Yah yah, I get it, the Brewers are HOT. But if you came here to jump on the baseball bandwagon along with the rest of Milwaukee, let me instead point you to Senior Writer Rob Petrie’s (@rpetrie10) fantastic weekly thoughts in The Sunday Cycle.
No, this article is for basketball bandwagon fans only. Welcome aboard! The 2018-19 Bucks season should be a fun one (as the 2017 and 2015 seasons also were). Choo choo:
All photos by Joe Powell for The Squeaky Curd.
That New Arena Smell (or should I say Snell?)
Before we even get started on the team, can we talk about the new Fiserv Forum for once? Oh we have already? Multiple times? Well excuse me for being excited to sit in plush accommodations our tax dollars helped pay for. Half a billion dollars can buy a nice place. Maybe not a light beer, but a nice place.
And, as promised and hoped for, the new 4-1-Forum is already attracting businesses to a revitalized Haymarket and Pabst neighborhoods. Two brewery expansions on the east and west sides, a sweet new public plaza, and possibly a streetcar stop. What’s not to love (unless you hate beer, people, and public transit)?
So Long Daddy Double-D, Hello Coach Air-Bud
Jason Kidd didn’t make it to the end of last season, and I was all for it. The #FireKidd movement was just too on-the-nose by the end of it all. I think Milwaukee was generally in agreement.
But boy-howdy, did Bucks’ general manager Jon Horst and the whole organization raise some eyebrows in literally the same day, during a live game, on the sideline, announcing Joe Prunty would helm the ship for the whole rest of the season.
BREAKING: GM Jon Horst says Joe Prunty will coach the #Bucks for the remainder of the 2017-18 season. pic.twitter.com/eb6Vg5uPgl
— FOX Sports Wisconsin (@fswisconsin) January 23, 2018
This gave them the time to attract top-tier coaching prospects for the long-term and ultimately choosing Mike Budenholzer. Coach Air-Bud (trademark pending) is a proven success, and I expect to see his immediate impact on a defense that was essentially non-existent for years.
Dat Team Doh (or should I say ‘doe’?)
Giannis doing Giannis things. The Bledshow for a whole season. The 2017 ROTY back from injury. Ersan Illyasova is back (for the third time). Brook Lopez is a big goon when that’s what the Bucks need. Milwaukee’s aging Sicilian contingent will love Donte “The Big Ragu” DiVinenzo for no reason.
Sure, we still need another superstar to complement Giannis and take us to the next level (unless Kha$h Money Middletone turns it up this year), but this team could be pretty good. Wait, we still have Matthew Dellavedova? Maybe not.
Take away message: from my perch in the new suite seats (during a free open house, natch), I see a 2nd-round postseason run from these Bucks that doesn’t prematurely end in me weeping into a mug of Miller Lite at Bay Street Pub. #BucksIn6
