Milwaukee Bucks Links: Waiving Goodbye and Extending Hellos
By Joe Dexter
Every morning, Behind the Buck Pass brings you the reading material you need before you start your day at the office. We bring you the morning’s Daily Dimes — Milwaukee Bucks Links from across the web to get you ready for the day.
Do you think that a prospective player every imagined that they would be spending their Friday night playing in front of a raucous crowd in…. Cedar Rapids, Iowa? According to Basketball Reference, 20 players in NBA/ABA history went to high school in the Hawkeye state. None of which will suit up tonight.
Unless the Timberwolves or Bucks put in a call for the services of the great Raef LaFrentz for just one more game. Could you imagine if today’s college basketball had a front line that consisted of LaFrentz and Greg Ostertag?
That’s Kansas epic right there.
I have to admit though — it does seem a little unfair that Cedar Rapids will be privy to the matchup of Jabari Parker vs. Andrew Wiggins for just the second time since being drafted. As always, we’ll have all the pregame coverage this afternoon and recap the action after the game.
But first, it’s the gift that keeps on dishing.
Waiving Goodbye isn’t the only thing that’s Guaranteed
Charles F Gardner of the Journal Sentinel brings us the latest roster moves from the Bucks. We’ve known for quite some time that Chris Wright was heading overseas, but the Bucks made it official by waiving him and Elijah Millsap on Thursday.
"The Bucks requested waivers on forwards Elijah Millsap and Chris Wright. That reduced the roster to 16 players, one above the regular-season limit. The only player remaining in camp with a non-guaranteed deal is forward Michael Eric.Wright, who was signed to a pair of 10-day contracts by the Bucks last season and later to a non-guaranteed deal, left the team earlier in camp to pursue an opportunity in Europe."
Those moves aren’t surprising considering the current roster landscape. Eric remains on the roster because of injuries and illness that is plaguing the Bucks frontcourt. Without Johnny O’Bryant, Larry Sanders and Ersan Ilyasova at points, Eric has been a solid practice body for head coach Jason Kidd.
Gardner also brings us news of the Bucks front office picking up the rookie-scale contract options of Giannis Antetokounmpo and John Henson.
"Henson is scheduled to make $2.9 million in the fourth year of his deal after making nearly $2 million this season. Antetokounmpo is set to make $1.95 million in the third year of his deal and $1.87 million this season."
Not big news here, but it does solidify the fact that the organization does value the worth of John Henson in the short-term.
Reach for the Sky
Whether he was paying homage or honestly plans on using it as part of his arsenal, the King unleashed a new shot on Thursday night. The Sky Hook was made famous by Lou Alcindor right here in Milwaukee. LeBron brought famous back with his own ode to the shot that took basketball by storm. Josh Hill at King James Gospel has the details.
"But he’s a student of the game, and his callback to one of the great scorers of all-time was pretty cool to see. In Cleveland’s preseason game against the Indiana Pacers, LeBron James scored using the infamous skyhook shot.Needless to say, it was glorious."
The one and only Zaza Pachulia
Ian Segovia at Bucksketball might have the best Titling skills of the Milwaukee Bucks blogosphere. His latest piece, “Zaza Pachulia: No One is Coolia,” previews what to expect from the big man this season.
"One new wrinkle that Pachulia added last year was pretty adept passing. As he’s gotten older, Pachulia has become a better passer. He’s spent most of his career with an assist rate hovering around six percent. That jumped to ten percent for the 2012-13 season. His assist rate leaped again to 16 percent last season. To put that in context, he assisted on a higher percentage of possessions than potential point guard Giannis Antetokounmpo last season. A passer in the post or the high post would be huge for this team. Without a strong point guard, passing will need to be a team effort."
At 30, Pachulia is the grizzled veteran on this team. There is no doubt that he is the protector of the youngsters on this roster. You have to love a player that is willing to come off the bench and protect his teammates. There are not a lot of players that have the ability to be a mentor on this team. As Segovia mentioned in his piece, that will be Pachulia’s role in 2014.
We all know he can get down.
Two For the Road
Blake Griffin explains to readers at The Players’ Tribune just how odd it was to have Donald Sterling as his boss for the last five years.
"At this point, a lot of you are probably wondering why I didn’t pull my hand away, or why I didn’t just leave the party. For one, I was a 20-year-old kid from Oklahoma. But even if I had been 25, I don’t know if it would’ve been any different. The guy was my boss. Ask yourself, how would you react if your boss was doing the same thing to you?"
And finally, Want to know more about Iowa as the Bucks prepare to take on the Timberwolves tonight? Harrison Barnes helps us out the best he can…