Monday Morning Media Roundup: May 21st, 2018

Oh what a joyous day! Gone is the dark era of Jason Kidd and in comes the era of Mike Budenholzer at the helm of the Milwaukee Bucks.

The most impressive part about the hire of Bud is the relative calm among Bucks fans when greeting the news. For a few days, at least, the fanbase was able to avoid painful backbiting and self-immolation while generally applauding the Bucks for executing a normal job search and picking what seems to be one of most qualified candidates available.

Will Budenholzer come in and radically shift Milwaukee's destiny overnight? No, probably not. He will, however, give them a chance at maximizing their potential and reaching higher heights than could’ve been reasonably imagined just a few months ago. What a nice turn of events.

Let's roundup!

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Bucks announce Mike Budenholzer as coach & Giannis backs Bucks’ choice of Budenholzer (ESPN)

You'd be hard-pressed to find a more succinct summary of the important details regarding Budenholzer's hire in Milwaukee than at ESPN. Whether it be contract info, Giannis Antetokounmpo's feelings on the hire, or the timeline that brought Bud to Milwaukee, you'll find most if not all of that info here.

Mike Budenholzer excited about future with Milwaukee Bucks (NBA.com)

I'd certainly hope he'd be excited to be coming. In fact, I'd be thoroughly concerned if he was anything less than ecstatic to be the New Head Coach of the Milwaukee Bucks.

It will be interesting seeing how Budenholzer transforms a group of talented (and potentially misguided) players into a contender in the next season or two if all goes according to plan. He'll probably have some level of say in draft pick feedback and whether he believes he'd be able to carve out a consistent role for free-agent-to-be Jabari Parker, so who knows what the team will look like in a couple of months.

Hopefully, if our prayers our answered, we'll have watchable basketball as one of the results of a summer of change in Milwaukee.

Key to Hawks’ Team Play: Nourish the Individual (New York Times)

This is an older article but one worth reading to get a grasp on the concept of “Hawks University,” the term attached to Atlanta after it maximized the talent and value of lower-tier player after lower-tier player.

If Budenholzer & Co. were able to turn DeMarre Carroll, Kent Bazemore, and Tim Hardaway Jr. into serviceable NBA players, I can only imagine what they might be able to do with someone like Thon Maker or Sterling Brown (or even, GASP, D.J. Wilson?!?!). For a team with as little cap flexibility as the Bucks, internal development could be one of the sole avenues available if talent can improve year-over-year.

Bucks Arena 95% Complete (Urban Milwaukee)

Hey! That new building the Bucks are planning on playing in starting the fall is almost complete! Rejoice!

It sounds like things have really come together both on-time and on-budget (unless there have been overruns that aren't public knowledge). Tours for prospective season-ticket holders are underway and smaller details in the locker rooms and atrium are being finished.

I love it when a plan comes together.

From the Social Media Realm

I present to you a collection of Thon Maker gym workout videos sans Kevin Garnett just because:

Now, here are two Bucks trying to make early moves at cozying up to coach Bud:

We're still waiting to find out where Giannis, Khris Middleton, and Bud had breakfast together:

Here's your new screensaver. You're welcome:

Finally, Giannis is still racking up awards long after the season is over:

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Now that the coach search is over, I'm not sure what else I have to predict in the near future. Maybe whether or not the Bucks will be content to sit at the 17th pick in the upcoming draft? I'm thinking they may try to get tricky and move up, if only a few spots, especially with teams like the Clippers holding multiple late-lotto picks. But, hey, I'm not in the Bucks Draft War Room and neither are you, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

I'd also be remiss if I did not mention that the Bucks will be officially debuting Mike Budenholzer as coach today in a press conference at 12 PM Central. You'll be able to stream the presser live or watch afterwards on Bucks.com, and I thoroughly hope we're able to play player bingo and find out who made the trip to be there for the new head honcho and who is probably out of town on some tropical island.

Happy Monday!