Milwaukee, WI

Milwaukee Bucks made several big gambles and might pay high price

Published

2 years ago

February 23, 2024

Milwaukee Bucks made several big gambles and might pay high price

Before the season when the Milwaukee Bucks traded for Damian Lillard and paired the long-time Portland Trail Blazers star with Giannis Antetokounmpo, they were heralded as an Eastern Conference contender reborn after a disappointing playoff run.

A few months later, however, those takes are starting to get freezer burn. The Bucks entered the All-Star break with a number of cracks showing in their armor, including an embarrassing two-game losing streak—the first a 123-97 loss to the Miami Heat without Jimmy Butler, the second a 113-110 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies who were led in scoring by Ziaire Williams and two-way player G.G. Jackson.

“We had some guys here,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers quipped postgame. “We had some guys in Cabo.”

Rivers himself, of course, is a product of the Bucks’ difficult season. Rivers replaced Adrian Griffin at the helm after Milwaukee fired the first-time head coach 43 games into his tenure. That came on the heels of Mike Budenholzer’s firing last year after the Bucks became the rare 1-seed to lose to an 8-seed when they fell to the eventual Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat. Budenholzer’s 2021 run to the franchise’s first championship in nearly 50 years wasn’t enough to save his job.

The returns are still very early, but Rivers hasn’t fared much better to date. The team is 3-7 since his tenure began on January 29, with a negative net rating (points generated per 100 possessions minus points allowed per 100 possessions) at -1.7. The offense has cratered to 24th overall at 111.9, which has negatively countered the fact that the defense has actually been two points per 100 possessions better compared to their season average.

But the Bucks’ problems pre-date Rivers. Lillard is shooting 34.1 percent from 3-point range on 8.5 attempts per game, and he shot just 27.8 percent in January, to go with 32.6 percent in February.

Meanwhile, the Bucks can’t survive lineups with Antetokounmpo off the floor at all. They outscore opponents by 7.2 points per 100 possessions when he plays, per the website Cleaning the Glass, which is solid—the Los Angeles Clippers have the fourth-best net rating in the National Basketball Association (NBA) at 7.2 as well. But when Antetokounmpo leaves the floor, the Bucks are outscored by nine points per 100 possessions. With Lillard and former All-Star Khris Middleton on the floor and Antetokounmpo off, that total falls even further to -14.1 (albeit in a small sample size).

Those are disastrous numbers, and they are indicative of the kind of problems the Bucks will face in the postseason. Antetokounmpo is shouldering an MVP-level load and doing it admirably—30.8 points, 11.2 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game.

Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks is seen at Fiserv Forum on February 12 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Bucks are in a precarious situation going forward.

Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images

But blue-blood contenders like the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets have surrounded their MVP/MVP-adjacent stars with talent that complements and enhances them, which is a symbiotic relationship. If a role player can make Nikola Jokić or Jayson Tatum’s life easier, they will in turn make life easier for the role player. The Bucks don’t seem to enjoy that luxury with Antetokounmpo.

If Lillard heats up from 3-point range, and if the defensive improvements are real, the Bucks have plenty of time to turn things around once they get back from All-Star break, even if some players mentally left for Cabo a little early. The Celtics appear to have a stranglehold on the Eastern Conference’s top seed, but the Cavaliers are just 1.5 games ahead for the 2-seed, and they won 18 of their last 20 games before the break to reach that point.

If the Bucks don’t get it together, however, they are staring at a very uncomfortable situation. To acquire Jrue Holiday from the Pelicans in 2020, the Bucks dealt the right to swap their 2024 first-round picks, their unprotected 2025 pick, the right to swap their 2026 first-round picks, and their unprotected 2027 first-round pick. To acquire Lillard this summer, the Bucks traded the right to swap their 2028 first-round pick to the Trail Blazers, their 2029 first-round pick unprotected, the right to swap their 2030 first-round pick…and Holiday.

In other words, the Bucks won’t control their own draft pick again until 2031. If things go wrong and the Pelicans and Blazers start swapping picks with the Bucks immediately (unlikely but possible), the Bucks may have traded every pick from 2024 to 2030 just to acquire a 33-year-old point guard sharpshooter who is hitting just 34 percent of his threes.

Other possibilities exist. The Bucks could rediscover their best form in the postseason, Lillard could catch fire, Antetokounmpo could overwhelm opponents, and the Bucks could storm to a championship. If that happens, Milwaukee fans in 2029 staring at what might be a chilly roster can warm themselves with memories of two titles in 2021 and 2024.

But with the (justifiable) goal of maximizing Antetokounmpo’s tenure with the team, the Bucks took some enormous gambles over the last four years, and they pushed all of their chips into the middle of the table this summer. With every loss to a Heat team sans Butler, or a Grizzlies team fielding G-Leaguers and 10-day-contract players, the Bucks see a few more of those chips go into the dealer’s pocket.

The Bucks return to action Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves, who currently hold the top seed in the Western Conference, at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN.

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Milwaukee, WI

Can the Brewers duplicate the success of 2025? Here are our predictions for 2026

Published

3 hours ago

March 24, 2026

Press Room

Can the Brewers duplicate the success of 2025? Here are our predictions for 2026

Spring training in Phoenix has wrapped up and the Milwaukee Brewers are set to begin the 2026 regular season at 1:10 p.m. Thursday, March 26 at American Family Field against the Chicago White Sox.

The Brewers exceeded expectations in 2025, recording a franchise-record 97 wins and the best record in baseball (97-65) and advancing to the National League Championship Series. Can they match that in 2026? Here are Journal Sentinel staff predictions for the season.

HOW I SEE IT: I understand what I’m doing with this prediction, ultimately putting so much of the Brewers’ 2026 outlook on a group of largely unproven, young starters. But I think the Brewers do, too. I’d be lying to you if I said I felt good about the plan to throw Brandon Woodruff and a cavalcade of guys with minimal big-league experience, but I also have to acknowledge the potential upside here. It’s been a few years since the Brewers’ rotation was this talented, and we know what the Brewers can do with those kinds of arms. On offense, I’d also be lying if I said I wasn’t somewhat concerned about their chances of repeating last year’s scoring output without adding any external thump to the lineup. My brain says it’s going to be a step back this year – although not a big one, maybe just to a wild-card spot – but my eyes have seen this film before. And it usually ends with the Brewers fielding a roster much better than the public is giving them credit for.

2026 PREDICTION: 89-73, NL Central champions, lose in NL Wild Card round.

HOW I SEE IT: Count me among the group of non-believers a year ago at this time. Heck, as late as the start of that series against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park in late May I penned a story guessing all the players the Brewers would be trading away in the near future because they were going nowhere. How wrong I was. And I’ve learned my lesson – don’t bet against these guys. Especially with the bulk of the team that ended up winning a franchise-record 97 games and advanced to the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2018 returning. No doubt, Freddy Peralta would look really good anchoring the staff. So would Caleb Durbin at third base. All five of the players Milwaukee received in return are going to factor in, however, with right-hander Brandon Sproat, left-hander Kyle Harrison and infielder David Hamilton in particular expected to fill large roles. There are major questions – most notably whether veteran Brandon Woodruff can remain healthy and how the young starting pitching will fare. No question, the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and Pirates are all improved. But the road to the Central Division title has run through Milwaukee the past three years, and this group expects to win.

2026 PREDICTION: 90-72, NL Wild Card spot, advance to NL Division Series.

HOW I SEE IT: I should finally just trust that this franchise can identify the correct unproven arms in the rotation and players who weren’t seen as building blocks in other organizations, transforming that brew into a runaway Central Division title. They did it last year. And 2024. And 2023. Why do I still have this nagging feeling that 2027 will be the year the Brewers really swing for the fences, and 2026 is about seeing what they’ll still need? Remember how weird it was that the Brewers thrived at scoring runs last year because other teams kept committing errors? They were one of the best run-scoring offenses in baseball, and yet it still feels like they got a lot of breaks offensively. Then, they didn’t get perceptively better in the offseason, while the chief rival Cubs and other NL Central brethren did. You know what? Maybe the Brewers just need the semi-professional prognosticators like me to keep hating. And maybe it’s just impossible for me to accept this team has solved the riddle of how to win consistently without overtly addressing their perceived weaknesses. One of these years, though, they really won’t get away with it.

2026 PREDICTION: 86-76, miss playoffs (barely)

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Milwaukee, WI

Milwaukee man identified as victim in shooting that injured four others

Published

15 hours ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

Milwaukee man identified as victim in shooting that injured four others

A 25-year-old Milwaukee man has been identified as the fatal victim following a shooting that injured five people on the city’s north side.

Simeon I. Calvert was shot on March 21 a little after 11 a.m. at the intersection of North Darien and North 37th streets, according to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Calvert was transported to a hospital where he died in the operating room, the medical examiner said.

Four other people were injured in the shooting, ranging in age from 20 to 29 years old.

Police said March 23 that they have “persons of interest” in custody but continue to seek additional information.

The investigation is ongoing, police added, but it is believed that the incident was the result of an argument.

Anyone with any information about the incident is being asked to contact the Milwaukee Police Department at 414-935-7360. To remain anonymous while providing information, contact Crime Stoppers at 414-224-TIPS.

This story was updated to add new information.

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Milwaukee, WI

Where to catch a Brewers shuttle to American Family Field for 2026 games

Published

1 day ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

Where to catch a Brewers shuttle to American Family Field for 2026 games

With Interstate 94 construction ongoing, handing the wheel over to a shuttle driver might be a popular play for Milwaukee Brewers fans heading to American Family Field this season.

Here’s the latest list of hotels and bars partnering with American Family Field for shuttle services.

Business set their own pick-up and drop-off times, so check with your preferred shuttle spot ahead of time to get their schedule. A map off drop-off points can also be found on the Brewers’ website under “Getting to American Family Field.”