn’t drop him to like the very bottom couple of tiers we did, but you know, the three-point shooting obviously like 24% in 45 games with the Clippers, 40.8% in 30 games with the Bucks, and he played the same minutes per game in either stint. And career-wise, he’s been better than 24%. He’s also been worse than 40%. And I would expect there’s just some leveling out there. But even like the two-point percent, the free throw percentage, like it all raised a lot as a buck. And I get the argument of like, you know, it’s a better fit for him here and everything else. And that’s great. And it certainly seemed like it. I think the number one reason I’m most confident in him maintaining a strong impact. It did seem like he had a real chemistry with Giannis. And I think there should be a baseline there of like run that pick and roll. He is probably the best point guard like driver and finisher they’ve had to pair with Giannis. I mean, Dane is a great driver, but he wasn’t going to he’s not going to go flush at home all the time like KPJ was able to. I mean, you could see Giannis in real time. When they start playing together, almost like shocked by like, wow, point guards are allowed to just like drive and slam dunks like this. I thought it was only me on the whole roster who was allowed to do this. They It’s really how they built for quite a while there. Um, but I I just think there’s, you know, the mid-range also fell at a really high level. I don’t know what sample to fully believe in. I would love if he just decided to be the 50 40 87 guy he was as a Milwaukee Buck. I don’t fully buy it. Um and I think Rollins defensive upside is is pretty large and I think they could use him playing a lot. Um but KPJ certainly I I could see being like wow he I mean he’s had a 194 and five season or five and five season like if he does that again he’s going to rise quite a bit obviously. Um, a couple interesting things to point out about KPJ and and you brought up the name Ryan Rollins, who I get the feeling, you mentioned Brooke, we were both very very adamant Brook Lopez supporters. I I will recognize I hung on a bit too long towards the end. Um, I think Ryan Rollins is going to be the guy that usurps Brook Lopez in that regard for me at least. So, some things to get to about those two in the back court and any predictions we have on what’s going to come out later today as the NBA schedule is released. We’ll get to that coming up after this. So, one of the things that um stood out to me about Kevin Porter Jr. what and and what makes it frankly very hard to discern what you just went through of like well it’s probably going to regress somewhat I would think but I don’t know how much I don’t know when that’s going to occur is the usage rate was pretty much identical all throughout his career. So when he’s on the floor he’s using it at a high volume and minutes changed slightly when he went from the Bucks to the Clippers. It was obviously both cases much much further down from where it was uh that three-year run with the Rockets, but it’s not like he all of a sudden while these numbers just started to explode and the efficiency rised because he had the ball in his hands a lot more. He had the same usage rate in his time with the Clippers. And one thing I I don’t think people fully realize is everything that has been said about Kyle Kosma and the Knox and the criticisms on him in a Bucks uniform. I mean Kevin Porter Jr. was basically that guy with the Clippers. Like in terms of efficiency numbers, he was one of the five worst players in the league. That that’s why nobody batted an eye when the Bucks made this trade. It was mostly just like, oh, and you would bring up the off the court stuff because nobody believed there was anything there anymore. Even for a guy still young and had a 50-point game in his career and put up some decent numbers. Yeah. Against the Bucks, put up some decent numbers with the Rockets. Uh it was that bad in Los Angeles. And I I think that was really the most perplexing thing of all of this is no one’s denying the talent, but it was as bad as you can get. and he was basically the spark this team needed to play the way they did in those final eight games and and really beyond that once they brought him on board. Yeah. And I think the playoffs were interesting for him. I see both sides kind of of the whole and this is I think he’s probably I think you’re right more than Kosma because it’s just mostly anti-Koozma sentiment. KPJ has to be the most divisive player on the Bucks right now. And you’ll see you know I think the thought that like he was awful in the playoffs. I wouldn’t say awful. I thought he was vaguely productive, started very slow. I think he played better when Dame was out and he just knew, I think, what his role was going to be a little bit more, but the twos just didn’t fall right. He was 46% from three, 36% from two on more than twice the amount of total shots there. And that’s what I’m looking at, too. Like it, you know, obviously if he continues to shoot, if the three-point percentage starts with a four, we’re in a pretty good place as long as it’s not 4%. But the twos, like that long mid-range, he shoots a lot of those as well. And I know Doc spoke pretty frankly about, you know, less of the dancing, more of the driving. I think that’s going to be really important for him of even if you miss at the rim, like you just can’t you can’t take five twos in a row and make one of them. Like that’s, you know, that this team’s really going to need to grind out good offense. And I think over relying on his mid-range wouldn’t help with that. He’s just a fascinating player. The variance, you’re right, is just like skyhigh. I don’t think there’s anyone on the roster realistically who I could see being as high as like two or three on the importance. And on the other end, like if it if it falls apart like it did with the Clippers for whatever reason, they have two NBA caliber point guards and that role could go away. Like I think it’s going to be a competitive room for them. They I mean they have two NBA caliber point guards regardless of it’s what’s funny is we’ve I don’t know about you guys we’ve seen this slow building of some not necessarily anti-AJ Green but some people questioning AJ Green. Um and then Ryan Rollins too which you know we’ve had a few people like why you why do you keep talking about Ryan Rollins potentially starting that guy’s not a starting caliber point guard. He started 20 games for the Bucks last season and he was pretty good in those games. Uh, but to your point, if if we do see the bad version of Kevin Porter Jr., you do have two other guys that you can lean on and it’s not like you’re heavily committed to Kevin Porter Jr. in terms of financially that it’s not like, wow, this was a disaster. So I I for all those reasons and kind of the spark that he gave, I would I think much prefer see him come off the bench and be that guy that’s really handling the ball and driving things when Giannis is off the floor for that reason and the fact that I I just think Ryan Rollins pairs very nicely with Giannis because of his defensive ability and he’s become a pretty good spot-up shooter. doesn’t need the ball that he can work off ball quite a bit. But I I don’t think that’s going to be the case. I I think as invested as they were and they tried to get him last off season and thought they had him before he ultimately went to the Clippers, I think as invested as they are and and the talent that’s there, I think he’s going to be the guy that’s starting a point guard. Yeah, I do too. And I I wonder if part of the Cole Anthony edition, which was I was a little bit of a headscratcher for me because I think he’s too good of a player to sign somewhere and just not expect to play at all. I would assume there’s some sort of a role carved out for him. And that’s I think that’s true of all three of these guys. Like you said, they’re not super financially invested in Kevin Porter Jr., but he did get what this the third biggest deal of anyone they signed. I mean, it’s Miles Turner, Bobby Poris, and him. And they added a lot of talented players on new contracts this summer. And Rollins got three years. So, you know, clearly all of these guys they’re invested in in some point. Cole Anthony the least. But also, you know, as an outside player, you’ve got to pitch him. So I wonder is are we going to see more Rollins with those two and then have Cole Anthony be that non Giannis spark plug because I think Cole is probably worse fit with Giannis on just with I think there’s less spacing upside for him than either of the other two guards. So I’m wondering they bring him in to just be that bulldog you know create some havoc plays. I’ve comped it as like, you know, their version of TJ McConnell almost of like the star goes out and this guy just comes and brings energy and junks it up a bit and then Rollins shifts to the two and then you can kind of have one of Green or Trent be your nominal three in more lineups because I think they’re just too good, too important to not play a lot. But then you run into like, okay, now you have Torian Prince, now you have Kyle Koosma, now you have is Gary Harris going to play? Is Andre Jackson Jr. gonna play? like you run out of spots real quick knowing you’ve got the front court trio of Giannis Turner and Portoris, not to mention Sims who I think is probably losing some ground here, but will step in and play a lot when this big is out that I’m I’m interested to see that in terms of like what happens with Jericho. I mean, they obviously like him and believe in him. Yeah, we’ve seen the Bucks traditionally just go with three bigs in the past and a lot of that had to do with roster makeup where you didn’t have anything. I mean, Robin Lopez, but that was essentially it. Sergea. Serge. Yeah. But I I wonder how much that changes. And one of the interesting things and I I talked with Tony East yesterday quite a bit about Miles Turner. Great P. Tony rules. he. So, one of our questions was, look, we can criticize the play style and everything else, but you could pen in Brook Lopez for 80 games a year, and when I look at Miles Turner’s game logs, that’s not the case. Now, to Tony’s point, well, there’s one year where it was kind of a tank job. Yeah. One or two years where there was an actual injury. the last two years he’s played on average like 74 games a year, which is perfectly fine. And if that’s, hey, Jericho Sims, you’re going to start at center and you’re going to get these opportunities for five to 10 games a year, they’re in a much better spot to handle that than they were a year ago. But that to me is one of the underlying things of like we took for granted how much of an iron man Brook Lopez was. And that’s probably not going to be the case with not just Miles Turner, whoever you bring in after Brook Lopez. Yeah, I think and I think we forget how hard that season was for them when he missed most of it and how much Giannis openly literally talked about like I I don’t want to play center like you guys don’t know how hard this is and the Brooke the the iron man the culture side so many things are what he brought I mean we did the whole we don’t have to do it on this show too but jersey retirement uh debate and everything we can I’m I’m all on board I’m in favor of it people act like they have to pay out of their own pocket to get a jersey up server we’re going to run out of numbers I think we can afford to lose Not to get sidetracked, he’s the greatest free agent signing in franchise history right now. He’s the second best center in franchise history for a franchise that had Kareem Abdul Jabbar. He won a championship. He’s up there in the record book like he he should have his jersey retired. I totally agree. And I mean just game was it five and six against Atlanta with Giannis out and leading the charge. the block on KD in that Net series. Like you could talk about how he didn’t close the games against the Suns, but man, he was indispensable throughout that whole run. Anyway, don’t want to get too I have 24 up behind me, so we know I can get real sidetracked on jersey retirement stuff here. Um, but yeah, I think Livingston fan, huh? Yeah, big Livingston. Exactly. I got it’s updated. Um, but that makes I think the point guard room it I almost feel like they approach it like NFL teams approach position groups if they don’t have like a star player of just like who wins. Yeah. We think we think like two of these three guys at least should be solid NBA players. Don’t know exactly which ones for this coming season, but like let’s just add an extra one and we’ll play the two that play best or we’ll have options if there’s an injury or anything else. But yeah, I think Sims the same way for the center spot of just yeah, we’re probably not going to have someone who plays all 82. Maybe Lopez isn’t able to do that anymore at this age either. I mean, he’s been defying father time, but at some point it it always wins. and having Sims who I think has never been in a spot where he’s used to playing every game. Don’t think it’ll be a huge adjustment for him. I think he’s good at just bringing that impact no matter what the role is. But yeah, I’d feel comfortable with him if he has to start for two weeks and just bring a lot of defense. You know, the spacing limitations are there, but he’s got a really really plus skill set defensively with the switching and everything. So, uh I think they’re a lot deeper than people think at most positions. And my new litmus test for how much you pay attention to the Bucks is if you’re worried about point guard, I think that’s not the position. If you’re talking about the three spot and what that’s going to look like, that’s the one I’m like, “All right, you’re in tune with the Bucks.” So, I think point guard, they’re fine. It’s not They don’t have Damian Lo, they don’t have Drew Holiday. I think they’re going to have enough production there. I think they’re fine everywhere, but the the three is where the questions are. I think they have workarounds and again the way the Eastern Conference is and the lack of those types of rosters has made it more palatable. But that’s where you would circle and say I have questions otherwise this is you know since maybe 2019 the deepest I remember this team being um just up and down like Torian Prince is very valuable regular season depth. You can say, “Oh, he didn’t perform in the playoffs.” And he was playing out of position a lot of the time, which is on the coaching staff, but he was a 40 plus% three-point shooter that’s going to give you valuable regular season depth. Andre Jackson Jr. is probably pushed out of the mix right now, and we saw he can give you some valuable minutes throughout the regular season. Same with Jericho Sims. So, they’re they’re going three deep at a lot of positions now where guys with guys that are they great? No. But you at least trust them in an NBA game, which was not the case for the back half of this run where it was very topheavy and like, well, we hope we don’t suffer a major injury. Obviously, if Giannis misses significant time, that changes a lot about this roster. But, you know, outside of that, it’s it’s a pretty deep group that they’ve assembled. Yeah. And I think, you know, you hear that thrown at them of like, oh, if Yiannis, well, Tatum’s going to miss the season and the Celtics just gave up. Like obviously if the best player is going to miss a lot of time unless you’re probably like Oklahoma City or a very few amount of teams, it’s probably not going to be great for you. That’s that’s just how sports works. And I don’t know. I I I think there don’t have as many proven players at least like from the one through three. But they certainly have more players with upside than we’ve ever had coming into a season because this was the opposite of their approach, right? It was like Jay Crowder’s had a good 12year career. let’s see if we can ring a little more a little more out of him. And I loved Bucks Wesley Matthews, right? But it was like he was on the downs slope and you can go through so many different players whereas now it’s like, you know, if you can get one or two of these guys to pop to any sort of a degree, suddenly now you’re cooking with gasoline. And I do think they have some pretty smart bets to do that, especially in the point guard. The um the final thing that I want to throw at you here is uh we mentioned the schedule gets released later on today. We kind of all assumed the Bucks were not going to be playing on Christmas Day. I didn’t foresee only two Eastern Conference teams and those two teams playing each other. Um, we’ve learned only one game so far as of this recording. That’s the Martin Luther King Jr. Day game against the Cup games, too. Sorry. Those came out yesterday. So, we knew who they were already going to be playing. They’re all We knew they were going to be in November. We know the dates of those, too. Um, so I guess was it you that pointed out the number of national games they had and like technically we would include NBA TV and that’s it was what 17 last year. It was 17 without NBA TV. So filtering those out because those are not true. I would say national. No, which now we’re going to have to have the same conversation about Peacock. I think I say yes. Peacock and Amazon. I would still say national. You think it’s less national games this year? I think it’s the same. I actually think it’s going to be the same. Um, not because I think that the NBA is excited to feature the Milwaukee Bucks with no second star, depending on how you feel about Miles Turner, but I think Giannis is still a big enough draw. And there’s just has to be some East teams at some point for their like their logistics, I think. And I just don’t think there’s many that would slot ahead of the Bucks. I mean, clearly the Knicks, who my poll was, and I’ll ask you, Nicks are going to have them out. Yeah. But who’s going to have more, the Knicks or the rest of the East combined? And I think that’s going to be a real it’s gonna end up close. But like we all think Orlando is going to be good. Do we really think the NBA is gonna like put Orlando on national TV 20 times? I frankly don’t. Yeah, that’s going to be the tell. Um like especially last year when it was like how are you not featuring the Thunder and the Pacers more and stuff like that. Like did they learn from that? And are they going to do that? The danger being well do people really care about that? Do casual fans do they know who’s on the Magic? Are they going to tune in for it? I suppose the counter to that is I don’t know, you already got your bag. Like you just you’re starting the new TV deal, so are you that concerned with what are the ratings going to look like? Um, but I mean I I think there’s certainly I think they’re going to be somewhere a little less, a couple fewer games on the national scale just because I think the Knicks are going to have a ton. Like if if you’re not sick of the Knicks, you will be. I would say probably like half of their games if I had to like not even kidding. If you count NBA TV, probably half of their games. They’re gonna have like a Chief schedule. Cavs are going to have a lot. I would They have a good amount like that. That’s an interesting one, too. Like, do they really go all in on the Cavs? Obviously, they’re really good. So, I think they will, but are is just going to like spread the wealth and be like, “We’ll just give everybody else 10.” I mean, the Celtics might still have a lot. I think they draw, but it gets a little risky. Like, I don’t know, maybe they’ll topload that one because I think we all know like if they’re 20 and 40, like I don’t know if Jaylen Brown we see him much in March, April, you know what I mean? I mean, and they can dip out too. Like we saw it happen to the Bucks where there were some question games last year like he really passed on this game for this one. Um, I suppose what would your ideal home opener be for the Bucks? I mean, Pacers in town, right? I I but I think they might do that game in Indie. I think the Turner return is maybe more. Yeah. Yeah. But otherwise, I don’t know. I I think that’s the only like that’s the only real rivalry and it’s not going to it’s not going to be the same. I think those I think the Pacers are going to play at 2,000% in that game for a variety of reasons now. But I can’t even really think of like a close second. You know, the Heat have kind of fallen apart. The Celtics aren’t going to have their guy and I don’t think the Celtics think about the Bucks at all anymore, right? Like they’ve probably moved on from that. The Suns are gone, you know? So, I I I don’t know. They There’s not a lot where I’m like, “Oh, I can’t wait to see them play that team.” It’s more just like I can’t wait to see him play. Yeah. I mean it’s like there’s there’s none of those individual um appeals at least not as many like even stuff like it was always interesting when they would go to Memphis or Memphis would come here and you’d hear questions to Taylor about hey Giannis is doing this but that’s gone now the Bud component is gone. I think it’s it like next year is the interesting part of like if this team is much better and kind of plays where we think both think they’re going to be around what’s the inclusion of national games then do they start to reenter that okay they got Giannis and they look really good they’re back in that fold and then next year is also when you get maybe the Celtics are fully back the Pacers will have Tyrese Hallebertton back and those games have a little more juice and Damen Lillard playing and Dame coming to Milwaukee and the Bucks going out there. So like next year to me is the really interesting. This one to your point is just like I I just want to see this team play. Is like Wizards at Bucks like a top five home opener to welcome back Chris. You should mention that. Yeah. But it’s not it’s like we’ve already seen it once. It won’t be the first time, right? They came or did they not come to Milwaukee? They did not DC. Okay. Uh so yeah, no homecoming yet for Chris. So I mean that might be like number one or number two. I mean, there’s not a lot. I mean, I guess again, Drew Drew with the Blaz Brooke coming home like the Blazers, but Dame won’t be playing. But Drew will be playing, but we’ve seen that though, too, with the Celtics. So, yeah, I don’t think like gameplaywise, they haven’t they just keep losing to the same team, so there’s not a lot of rivalries going on at the moment. I mean, I guess the Sixers, they usually play well, and if their guys are playing, that could be a good one. But, I feel like both teams just have other things in mind currently and than each other. Um, people can find you. I mentioned you and Rohan doing the Euroep podcast. They can find you there on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. Yep. Yep. Wherever you get this fantastic podcast, which you should give five stars. You can find ours as well. We’ll be doing schedule stuff tomorrow like I think most everyone will be. Uh, Ty, always good to catch up with you. Appreciate the time. Yep. Thank you very much, Justin. He mentioned they will have their schedule show. We will do the same later today or early tomorrow morning. Camille is going to rejoin us for that one for Tai. I’m Justin. We’ll talk with you guys once again tomorrow on Locked on Box.

Bucks shake up roster: Is a defensive powerhouse emerging in Milwaukee? Giannis and Myles Turner could form a “nasty” frontcourt as the team aims for a top-five defense.

Justin Garcia and guest Ty Windish analyze the Milwaukee Bucks’ offseason moves, debating if this is a “gap year” or a strategic rebuild. They break down key additions like Turner and Gary Trent Jr., exploring how these pieces fit alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo. The duo also tackles the Bucks’ national TV appeal, potential rivalries, and expectations for the upcoming schedule release.

Will the new-look Bucks defense stifle Eastern Conference foes? Tune in for expert insights on Milwaukee’s path back to contention.

0:00 Intro: Gap years and second-best player discussion
5:22 Bucks’ roster construction and league trends
10:14 Excitement for new Bucks team dynamics
16:55 Ranking Bucks players and Kevin Porter Jr.
23:34 Point guard competition and Cole Anthony’s role
29:02 Myles Turner vs Brook Lopez availability
34:18 NBA schedule release and national TV games
40:09 Outro: Upcoming schedule analysis shows

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