My son William Lou is a good boy. He wrote a very good preview of Raptors-Bucks, highlighting 11 things you need to know for the series. You should go read it on Will’s Medium page.
Here’s an excerpt:
2. A brief history of time
Let’s take a quick history of this young Bucks team.
Everything came together in 2014 when Jason Kidd settled in Milwaukee by way of a failed ultimatum in Brooklyn (threatening a Russians tycoon was a bold decision). Kidd instilled his signature smallball principles with the team, thus putting Giannis Antetokounmpo on the path to superstardom, while the team learned to play a swarming style of defense. They were fun early in the season, but couldn’t pass up the chance to swap Brandon Knight for Michael Carter-Williams (Kidd loves those point guards who resemble himself in the slightest). This derailed their offense and a decidedly average Bucks team lost to the Bulls in six games. Shoutout to Giannis for bodying Mike Dunleavy in that series — he did that shit for the culture.
2015 was was miscalculation for the Bucks. They made the classic small franchise mistake by spending too much money on a free agent that didn’t quite fit in Greg Monroe. Accommodating a plodder like Monroe detracted from the Bucks’ greatest strength (athleticism) and their other acquisitions also flopped. Swapping a disgruntled Greivis Vasquez for the cap space to sign Cory Joseph, a future 1st (that became Serge Ibaka) and a second-round pick that was Norman Powell is one of Masai Ujiri’s best moves. Bucks struggled all season to find their identity and honestly, having O.J. Mayo as the veteran voice in their locker room was a stupid idea.
Milwaukee rectified most of their mistakes this season. They went back to playing an open court game with their wealth of athletes. However, their season went sideways in training camp as Khris Middleton tore his left hamstring (gross). This left the Bucks short on outside shooting, especially since giving $38 million to Matthew Dellavedova turned out to be a flop (learn from your mistakes, small market teams!).
Losing Jabari Parker to a second ACL tear looked to be the finishing blow. However, Middleton returned ahead of schedule to essentially take Parker’s spot in the lineup, and quite frankly they fit better in this arrangement. Parker is fantastically talented (he really is a poor man’s Carmelo Anthony) but he needs the ball in his hands to thrive. Losing Parker meant more of point Giannis, more of Malcolm Brogdon, while Middleton provided better spacing and wildly superior defense.
Milwaukee went 17–10 after the All-Star break for the fifth-best record in the league (Raptors were fourth at 17–7). However, this is a bit misleading since the Bucks’ net rating was minus-0.2, which translates to a .500 team. Credit the Bucks for getting those wins, but some measure of luck positively influenced their results.
Will’s the best.
