Monday Morning Media Roundup: July 17th, 2023

Did we learn anything from Summer League? Does anyone learn anything from Summer League?

While the baby Bucks scatter with the wind to professional leagues we’ve never even heard of before nor will hear of again, we left staring at the prospect of having to glean some bit of useful information from the whole experience. Here are two:

1) MarJon Beauchamp is yoked

2) Andre Jackson Jr. may be able to play basketball

If you have other takeaways, I’d love to hear them. Even if that’s all we learned from the past two weeks, it's more than nothing. MarJon was always going to need to get on a proper horse meat diet to make an impact barring an unlikely transcendence in his skillset as a scorer — he’s on the right path there. Jackson Jr. will be something of a mystery box much like Beauchamp was a year ago; he showed a pulse in Summer League and will have moments to make us Ooo and Ahh in the ~6.3 MPG he averages as a rookie. Again, it’s something.

Can we say we learned much about new head coach Adrian Griffin? Not really, unless we’re feeling extremely uncharitable and hot take-y. Five games with guys bound to ply their trade on other continents or Oshkosh won’t tell us much about what Griffin is capable of as a tactician. You’d have liked to win more, but also it's appropriate to point out that Tacko Fall =/= Brook Lopez. Should Griffin come out of the experience feeling moderately more comfortable as the loudest voice in the room and with a grasp on the potential of two possible NBA rotation players, I’d call it a success.

And now we wait for whatever shoe drops on this roster, if one drops at all.

Let’s roundup!

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Bucks’ Livingston no ordinary last pick of NBA draft (Bally Sports)

He’s no ordinary pick because... we gave him a two-year guaranteed contract? In a sense that does make him pretty singular, but the general assumption is that we did his agency a solid and are expecting backpay in some form. Unless it was literally just a goodwill play which is, uh, fine.

I guess if you want to be extremely optimistic, we can hide him away in Oshkosh until its time to throw his contract into a mid-season trade as a “lottery ticket” guy to sweeten the pot. Oh, and he could prove to be a useful player against all the odds.

Giannis Antetokounmpo mural in Milwaukee is the work of Cicero artist Mauricio Ramirez (Chicago Sun-Times)

Spotted this a month ago when I was back in town and couldn’t help but marvel at how good it looks in-person. You walk right off the bridge from the Milwaukee Art Museum up a few blocks and BAM, there’s a giant photorealistic mural of Giannis on your way back into downtown. The artist is obviously extremely talented per some of his other work from the article, and I’m glad the Bucks did right by their star to put this together.

Zach Lowe Covers Bucks Offseason (ESPN)

I did my best to set up the above link so it should begin right at the Bucks segment on the latest episode of “The Lowe Post”. If it doesn’t, you can jump to roughly the 42 minute mark and let it go from there.

Frankly, the discussion wasn’t all that edifying or informative (why did Lasry sell???? DOES HE KNOW SOMETHING WE DON’T???) which is par for the course for a lot of Bucks-centric discussion. Kind of the nature of retaining the same core of players you’ve had for numerous seasons now, I suppose.

Pat Connaughton talks Bucks playoff disappointment, new courts (TMJ4)

Work harder, try harder, be better, be the best person you can be each day, all that good stuff and more from Pat.

For those who read the above headline and think Pat was addressing CourtGate (aka CourtSaga aka The Case of the Missing Green Court) from last season, prepare to be disappointed. Pat’s charitable foundation helped build some community courts in the Milwaukee area, the opening of which he attended and was duly interviewed at.

Milwaukee Bucks Fan Detained In Russian Prison For Six Years Says He Had No Idea Giannis Antetokounmpo Led Bucks To NBA Championship In 2021 (The Shadow League)

Why do I get the feeling JSOnline Castaway 2.0 has a hand in this ruse?

The Winners and Losers of 2023 NBA Free Agency (The Ringer)

Conceptually, I like the idea of largely running the title-winning team back out there again with taller

NBA in-season tournament aims for more early-season engagement without impacting teams’ approaches (Yahoo)

Much like with the play-in games, the in-season tournament will likely be derided and largely ignored the first time through, improved slightly and still derided in 2024, and then may find something like a purpose in 2025. I’ve my doubts that the league can set it up to wring higher-than-normal competitive verve from players in November/December, but if they pour enough narrative juice into the thing, somebody is bound to think it matters.

Maybe it leads to a total shakeup of the playoff format itself into something like Champions League-style segmentation of the Have and Have Not teams who shuffle in and out of the extra-season tournament from year to year? Basketball has global aspirations, and the only other truly global game is soccer, so why not continue to mimic that sport’s rhythms?

NBA approves in-game flopping penalty, expansion of Coach’s Challenge for 2023-24 (NBA.com)

As with previous announcements that the NBA is taking flopping seriously, I will believe it when I see it. Also a shame that we get an expansion of the challenge just after Bud got fired — missed opportunity for him to hold both possible challenges until it was too late to use them.

Fan Post of the Week

The Social Media Section

As an aside, I’ve made my haphazard return to social media on Threads. You can find me @RileyFeldmann, I think. I’m the handsome guy wearing round sunglasses in his profile pic.

Onwards...

Kicking a ball up in the air 500x straight on my busted up knees because I’m a God-tier athlete

Khris Middleton sums up his abilities as a player since the 2021 NBA Finals

Good news: The most cosmopolitan man to step foot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is on Threads and so back in the MMMR

Money isn’t real, anyways (for the curious, BH founder emeritus Frank Madden suggested that Khris and Jrue’s contract “unlikely incentives” would push the team over the 2nd apron)

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The next significant dates in terms of competitive basketball tangentially involving the Bucks reside in late August. That’s when the FIBA World Cup will begin and when Bobby Portis triumphantly returns to our lives as part of Team USA (Giannis is TBD for Greece). I’ll be sure to throw related links into coming MMMRs when appropriate. Otherwise, it is a long wait from now ‘til then.

Enjoy your time away!

Happy Monday!