A Return To Normalcy For The Milwaukee Bucks
By Ti Windisch
Warren G. Harding coined the phrase “Return to normalcy” in his campaign for the presidential election of 1920. Harding ran on the basis of bringing the United States out of the completely life-altering first World War. I am borrowing it now to describe a group of grown men (although a few are just barely grown) dribbling a basketball.
You’ll just have to deal with it, ardent Warren G. Harding fans.
The Bucks’ recent Mega-Trade with Phoenix and Philadelphia was Jason Kidd’s first World War. He wasn’t really responsible for it, but he had to deal with it anyway. It mind-boggled a lot of people. And he, like Harding, handled the situation with aplomb.
Sidenote: Good old Warren G. won the election of 1920 in a landslide. Does this mean Jason Kidd is going to win Coach of the Year in a landslide? Only time will tell, but I hope so. He deserves it for what he’s done with this team. But more on that later.
The Bucks would manage to win their first game in the post-Brandon Knight era. They dispatched the Nuggets 89-81. The return to normalcy was not instantaneous, however. It took exactly two quarters.
Bucks never led in first 32 minutes of game. Nuggets never led in final 15 minutes of game. That will do.
— Alex Boeder (@alexboeder) February 21, 2015
This tweet from Bucks.com writer Alex Boeder describes the game efficiently and concisely, like most of Alex’s writing does. The Bucks were fairly terrible in the first half but still only trailed by two at the break, mostly because the Nuggets shot under 40 percent. The Bucks were still not pristine in the second half, but they did manage to come back and win the game, so they improved at least a little bit.
To Milwaukee’s credit the Bucks weren’t exactly at full strength. Of course this was the team’s first game in a long time without Brandon Knight (aside from the few games he’s missed due to injury), which posed a somewhat difficult question:
Who the hell is going to score all those points? This is not just a question for the game against the Nuggets, but a question for the rest of the season for Milwaukee. Love him or hate him, one thing Knight contributed on a nightly basis was points. The Bucks are now without those Knightly points (see what I did there? I don’t know what I’m going to do without all these puns at my disposal every…Knight. sigh.) and somebody has to step up.
Or in the Bucks’ case in their first game without their enigmatic point(?) guard, everybody has to.
And they did.
The Bucks’ six leading scorers (Khris Middleton, John Henson, O.J. Mayo, Jared Dudley, Jerryd Bayless and Giannis Antetokounmpo) were all within five points of each other (with 15, 14, 13, 11, 11 and 10 points, respectively). I figured “Money” Middleton would lead the Bucks’ scoring effort for the rest of the season (and I was technically right, which is the best kind of right) but this first game back was a statement win from the entire team (except for Miles Plumlee who inexplicably didn’t play at all).
The statement made? This is the Milwaukee Bucks, not Knight feat. the rest of the team.
Everybody contributed in their own way against the Nuggets. Money, Long John and Juice brought the scoring (Long John also brought the blocks. He had four in just under 18 minutes). Giannis, Jared and Jerryd got the rebounding done, with 24 boards between them (they had nine, eight and seven rebounds respectively).
Zaza Pachulia, Johnny O’Bryant and Tyler Ennis all brought hustle and smaller contributions (Zaza had a solid eight point/six rebound outing, JOB tallied three rebounds and three points in just five minutes and Ennis scored four points and had two assists, a rebound and a steal) in the team win.
This was an important win for Milwaukee because they did it without Knight and without his replacement, Michael Carter-Williams. MCDub will most likely be the Bucks’ starting point guard for the remainder of the season once he’s recovered from his foot injury, but tonight Jerryd Bayless and Tyler Ennis shared the role.
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The Bucks just don’t seem to care who’s in or out; they find ways to win regardless. Only five current Bucks players have appeared in at least 50 of the team’s 54 games thus far this season. Whether it be injury, suspension, personal reasons, getting waived or getting traded not many Bucks have been around very consistently this season.
Yet Jason Kidd continues to coax wins out of his squad. Whereas in the past decade normalcy meant mediocrity, now it means winning in Milwaukee. That’s saying something considering just last season the Bucks were the worst team in the NBA.
Kidd is my Coach of the Year pick without a doubt. Steve Kerr has the Splash Brothers on his talented Warriors team. Mike Budenholzer has four All-Stars on the Hawks, who also go by Eastern Conference Player of the Month. Jason Kidd has Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jared Dudley, Jerryd Bayless, OJ Mayo and Khris Middleton. Those are the five guys who have played in at least 50 games.
And yet the Bucks are 31-23, a scant 1.5 games behind the Washington Wizards and just two games behind the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Lebron James and Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love-led Cleveland Cavaliers are just two games better than the Milwaukee Bucks. Kidd has consistently done more with less this season, and deserves to be honored for it.
The Hawks and Warriors can fight it out in the Finals to find out who has the better team this season, that’s all them.
And I hope it happens, because that’s a series I’d love to watch.
But the better coach will be in Milwaukee, getting his team ready to be even better next year than they are now.