Bucks GM met with the media for the first time since the deadline
Now that they’ve a few games under their belt post-trade deadline, the Milwaukee Bucks are firmly on their way into the brave new world known as the future. The magnitude of one particular deadline deal—the decision to trade franchise anchor Khris Middleton to the Washington Wizards for Kyle Kuzma—has, understandably, generated more questions about the direction of overall travel than those it answered.
While GM Jon Horst did not and will not hold an introductory press conference to unveil his newest players (Kevin Porter Jr. and Jericho Sims were also acquired on deadline day), he did give a few minutes for a Q&A to media last night.
So what did we learn? Courtesy of Eric Nehm at The Athletic, quite a bit!
On-court changes
We’ll start with the basketball impact. A couple of main points that Horst wanted to drill down on were that:
- Khris Middleton was moving in the right direction vis-á-vis his health and productivity—and that his view on Khris’s physical outlook played a, “very minimal,” part in his decision
- While Kyle Kuzma’s numbers don’t necessarily wow, they see him as an ideal fit when it comes to improving the amount of athleticism available to the rotation and as a shooter if he improves his percentages like players tended to do once arriving in Milwaukee
- They’d really like to try and play more in transition than they have in the recent past. That’s to utilize Giannis to his theoretical utmost, but was also a consideration in acquiring Kuzma (who can physically run the floor) and someone like Jericho Sims who Horst identified has having some open court potential
- The view of the front office is that their overall depth has taken a step forward across a few different positions
There isn’t really anything all that surprising in most of that. It’s feasible, I suppose, that the FO felt Khris was mostly where they’d have expected him to be at in terms of availability and fit on the court and so didn’t weigh that factor very heavily. The lines a little later about how the roster had taken a step forward athletically aren’t necessarily contradictory—what Middleton may have lacked in terms of sheer vertical (or lateral) physicality he often tried to make up with skill and craft.
Still, Kuzma is more athletic than Khris in a number of ways, and he’s bigger, too. Horst spoke about how Kyle can likely guard up to three different positions and can probably fit in across nearly four positions offensively (on paper). We’ve already seen the boost in floor speed in Kuzma’s three games played so far, although the ends to which Kuz puts his effort have seemed wayward at times. Like with the Wizards, he has spent almost all his time at the four as a Buck, although the true test regarding fit on either end will only come once we see him next to Giannis Antetokounmpo. For now, between having had little time to practice with the team and being down the franchise superstar, it’s hard to evaluate Kuzma’s merits when it comes to winning.
Critically, will we actually see the team up their tempo in offensive transition? Again, this is predicated on the availability of Giannis. Over the 50 games played so far the Bucks attack in transition on just 16.6% of their possessions (good for 24th in the league); that’s down 0.2% from a year ago. It’d be unrealistic for them to boost to Memphis Grizzlies-like numbers at nearly 25% of possessions, but a slight uptick is doable, especially in lineups where either Kuzma or Antetokounmpo are empowered to grab and go/start down the court immediately upon a team defensive rebound.
As far as the other guys, the sense I got was that Kevin Porter Jr. is a buy-low upside option who the team hopes to continue to help keep on the straight and narrow while Sims is, indeed, athletic. The fact that we’ve only seen KPJ in a few spot minutes on the second game of a back-to-back and haven’t seen Sims at all since he showed up could be a statement about their place in the rotation or merely a byproduct of the little time available pre-break to find a place for them. Whether that changes post-break is to be determined.
Cap sheets, second aprons, and open roster spots
Horst was also asked about how considerations around the second apron may have impacted the FO’s calculus to deal Middleton. According to him:
“It happens to also put us under the second apron, which gives us some benefits going forward. There’s no question. And we’ll hopefully maximize those benefits. But that wasn’t the intent.”
Further:
“It didn’t fall out of the air,” Horst said of the benefit of moving under the second apron. “But when you navigate different transactions and opportunities, starting with the fact that we want to get better, we want to get deep, add to our versatility and you start studying the ways in which you can execute those, and if you can generate that opportunity, you go for it. That’s how we approached it. But it was by no means the motive.”
That’s all fine and good. Obviously the ability to sneak out from under the second apron will, indeed, open up new lanes of roster building for the front office. If their goal is to start leaning further towards athleticism around Giannis (and Damian Lillard), there are plenty of bodies still on the roster they’ll need to maneuver around, so getting roster flexibility is a necessity. I’m sure if the team had a certain level of confidence that the second apron group could’ve won it all, Khris Middleton would still be here. Paying for the team wasn’t so much the issue; building onto it would be very soon. Here we stand as a result.
But how that plays out is for the future. The team still has an open roster spot which is, presumably, Ryan Rollins’ to lose, although the team could do due diligence to see who hits the buyout market if someone they perceive as a superior option becomes available. It will get filled one way or another, just a question of by whom.
How about Giannis?
When asked about any conversations he had with Giannis before the Middleton deal:
“It didn’t happen…Just for the record, I didn’t talk to him about this.”
The rationale for not getting Giannis involved in decision-making sounds about right:
He would or would not have stamped it. I don’t know. And I decided not to put him in that position….This is the biggest thing, ever. And so that wouldn’t have been fair in my opinion. I’m willing to live with him either agreeing or disagreeing with it and whatever the aftermath that is because it’s my job.
And how any chat after the deal?
“And I also have not talked to him about it afterwards yet. Don’t need to. I don’t want to ask him afterwards…It’s a business, and my job’s really hard a few times a year. His job’s really hard every night.”
The new-look Bucks finish their pre-All Star Break portion of the season tomorrow night in the Twin Cities against the Minnesota Timberwolves.