With the NBA season already past the halfway mark, teams across the league are starting to understand where they sit in the playoff landscape.
As the Milwaukee Bucks and Washington Wizards prepare to face off in the nation’s capital on Thursday, both organizations are beginning to focus more on the future than the present.
For the Bucks, their future appears likely to be without star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is sidelined with a calf injury. According to ESPN, Antetokounmpo is “ready for a new home” and Milwaukee has started to take trade offers with the Feb. 5 trade deadline looming.
If Antetokounmpo is dealt over the next week, it would create a seismic shift around the league. For Milwaukee, it would mark the start of a new era without Antetokounmpo, who delivered an NBA title to the Bucks and is one of the most dominant players in franchise history.
In the last meeting between the two teams on New Year’s Eve, it was Antetokounmpo who led all scorers with 33 points in the Wizards’ 114-113 win.
But as the Bucks continue to navigate the trade market, their focus will be on what happens on the court. And for Milwaukee to get back on track, it will depend on Myles Turner, Kyle Kuzma, Bobby Portis and Ryan Rollins.
In a 139-122 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday, those four players combined to score 89 points, with Turner leading the way with 31. Rollins added 24, while Kuzma and Portis each scored 17.
“I love (what we did) offensively, which has been our concern,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said. “We missed eight layups tonight and we could’ve had a lot more points. But their points, really, a ton of them came on offensive rebounds and turnovers. If you take those two things away, I could make a case that defensively we weren’t as bad.
“But that’s part of the game,” Rivers added. “One of the things we talked about before the game was we wanted to dominate the glass and not turn the ball over and those are the two things that hurt us.”
Since the last meeting against the Bucks, the Wizards also look a bit different. They no longer have CJ McCollum, who was traded to the Atlanta Hawks for Trae Young, who has yet to suit up for his new team.
The additional available touches have given the Wizards’ young players more opportunities. Alex Sarr has taken advantage and led the team with 29 points, plus 12 rebounds and six blocks, in Tuesday’s 115-111 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.
“It’s a really unique skill set that he has,” Wizards head coach Brian Keefe said. “That’s a unique player and he does unique things.”
Sarr was named to the Rising Stars challenge during All-Star weekend, but he won’t be alone. Tre Johnson and Kyshawn George will also participate in the event, giving the Wizards a lot of representation.
“I think the biggest reason those guys got into that game is because they just focus on the process,” Keefe said. “(They were selected last night), we acknowledged it, that was great — we always want to celebrate our guys — but they had a basketball game to play (on Tuesday) and they prepared like they always do. I thought our guys stepped up and played the game tonight, so that was really good.”
