Injuries, illnesses and absences have all been major storylines for the Milwaukee Bucks this season, but after enduring some adversity, help is on the way.
Following Milwaukee's close victory over the New Orleans Pelicans, Bobby Portis is eligible to return from his 25-game suspension. Portis has been out of the lineup after testing positive for Tramadol, a violation of the NBA's Anti-Drug Program, claiming there was a major mishap. The big man will now be back in the lineup, and the Milwaukee Bucks will certainly embrace him.
Getting Bobby Portis back should help the Milwaukee Bucks
Frontcourt issues have been a clear flaw for the Milwaukee Bucks lately. For the first several games that Portis was suspended, Jericho Sims filled in brilliantly as the backup center, but a thumb injury forced him to undergo surgery. Without Portis and Sims available, Doc Rivers has been forced to dig deep into his bench on a nightly basis and forge some eye-catching lineups.
Getting Portis back will allow the Milwaukee Bucks to deploy a more traditional backup big man when Brook Lopez is catching his breath. In those minutes, Portis' scoring and rebounding should help this team mightily. There was plenty of chatter earlier this season about Portis' flaws, which led to a lot of trade talk, but now, that's all in the past. The only goal to is return and help this team win games.
It will be interesting to see how reintegrating Portis back into the lineup alters how the Bucks utilize Kyle Kuzma, who has been Milwaukee's makeshift frontcourt replacement lately. They both do very different things, but Rivers could spread their minutes out or possibly play them together. Could the returning Portis eat minutes from Kuzma? Vice versa? Only time will tell for the Bucks.
Portis' return comes as the Milwaukee Bucks are in the midst a four-game win streak as they fight for positioning in the Eastern Conference. With four regular-season games to go, Portis won't have much time to shake off the rust before the lights get bright, but he will return to the lineup motivated after overcoming this latest roadblock.
Before the suspension, Bobby Portis was averaging 13.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and a new career-high 2.2 assists while shooting 36.4 percent from deep.
With Portis returning, the major question marks now are Jericho Sims and Damian Lillard. Doc Rivers repeated recently that the hope is that Sims is back for the postseason. Lillard, who is dealing with a blood clot, is a bit more murky, but there is optimism that he could be back in the lineup this season.
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