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We are officially one week away from NBA basketball, people. One week!
While we wait for real basketball to start, Frank and I got together for a podcast to discuss the Bucks’ starter at shooting guard for opening night (just 7 days away!) and what we’re looking for in the Bucks’ preseason finale tonight against the Pacers.
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On Tuesday, Jason Kidd broke a little news to the assembled media:
Bucks coach Jason Kidd said he sees newcomer Tony Snell as a starter at 2 guard position. Snell watched practice Tuesday.
— cfgardner (@cf_gardner) October 18, 2016
The news shouldn’t come as much of a surprise — the Bucks roster isn’t exactly full of great options to start at shooting guard — but it is news nonetheless and we broke it down to start the podcast.
After discussing the Snell news, we moved on to what we will be looking for in the Bucks final preseason game. Those topics included:
- Will the Bucks’ use their jumbo lineup again? Will it work? On Monday against the Pistons, the Bucks started Dellavedova-Antetokounmpo-Parker-Teletovic-Plumlee and it looked really good in the first half. The floor was spread. Antetokounmpo and Parker were getting to the rim at will. And the defense was forcing turnovers. To start the second half though, the lineup couldn’t score and they didn’t have an answer for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
- Who is talking on defense? Hopefully, there is a big crowd at the Bradley Center for the Bucks preseason finale, but that seems unlikely, especially with the final Presidential Debate taking place at the exact same time. One positive to a small crowd is the possibility of being able to hear Bucks’ defenders communicate with each other on the court. There was plenty to hear in the days of Jared Dudley, but the Bucks have been notoriously quiet (and much worse defensively) since then.
- Who is going to participate in a pick-and-roll with Antetokounmpo? During the Pistons game, Dellavedova, Parker, Teletovic, Plumlee, Maker, and Monroe all set screens for an Antetokounmpo pick-and-roll. Will all of them get a chance again tonight? Will anyone new get added to the list?
- Will Antetokounmpo and Parker continue to impress? Both have posted great preseason numbers thus far. Will that continue in the preseason finale?