Bucks Stock Market: Giannis' shots kept on falling against Dallas.
Unfortunately, those were the only shots falling for most of the Bucks' final preseason game.
Welcome back to the Bucks Stock Market! This is a completely fake market that tracks player stock “movements” following the conclusion of each game.
The Milwaukee Bucks preseason is OVER. They went out with sort of a whimper, falling 114-103 to the Dallas Mavericks in Milwaukee, but there were some bright spots at least. Let’s get to the stonks.
Giannis Antetokounmpo📈
I don’t even want to say too much to avoid any jinxes, but goodness gracious Giannis looks as good as we’ve ever seen him play. He continues to take — and make — jumpers with a smooth, confident motion we just haven’t seen from him this consistently before. He also continues to be great at all of the other things: GA was 9/11 from the field, 2/2 from 3, and logged 10 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 steal to go with his 26 points. He played 25 minutes. I think Giannis is ready for the season.
Jordan Nwora 📉
Nwora got the start with Khris Middleton out for personal reasons, but unfortunately did not offer a great showing with more talent around him. He was 6/17 from the floor and 1/9 from deep, and despite making some pretty 2s just didn’t seem to flow nicely with his teammates for much of this game. Nwora still needs to work on playing within structure and not just being a wandering bucket in all of his minutes.
Pat Connaughton 📉
I am hoping it’s because Bobby Portis hasn’t played, but Pat Connaughton seems to be trying to do too much this preseason. He took 9 shots and made just 3 of them on Friday, including a 1/7 mark on three-pointers. Pat will do better with Portis and Middleton playing, without a doubt.
Jrue Holiday📈
Jrue just rocks. 13 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, and some beautiful finishes at the basket. According to Marques Johnson on the Bucks broadcast, Milwaukee assistant coach Chad Forcier has been working with Jrue on finishing in particular. If he can nail that down, it will pay big dividends for the Bucks, who managed to win a championship despite Jrue missing tons of layups last postseason.
Sandro Mamukelashvili📉
Back to back downstocks for Mamu, who was 0/5 and just doesn’t look the same against real NBA competition. He also had 2 turnovers and 3 fouls. A year in Oshkosh will be good for Sandro to get ready for this level of competition.
The next time we see the Milwaukee Bucks, they will be getting championship rings, playing real NBA basketball against Kevin Durant and James Harden, and hosting a banner into the rafters of Fiserv Forum. Tuesday night is going to be fun, folks.