Bucks Sign Amir Coffey and Welcome Khris Middleton Back to Milwaukee in the Home Opener

Bucks Sign Amir Coffey and Welcome Khris Middleton Back to Milwaukee in the Home Opener

The schedule is out. Very, very interesting opener for the Bucks. And another roster move. We dig into the details coming up after this on Locked on Bucks. You are Locked on Bucks, your daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. Welcome into Locked on Bucks. I’m Justin Garcia, joined once again by Camille Davis. We thank you for making this your first listen of the day each and every day. You can find me on the Bucks radio network throughout the course of the season, which we are fastly approaching once again. You can find Camille on the Lockdown NBA show and the technical file podcast as well. Today’s episode of Lockdown Bucks brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. Uh we planned on basically digging into the schedule and reacting to that on the show today, Camille. But then along the way, something else happened which I suppose we should clarify. Uh we have it in the the episode title as well. The Bucks have signed Amir Coffee. He is a name I think you probably brought him up quite frequently earlier in the offseason in terms of like low-key targets for the Bucks. We were talking earlier uh recording this morning with Tai Euroep and we both pointed out, you know, the obvious of like, well, I feel good about the depth that this team has overall, but depth on the wing, like who’s going to play the three? That’s the one spot that you’re really unsure about and enter Amir Coffee. So I say there’s a caveat that is as first reported by Eric name it’s a camp deal for air coffee. So it’s it’s not necessarily a contract. That being said, I have a hard time seeing a Bucks roster without air coffee on it. And I think this essentially buys them some time to figure out how do we create that 15th roster spot and at whose expense is it going to be? Cuz with the camp deals, you’re allowed to carry what, like 19 players, something like much more than your 15 throughout training camp. Um, so that’s what this does. It gives the Bucks that ability to, okay, we’re going to stash him and we got him and can kind of bring him along. We’ll see him in the preseason. We’ll see him throughout camp. I just don’t see, unless Air Coffey’s shot is broken and he has massively regressed since we last saw him, I don’t see any scenario where he is not the 15th man on the roster. Yeah, honestly, I’m surprised the Bucks even signed him to a camp deal. Like, Coffee is somebody who I thought would just get a straight up maybe a bet man. Yeah, a standard deal. maybe a bet man at this point in the offseason, but surprised that he’s a camp body. Um, but yeah, like I like the the signing a lot. Like he doesn’t necessarily fit into that really young age group of players we’ve been talking about, nor is he that older vet. 28 years old. Um, he’s been a he’s just like a solid player. Like that’s the way I’ll say he’s a solid player. 6’7, shot like 40 41% from three last season. So he’s someone who can knock shots down. Um, play a bit of defense. I think some might overvalue his defense a little bit, but he has the tools. He’s not going to be somebody who’s a super weak link on the team on that side of the ball. So, like, yeah, that’s Pickle. Like, like you were naming off free agents a few weeks ago. Someone in the comments mentioned remembering this conversation where Amir Coffee was the only name of the ones you listed where I was like, I could I could get down with that. Like, that’s that’s more the speed I’m looking for. So, I’m happy it’s another wing player, someone with some size 67, like I mentioned before, because a lot of the guys we’ve talked about being in the rotation are the smaller guards, especially when you’re rolling out like the uh Kevin Porter Jr., Gary Trent Jr., uh AJ Green lineups where you’re a little small. So having another option for a wing player that has some size is nice if of course he does make it off of this camp deal onto a standard deal which I would think is is pretty likely based on what we’ve seen from him in the past. Yeah, he you mentioned the uh figures from last year and his numbers and really there’s for the most part he’s been a very good two consistent three-point shooter. recent career, 38% three-point shooter. And the two years that were his leanest, he shot 28% and 32%. Those were, for all intents and purposes, the seasons that he played the least. Um, he shot 32% his rookie year when he just played 18 games and took about one three per game. and he shot 28% uh two seasons ago when he played 50 games and took less than one three per game. Otherwise, as you noted, 41% last year, 38% the year prior to that, 38% the year prior to his 28% season, and then 41% in his second year in the league. So, he’s been a consistent three-point shooter. He takes about three per game in limited minutes. He averages 18 minutes a game throughout his career. And ideally, that’s probably the minute total you’d be looking at in a Bucks uniform for a Amir coffee. But it not only the shooting, the biggest part, he’s 6’7 and don’t know what his wingspan is, but that was a big big big discussion that we had not only with Tai, you and I talked about it, too. You got depth, but you got a lot of guys that we anticipate to play the three for the Bucks who are 6 foot4. Not that it’s a bad thing. You just love a little more size. Like having the options. Like sometimes you’re going to need a little bit more size. Sometimes you can get away with the smaller lineups. Like we discussed I think last week somewhere in there. Time is a blur with all the stuff that’s been going on this week with the flooding. But I think that um we talked about the fact that when you’re looking at size and you and Ty talked about it as well before it was Boston like you need to make sure you have the wings to match up with Boston because they had Tatum, they had Brown, they just had options they could throw at you. But when you look around the East and like the size of guys, you don’t necessarily necessarily need to have those big wings all the time. But when you do come up in those matches, maybe with some Western Conference teams as well along the way or just certain lineups, being able to have the versatility to throw out a bigger wing is going to be really helpful. And if you want to get super small, I wouldn’t say I put air coffee in the role of a small ball four, but they have guys on the roster who make sense as like a small ball four from trying out the CS thing, which we heard uh last year when he was brought on as someone who might help unlock Giannis at the five lineups, which are another change of pace for the Bucks. So, yeah, I like the coffee pickup if he makes it to the regular roster. Um the question is, again, I think attention turns to Andre Jackson Jr.’s contract and what does this mean for him necessarily because we know they push that extend date back or guarantee date back on that contract and then you pick up somebody like air Coffee who last year proved to be a really decent role player who can do a lot of the things the Bucks are looking for a role player to do. So camp is going to be uh interesting. There are going to be some stakes there. Uh Amir Coffee as it has been pointed out in the the comments has a 6’7 6 foot seven and a half wingspan. So, um, similar to a couple of guys that we’ve talked about on this Bucks team, and that’s about the same as we’ve seen for AJ Green, who I think is 67. He’s 6’4 with a 67 wingspan. Gary Tan Jr. actually has a 69 or a 610 wingspan. That’s why you’ve seen the Bucks able to kind of play with he and AJ for the shooting and and that purpose as well. But you do at least get the size from Amir Coffee throughout camp. and then we’ll see where it goes from there. But I think we’re both aligned here. Um I think air coffee is on this team when when the season opens up as we’ll get to with the schedule. The last thing um you mentioned Andre Jackson Jr. Is it just him we should be circling and keeping an eye on or is there potentially somebody else on the roster that you know may be sacrificed for air coffee? I mean, when you think about it, like it wouldn’t be smart to just say like, “Yeah, it’s only Ajax that could be an option because we’ve seen John Horris do some things too along the way where you’re like, “Ah, I didn’t I didn’t foresee this move coming or I didn’t think you could pull this off.” So, who knows exactly what that looks like, but I think I point to Ajax first as the person to look at just because of the contract situation um and the ease it is to get from underneath that contract at the moment. one. I mean, I know we had a conversation too with Frank a few weeks ago about maybe Tyler Smith is that guy in the roster who the Bucks move on for, but I think because the Bucks have seen more from Andre Jackson Jr. that they might have a more definitive opinion um about what he might be and be more willing to part ways with him than a Tyler Smith at this point. But again, this is all just us guessing at the moment. You know, we have to see how things play off when training camp actually starts. Yeah, I I we already talked about it, but I I think it’s even for all the valid criticisms and and questions andor concerns you could have, I think it’s too early to move on from Tyler Smith, um if it weren’t for the fact that you literally just signed him, ressigned him less than a month ago, I think there’s another interesting name you would look at and say, “Well, realistically, this guy is going to be playing and asked to play the same role. as air coffee and I think we all feel more comfortable with air coffee but just ressigning him and as you alluded to it’s easier to get out of Ajax’s contract for the partial guarantee that I I think that’s kind of where we’re headed but we shall see and that’s going to be one of the more interesting things to monitor throughout training camp now is uh the future of air coffee and a couple of position battles for this Bucks team beyond training camp we can start to Take a look ahead to the schedule which was revealed about 2 hours ago and a very very notable start to the campaign for the Bucks. We’ll dig into the details from this new schedule and some of the quirks that come with some new media rights partners coming up next on Locked on Bucks. Well, most people can’t name all of their financial accounts or even what they’re worth, whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments. And when you don’t have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there’s Monarch Money. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or your phone. Monarch Money does the heavy lifting for you. You can link all of your accounts in minutes, see clear data visuals, get smart categorization of your spending, and finally feel in control of your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. If you’ve got subscriptions and just want a way to keep track of that, Monarch Money can do that for you. They can link all of your accounts and immediately spot a few subscriptions you’re not even using, canceling those alone, saving you money every single month. And if you’re budgeting with a partner, especially Monarch Money makes it simple to review your finances and set budgets and goals and spending activities all in one place. Don’t let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code locked on NBAmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with the code locked on NBA. All right, the schedule is out, Camille. And uh I was talking I don’t think we mentioned this on the show. It was when we were talking beforehand, but I was when when I was talking with Tony the other day. Uh we were both talking about some of the things we had heard about the schedules and I had told them yeah I was I was at a concert uh advisor forum and and was talking with some contacts I have with the team that were also there and trying to get anything I could from them about this schedule and they kind of hinted at well we’re very pleased and we think the fans will like the first couple games and the start to the season as well. I’m like, “Oh, okay.” And I immediately took that as, “Is that when the Pacers are going to come to Milwaukee?” Like, “All right, interesting.” Did not even consider the return of our guy Chris Middleton, which is going to come in the season opener for the Bucks with the Wizards coming to town Wednesday night, uh, October what, 22nd. Mhm. And Middleton and the Wizards. Kai and I were talking about it earlier today in that yeah I I hope the Wizards games are early because who knows maybe Chris Middleton has moved on and if you know they’re not coming to Milwaukee until let’s say midFebruary or March what if he’s off the team by then well you don’t got to worry about it now and I’m assuming there’s no double ankle surgery or double wrist surgery this summer and Chris is going to be good to go for opening night and that is going to be a truly special moment to see the reaction that he gets from the fans in Milwaukee in his return to this city. It’s going to be an emotional game I think too with big emotions to start off a season. I think too like we’ve seen videos and pictures that Chris has already has been in the city over the offseason. So like he still has some ties here. We know how he feels about the city. We know how important of a part he was for this championship team. So to open the season up, being able to welcome Chris back, show him some love, some gratitude for what he was able to do in a Bugs jersey, I think it’s going to be cool. And also just seeing them play, like seeing Giannis against Chris Middleton, things that, you know, we haven’t been able to see. Um, but we heard about like their training camp battles when they were young players fighting for playing time since both were like the small forward at the time, just really fighting, going at each other one-on-one. So, we’ll be looking forward to seeing the two of them compete against each other. Although, it’s also kind of like heartbreaking and weird because they’ve just been teammates, you know, like forever. So, uh, seeing them play against each other is weird. It was weird seeing them in Washington last year, but we never got to see Chris Middleton in the Washington Wizards jersey in Milwaukee. So, it is a fun way to open the season up on one level, but it’s also like an emotional kind of like, dang, like this is he ain’t 22 ain’t here no more. Um, yeah. Well, and I suppose we should not sell this short either. Um, the return of our guy from last year to AJ Johnson. AJ Johnson. Go for uh I saw a few people point out too like, hey, you know, kind of like I think we’ve we’ve talked about it with Frank before too and Frank has always been the I’m pro no Christmas Day game because there’s no let down on the holiday then. and the years when it was the down warriors. Fine, give us that because you can feel good getting a win on Christmas Day. A few people pointed out, hey, you get to start the season with a win and that’s going to feel good. I hope so. It’s going to be an interesting Wizards team full of youth. Yeah, like you hope you get a win. It would feel it would feel bad like that postgame episode afterwards of like, well, Chris Middleton got the best and those young guys got the best of the Bucks to open like we hope it doesn’t go that way. like you would expect for the Bucks to beat Washington. But again, especially early in the season, you really never know what you’re going to get. But I mean, opening the season up against Washington at home, then going to Toronto, and then playing against Cleveland, like it gets it gets challenging pretty quickly for the Bucks because after Cleveland, you come back home, you have the Knicks, and then the Warriors, and then the Kings before you head to Indie to play the Pacers. So, like, it’s an interesting stretch to start the season after an emotional return for Chris Middleton. And then the uh youthful vengeance of a of a AJ Johnson. I mean, look, it it could be a revenge game for Cous as well. Love that. Um yeah, it feels like you you always get the Cavs and Knicks early on the schedule now. Um but you’re going to get the Wizards and the Raptors as your first two games. Toronto is their first road game just a couple of days later. feel pretty good about starting with those two teams, especially for a group that we’ve talked long and hard about. We like the makeup of this group. I understand the questions that exist, but those are the types of teams I want to start the season with to start to build some momentum. if um you’re the Bucks. A couple of other takeaways from this uh schedule that I have, Camille. Um I really love the fact that number one, I think we’re all excited and curious to see what the new media partners mean in terms of what are we going to see that’s new and innovation here from uh NBC and from Amazon. But I especially love the fact that Amazon appears to be leaning into early games. Yeah. on the weekends, which I am all about. Um, there’s a lot of two o’clock games on Saturdays, and these aren’t Amazon, but a lot of 2:30 games on Sundays. It feels like every game the Bucks are playing on a Sunday is like a five or a 2:00 game, which I am also perfectly fine with. and not a whole lot of Saturday games, but a bulk of those are early games, 2:00 games on Amazon, which hey, let’s normalize that and let’s get into a world where there’s only like one or two games on a weekend that are played past six o’clock. Yeah. Listen, everybody who works for the team for sure is going to be like, “Yes, because you get the rest of your your Saturday, your Sunday in the evening back, but we know from the players those can be tough uh on their their schedules and like not getting them the naps beforehand like they normally do.” Um, so some of the games might be a little wonky in the sense of how they start. Maybe some slow starts there. But I’m also really interested to see how the media partnerships work out. Like when you think about all of the different streaming services you’re going to need to be able to watch your team in addition to the cable, that part of it, like I know the NBA is making a lot of money off of it, but for the fans, like it’s kind of weak. Like you got to have Peacock, which is $10.99 a month with ads. Amazon Prime is $14.99 a month. Uh then you got you got to have your cable provider to get the ESPN games. Like the money can add up pretty pretty quickly, especially with the regional sports networks. But regardless of that fact of it, I do think the national TV game part is interesting because one, I didn’t see NBA TV listed for any of the non-existent like national TV. So I’m like, is that no, that’s no longer part of the equation? No longer. Yeah, because it was a Turner produced thing. So, it’s all different now. You got NBC, you got Peacock, you got Prime, you got ESPN, you got ABC. So, finding those different channels, getting used to the days of the week, too, I think is going to be something new because so used to like the TNT, Tuesday, Thursday, ESPN having Wednesday, like just getting used to the new schedules, I think is going to be a little bit challenging at the beginning as well. Um, I think there’s a handful of games that should backtrack a little bit that are going to be on NBA TV, but it’s not like it was in years past. I mean, similar to Turner is producing inside the NBA and then um renting it out to ESPN. It’s it’s going to be a similar type of deal, but not like in the past where we’d count up national games and you would see NBA TV games included in there. You’re thinking like kind of. Yeah, I I don’t know about that. So, that’s one of the bigger changes here. You mentioned, too, like trying to basically keep a spreadsheet to figure out where and when can I find these games. I’ve seen a couple of cheat sheets put out there. So, we’ll share that over. Look, in the past, we were all accustomed and familiar with TNTs Thursdays, and then it eventually became Tuesdays and Thursdays when they wanted to move out of the shadow of the NFL. ESPN had Friday and Wednesday and ABC would have Sunday and then later on Saturday night, but it’s totally different now. So, we’ll bring up that cheat sheet of what you need to know with the inclusion of Amazon and NBC and when the Bucks first game on those two services is going to be coming up after this on Locked on Bucks. So, I saw I think it was JK SKS uh tweeted out the breakdown of um what network has what throughout the course of uh this season here. And we mentioned too, when are the Bucks going to first be thrown on these new partners? Right out of the gate, their fourth game of the season against the Knicks on a Tuesday night, October 28th is an NBC game. So, that’s the first time we’re going to see the Bucks on uh NBC. There’s going to be NBC games. There’s going to be Peacock exclusive games as well. We already knew one of those, which is the Martin Luther King Jr. game in Atlanta against the Hawks. But their first Peacock exclusive game is going to be November 17th, a Monday night in Cleveland against the Cavaliers. And their first Prime game is going to be an NBA Cup game uh in New York November 28th against the Knicks. So that was one of the other interesting parts to the schedule for me, Camille, is that week and I had to do like a triple take when the league released the NBA cup schedule. So like, wait, am I missing something here? So they don’t have any cup games, the third week that this starts. Mhm. But they got two. Yes. That are sandwiched around Thanksgiving, the final week of it. So their first one is home against the Bulls November 7th. Then home against the Charlotte Hornets the following Friday, November 14th. That next week, Cup games are played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, I believe. Right. And Thursdays, and they don’t have any of them, any game that week that’s a cup game. But then the week of Thanksgiving, day before Thanksgiving, they’re in Miami in a cup game. Day after Thanksgiving, they’re in New York in a cup game. And that is part of a backtoback as well. So a really busy week for the Bucks the week of Thanksgiving where you got those two cup games, you’ve got a backtoback Friday night in New York against the Knicks, Saturday back at home against the Nets. And oh by the way, I know he’s not playing, but to start the week, Monday, November 24th, the Portland Trailblazers are in Milwaukee. So have theoretically if he’s traveling with them Damen Lillard in Milwaukee potentially I should say Damen Lillard but you will have Drew Holiday back in Milwaukee. Yeah, you will. The Drew Holiday return games but in a different jersey this time, not in that Celtics jersey. You mentioning the Thanksgiving part made me think like does the NBA have an issue with the Bucks around the holidays? Because like yes, we know they didn’t get a Christmas Day game. That’s fine. That’s whatever. But their schedule around Christmas is actually nuts. Like the end of December going into like the beginning of January, like maybe the month between the 15th of December through the 15th of January is a really really tough schedule for the Bucks in terms of just the travel and the home road splits there. So here you go here. So, for example, on the 21st of December, the Bucks beame begin a fivegame road trip where they go to Minnesota, Indiana, Memphis, Chicago, and Charlotte. After that, they come home, they play Washington on New Year’s Eve at 700 p.m. Central time. So, for those of you who would love to, you know, spend New Year’s Eve, start it off in Fiser Forum, you’ll get a chance to do that. Then they play the second against Charlotte. Then they’re back on the road on the fourth, the 7th, the 9th, and the 11th playing Sacramento, Golden State, the Lakers, and the Denver Nuggets. They come back home, they play the Timberwolves, and then they go to San Antonio on the 15th. So like that stretch from like the middle of December through the middle of January is really tough, I think, on the travel schedule and just around the holidays, too. Like they’re on the road for Thanksgiving, then they’re on the road for Christmas. Yeah. Uh they always like to blow it out at Ferve and and bring the holiday uh imaging and themes throughout the arena leading up to Christmas, but they’re they’re not going to be home at all that week or thereafter Christmas. So it’s the home game against the Raptors as you noted and then two weeks later the New Year’s Eve game against the Wizards. So that is an interesting wrinkle for this team. A couple questions that I’ve seen come in through the chat about the FanDuel Sports Network. We’re still a little bit removed or a little bit behind there on the name of the network, but for the RSN’s, uh, so am I going to be able to see these on those? And it’s my understanding, and I got to double check this, but the Amazon games are exclusive to Amazon. So, those will not be um on Bal or on Bali Did It to FanDuel. Uh and then the the Monday only games on Peacock are exclusive to Peacock is my understanding of that. I’ll have to confirm that. But I would just assume if you got a streaming game, it’s exclusive to that streaming service. And that brings us back to the watch guide. So, it’s going to be interesting this year how much they’ve spread out this package. We talked about what it was in the past where you would have uh Tuesday and Thursday on TNT. The Tuesday was to avoid the NFL and and once Thursday night football stopped, then they would pick up the Thursday night games. ESPN had Wednesdays and Fridays. ABC would have uh Saturday night games and Sunday afternoon games, and again, that kind of coincided with the ending of the NFL schedule. Well, now there’s a national partner for every single night of the week. So, it starts Sundays. ABC continues to be one of the Sunday partners, but there’s also going to be NBC Sunday games, and those will also be streamed on Peacock. So, NBC is going to have games on Sunday and Tuesday. Those games you can stream on Peacock or watch on on NBC. Monday are Peacock exclusive games. So, if you have one of those, the only way to watch it is on Peacock, and we already mentioned one of those that the Bucks have. Uh Wednesdays and Fridays, ESPN still has those days. Uh ABC still has, as we mentioned, Sundays and Saturdays, but Amazon now Prime has Thursday exclusive games, Friday exclusive games, and Saturday exclusive games. So, it’s it’s going to be a chore to keep track of all the streaming services that you need and uh when and where to track those games. But there’s a national partner for every single day of the week now and in some days multiple national partners. Yeah. And that’s exactly why the NBA is talking about all this increased revenue that’s coming their way. for for those on YouTube throwing up the the cheat sheet really quick so you can see what Justin was just mentioning about how every day of the week is sponsor driven like every day again the sponsorship money for the NBA is coming in really good but some questions for the pockets of fans but that is what it is we know what the what the game is but as we get ready to wrap here Justin I’m really curious too when you look at the Bucks schedule um which games are you actually like just most excited to see because I heard you and Tai’s conversation on the earlier episode of Locked on Bucks and saying like you know like the rivalries like they don’t really hit the same right now for the Bucks like it’s more so just being excited to watch the Bucks play and me saying rivalries reminded me the NBA rivalry week having the Bucks and the Thunder like really NBA that’s the rivalry that you why well you don’t remember the NBA Cup final last year you don’t remember the Tony Snell game from like eight years ago go. It’s a deep story here. They’re right there. It’s It’s like hand like in their hands given to you NBA and y’all still didn’t still didn’t land. Like come on now. I I mean like if you’re not going to give me the Pacers there or the Bulls or the Miami Heat, right? Like at least do something else that makes sense. Like for all I can the the Los Angeles Clippers because it’s the Bucks versus Brook Lopez. something like that where there’s at least some rationale behind it, but just the it’s rivalry week. It’s the Bucks and the Thunder. Like, oh, right. Of course, because this is one of the rivalries we talk about every single year, right? Like that’s what everyone’s looking forward to. Like, of course, you want to see the NBA champs come to town, but like that’s not a rivalry. An NBA Cup game is not a rivalry mate. That’s right there for you, too. Throw the Pistons on there for your rival. Literally anything. The 76ers, like force something in there. I um yeah, and look, I get with Philly and some of these other teams, well, they already have this other rival. Uh then, you know, just don’t do this. Don’t make every team participate. Then if you if it’s already used up and you don’t have a natural rival, then whatever. Uh the games that I’m looking forward to, uh obviously every single one of those Indiana Pacers games, I believe the first two of those games are both in Indiana. um what a couple weeks into the season, November 3rd in Indie and then the Bucks final game before the Christmas break is in Indie against the Pacers on December 23rd. So, I’m looking forward to those games. I look forward to maybe I’m just a sicko. I look forward to the NBA Cup games. Um we’ll see what happens in in the Bucks group, but I’m I’m especially curious about those. Um, and then outside of that, you know, the games against the Cavs and the Knicks, I’m just I’m looking forward to those just to see where this Bucks team is at and how they start to clock in. Like last year we talked about it where you you looked at the Knicks and the Cavs and the Celtics specifically, but especially the Celtics cuz we knew Boston’s going to be really good and you wanted to use those as litmus tests, but there was so early in the season and it frankly didn’t really matter anyway that you couldn’t really do that. So, I’m just mostly curious and looking forward to those games. again, you got two of them very early, similar to last year where it’s two of your first four games of the season against the Knicks and the Cavaliers. Um, but you got later games against the Knicks. So, like especially that February 27th game and ironically enough, you got them kind of tied together there where you play the Cavs the 25th of February, the Knicks the 27th, you play the Cavs again in mid-March at home. So like those games and I suppose to a lesser extent too. Uh teams like the Pistons and the Orlando Magic like the teams that we expect to be somewhere around that like three to six range. How do the Bucks look against those teams? And you know we talked about it with Tai what’s the ceiling for this team? Like is it realistically if everything breaks their way I think they can be a three seed. Uh so how are you performing against those types of teams? like the Magic and like the Knicks if they fall off a little bit. So, those would be the ones. I mean, I think a lot of people are going to circle when LeBron and Luca come to town or Steph Curry early and Jimmy Butler, maybe Al Horford, too. Um, Victor Wanyama and games like that. I’m more interested just because there’s so much curiosity around this team against those teams in the East, like the clear contenders in the East and the teams that are around you in the Eastern Conference. Yeah, I agree with you on those like upcoming teams. Like I would add the Hawks into that as well. Like I want to see how the Bucks match up with the Hawks this year. But the the Detroit games in particular and the uh Orlando games in particular that I’m looking most forward to is beginning of December, you have Detroit at home on the 3rd and then you play Detroit again in Detroit on the sixth. You have a game against the 76ers in between that. But when the games are really close together like that too, whatever happens in that first game tends to carry over. Always love that type of energy. And you have the same situation with Orlando uh in February. you play at Orlando on the 9th of February and then you play at Orlando again on the 11th. So, back-to-back games both in Orlando, like a mini playoff feel to it, and I really enjoy those experiences. So, those are two I’m looking forward to um in particular from those upcoming teams. But I’m also looking forward to the Wimi matchups just because like Wimby and Giannis every time has been just a really fun experience seeing the two play against each other. So, want to see that. And again, just some of the OGs in the league when they finally come back to Milwaukee, like when the Rockets come to town, seeing Kevin Durant, when the Lakers come, when the Warriors come, because we don’t know how many more when the Clippers come, how many more of these games you have with some of these aging stars. So, those are probably the ones I’m most excited about, but I agree with what you and Tai mentioned on uh the Thursday episode, I guess earlier today’s episode about just being excited to see the Bucks play, period. Like that’s where I’m at where it’s like I’m getting into football even though the training camp’s happening, but I’m like, man, I cannot wait to see the Bucks start playing basketball again. Yeah. One of your last games of the regular season. Well, towards the end, it’s uh March 29th is when Brook Lopez makes his return to Milwaukee. We already spotlighted Chris Middleton’s return. It’s on the home opener. like those games. But that’s the other interesting part is it’s really next year that you would circle any of those individual games with Dame being back on the floor. Um maybe some other coaches are back in the mix and teams like Boston, Jason Tatum theoretically back next year and what that means and what that does for Juice in those games. But yeah, that’s the other interesting component. I mean, there’s no Bud game this year. there’s no even like a Taylor Jenkins game and things like that. You got Charles Lee. Um but yeah, it’s really from that perspective like when does Brook Lopez come back? When does Chris Middleton uh come back to this team and I suppose to like Pat Coneton making his return to Milwaukee will be a special moment for some Bucks fans, but certainly for the players and the organization there. Um, the other thing to just spotlight selfishly, I love the fact that this is to my recollection, um, since I’ve been involved in the broadcast, which will be your number 11 now, this is the fewest week nights, like non weekend Friday night 900 p.m. tips that this team has where their West Coast trips have have worked out this year where some of it is spread throughout the weekend. So, it’s just three games that are tipping off at 9 on the West Coast. I absolutely love that. We talked about uh earlier games on weekends, a ton of like 2:00 Saturday games, a ton of 2:30 Sunday games, even some 5:00 Sunday games. Like that’s my cut off. We don’t need to do games past five o’clock on weekends. Like that should be good. Do one and that’s your marquee game. Uh so I’m I’m all in favor of seeing more and more of that. And uh some scheduling quirks too. Like they got a decent amount and this was not the case last year of chunks of time off. Like even the Martin Luther King Jr. game, they’re off Friday, Saturday, and Sunday leading into that noon game on Monday. like they have a handful of pockets on the schedule like that with two or more days off in between games and it just felt like last year every single game I know you had a couple pockets but once that was gone the last what month and a half of the season it was back to backs or every other day from there on out. Yeah. And that’s going to be nice for I think they have what 14 backtobacks this season somewhere in that range. Six last year six 16 last year and you love to see that. So, like giving the Bucks team more space, like I enjoy that. But man, like schedule drop is exciting because you’re starting thinking about the matchups and you can put the dates on the calendar. Like now I can tell all my family and friends don’t be asking me for stuff on these days cuz you know the Bucks are playing. You know what that means. Um but again, like the season’s almost here, guys. We got a couple a month or so before training camp gets underway and then we start talking about some preseason basketball. Um but yeah, the schedule release is here. So, I would love to know too from everybody listening, all the everydayers, like which games are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comments. Are there any games that you think are mustsee for the Bucks where you’re like, I don’t know what I got to do, but I’m going to make sure I’m in the building for that game. Like, let us know in the comments as well. Yeah. And I mean I I I it’s it doesn’t impact me as much, but as a fan, I am very looking forward to the new uh TV partners just to see what changes do we see and what are some of the differences there as everybody’s had their complaints and and certainly valid about getting a little stagnant with with some of the moments of the broadcast here. So, uh what that means, but uh again, as we leave you here, the schedule’s out. You can find it at bucks.com/scchedu. leave your thoughts on the game you are most looking forward to for this Bucks team and maybe we didn’t highlight uh one of them but I would imagine the home opener for Chris Middleton and the Pacers games are going to be um the ones carrying a lot of attention there for the Bucks and Amir Coffee so again it is a camp deal um we’ll just put an asterisk on it is he has not taken the 15th spot on the roster they have him for training camp. We’ll see where it goes from there. I would be stunned if Amir Coffee is not suiting up for the Bucks when they host Chris Middleton and the Washington Wizards to open up the season October 22nd. Uh that’ll do it for today’s show and good to have Camille back. It’s been a long week and a rough week for her. So again, shout outs to anybody that that’s dealing with the weather that we had and the flooding over the weekend. Um, but that’ll do it for the week and we got a lot to dig into next week. I think we have another interview that’s going to be coming up to take a look back at the history of the Bucks and then some more thoughts on developments that we get on air coffee, the roster situation and any any other quirks with this schedule for Camille. I’m Justin. We’ll talk with you guys once again next week on Lock on Bucks.

Bucks’ schedule unveiled: Emotional opener against Middleton’s Wizards sets the stage for an intriguing season. Will Milwaukee’s new roster moves pay off?

Justin Garcia and Camille Davis break down the Milwaukee Bucks’ newly released NBA schedule, highlighting key matchups and analyzing the impact of media partnerships on game distribution. The hosts discuss the recent signing of Amir Coffey and its potential implications for the team’s wing depth. They also examine the challenges of the NBA In-Season Tournament and critique the league’s choice for Milwaukee’s “rivalry” game.

Tune in for expert insights on the Bucks’ path to success and how Chris Middleton’s return to Milwaukee could shape the season opener.

0:00 Intro: Bucks schedule and roster move
10:49 New NBA schedule and media partnerships
16:54 Notable early season matchups for Bucks
21:39 Breakdown of new TV/streaming schedule
28:41 Most anticipated games on Bucks schedule
35:22 Key player returns and scheduling quirks

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