The Knicks will be looking to pick up a win in Milwaukee on Friday night, but Julius Randle views the Bucks as a success story worth emulating, as Fred Katz of The Athletic details. Milwaukee won a title in Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s eighth season, having patiently built a championship-caliber roster around its star player without making any major splashes on the free agent market.
“It was beautiful to watch simply because the aspect of, they built it from the ground up,” Randle said. “They didn’t put a super team together or whatever it was. These guys were in the mud every day grinding the thing out. They took some lumps along the way there trying to figure it out.”
While the Knicks lack a bona fide superstar on the level of Antetokounmpo, Randle likes the idea of building the roster “organically” and believes that it an eventual breakthrough would be more rewarding.
“(The Bucks) did something that’s very unique, especially in today’s league, as far as building something like that and not putting a bunch of players together,” he said. “They really built it.”
Here’s more on the NBA’s two New York teams:
- Responding to news that Owen Phillips is joining the Knicks‘ coaching analytics team, Seth Partnow of The Athletic notes (via Twitter) that the franchise has gone from one of the league’s smallest analytics departments to one of the largest under president of basketball operations Leon Rose.
- Knicks center Nerlens Noel missed the first six games of the season with what was termed “knee soreness,” but he told reporters today that it was more of a hamstring issue, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News.
- The Nets have assigned Nicolas Claxton to the G League as he works his way back from an illness. According to Brian Lewis of The New York Post (Twitter link), Claxton still isn’t ready to play and will just be training and ramping up during his time with Long Island.
- While Claxton probably won’t play in any games for Brooklyn’s G League affiliate, a handful of the team’s rookies are expected to be regulars for the Long Island Nets this season. Chris Milholen of NetsDaily takes a closer look at the Nets‘ developmental plans for Cameron Thomas, Day’Ron Sharpe, Kessler Edwards, and David Duke.
@luke – “…having patiently worth a championship-caliber roster.”
Not sure what you meant.
Hmm, yeah, that was a weird typo. It’s been fixed now, thanks.
Better beat the Bucks tonight. Show me something please. Bad loss at home to Raptors .Raptors weren’t even 100%. Only good thing is RJ is starting to jell. Kemba has to start running offense. Start leading in ast please. Let’s do this.
Randle needs to start playing better, as does Kemba. RJ has been great and I would love to see more.
Randle seems to run offense more than Kemba. Not with that. I know Randle is a good passer. But Kemba should be taking the lead. And Randle should let him.
Bad 1st Q. But they came back and showed sweat. They manned up and Played. Noel was good and Rose was great. Little worried about Kemba. Needs to get going. Knicks showed their depth tonight. Fournier, Kemba, Mitch had bad games. And we beat defending champions. In their arena by 15. NYK
In Thibs we Trust….. loving it
The Bucks are a mess right now. Credit to the Knicks for fighting back though.
Thomas and Duke should arguably get looks in the Nets rotation…Duke for his defense at a couple of positions, and Thomas as a scorer