Bucks players conducted their final physicals and went their respective ways today in St. Francis after their season came to an end last night in Game 6. Here are some notable bits from today's exit interviews inside Milwaukee's practice facility.
-- Michael Carter-Williams was absent after the game yesterday, and the reason why is pretty unfortunate. MCW had his teeth chipped from the punch Mike Dunleavy delivered to him in the game's first two minutes.
"I'm good. My teeth are all good. I have a few chipped teeth but I'll be all right.
"I got hit my teeth smashed together, but like I said I'm good."
-- In case you missed our story earlier, Giannis said he plans to apologize to Dunleavy for the bump he gave him into the stands.
"Sure there were some cheap shots," he said, "but it was a bad play by me. It is not going to happen again. From the intensity of the game, the cheap shots, we're down 30, I'm young - you live, you learn. It was a bad mistake by me."
-- Khris Middleton reflected and had some encouraging words on the Bucks' season:
"We went through a lot of stuff this season." Middleton said. "We still made it out, we stuck together. We just believed in ourselves. With everything that happened, we stayed course and had our mind on one goal and that was making the playoffs. We achieved that goal."
-- John Henson said one of the things he's focusing on this summer is his diet. Although he did put on some weight last offseason, he burned a lot of it during the season and couldn't gain much of it back. Another interesting note for Henson is that he's heading into the offseason with a different coach for the second consecutive season. During his rookie year, he went through Scott Skiles and Jim Boylan, and after last season with Larry Drew, Drew was fired in the summer. Kidd and his staff finally provide some consistency for him from a coaching standpoint.
-- Here is what Jabari Parker is planning to do this summer:
"I think I'm going to stick around here for the remainder of June." Parker said. "July I'll be out in Summer League, eventually being able to be on the court, not playing of course. After that August, maybe do a combined session with forwards, maybe go out somewhere, I don't know where we're going to train."
-- And regarding when he thinks he'll be back on the court:
"I have to go step-by-step, because who knows how my body's going to react because this is a first time experience for me. I really just have to take my time."
-- Although the loss on Thursday was the worst in Bucks franchise history, Henson is using the devastating loss as motivation heading into the summer.
"If anything I think it's good motivation. Say we lose in overtime or we lose a close game, I don't think guys would be as focused as if Chicago gave it to us. There's also some things we can put on the bulletin board.
"We can talk about the future, but eventually we're going to have to win something. That's kind of my mind-set, especially for next year."
-- Middleton sees the loss as just a short-term bug.
"It's definitely going to linger around, but you'll forget about it, use it as motivation, then come back next season better."
Financials
-- Middleton touched on his upcoming restricted summer and how fast he would like the process to be over with.
"I hope to be back here. I feel like we have a great young team going in the right direction. I would love to be a part of that here.
"I wouldn't want it to linger around for a while, a week or two or a couple days. I'd rather get it over with. It's just got to be the right deal, the right place to be for myself."
-- Veteran Jared Dudley said even if he opts out of his contract this summer, there's an "80 to 90 percent chance" he returns to Milwaukee because he'd want to.
"I think my value here is at it's biggest high here (compared to other teams)."
-- Dudley smiled as he commented Middleton's upcoming payday.
"I think Khris is about to have a great summer.
"I think if there's any person that benefited from Brandon Knight leaving it was Khris. Khris took his game to a whole other level, he was able to show certain things he couldn't show. If you take the top shooting guards out ... he's right after that.
"I would be shocked if Khris Middleton is not back on this team. He's a huge piece for us. There are a lot of people that want him, but I bet you the Bucks want him the most."
Summer league
Rookie Damien Inglis will participate and play for the Bucks' summer league team if he is cleared to play by that time in July, according to head coach Jason Kidd. Inglis missed his entire rookie season after suffering a broken foot during pre-draft workouts last summer.
Tyler Ennis intends on playing for the Bucks in Vegas and Team Canada during the summer. Ennis is a native of Toronto.
"(Being) able to get out there and see the difference going from a rookie coming in and then a year after going in with a year under my belt, I'm just really excited to get back out there."
Side notes
-- Henson lost a bet with a fan and will be taking that person fishing after betting on Wisconsin to beat Duke in the NCAA Championship game. He also briefly touched on the Dunleavy's incident with Giannis and MCW:
"It's Mike, man, Dukies man, I tell you. Just trying to take people out. We're just trying to play basketball here, man."
-- Jabari with a hot basketball take:
"A lot of people say the college game is the best game, but looking at it, it's not.
"I'm so serious. The NBA is where it's at just because of the players, the competition, less turnovers, better shot selections. I can go on and on. A lot of people say ‘NBA players take nights off', please. Guys do not take nights off, they play hard every night and it's hard to score 20 points a night."
-- Dudley said Giannis "Goldberged" Dunleavy last night. Here's some perspective on what that looks like.