Monday Morning Media Roundup: December 30th, 2019

Life tends to take some strange twists and turns when you aren’t expecting it. Take my involvement here at Brew Hoop: I made my debut with the site a few years ago, was a little too green to be of much help, and cut myself loose to bloviate in my own corner of the internet.

Now, in 2019, I’ve been allowed to return to the fold, been given command of this unbelievably popular and well-read “column” every week, moonlight on occasion as a word typer on other articles and the site’s social media profiles, and now I can add “member of the media at a Bucks home game” to that list.

So, assuming Brew Hoop is still allowed at home games after today, I want to give one last nod of thanks to the year 2019. Where some doors closed, others inexplicably opened. We wish all of you nothing but success in the year to come, and hopefully a shiny new banner along the way!

Let’s roundup!

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The one thing that makes the Bucks’ defense elite (SB Nation)

Yet another in a long line of very good part-by-part breakdown of Milwaukee’s defensive fortitude so remarkable. It continues to bear repeating that the scheme has resulted in catastrophically (from the POV of the opponent) low field goal attempts and makes within three feet of the rim. Even with the inherent value of the three-point shot the general shot at the rim continues to be more effective on a possession basis for when made at a league-average rate.

But, as we know, Milwaukee takes the venom out of the equation almost completely.

Milwaukee Is So Bucking Good, It Might Make History (The Ringer)

Another valuable breakdown of the statistical dominance the Bucks have put on display this season on both ends, and the remarkable way they’re doing it all without doling out anything more then 32 MPG to a single player.

Of all the angles in this piece, though, I thought this one really struck at the core of Milwaukee’s style (and the style of any historically dominant team):

“Milwaukee’s pace also helps, as the Bucks play at the fastest clip in the league. All else being equal, favorites should want to play quicker. More possessions means more opportunities for a talent imbalance to manifest on the scoreboard, so Milwaukee’s rate of play can both help the team avoid upsets and increase its margin of victory against overmatched teams.”

Run it down their throats and pray a barrage of threes don’t await on the other end: The Bucks Story.

When can we start talking about the Bucks as one of the best teams in NBA history? (Journal Sentinel)

More history-making here, but from a local point of view this time around. It’s a rehashing of much of the factual dominance of Milwaukee, but pretty well synthesizes the larger chase for greatness underway.

The NBA isn’t surprised its TV ratings are way down. Radical change already was afoot. (Washington Post)

Not directly tied to the Bucks, but if it’s going to result in us having a strange mid-season tournament shoved into our faces then it’s worth talking about.

First things first: People LOVE talking about ratings. Outside of LeBron v. Michael Jordan there are few debates that get folks as jazzed up as the NBA losing viewer year-over-year. That’s a natural result from the reduction in importance placed on regular season success; if you can’t really talk meaningfully about the games, at least you’ve got some other numbers to discuss.

So, the ratings are down ~15% on national broadcasts. But don’t worry, Adam Silver and the NBA, a league who has trotted out a buggy in-house streaming service for over a decade, has the “future of streaming” figured out: All we need to revamp viewership is to get those darned Millennials to move from the danged Twitter to actually watching games via a... mid-season tournament or something.

At the end of the day we are bound to have some sort of snap-back on the league with the changing nature of how we consume media. They’ve got a few years to figure things out before their current TV deal is up, but it’s tough to imagine the meteoric growth in league revenue can continue on forever; things will get interesting when we reach the ceiling.

The Social Media Section

We wish the best to our very own Kyle Carr and his wife on their new child!

And a belated happy holidays from this crew of straight-up lookers

Very happy for Rayjon. He bet on himself as an undrafted guy with the Herd and it has paid off handsomely.

DJ’s the firestarter, twisted firestarter

Giannis is champion of the world, and champion of free time

Good guy(s) Bucks

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MMMR 2019-2020 Prediction Record: 21-13

retired janitor’s 2019-2020 Prediction Record: 29-5

I’ve seen it commented upon elsewhere on the internet, but that period between Christmas day and New Year’s Eve is like living in unreality. Time neither moves forward nor backwards, it simply exists, and we exist along with it. While it melts our minds and makes the ending of any calendar year somewhat tricky it also makes it feel like that loss to the Sixers happened months ago. There, see? I feel better already.

Another thing should help us rinse the last remains of that bitter loss from our collective mouth: Obliterating the Chicago Bulls for the third time this season. The Bucks will have a chance at just that tonight in Chicago. They’ll then ring in the new year at home on the first against the Timberwolves followed by a visit by the Spurs next Saturday.

None of those teams are all that impressive, though the Bulls could be give a surprise performance if Giannis is rested once more thanks to his sore back. However, keep on keeping on the team shall, and three more victories should be locked in.

Happy Monday!