Though the Milwaukee Bucks have been going through voluntary workouts for weeks, when coach Jason Kidd officially gathered his young Bucks for the first time on Monday for Media Day ahead of training camp, the experience of organizing the youthful group — with an average age of 24, including three teenagers — was a unique, yet familiar feeling for the father of five.
“This is the first day of school,” Jason said. “We laid out our outfits, what we were going to wear to school. Couldn’t sleep. Nervous. Is the teacher going to be nice? We saw our principal—the owners came in.”
Coach Kidd’s first year in Milwaukee, not unlike a first day of school, is filled with uncertainty. After all, with a new coach implementing a new system, it’s hard to know what to expect from the young Bucks squad that finished last year with the fewest wins in the NBA.
For what it’s worth, the Milwaukee roster does have a little bit of everything. Most notably, the Bucks have several young players who are on the cusp of stardom. But there are also players looking to overcome disappointing 2013-14 campaigns and newcomers looking to establish themselves in a fresh environment. The Bucks even have a little veteran flavor, with five players who have at least five NBA season under their belts.
But J-Kidd sees the uncertainty around his team’s roster, particularly the starting five, as a testament to Milwaukee’s depth and an opportunity for each player to spend training camp competing for their spot, which can only help the team.
“There’s a lot of friendly competition between the guys to get better,” Kidd said. “They push one another and that’s how teams get better. That’s what we want. The way the schedule works, all the back-to-backs, all the teams have to face it. The deeper you are, the better off you are.”
#Bucks coach Jason Kidd said don’t read much into preseason starting lineups and rotations. Says he wants to try different things.
— Andrew Gruman (@AndrewGruman) October 1, 2014
Mayo on coach Jason Kidd: "I think we all agree. It's definitely for the betterment of the team and our organization. I think we're all in."
— cfgardner (@cf_gardner) September 30, 2014
With one of the game’s great point guards as its coach, Milwaukee’s PG situation is one of the biggest questions surrounding the team. The Bucks brought in a pair of players who can run the point over the offseason: Kendall Marshall and Jerryd Bayless. Additionally, Coach Kidd has expressed his desire to see the versatile Giannis Antetokounmpo — a 6’11” swingman who played exclusively at small forward last season — handle the ball at times as well.
With all that in mind, incumbent point guard Brandon Knight, the team’s leading scorer last season, isn’t worried about the backcourt logjam. Given his remarkable scoring skills, the Kentucky product could see himself playing off the ball more than he did last year as well. But Knight sees himself as the team’s point man and is simply preparing himself to play rather than stressing over the details of the situation.
“We’ve got a lot of guys that can play,” Knight said. “At the end of the day, put the best guys on the court. I’m sure coach Kidd wants to win, like we all want to do. So the best players will be on the court and they’ll play.”
Knight has been one of the stars of Bucks camp early on, excelling particularly in one of the areas that Jason has put an emphasis on in his first few days at the helm: three-point shooting.
To encourage his team to shoot the ball efficiently from deep, Jason has brought with him to Bucks camp a tradition from his Dallas days: the three bell. It’s a practice tool that Coach Kidd hopes will make his team lethal from deep. Already, the drill has allowed Knight’s shooting proficiency to shine.
“If you make 20 out of 25, you get to ring the bell,” Jason explained.”It’s in Portland, it’s in a couple other places. If you look at Portland, they shot the three extremely well, so hopefully that translates us to shooting and making more threes here. B-Knight is the one who has rang it the most so far. He shoots a 20 or higher clip every time.”
EMPHASIS ON DEFENSE
While the thought of raining trifectas on opposing defenses will get any Milwaukee fan’s heart pumping, J-Kidd has another priority, and that’s to improve the Bucks on the defensive end.
The Bucks allowed 103.7 points per game last season, sixth worst in the league. On the way to that number, opponents shot 46.8 percent against Milwaukee, fifth worst in the league, including a league worst 38.2 percent from three-point range.
Jason knows that in order for his team to improve this season, those numbers have to get better, or it won’t matter what the Bucks do on offense. He’s stressed the defensive values to his team early in camp and can already seem them taking hold.
“I thought the guys understand that defense is where we’re going to hang our hat and offense will come second,” J-Kidd said. “The guys gave great effort. They were very competitive. It’s something they can build on.”
One key part of the Bucks defensive efforts could lay on the broad shoulders of center Larry Sanders.
Sanders had a fantastic 2012-13 campaign, averaging 9.8 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game—but a tumultuous 2014 season that was shortened by injury and suspension has him in need of a different type of rebound.
According to Jason, it has been so far, so good for Sanders, who is back to looking more like the leader and strong presence on both ends of the floor that Bucks fans grew to expect during his breakout 2012-13 season.
“Defensively, he was rebounding and being a presence, talking,” Kidd said. “He’s key to the team, not just on defense but offensively, too.”
Sanders, Knight and the rest of the Bucks squad has been working hard thus far and after some full-contact work and two-a-days, Jason says they’ve earned some rest on Thursday.
“We’ll give them a chance to regroup mentally and physically and then we’ll come back Friday,” Kidd said. “I believe if they do their work, they deserve a day off. We’re throwing a lot at them so mentally I want them fresh.”
With a young team trying to digest a new system and become accustomed to the practices of a new coach—it can be a lot to take in. Additionally, it will take time before the squad begins to mold into the shape that J-Kidd and his staff foresees.
So rather than focusing on wins and losses, Jason is focused on just that: how his team continues to take shape each game and each day.
“We’re going to take it one day at a time. There is no expectation for us to win a championship, but for us the expectation is for us to get better each time we take the floor,” Coach Kidd said.
