RealGM

77 days.

https://www.nba.com/bucks/news/bucks-announce-2019-preseason-schedule

Monday, Oct. 7
@ Chicago
United Center
7 p.m. (CT)

Wednesday, Oct. 9
vs. Utah
Fiserv Forum
7 p.m. (CT)

Friday, Oct. 11
@ Dallas
American Airlines Center
7:30 p.m. (CT)

Sunday, Oct. 13
@ Washington
Capital One Arena
6 p.m. (CT)

Thursday, Oct. 17
vs. Minnesota
Fiserv Forum
7 p.m. (CT)

Season can't come soon enough!

As a very biased student, it was really cool when they played at the Kohl Center a few years ago

Je K wrote:As a very biased student, it was really cool when they played at the Kohl Center a few years ago

As a very biased student, it was really cool when they played at the Resch Center a few years ago

As a very biased season ticket holder, it's really cool that they play their games in the shiny new stadium

Do us season ticket holders get preseason tickets or no? I dont recall paying for them.

If the Bucks don't come to the Cities on a weekend this year I'm gonna be so **** mad.

DanoMac wrote:As a very biased season ticket holder, it's really cool that they play their games in the shiny new stadium

They play 41 games there. No harm in holding a couple preseason games in cities around the state.

Je K wrote:

DanoMac wrote:As a very biased season ticket holder, it's really cool that they play their games in the shiny new stadium

They play 41 games there. No harm in holding a couple preseason games in cities around the state.

Should have green fonted, just messing around.

I agree, more outreach to the different parts of the state is incredibly valuable and think they should capitalize on every opportunity they have to do it.

DanoMac wrote:

Je K wrote:

DanoMac wrote:As a very biased season ticket holder, it's really cool that they play their games in the shiny new stadium

They play 41 games there. No harm in holding a couple preseason games in cities around the state.

Should have green fonted, just messing around.

I agree, more outreach to the different parts of the state is incredibly valuable and think they should capitalize on every opportunity they have to do it.

Ah my bad. It's definitely getting better now, but the Bucks have had problems engaging fans outside of the city.

Winning helps though

Some of you may have seen me pop up over the last few years here in this forum. I'm a Warriors fan first who became morbidly curious about the Bucks after we kept dumping our dregs (SJax, Maggette, Monta etc) and actually started watching the Bucks during Giannis' rookie season after watching him Dirk-step Tristan Thompson in his preseason debut. In the last two years I've probably watched as many, if not more Bucks games than I have Warriors and 10 games into the season I'd tell anyone who cared that the Bucks were going to face the Warriors in the Finals. I considered this the perfect Finals; I'd be somewhat satisfied with either outcome and we'd get to see some of the most beautiful ever played by two teams with beautiful ball movement based systems.

It goes without saying that I was devastated when the Bucks lost game 6 against Toronto. With about 20 or so seconds left when the Bucks surrendered another offensive board after Giannis' block, I spiked my phone into the ground at a party of friends, several of whom commented that they'd never seen me so sad and so emotionally affected by anything. It's been hard for me to read any media about the Bucks, save for news regarding player transactions, or to talk about that end of the season to other NBA casuals. Somehow this Warriors loss was more bearable to me, perhaps because of the circumstances like the injuries to Klay, KD, and Looney, as well as the total absence of playable bench shooters. I digress. I'm back and I am a little more optimistic about this next Bucks season than I thought I'd be.

My common point of reference for the Bucks is the Warriors and for reasons that I think are obvious and not all tied to my Warriors fandom; the unlikely MVP with a legendary work ethic and a massive chip on their shoulder and the transition from bafflingly incompetent coach to top level tactician. I think that this loss to Toronto will be a turning point in Giannis' career. His free throw shooting fell off of the cliff in high leverage situations for the third postseason in a row and he realized that he couldn't will his way to the rim against what was one of the best defensive teams of this era. Curry went through a similarly frustrating loss in 2014 against the Clippers -- a team that they could have beaten if Jackson had made tactical adjustments earlier in the series -- and that experience of being consistently trapped near the halfcourt line gave Steph valuable lessons about what to work on in the future, and the rest is history.

What makes me optimistic about the Bucks' situation is that next year will be the second season under Bud, as opposed to Steph and Kerr's first championship also being their first season together. Season 2 under Walton/ Kerr gave the Warriors a higher level of comfort with the offensive system and they started the year angry, confident, and with an increased comfort level on the court together. I wouldn't necessarily expect to see the Bucks to go 24-0 to start the season, but if I were a betting man, I'd feel pretty confident putting down some money on Giannis repeating as MVP. His three point shooting percentage increased with every month of the season, he'll almost certainly be working himself to the bone on his free throw shooting, and Bud will be able to implement more complex plays and options within the offensive system. It may sound a little silly, but I think the Bucks suffered a little bit for not being seriously challenged by opponents earlier in the playoffs. Boston gave them one punch in the mouth, but beyond that, they never had to win pube games. The system and Giannis were so dominant for most of the year that the Bucks felt comfortable relying on that in crunch time, to the point of detriment, at least by games 3-6. For the entire year, Giannis had gotten results willing himself to the paint, dunking his defender(s) into oblivion, or kicking it out to a shooter, but Toronto schemed the Bucks really well, Middleton disappeared, open shots stopped falling for the role players, and Bud didn't scheme up actions to comfortable looks for his stars.

I think that's less likely to happen next year. The loss of Brogdon is painful because he was that guy that could be relied on when you needed a tough bucket, but I'm hopeful that the Middleton and Giannis can step up as more reliable crunch time options. Going into the playoffs, I thought that Middleton may prove to be a semi-reliable closer because of his ability to hit contested 2's and the threat of Giannis as roll man in their two man game, but that clearly didn't happen. I think Middleton can improve on those things, but it's clear this team will go as far as Giannis goes and that it's on him to drag this team to victory come crunch time, which means he needs to get comfortable taking and making shots that defenses are willing to concede to him, which in the playoffs are almost always contested mid range shots. Of course, I want Giannis to also get up to 37% + from three and think that's not out of the realm of possibility, but it's supremely important that Giannis goes into his next ECF comfortable and confident taking difficult shots in crunch time, rather than getting stubborn and trying to force the issue.

Beyond the inevitable improvement of Giannis and my cautious optimism that Middleton won't be the worst contract in the league, I'm more OK with Horst's offseason than I anticipated! Brogdon to Matthews is obviously a downgrade, but I think there's something to be said for keeping Matthews' minutes to the 20-25 minute range and riding whichever of Brown/Connaughton/DiVicienzo are producing best, which will keep them all fresh come playoff time. I do think Brown is primed for a big year. He looked way more comfortable handling the ball, especially in that insane Atlanta OT game without the starters, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him spend some time as a small-ball 4, especially with the way he crashes the boards. I am also excited for another year of DJ's development! I was super impressed with his court vision and I think that as his body develops and he becomes a better finisher on the roll, it's going to open up his ability to kick out to shooters as he goes downhill. The addition of Robin Lopez struck me as a little bizarre after the Bucks couldn't buy clean looks in crunch time against Toronto, but the recent interview with Horst in which he said Robin believes he can shoot from deep gave me lots of encouragement, as does the Korver signing.

In short, I can't wait for the preseason and I am beyond excited to see angry and disrepected Giannis smash his opponents.

So you are polyfanerous. Thats strange. Ive never been able to become emotionally invested in a second team before. Ive tried. Im pretty optimistic as well. Cant wait for opening night. I hope its against Toronto.

I've moved this post over to the offseason thread. Shutting this one down. We can talk preseason stuff in the offseason thread.

Warriors Analyst wrote:Some of you may have seen me pop up over the last few years here in this forum. I'm a Warriors fan first who became morbidly curious about the Bucks after we kept dumping our dregs (SJax, Maggette, Monta etc) and actually started watching the Bucks during Giannis' rookie season after watching him Dirk-step Tristan Thompson in his preseason debut. In the last two years I've probably watched as many, if not more Bucks games than I have Warriors and 10 games into the season I'd tell anyone who cared that the Bucks were going to face the Warriors in the Finals. I considered this the perfect Finals; I'd be somewhat satisfied with either outcome and we'd get to see some of the most beautiful ever played by two teams with beautiful ball movement based systems.

It goes without saying that I was devastated when the Bucks lost game 6 against Toronto. With about 20 or so seconds left when the Bucks surrendered another offensive board after Giannis' block, I spiked my phone into the ground at a party of friends, several of whom commented that they'd never seen me so sad and so emotionally affected by anything. It's been hard for me to read any media about the Bucks, save for news regarding player transactions, or to talk about that end of the season to other NBA casuals. Somehow this Warriors loss was more bearable to me, perhaps because of the circumstances like the injuries to Klay, KD, and Looney, as well as the total absence of playable bench shooters. I digress. I'm back and I am a little more optimistic about this next Bucks season than I thought I'd be.

My common point of reference for the Bucks is the Warriors and for reasons that I think are obvious and not all tied to my Warriors fandom; the unlikely MVP with a legendary work ethic and a massive chip on their shoulder and the transition from bafflingly incompetent coach to top level tactician. I think that this loss to Toronto will be a turning point in Giannis' career. His free throw shooting fell off of the cliff in high leverage situations for the third postseason in a row and he realized that he couldn't will his way to the rim against what was one of the best defensive teams of this era. Curry went through a similarly frustrating loss in 2014 against the Clippers -- a team that they could have beaten if Jackson had made tactical adjustments earlier in the series -- and that experience of being consistently trapped near the halfcourt line gave Steph valuable lessons about what to work on in the future, and the rest is history.

What makes me optimistic about the Bucks' situation is that next year will be the second season under Bud, as opposed to Steph and Kerr's first championship also being their first season together. Season 2 under Walton/ Kerr gave the Warriors a higher level of comfort with the offensive system and they started the year angry, confident, and with an increased comfort level on the court together. I wouldn't necessarily expect to see the Bucks to go 24-0 to start the season, but if I were a betting man, I'd feel pretty confident putting down some money on Giannis repeating as MVP. His three point shooting percentage increased with every month of the season, he'll almost certainly be working himself to the bone on his free throw shooting, and Bud will be able to implement more complex plays and options within the offensive system. It may sound a little silly, but I think the Bucks suffered a little bit for not being seriously challenged by opponents earlier in the playoffs. Boston gave them one punch in the mouth, but beyond that, they never had to win pube games. The system and Giannis were so dominant for most of the year that the Bucks felt comfortable relying on that in crunch time, to the point of detriment, at least by games 3-6. For the entire year, Giannis had gotten results willing himself to the paint, dunking his defender(s) into oblivion, or kicking it out to a shooter, but Toronto schemed the Bucks really well, Middleton disappeared, open shots stopped falling for the role players, and Bud didn't scheme up actions to comfortable looks for his stars.

I think that's less likely to happen next year. The loss of Brogdon is painful because he was that guy that could be relied on when you needed a tough bucket, but I'm hopeful that the Middleton and Giannis can step up as more reliable crunch time options. Going into the playoffs, I thought that Middleton may prove to be a semi-reliable closer because of his ability to hit contested 2's and the threat of Giannis as roll man in their two man game, but that clearly didn't happen. I think Middleton can improve on those things, but it's clear this team will go as far as Giannis goes and that it's on him to drag this team to victory come crunch time, which means he needs to get comfortable taking and making shots that defenses are willing to concede to him, which in the playoffs are almost always contested mid range shots. Of course, I want Giannis to also get up to 37% + from three and think that's not out of the realm of possibility, but it's supremely important that Giannis goes into his next ECF comfortable and confident taking difficult shots in crunch time, rather than getting stubborn and trying to force the issue.

Beyond the inevitable improvement of Giannis and my cautious optimism that Middleton won't be the worst contract in the league, I'm more OK with Horst's offseason than I anticipated! Brogdon to Matthews is obviously a downgrade, but I think there's something to be said for keeping Matthews' minutes to the 20-25 minute range and riding whichever of Brown/Connaughton/DiVicienzo are producing best, which will keep them all fresh come playoff time. I do think Brown is primed for a big year. He looked way more comfortable handling the ball, especially in that insane Atlanta OT game without the starters, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him spend some time as a small-ball 4, especially with the way he crashes the boards. I am also excited for another year of DJ's development! I was super impressed with his court vision and I think that as his body develops and he becomes a better finisher on the roll, it's going to open up his ability to kick out to shooters as he goes downhill. The addition of Robin Lopez struck me as a little bizarre after the Bucks couldn't buy clean looks in crunch time against Toronto, but the recent interview with Horst in which he said Robin believes he can shoot from deep gave me lots of encouragement, as does the Korver signing.

In short, I can't wait for the preseason and I am beyond excited to see angry and disrepected Giannis smash his opponents.