Have you recovered from Thursday night’s home opener yet?
No? We can’t say we blame you, but get ready. The Bucks are coming to town and the Vertical 76 podcast is back to give you the full rundown of what Milwaukee looks like in the post-Giannis Antetokounmpo era.
This week, Bucks insider Ti Windisch joins the podcast where he catches you up on what the preseason and early season have looked like for Milwaukee, including his first impressions of the Taylor Jenkins era.
The Bucks dropped their first contest of the season, 128-116, against the Washington Wizards, but it gave fans a look at what to expect as the franchise tries to build all the way back up again. So far, Windisch has noticed Jenkins’ style is a little more modern compared to former coach Doc Rivers, lauding the team as more “flexible” and “adaptive.”
What does that mean for Saturday night’s game? Well, don’t just assume the Sixers will coast. They’ll be on the first night of a back-to-back, making it likely that Lebron James, Joel Embiid or both will sit this one out. (UPDATE: It is, in fact, LeBron out Saturday night.)
“The way I see the Bucks making this game interesting, especially if Joel and LeBron don’t play, is Kel’el Ware being a monster,” Windisch said. “There was some weird reputational thing going on in Miami with the way he was perceived…everyone sees a ton of upside there.
“He’s one of those highlight reel guys where if you just look at the good, you’re like, ‘wait is this guy gonna be a lesser version of what Joel was in his prime, where this huge guy is running the floor, throwing down dunks, taking a bunch of threes?’”
And that may be the key for Milwaukee more often than not this season. The Bucks struggled defending Anthony Davis against the Wizards, and Windisch believes that opposing bigs may be able to feast against a still undefined Bucks front court.
But as the old saying goes, they play the games for a reason. The Sixers and Bucks will tip off Saturday night in Philly at 7:30 p.m. ET. Your cardiologist told us he hopes the team doesn’t need another 29-point comeback in this one.
