Bucks Shots

Giannis CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF https://t.co/k7wbovVWli

— Frank Madden (@brewhoop) September 5, 2015

After a slow start in their EuroBasket opener against Macedonia, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Greece are starting to find their legs -- and nearly hitting their heads on the rim.

The Wisconsin State Assembly is expected to vote on the arena bill as soon as Tuesday, July 28, and as usual Save Our Bucks has all the information you need to call your legislators and let them know your opinions of the deal. Passing the bill as-is would allow Gov. Scott Walker to sign it into law, while any changes would require another Senate approval. While Republicans have a 63-36 majority in the Assembly, it's been estimated that 15 Democratic votes could be needed to pass the bill. As a result, legislators were planning to work the weekend in order to finalize the details of a package that could go to a vote on Tuesday.

Welcome to Milwaukee @M10OSE! You made the right choice! @Bucks @1057FMTheFan @4hitter @bucksfan34 @CooolJay_ @NBA pic.twitter.com/jTgDqXIlS9

— Tom Dickerson (@tomjdickerson) July 2, 2015

Courtesy of our photoshopping friend Tom Dickerson, here's a little sneak preview of what we'll be seeing a lot of next fall.

With the start of the NBA's annual free agency frenzy less than 48 hours away, I joined Bill Michaels on 105.7 The Fan to talk big man options, what it might cost to keep Khris Middleton, and expectations for Bucks rookie Rashad Vaughn. Check out the link above or click for an mp3 version right here.

Yours truly selected Kansas wing Kelly Oubre for the Bucks in today's Boston Globe mock draft. My brief rationale: The Bucks are already loaded with young talent on the wing, and in an ideal world they might have preferred a versatile big like Bobby Portis at #17. Still, Oubre’s smooth stroke and two-way potential likely provide too much value to pass up at this stage of the draft, and his combination of length and defensive versatility would seem a perfect fit for Jason Kidd’s switching, pressuring defense. For what it's worth I've picked Kevon Looney in a couple of other mocks, but this is the first one where Oubre lasted all the way to 17. And variety is the spice of life, right?

As we detailed last week, the County Board will be holding a public hearing tonight on the Bucks' proposal to develop a $400 million ancillary development on the Park East property. Note this would be a privately-funded project that would come in ADDITION to the proposed $500 million arena. The hearing begins at 5:30 at the War Memorial Center on the lakefront, with Play It Forward holding a press conference at 5:00. Along with the fine folks at Play It Forward and Save Our Bucks, we'd encourage everyone who's available to wear their Bucks colors and show their support!

my knees get weak (literally) and my gun might blow but we gon be allllright

A video posted by Kendall Marshall (@shammgodsantiago) on May 29, 2015 at 8:27am PDT

Kendall Marshall is only four months removed from tearing his ACL, but a post to his Instagram account on Friday suggests he's making good progress in his rehab. The other cool part about the video? It happened on the Bucks' practice court, where the free agent was getting some rehab work in with the Bucks' training staff. Though he was traded at the deadline and immediately released by the Suns, the free agent continues to work with Milwaukee's staff as he rehabs his way back to 100%. As for a potential return to Milwaukee? Well, as good as he looks here it's not clear if he'll be ready to go full speed by the start of the 15/16 season -- that return would be on the fast end for ACL tears -- and the Bucks already have three PGs on the roster with guaranteed contracts (plus the NG'd Jorge Gutierrez). I'd love to see Marshall back in the mix for the Bucks next year, but it wouldn't seem likely based on their current construction. Stay tuned.

Updated Bucks draft prospect list with measurements, testing data, WARP, EWP, and DX/Ford rankings. pic.twitter.com/lBbhbQ98ej

— Frank Madden (@brewhoop) May 22, 2015

We'll have much more on potential Bucks draft targets this coming week, but until then here's a consolidated listing of who could be in play for the Bucks at #17. Included are each prospect's ranking in the DraftExpress and ESPN Top 100 rankings, as well as Kevin Pelton's 5-year WARP projection and Layne Vashro's Expected Win Peak average projection. Note that the "interview" column refers to whether or not the player had a confirmed interview with the Bucks at the Chicago draft combine. The names included were my semi-arbitrary assessment of guys the Bucks might consider at #17 -- plus Rakeem Christmas, whom the Bucks were confirmed to have interviewed in Chicago. I included a number of guys who would seem like major stretches at #17 (Terry Rozier, Rashad Vaughn, Cliff Alexander) simply because they were rated reasonably highly by either DX or Ford at the time I was putting together the table. Let me know if you'd like me to add anyone to the table, which I keep updated as a Google Doc right here.

We're throwing a block party to launch our new uniforms and everyone is invited!! pic.twitter.com/V5sgBR3ATf

— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) May 11, 2015

We've seen the Milwaukee Bucks' new logos, and in four weeks we'll finally get to see what really matters: new jerseys. To celebrate, the Bucks will make the unveiling part of their first inaugural block party, to be held on the Schlitz Park campus near their new offices.

Giannis 7th, Khris 13th. RT @highkin: Full list of Most Improved Player vote-getters: pic.twitter.com/aTKAUVsmhr

— Frank Madden (@brewhoop) May 7, 2015

Jimmy Butler deservedly ran away with the 14/15 Most Improved Player award, though the young Bucks at least drew some love after their league-best 26-win improvement. Giannis Antetokounmpo finished seventh and picked up a first place vote, while Khris Middleton finished 13th. Let's hope they draw even more votes next year, eh?

Giannis with candor: "From the time I've been in the NBA I've never have a good game against the Bulls, so that pissed me off."

— cfgardner (@cf_gardner) April 22, 2015

Unfortunately he's not wrong. Even before his playoff struggles, Giannis shot just 42% against the Bulls in four regular season games, averaging 9.8 ppg and 6.5 rpg in 28 mpg. But even that was a major improvement on his rookie season, when he hit just 3/16 shots (19%) in 78 minutes against Chicago. Bottom line: Let's hope he can snap out of his funk on Thursday night.

ESPN's Paul Lukas delivers a fascinating look at the process behind the Bucks' logo redesign with Brooklyn-based agency Doubleday & Cartwright.

Per @brewhoop's request, versions with a straight wordmark and a cream home uni: pic.twitter.com/8VbrMzgR9f

— Conrad Burry (@conradburry) April 6, 2015

The Bucks will reveal *something* at their #SeeTheFuture party on April 13, presumably a new logo to follow up last week's tease of new team colors. When new jerseys will be revealed is less clear, though the new color palette and some leaked fonts has not surprisingly led to speculation about how the new colors might look together. Which is convenient, because jerseys are far more interesting than team logos. My favorites thus far come courtesy of graphic designer Conrad Burry, who mocked up home white and road green jerseys earlier today and then did another version with straight lettering on the front and cream as the primary home color (above). Personally, I was skeptical a version with cream as the primary color could work, but these actually look really sharp (and reminiscent of Notre Dame's new jerseys). I especially like the modern block-lettering font as well as the idea of "new" Irish rainbow piping (though I'm wondering if they might look a little better with black rather than blue accents). Let us know what you'd like to see in the comments!

Marc Stein talked to Jason Kidd on Sunday about Michael Carter-Williams' potential, why the Bucks were willing to deal Brandon Knight, and the evolving nature of the point guard position.