Milwaukee Bucks vs. Memphis Grizzlies Preview: Preseason is Upon Us

Somehow, the NBA season is already here, and the Milwaukee Bucks play their first preseason action on Saturday evening against the Memphis Grizzlies. How much Mike Budenholzer will opt to play his starters (if at all) is the biggest question for this one. Regardless, expect plenty of time for the backups as the camp bodies get a good workout.

Where We’re At

Milwaukee personified “standing pat” this offseason, with their only notable additions being MarJon Beauchamp through the draft and signing Joe Ingles. Other than that, they brought basically everyone back. With Ingles out until likely January, Beauchamp’s minutes will probably be the ones most worth monitoring for Bucks fans in the preseason. I’m particularly interested how Bud slots him into his rotation, considering Khris Middleton is still out and Jordan Nwora is now back in town. Either way, with an aging roster, I’d expect the young folks to get plenty of run.

As for Memphis, their upstart year in 2021-22 brought plenty of braggadocio to the court. It was endearing though, they play with a chip on their shoulder like teams of Grizzlies past, but clearly have more talent than those grit n’ grind squads. Their offseason was more active, shuttling off De’Anthony Melton to Philly for Danny Green and a first round pick. They added Jake LaRavia (a possible Bucks pre-draft target), David Roddy, Kennedy Chandler, Vince Williams Jr. and Kenneth Lofton Jr. I’m not sure we could even dream as Bucks fans of what it would be like to have four fresh dudes drafted and holding up their jersey. They did lose Kyle Anderson in free agency, a blow for them, but clearly wanted to steer even more into the youth movement skid.

Player to Watch

Sandro Mamukelashvili’s offseason was plenty promising with his exploits in Summer League and for the Georgian National Team, so he’s up there for me. Beauchamp would be the obvious other one. How does he look against better athletes defensively, and can his 3-point percentage from Vegas hold up?

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