Monday Morning Media Roundup: November 30th, 2020

Author’s Note: The following was written in the early evening of Sunday, November 29th. I take no responsibility to change whatever it is I’ve included in this week’s MMMR pending a resolution on Giannis’s supermax extension.

The NBA offseason is moving so rapidly that we won’t even have much time to catch our breath before pre-season ball and the regular season are here. For sheer ambition, I’m not sure there’s been a gambit by a sporting organization as audacious as the NBA renting out acres of land in Orlando to finish a season, hammer out an amendment to the CBA, and kick off another year across 30 markets while we cope with another wave of infection.

Which isn’t to say they can’t possibly pull it off: The challenge of The Bubble looked impossible and they succeeded then. It just all feels like a bit of a whirlwind, and given the amount of money handed out during free agency you get the feeling that front offices haven’t felt the long-term dent in league finances everyone expects to come sooner rather than later. Things won’t be business-as-usual with reduced crowds and series of games instead of constant travel, but it’ll look far closer to what we’re used to than what we saw in the Bubble.

Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing depends on your personal opinion, though it matters little since its marching forward regardless. For the Bucks, it's a quickly arriving opportunity for redemption in a sport that makes you wait for the chance. A new roster brings its own set of challenges, but maybe that gamble will pay off too. At least, we hope so.

Let’s roundup!

Inside the Botched Sign-and-Trade Clouding Giannis’ Future (Bleacher Report)

This piece was making the rounds early last week while we were still somewhat smarting from the slow-rolling unraveling of the Bogdan Bogdanovic sign-and-trade, and it does help clarify the timeline a little bit. One of the key details is the fact that, one Milwaukee and Sacramento had agreed to a trade in principle, all players involved were notified. That would mean Bogdanovic was indeed aware of the trade coming in to being before declaring that he was “blindsided” by the possibility.

Now, that doesn’t mean the Bucks didn’t have a role to play in tipping their hand early enough so as to accelerate the implosion of the deal, but it also doesn’t feel like they are completely at fault.

If Giannis signs the supermax, the trade-that-wasn’t may just become another factoid. If getting Bogdan was the only way to get Giannis to sign and now he won’t, well... let’s just hope that isn’t the case.

Bucks racing to satisfy star Giannis Antetokounmpo and finish economic development plans (CNBC)

I find the role Giannis plays in keeping this whole operation afloat extremely interesting. If he were to leave, how would it impact the carefully laid real estate domination plans ownership has put together? Surely they wouldn’t simply fall to pieces, but any hopes to create a holistic (revenue-generating) community around Fiserv Forum get a boost by Antetokounmpo’s mere presence.

The stakes get even higher when you take into account the number of future draft commitments Milwaukee has in the coming decade. Were he to go it’d be an extremely long uphill climb before the Bucks could claim to be the global phenomenon they aspire to be.

No fans at Milwaukee Bucks home games, at least to start season (ESPN) & Bucks reveal new City Edition jersey color via bridge (On Milwaukee)

Probably for the best that they aren’t going to try and get fans into the Forum to start the year given where Covid numbers are at locally and nationally. Hopefully the team’s financial gurus have already game planned out the loss in revenue and our benevolent ownership group won’t be hurting too badly.

And besides, they’ll be able to make up for the shortfall in ticket dollars via blue alternate jersey sales. The people have demanded a blue jersey from the moment blue was chosen as one of the accent colors in the initial re-brand and re-design. By Tuesday we will be able to see what it’d be like if the Bucks fully abandoned the secondary spectrum for the primary.

Is Anthony Davis waiting to re-sign with Lakers to create an opening for Giannis Antetokounmpo to join him? (CBS Sports) & Bucks’ Giannis confidence hit, but Dubs’ dream not yet reality (NBC Sports Warriors) & Report: Giannis Antetokounmpo ‘more impressed’ by Heat extending Bam Adebayo rather than making him wait (HeatNation)

The saddest part about all these buzzards circling on the horizon is that even if Giannis signs a full five-year extension, they will simply pivot to “Giannis will demand a trade to our particular bloodsucking organization”.

War, war never changes.

The Social Media Section

Easy to forget that this guy was pretty good. Didn’t help that the team was normally awful.

Continue to wonder what the contingency plans will be for teams if too many players go down with Covid at once

The ClutchPoints graphics literally never miss

This is gonna be a wild ride

Good stuff from Jrue

Helluva run

WONDER WHY??? (Training camp opens on Tuesday)

Dude has got eyes as intoxicating as Rasputin’s

Just a couple of bros hanging out being dudes

And so we settle in to wait some more. Wait for Giannis to make a decision to sign or forgo an extension, wait for training camp to run its course, wait for preseason to arrive, and wait for “real” basketball again. All of that is set to happen in the course of about three weeks which is a longer timeline than the NBA gave teams to construct their rosters, so at least we won’t be up until 2 AM day after day trying to stay on top of the dramatics.

Happy Monday!