DeMarcus Cousins won’t be asked to play major minutes for the Bucks, according to Eric Nehm of The Athletic. The veteran center can give them 10-15 minutes a game and help lessen the load on Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis, who have been manning the middle while Brook Lopez has been sidelined with a back injury. Cousins agreed on Sunday to sign a non-guaranteed deal.
Cousins took part in a workout led by assistant coach Darvin Ham on Saturday in Las Vegas, Marc Spears of ESPN’s The Undefeated tweets. Bucks assistant GM Milt Newton and VP of Global Scouting Ryan Hoover attended the workout, and Cousins had a phone conversation with coach Mike Budenholzer afterward.
We have more info on the Central Division:
- Nikola Vucevic hasn’t looked right since returning from a bout with COVID-19, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times opines. In his third game back on Saturday, the Bulls big man took only nine shots, scored seven points and committed three turnovers. The Heat paid special attention to him defensively. “I do think he’s getting his footing back under him,” coach Billy Donovan said. Vucevic’s 13.4 PPG are his lowest since his first season with the Magic in 2012/13, Cowley notes.
- Justin Holiday has been giving advice to Pacers rookie Chris Duarte about his new bench role, Brendan Rourke of the team’s website writes. “When you’re young, you focus a lot on being the starter and doing stuff like that,” Holiday said. “I’m just trying to give him a different sight of how he can still help. He’s still just as valuable even though he doesn’t have that starting role.” Holiday has been inserted into the starting lineup in place of Duarte.
- A four-game layoff to rest a sprained left thumb helped Pistons second-year guard Killian Hayes, Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press writes. ‘”It was good for him to take it off, he’s feeling much better now,” coach Dwane Casey said of Hayes, who had six points and eight assists in 29 minutes against the Lakers on Sunday. “We’ll see if he can jumpstart it to do it again. He was playing pretty good, especially defensively.”
Vujevic tonight, 30-14-5. Thanks Cowley for showing how dumb you are. It seems like everybody who works for the Atlantic is just trying to bad mouth the Bulls. Ever since that idiot wrote the column that said the Bulls were like the 13th in the East they keep trying to justify it. Move on, admit you’re stupid and find something else to bash. Wow.
Vuc is scoring less because he is taking fewer shots because he is on a talented team.
Not hard to figure.
Exactly. The Bulls are sharing the ball and winning. It is a long season. As you point out, the Bulls have a lot of options on offense.
Nah. This was actually a good take prior to last night. He did not have one solid game prior to last night. He doesn’t need to score 30 on this team, but his energy was at a different level.
No it was not a good take. It was an idiot take based upon limited data.
I mean, that’s hardly new with sports “journalism”. Not sure if it’s a Bulls specific thing.
He looked like he was suffering from long covid against the Heat but he is turning it around, apparently.
The Heat tire everyone out, it’s their thing.
The fact is Vujevic has been playing 1 against the other teams 2 bigs in the Bulls small ball take after Williams got hurt. 1 C against a C and PF will get you beat up, just like the rest of the team is getting until some help can be found.
Exactly, they really need another big who can play 4/5. Bradley is too slow and a liability on offense, Donovan has correctly dropped him from the rotation.
Daniel Theis or Thad Young would be great — oops.