Bucks forward Khris Middleton, who recently signed a lucrative new three-year contract to remain in Milwaukee, suited up for his lone game of the preseason against the Grizzlies on Friday. Eric Nehm of The Athletic takes a look at the three-time All-Star’s performance.
The 6’7″ vet played scored five points on 2-of-6 shooting across 12 minutes of play, though he did dish out five dimes.
“Felt like I was myself out there,” Middleton said. “Now I just gotta get used to different spots on the floor, the rhythm of the offense (and) the defensive side, too, moving my feet a little bit better. All in all, I thought it was a great night.”
There’s more out of Milwaukee:
- New Bucks reserve point guard Cameron Payne exited Milwaukee’s preseason finale with a right thigh contusion, the club’s PR team has announced (Twitter link). Payne’s status for the team’s regular season opener is unclear.
- Second-year Bucks forward MarJon Beauchamp is getting a rave review from one very important voice, writes Lori Nickel of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Two-time MVP power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo believes that the Yakima Valley College alum flashed plenty of two-way potential with the team. “Giannis just told me, you have to have that aggressive mentality every time,” Beauchamp said. “Especially on a good team like this … my confidence, it’s up and down. But I heard from the big dog now. I got to stay aggressive. I got to keep working.”
- Former assistant coach Terry Stotts abruptly departed the Bucks bench just days ahead of the club’s season opener. Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com writes that Stotts, who served as the head coach for the Trail Blazers from 2012-21, was expected to be a major contributor to Milwaukee under first-time head coach Adrian Griffin. “It’s not like Boston dropping [Ime] Udoka last year and putting in [Joe] Mazzulla, but Stotts was supposed to have a big role with [the Bucks’] offense,” a source told Bulpett. “It seemed like he was having trouble adjusting to being an assistant again. He was out for two years, he doesn’t need the money. … Maybe it was just a thing where he just wasn’t feeling it.”
The bullet point about the bucks second year forward is missing the name of that player
Read it again. Beauchamp. It’s a copy and paste thing. We don’t need his first name but we know who they’re talking about.
It’s a great note. Tells us the new guys, the rookies, need to stay aggressive and do what they do and not be hesitant or the team may not know what they are capable of.
Play like you belong and don’t hesitate to shoot the ball. So much of it is mental and when we get near the basket we’re a little hesitant and short arm a jumper or freeze on a way up near the hoop in a brand new situation. I think Giannis gave the kid great advice.
As The Rock would say..”IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT HIS NAME IS.”
So Stotts only wants to be a HC? I guess he can wait and hope for Magic or Washington jobs, maybe Hornets.
I don’t know if that’s necessarily what happened here. It may be true..at some point. The specific issue seems to be that he had trouble adjusting to being an assistant, not that he needs/needed to be the HC.
Either way it was the best thing for all sides to step away rather than continue to try and adjust and possibly be a distraction.