Bucks Stock Market: We saw the starters and they are freaking awesome.
Milwaukee looked every bit the confident defending champions they are in a big preseason win over OKC.
Welcome back to the Bucks Stock Market! This is a fake market run by the GSPN squad that tracks the movement of player “stocks” following the conclusion of each Milwaukee Bucks game. We will track these results over the course of the season post-preseason, but for now just like the game scores they aren’t all that important in the grand scheme.
The big news coming into Milwaukee’s third preseason game was Giannis Antetokounmpo making his debut on this iteration of the Bucks, which means both we got to watch Giannis and we got to watch a “real” Bucks team with a starting lineup that means something. The results were incredible — the Bucks won 130-110, and looked amazing. Milwaukee still isn’t at full strength, as Bobby Portis, Donte DiVincenzo, George Hill, Rodney Hood, and Semi Ojeleye all sat out, but let’s get to the guys who DID play.
Mike Budenholzer 📈
So far, my take that I’d be just fine with Bud getting a 20 year contract extension is aging pretty well. On a night where Giannis and the new-look starting 5 debuted, as the game went on it was Bud I thought about more and more. The Bucks’ half-court offense looked dynamic and much more active than it has in years past, and the team continued to effectively switch on defense, with even Brook Lopez (the least switch-friendly player on the roster by far) switching some. We also saw more of Giannis playing the way that made him an NBA champion (more on that in a second). One of the tantalizing parts of the Bucks winning it all last year is they were so new to so many things: Jrue Holiday being on the team, switching on defense, figuring out the dunker spot, playing Giannis as more of a center. Milwaukee winning the championship despite that is a testament to Bud’s stewardship, and the Bucks getting better at incorporating those things is a scary thought for the rest of the league. So far, Bud has this team trending in the right direction.
Giannis Antetokounmpo 📈
The only bad part of Giannis’ game is he seemed to grab at his knee at one point, and along with the rest of the starters didn’t play much after that. I’m not too worried — I don’t think he would’ve played if typical NBA exertion could do more damage than simply making his knee sore — and now I want to get to the good stuff. I have wondered if Giannis would stick with the transformation that turned him into a Finals MVP, or want to go back to trying to play more like LeBron than Shaq. I got my answer within 5 minutes. The first play of the game was a designed Giannis post touch that resulted in a physical bucket on Darius Bazley, and he was 4/5 in the first 5 minutes with all the shots coming basically right at the rim — the one miss, he gobbled up and dunked emphatically. That was Finals MVP Giannis on display, which is exactly what I hoped to see.
Khris Middleton 📈
Khris Middleton looked like Playoff Khris in the game against the Thunder, taking and making tons of tough mid-rangers and adding a pair of made threes for good measure. Typical great stuff from Money Middleton.
Grayson Allen 📈📈
Grayson Allen stock is becoming wildly valuable as he continues to look like the perfect fifth starter on the Bucks. His offensive game is so refined — he’s a great shooter off of the catch, he’s can handle the ball and capably run pick and roll, and he’s got the explosiveness to make teams pay for wisely being terrified of Giannis rolling to the basket.
Jrue Holiday 📈
I don’t have too much to say here — it was a typically awesome Jrue Holiday game with a buzzer beater three-pointer as an exclamation point to Milwaukee’s uber exciting first quarter. We’re all spoiled to get to watch a team so good Jrue is basically the third option.
Pat Connaughton 📈
Similarly to Jrue, Pat C was out there doing Good Pat C stuff. He made three of his five attempted threes and added three rebounds and three assists without committing a turnover. He’s a great bench wing to have on this team, which is all the more impressive given that last preseason he was looked at as an albatross contract more than anything.
Jordan Nwora 📈
I struggled with this one — Nwora took some truly bad shots in this game that should’ve either been passes to teammates or passed up for better looks of his own. Still though, when the ESPN broadcast is gushing that he is clearly an everyday player and he puts up 15 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 0 turnovers on 6/14 shooting and 3/6 from deep, it’s an upstock for me. Nwora is far from perfect, but he’s also damn good and earning himself some real regular season minutes with this stellar preseason play.
The Bucks’ penultimate preseason game is on Wednesday, when Milwaukee heads to Utah to take on the Jazz at 8 pm CST. With a few days off there’s a chance we get more minutes with the starters on the floor, but maybe that will be saved for Friday’s preseason finale back home instead.