Myles Turner’s Role, Giannis Rumors, and the Bucks’ Uncertain Future

Myles Turner’s Role, Giannis Rumors, and the Bucks’ Uncertain Future

Do the Bucks have a Miles Turner problem? The usage for their man needs to change and realistically what can it change for the Bucks? We didn’t dig into it next on Locked on Bucks. You are Locked on Bucks, your daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome into Locked on Bucks. I’m Justin Garcia. You can find me and hear me on the Bucks Radio Network. We thank you for making this your first listen of the day each and every day. And to everyone for making the Locked on Podcast Network the number one sports podcasting network in the industry. Today’s episode brought to you by FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanuel.com to place your NFL bets all season long. Joined today by Ty Windish of the Euroep podcast. Um, you and I talked last week on your show and a lot has seemingly transpired or at least picked up since then. So, I figured we would uh pick more of it up here. And one of the things that’s changed, which I I think we’ll spend a decent amount of time on today, but there’s kind of a hodgepodge of what’s going on with Giannis, what’s going on with his team, what’s the landscape of the East that we’ll touch on as well. Uh but that is, you know, Miles Turner and these last few games especially, I I forget, was it uh whatever game it was, was it the Pistons game or the one before that where you just kind of notice like, oh yeah, Miles wasn’t really out there a lot in the fourth quarter. And then it started to become a trend throughout the week where the minutes played have really dipped um for the full game. And in the fourth quarter, we heard Doc Rivers talk, I think before the Philly game, or maybe it was before the second Pistons game about the Philly game, saying like, “Well, Miles just wasn’t having a good game, so we went with Bobby in those spots.” Um, I don’t know what to make of it quite frankly because even if Miles was not having a good game and I I would say the eye test would tell me maybe but it not to the levels of like this is awful and you need to get him off the floor even if that were the case. Um, it’s just interesting because of what you’ve invested in him and seemingly kind of tied everything in the plan this season and your proposal to Giannis in Miles Turner. Yeah, interesting is a good word. Um, it was the Philly game, so the first night of that backtoback where the Bucks were, you know, sticking around. They didn’t punt to uh to garbage time until the last minute of that game where Jericho Sims played just under five minutes. Bobby Porters played nine and a half minutes. Miles Turner logged 1 minute and 34 seconds in the fourth quarter when you’re seeing the rest of the starters playing, you know, from 7 minutes to which was Rollins to nearly 10 of KPJ. So, it wasn’t just, you know, the Bucks kind of punting and giving up on the game. They just didn’t go with Turner down the stretch and he ended up taking two free throws and blocked a shot in that time, but didn’t have any other shot attempts. Turner didn’t. Um, and this has been something that I think I’ve been monitoring a little bit even before that back-to-back, but that was certainly where it became the most pronounced. If you look at those two games just alone, Jericho Sims is the Bucks leading minutes getter from Bigs with 60 and second on the team. Uh, Turner is played less than Gary Trent Jr. and Kyle Kosma. He’s played 48 total minutes, so 24 per game. And then Portoris is just five behind him at 43. So really odd the way the Bucks big man rotation is shaking out right now. And I think you can understand why Sims got the opportunity off of his career game against Detroit. He was instrumental in that win 15 points and 14 boards. And he does theoretically bring the defense and rebounding. That’s really all that he’s bringing right most games that the Bucks have sorely needed. But I think, you know, that’s great. It does remind me a lot of the Andre Jackson Jr. situation from the last two years of just like, you know, you can throw that guy in as a starter. You can say you need what he brings. The limitations though are still the limitations and that was very obvious with Sims who in those 60 minutes over the weekend scored four total points on two total shots. Uh and that’s just not enough for a starter in the NBA when you’re down your best offensive player. And I just don’t think it’s something the Bucks can lean on. To your point, Turner waxes and wanes. The rebounding has been disappointing. Indiana fans were, you know, on to something when they noted that, but I don’t think it’s been significantly better with him off the court. And he can just do so much. I mean, the most frustrating part about this is remember that Miami game where the Bucks almost won without Giannis in Miami. It was a very impressive cup game. They would have probably made the cup uh quarterfinals or whatever here if they had won. And it was a large part because they unlocked Turner. Uh some of it’s the way Miami defends. they switch everything, but they were immediately going to him when there was a small on him, which happens even with Yiannis out of the games and he was either going up and scoring. He was making nice passes and it feels like we’ve really seen none of that since for too often Turner just feels like, you know, if you happen to be open from three, you can shoot it otherwise set a screen maybe, you know, defend the rim. like his role feels like an afterthought and to something else you said that just feels ridiculous for a player who the front office invested this much in that you know is there a plan here or is it just if he’s shooting the cover off the ball he’ll play and if not we might go with Sims who’s a veteran minimum and Portoris who was supposedly going to be your sixth man coming into the year. Yeah, I mean for all intents and purposes, you’re paying Miles Turner $50 million this year because of the Dame stretch. Um, and for the duration of his contract, that’s kind of how you have to view it. So, it does beg the question of are both sides on the same page here, front office and coaching staff? Because if it happens in one game, then like fine, let’s just kind of set the expectation of we expect more from you and we need more from you, especially in these games and moments when Giannis is down. So this is why this happened. Let’s move towards that in the next game. But it’s it’s been multiple games now that we’ve seen. I think the thing we are all uh most anticipating is, you know, Thursday when you return to the floor number one, I hope it’s a close game against the Celtics team that’s playing red-hot right now. Um because then we can see does this trend continue in the fourth quarter here. Um yeah, the rebounding for Miles, I I remember talking about it with Tony East over the summer, too, and he kind of felt like, yeah, I know Pacers fans complain about it. I don’t think it’s quite as bad as they complain and in many ways it kind of echoed a lot of what we would discuss with Brook Lopez where it’s it’s not as simple as like just look at the rebounding numbers. What I will say is the Bucks difference in their rebounding rate with Brooke on the floor versus off was greater than what we saw from Indiana where yeah they were a better rebounding team with Miles on the floor but it didn’t feel like it was quite to the level as we saw with Brooks. So, you did kind of go in eyes open to that knowing, well, there’s a couple of things to keep in mind here. Number one, Brooke has been an Iron Man. Number two, even though he doesn’t secure rebound, he creates those opportunities. And like, these are going to be important when you’ve chipped away at your superstar depth, you need guys that are going to play most every game. And if you’re going to be a good defensive team, you’re going to have to close the possession. And that’s arguably been the biggest issue facing the Bucks this season. It’s it’s not squarely on the shoulder of Miles. It’s a number of guys as as you mentioned that at this point I think you would look at it and say there’s maybe like two guys that I feel good about rebounding and one of them isn’t playing right now. The other is Jericho Sims. Um but that kind of puts you in the spot that we’re in right now of Yeah. teamwide this this isn’t just one thing. This is many things that have led you here. Yeah, and I think rebounding too. I mean, you watch closely when other teams get offensive rebounds. And I think sometimes it is like against the Pistons, Jaylen Duran just out muscles Miles Turner and gets a rebound. He does that to a lot of guys, but a lot of the time it’s, you know, Turner going to try and help off a drive and then nobody bumps or boxes out the big or a player crashing in from the rim. And, you know, there’s only so much one big can do about the whole team rebounding. It is a team kind of stat by and large. I think the Bucks to your point just they they skew small. They start two point guards. They start AJ Green at the three or you know now it’s it’s changed up a little bit who they’re starting. Maybe it’ll be Trent. We’ll see. Um but outside of their their bigs, they’re a very small team and they have not been physical enough and just went and gotten rebounds. The hope was Kevin Porter Jr. could help with that a little bit because he is a good rebounder from the point guard position. Ironically, Cole Anthony is also a good rebounder from the point guard position despite the size, but he has not been playing really at all since KPBJ got healthy. Uh, but it hasn’t been enough. They still gave up a ton of offensive boards to Philly and to Detroit. Now, those are big physical teams. Andre Drummond for the many faults is maybe the best rebounder of his generation. Just kind of quietly a bench guy now, but still can do it. Um, but it’s still I mean they’re losing games consistently because surprisingly their offense has been okay in the latest non Giannis like KPBJ has been a revelation there, but they just lose the possession battle by so much every game that you know even when they were first in half court offense they were losing. Now they’re not first. They’re like okay in offense and definitely still losing. Yeah. And I mean one other thing started to pop up there with the possession battle and kind of the margins that they have to win on. I I do want to touch on Miles Turner’s individual numbers though. I want to take a look at those and how it checks out against our expectations coming into the season. I know Camille and I talked about it quite a bit. All of our listeners had thoughts too on what he would average and and who would be the second leading scorer. So, we we’ll revisit that coming up next on today’s Locked On Bucks. NFL Sundays move fast. 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I I would uh I would assume you felt the same. I didn’t think Miles Turner was going to be the second leading scorer on the team coming into the season. I I thought there was a chance. I thought if he was, you were going to have a lot of guys that were kind of averaging 17 or 18, a couple, and Miles was one of them. But, um, I think it’s it’s easy for Bucks fans to look at this and and say, “I’m disappointed in what you’re getting here.” I expected bigger things because statistically it has been a disappointment. Um, shooting 43 44% from the field after a stretch of 50% shooting from Indiana and 48 I think he was last year. He has been good hitting the three even though it it kind of seems like similar to Brook Lopez, ironically enough, where I think people only see the misses that Miles Turner has from the outside, but he’s what 39% there. But his his point production right now is the lowest it’s been since the year the Bucks won the title, which we can no longer say was, oh, it was only x amount of years ago. Like, it’s getting further down that hill now. and his usage rate is the other thing that I looked at at least with cleaning the glass which is going to take out a lot of fourth quarter minutes from Miles. Um but a 17 if we round out percent usage after you know this guy in more of an ealitarian system with the Pacers was 19 last year in the 20s the the two years prior to that. I know, you know, Giannis is the son here and and moves a lot, but Tyresese Hallebertton was a similar guy for the Pacers and for his usage to be down there to me is the most troubling of any of the county numbers. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean even uh Hallebertton and then I mean Sakum another legitimate star in Indiana and to your point like a team that kind of famously was not I mean I’d say mostly run through Tyrese but kind of ran through everyone which you know I would think that worst case would be the same usage with the Bucks, right? Like uh Giannis is going to be probably higher than any individual player almost around the league now that Luke is playing with Austin Reeves, but certainly more than anyone on the Pacers. Um and I think the dips are are really troubling. And the funny thing about his shooting percentage is it’s mostly just because he’s not he’s taking the same amount of threes, but just way less twos. He’s taking 3.7 twos per game, which is by far a career low. I mean, he was almost six last year. He had more than seven the two years before that in Indiana. His two-point percentage is down slightly, but he’s just taking even more threes than ever and way less twos. So again, kind of the evidence to that point of he’s basically just been used as a three-point shooting big, which was mostly of how Brook Lopez was used too. And I think is made more sense then when it was like, okay, we have Chris Middleton, we have Drew Holiday, we have Damen Lillard plus Giannis. Like there’s a lot to do on offense. We don’t need our big ass involved. There’s not as much of that star power anymore. And I do think Turner is, if not going to be their second leading scorer. I thought he’d be 16 to 18, which is where he was roughly the last three years, somewhere in that range. Probably about seven boards. And yeah, 12.6 and less than six boards is certainly disappointing. Also, a since the rookie year, this is the fewest blocks per game he’s totaled. Uh, despite not playing that many fewer minutes. I think some of that is the Bucks, especially earlier, used him really aggressively far from the rim and it’s harder to block shots out there. Um, so some of the I mean I don’t think he’s played exceptionally, but honestly a lot of the underlying stats for like his performance per shot are not all that different. He’s just not being utilized. And maybe some of that’s him. He needs to rebound more and that would get him more minutes. The ball finds energy, whatever. But I do think a lot of these numbers when you really dig in speak to what we said initially, which is this is a skilled player who is just not being all that utilized. the one number that’s up, he is actually averaging a careerhigh in assists per game so far. So is doing a little bit more passing. We know the Bucks are so much spacing so that when he does see two, he’s able to find that open shooter, which is great. Um, but offensively, I do think they should and could get more out of him, especially with Giannis out. I mean, he’s the best big guy in the roster right now. So, if he’s going to be the third fiddle in that rotation, I just think you’re losing out on a lot of offensive potential with Turner that again, you invested a lot to bring him over to Milwaukee. Let’s see what he can do. Yeah. And what I would encourage everyone too is I I think your point on the twopoint is what has been most persistent for me of like well look you you just got to get this guy involved and you got to find meet him halfway and find his comfort zone especially if you’re going to be playing without Giannis like you don’t have to worry well this is how this fits around Giannis. You don’t have to worry about that for probably three more weeks. So, what gets you going? Where do you want the ball? Where are you most comfortable? Like, that’s what we need to move to here, which makes it, I suppose, troubling just to see the lack of playing time down the stretch in the fourth quarter. Like, if anything, it should be the opposite to say, “Okay, we’re going to lean into you, you and KPJ, and we’ll see if we can get a two-man game going here.” Rollins as well. Um, if you look at the shot chart for Miles Turner this year and look at it last year, look at it the last two years in Indiana, it is noticeable what’s missing. And I I think anybody that remembers, everybody listening and watching this show that remembers the what, 20 times that the Bucks and Pacers have played the last two years. Where has Miles Turner routinely killed the Bucks? He’s hit a lot of top of the key threes, but it’s at the elbow. It’s at the free throw line and those mid-range shots where you’re playing the drop. And I get part of that is the defense you’re going to face. Um, when I was talking with Tony, too, he he had told me, “Yeah, the Pistons, Miles always has big games against the Pistons because of the drop and you’re not utilizing him in in that or in key minutes in some of those games.” Uh, but if you just do a side by side, and it’s not the greatest to to pull up the image and show you, but I would just encourage everyone go to basketball reference, look at the shooting tab, look at the shot chart, look at where Miles was feasting last year on not only the made shots, the shot attempts, and look what’s missing this year on that chart. Like, that tells the story. Yeah. Yeah. And I think um it’s great to talk about the offense this much and I think there’s a lot more he can Miles Turner can offer offensively and the other end and the thing that doesn’t sit well with me with the like well he wasn’t playing well so he’d cut his minutes is it just feels like there’s been numerous games when Bobby Poris was two of seven two of 11 and you know giving you much less on the defensive end and we’ll just leave it there but I I think I don’t think anyone should argue giving you much less on the defensive end than Miles Turner does Ken both and still the minutes were the same in that situation. And I think Turner needs to be relied on more, yes, more offensively, but also I think he is kind of your key cog defensively now. I’d say kind of a combo of him and you have two point guards who can press, which is great, but I’m a little surprised we haven’t seen more, you mentioned it with Detroit, more of the traditional drop, especially against some of these teams like Andre Drummond not spacing you, Jaylen Duran not spacing you. I mean, most of the Pistons roster not spacing you. We’ve seen a ton of zone. Turner can be a really effective drop big, too. He led the league in blocks twice when he was younger. Still, it’s been a little while, but you know, you have these guards who can navigate screens. You have your drop big. I think the Bucks probably, ironically, need to kind of go back to those doc days and stop trying to maybe reinvent the the Bud days, excuse me, not stop trying to reinvent the wheel as much with some of this aggressive defense because, yeah, that coverage works. that coverage didn’t work when you know you’re playing a mid-range assassin who’s redot or a team who’s five out but most teams aren’t that and in the regular season especially that coverage works and I think that could help Miles be utilized more defensively which is really I mean we’ve been talking about offense their offense has been okay their defense has been a train wreck since Yiannis’s gone out and that’s where they could really use Turner to help too I mean that’s the whole thing about getting him was two-way stretch five and he could do more defensively but you could drop with him as well. And I would hope they can get him more comfortable on both ends because I think there’s a lot more potential there. I I don’t know where it is on NBA.com. I frankly have not been motivated to check the last couple days, but on cleaning the glass, I think they’re 24th defensively. Yeah. Um, and like the offense has been I think the offense has been fine considering that Giannis has missed now close to half of the season, but I believe they’re like 161 17, which again, like, yeah, you you got good shooters on the team, but they’re guys that are largely catch that need created for them. And if Yiannis is gone, you’re going to be hurt there. So, yeah, the defense has not been anywhere near good enough. And I think the biggest flaw that we saw with the drop was, you know, not only the mid-range guys, which as you pointed to that, it’s fewer and fewer even now in the league. Um, but I think we just tend to remember the drop defense in its dying days of of Bud and the last couple years as well with Brook Lopez where uh not so much Bud, but the last two years where you you just didn’t have the personnel on the perimeter. Like it’s it’s one thing if you’re going to have Drew Holiday and Wesley Matthews and other guys that can stay on their man and win on the perimeter, but when it’s Malik Beasley and Dame or other guys that are going to get beats and you’re in the drop, like of course things are going to look bad and of course teams are going to get offensive rebounds when Brook Lopez contests because it’s twoon-one. So yeah, I I would be very much in favor of at least can we sprinkle in more of this instead of just the zone as the crutch this team has gone to. Maybe we can start to go to a drop defense as the thing to uh to take a look at. But yeah, I look I’m I’m not laying it at the feet of Miles Turner. I’m not saying Miles Turner is blamefree, but it has been a disappointment so far and it has not been what you hoped it would be 25 games into the season. But, you know, again, in fairness to Miles, I don’t think it’s exclusive to just that. It’s a lot of things that we’re saying this has been a a disappointment for this group. Which then leads to the big picture conversation, which is not going to die down um ever again. Would you say that’s fair to say? Like, so long as Giannis is here, we’re never going to hear the end of this. uh through the course of this season once the trade deadline passes if he’s still on the team it’s going to be talk about yeah but just wait until the summer if that passes it’s going to be well the trade deadline like it’s going to be up until Giannis is no longer here that we continue to hear that we’ve heard and seen a few uh updates when we talked last week it was just starting to pick up so what’s changed since then and realistically how do we see this unfolding We’ll get into those conversations coming up next. You know, there’s no reason to let big wireless drain your wallet, especially during the holidays. And right now, Mint Mobile is running their best deal of the year. All of their unlimited plans are 50% off, so you can lock in 3, 6, or even 12 months of unlimited premium wireless for just $15 a month. The easiest way to take your overpriced phone bill and give it the full Scrooge treatment. 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So, as the uh as the Giannis turns, uh we had the the social media cleansing, which a few pointed out. Um this actually happened a week or a couple weeks ago. And we’ve kind of seen similar things from him before. We were precient. I just want to say our pod we did on on Euroep, we didn’t even like I think you saw that during the show. I didn’t even know. and we were kind of like, oh, this feels like it could get bad and it all snowballed, right? I just want to say I feel like our instincts were on. I just wanted to give us a little bit of a a little flowers for that, but go on. There’s a lot more you need to sum up. So, that happened and we had a very defiant Doc Rivers uh going into what the Pistons game, right? Um, oh, by the way, now the Pistons come to town too with this hanging over you. But we had a very defined Doc Rivers who uh was adamant that this is nonsense and like Giannis has never told me he wants to be traded. We don’t have these conversations. He talks to the guys. I did hear earlier in the day before the game there was a players only meeting that included all players and we also heard from from Bobby from KPJ from Cuz I think from Rollins after that game and they all kind of gave the same message too of like yeah still communicates with us and talks to us about this this and this and he was the first one that was the game he got hurt by the way. uh he was the first one to text us in the group chat and like we know what the outside chatter is. Um it’s just been bizarre because the reporting that’s out there and my my stance has long been without going too far in a spot that can get me into trouble here. There’s a lot of smoke here that I don’t think this is entirely fabricated and made up. there is clearly something that’s coming out like you don’t get to ESPN and just let’s make up stories because we want Giannis out of Milwaukee so what if we do this maybe that can grease the wheels like to that level that does not happen um what we haven’t heard from Giannis and even going back to what we heard what when he came back from co that was not a ringing like I am in Milwaukee for the rest of my career and I’m never leaving that wasn’t a yes I had these discussions and I want to be traded But that was very much in the middle and not as strongly worded as we’ve heard from him in the past. So if you just use all the context that’s out there, if this was any other player that did not play for the Bucks, we would all be saying, “Well, it seems like his days are numbered and the trade is inevitable here.” So, I think there’s that that you have to put out there and say, “Look, if we level set, let’s acknowledge this.” But then we saw Giannis with a brief return to social media. We heard Chris Haynes say, you know, Giannis told me, “When I see a wall, I don’t go through the door. I run through the wall. And I’m committed to making it work here.” It’s just funny because it’s kind of like and I don’t mean this as a knock on Chris Haynes but where he said like can you tell me where that was even said that now it’s kind of like if a tree falls in a forest that and Shams has the platform and there was even more reporting that came out uh as we’re recording this from Shams and ESPN that seemed to go against that. So the long story short is look one of these parties is lying and I don’t know which of the two it is. I don’t know when we’ll find out, but we will eventually find out. Yeah. Um, the thing about the whole like, oh, it’s ESPN wants him out and it’s the idea, I’m not saying this either, but the idea that it’s like it’s all fabricated. To your point on media day, Giannis was asked directly multiple times really kind of followed up and like, hey, is this ridiculous or what? And never once said, yeah, that’s not true. I I never the Knicks thing totally meeting with the Bucks. Yeah, he did. That was the the probably the most declarative thing that he had said and you know he said he’s excited about the season he’s committed whatever whatever said oh it’s not true like this whole and that scene too about like oh this is agents doing what agents do’s agents work for Giannis if Giannis was sitting here injured trying hard to play for their pushing that right he he could literally today go on Instagram where we know he has access he’s posting random memes in the middle of the night and say I don’t want to be traded I love the Bucks I, you know, committed. You could say anytime. And what would happen? It would all go away. I mean, it it would it’s it’s real enough. It would go awayish, but it would be Let’s keep an eye on what happens here in Milwaukee. Yeah. But I mean, it would certainly it would quiet a lot. Yeah. I mean, he’s the guy it comes from him. This isn’t like some conspiracy of like people are goating Giannis into this. Yeah. Giannis I don’t think is someone who agents or ESPN or Adam Silver can be like I mean he’s talking about starting a rival league and not even the NBA itself potentially could tell Giannis what to do right it’s it’s him um so I legit I mean this is not obviously source no one knows for sure what Giannis is thinking I think that’s pretty obvious from kind of two different things coming out of some sort of Giannis’ camp here to your point um it just feels like like wants to go but doesn’t want to be the one to do it And I I and I just don’t know if the Bucks organization is ever going to fully decide like, oh, it’s our time to do it. Like, we’re going to be the bad guys and just trade him. And I I don’t even know if I don’t know how it would go over. I don’t think it would be popular. But I think we are at a point now where a lot of people would kind of get it. I mean, we’re sitting in 10th and a tie with 11th to the Bulls who would be in 10th, but they’ve lost seven straight games somehow. And the the report that came out of someone in Chicago like Giannis came to us, but we said thanks, but no thanks. just like the funniest part of this whole thing. Um yeah, I don’t know. Unless unless unless that did happen and their viewing, which I don’t think it did, but their view of it was like, let’s just wait two years and sign you and not give anything up. Yeah. Um I don’t know. I I we shouldn’t have brought the Bulls into this if we’re going to get too sidetracked. They’re too funny. But um but it’s clearly not all false because I there would have been a simple thing to do if it was. And um it’s going to be interesting now because the rep the today’s report from ESPN just like the last one uh from Shams was it wouldn’t be a Knicks exclusive window. And I really think therein lies the rub of I I think if there was a slam dunk Knicks deal like if they had Towns and and they deuce was still cheap and they had like 10 first. I kind of think it didn’t make the two trades they previously did. Yeah. Yes. I I kind of think it would have just happened like clearly there was no one also no one from Giannis or the Bucks refuted like yeah we had a trade talk about Giannis again this is the kind of thing like you want to cope and just gloss over hugely significant that that got far enough to do that and now the question is is there a team where he would want to go to that wants him enough and has the stuff and I really think like if that all slides to yes if the stars align I think they’ll probably be a trade I I just to your point you you kind of just have The thing when there’s a ton of smoke, there’s usually fire and not a smoke machine. And I I don’t think this is a smoke machine. Yeah. I mean, go back and ask Portland fans like what was the timeline of of events and like how did this start to play out with with Dame, ironically enough, which you benefited from, although in, you know, the grand scheme of things, it was not really a a benefit for the Bucks. And, you know, honestly, that that’s probably what you look back on. And again, it’s not like a shot at Dame, but just that off season of, you know, the firing of a coach and whether or not it was time whether or not he still had the locker room and still had that voice, like valid conversations to be had. But firing a proven coach who was one of the more successful coaches in the league for that, you know, decade basically with his arrival in Atlanta, one UA championship, and it just didn’t feel like there was a clear plan on replacing him. just we are making this coaching change and we saw what that blew up into eventually trading for Dame. I mean right there you the identity of the team was gone. You know it was a defensive team that had an offense that was good enough and a superstar and you’re still frankly searching for what the identity of this team uh is. Mark Stein had some things as well, which I I have to go back and read it again, but I I want to say like two days ago, Stein and his newsletter had that like the message from the Bucks is like non-starter. We’re not listening to calls, we’re not returning calls, like not feeling off because we are not shopping him. And uh in his update yesterday, I think he had basically what what Shams had that like yeah, everybody I’ve talked to has kind of felt like it’s inevitable. Nate Duncan has talked about it a while and he’s been one of the national guys that has kind of has said, I want Giannis to get traded, but I don’t think he will for years. Um, and he’s even said like I I’ve always kind of taken Giannis at his word and his word has always been more so I’d rather stay here, but now I honestly don’t know what to make of any of this. So, it just it leads to a ton of ambiguity. I’m not saying to, you know, to be a doomer and to do this fear-mongering and say, “Well, Giannis is trying to get traded.” I’m just saying like we need to keep our eyes open through this process and not just slam the door on it because of the smoke that’s out there. And the notion too that it’s just like we want, you know, get them out of a small market, get them to a bigger market. I mean, number one, we’re looking how not to this level, but how similar things played out each of the previous two times. Like it took a trade for Drew, it took a trade for Dame before an extension was signed. And also like if the goal is to pre prevent Stars from getting to smaller, let’s just get everybody to big markets. How have the Bucks, the Nuggets, the Thunder last year? Like how have these teams won championships in the last five years? How are the Thunderers set up to be arguably a dynasty and the best team we’ve seen? Do Yeah. With Oklahoma City, if this is the He’s got to get get on the phone, get Ched out of there, get everyone. Shay, they all have to go. Um, but yeah, I mean I think ultimately the challenge of it is there’s no easy fit that’s out there because of the moves that the Knicks did. If that is your desired destination, I I’m sorry. Like there’s not a trade that makes sense for the two of us. There’s trades that make sense for the Knicks, but not for the Bucks because of the lack of assets. I don’t know that the Knicks even have a first rounder they can technically trade. It’s like a swap this year, which is like such a joke, you shouldn’t even include it. Yeah, because like they could potentially get two first rounders this year, right? But it it would require the Wizards dropping out of the top nine, which is likely as long as they finish with one of the four worst records, it’s not going to happen. So, yeah, I the Knicks just don’t have the assets. And if you’re the Bucks, if you do decide to trade Giannis, um even with the the, you know, lack of assets that you have in the immediate future, your best play is to still say we need short-term assets to stock up there and things that are going to help us down the road because if he’s gone with the rest of this roster, we’re not going to be an Eastern Conference contender for a couple of years. So, like bringing back a Carl Anthony Towns um and a a much much much lesser version of Giannis that does nothing for us other than kind of keep us in purgatory. Yeah. I I I think it’s an interesting conversation that’s been floated a lot of like what do the Bucks owe Giannis? And I think it’s fair to an extent when you get to a spot like this to say, okay, let’s say Utah had the best package. I don’t think they do, but like like all their picks, whatever. I think it’s fair to say we’re not going to trade you to Utah. We’re not going to trade you to Brooklyn if unless he really likes New York. But, you know, like we won’t send you to basketball hell um because they have the most picks. I think that’s fair. But I also think you know what do they owe Giannis? And you know, Giannis has signed three max contracts with the Bucks. He has two of his brothers on roster spots. I mean, they’ve made a lot of decisions reportedly at the behest of Giannis. He’s won a couple of MVPs, the NBA Cup, the NBA Championship. some finals MVPs at those arenas. Like it’s not been all Bucks. I think Giannis has done more for the Bucks than vice versa. But I also think the Bucks have all the trades that they’ve made. Like I think they’ve kind of dedicated the last better part of the last 10 years all to Giannis and some of the future picks. I don’t think they owe him the whole next decade as well. And I do think you’re kind of sentencing yourself to at least five years of like, oh, this is really bad and we’re sending our picks away every year. if you take back Towns and six second round picks or whatever, like that’s I don’t think that’s a tenable trade you can make. Uh or even if you get OG2, like I I just think you’re kind of you’re just really putting yourself back. And this is kind of a golden parachute situation where you’re without all these assets, but you should be able to recoup. To your point, if the package doesn’t include 26 27 picks or like a a dynamite young player, which we haven’t talked about anything like that, you just can’t. And that’s like the Heat too because of this Rosier thing and they’re trying like hell to reverse the trade now which everyone’s like you can’t that just doesn’t that’s not possible. They owe their 27 they can’t trade 26 or 27 28 swap you can’t take a package that’s whatever Tyler Hero and a 28 swap like that is you’re just stuck in the wasteland for three years then. Yeah. Um, yeah. I I mean I we’re we’re a long ways from getting there, but like Yeah. Yeah. It’s just But just when those teams come up, that’s just what I think of like you just can’t Right. Right. And I I just like mean what you owe Giannis. I I agree with your your point, you know, largely in that like the way I would view it is if you have two offers on the table and one is like an A minus offer from team like, wow, they’re really interested in him and the other is a B offer from like, yeah, they’d be a pretty good team with Giannis. Like, all right, take the B offer. That’s what you owe him. But like, yeah, just like, well, you want to go to New York, so here we go. we’re going to just take back a crap deal in return. Um yeah, the like look the the number one jump starter is if the Atlanta Hawks are interested and you can get the other half of that pick swap and you get two picks this summer in a very very good draft. Um you know potentially both could be top five depending on what happens with you because the Pells lost again last night and they have the worst record in the league. Um that is the immediate fix to infuse some young talent into this. You’d have to take back matching salary. But like that’s it for everybody looking at well how can you say like these are the offers for Giannis. These are laughable offers. Look at what the the Knicks gave up for Bridges. Look at what the Magic gave up for Desmond Bane. I mean, the timing and the context is the important part of all of it that I do think even though it was what two summers ago, the Bridges trade, the going back further than that, the Rudy Gay trade, like Rudy Gay, Rudy Gobear trade. Um, those are deals you’re not going to see anymore. Not like that volume of picks, but that volume of picks for those types of guys. And the the problem is with this CBA, there isn’t that volume of picks that teams have. And teams also know if we’re going to trade for a $55 million contract, which oh by the way, we also have to extend into the mid60s and 70s, like we kind of need mid-level contracts on our as the wind. Otherwise, we got two years and we’re right back in the second apron. We’re screwed and we got to immediately start to tear this thing down. So, we better win two championships if we pull off this deal. I think that’s a lot of what the Bucks are up against. When you see reporting of like, well, some teams might not be interested because of this. I think that’s actually legit because of the cap construction and just how cumbersome this has been, even more so than than teams likely anticipated to sign off on this. but also like the Bane trade. Well, the matching salaries in that deal were bad contracts. So, that is part of the addition of picks that you’re getting for that of like, okay, we’re going to take these contracts, too, so you need to give us even more. And like, sure, you can point to players the Bucks could package. I don’t see that happening. Like if this is a multi-team multi-player deal on the Bucks end, I think the players would share the same last name because any other contract that you add to the 55 like think about that volume like Kyle Kuzman. I mean in no way, shape or form say Bucks should trade Kyle Kuzman. Giannis, but let’s say you do that. That’s $75 million in salary next year going out. So that is a massive chunk of your cap. And sure, you’re sending some out, but that’s two guys and you’re probably sending out three or four guys to make up for that. Yeah. And I think to your other point about and Winhorse reported that about the picks and I know Windows had to walk back a different report in the last week, but I I believed that one a bit more. Um, you also just can’t extract blood from a stone. And like there’s like four teams that have almost all the picks. So, if you’re not dealing with one of those four teams, you’re probably dealing with a team that doesn’t have all of their own picks even, much less like these extra picks. Like, it can’t scale up because, you know, often times it’s kind of just like you just get the picks that a team has and that’s kind of the deal when it’s a player of this caliber. Most teams aren’t Oklahoma City or San Antonio. So, if it’s not one of those two, it’s probably a team that doesn’t that can’t give you 15 first if you think that should be the price. Um, and again, Oklahoma City just just that’s the other factor, too. And like, do I want to trade Biannis? who’s missed time in four of the last six playoffs when the OKC Thunder are what 21-1 so far and like I mean are we gonna is anyone gonna part yeah I think that’s the biggest part of this that not as many people are are talking about is like sure the the cost that it would take to bring in a Giannis and what it would do to your cap and and the picks and players you’d have to give up and would you be gutting your team that brings in Giannis but also So, like the Thunder and I I know going into this season I said look I think way too many of us are just assuming the Thunder are going to roll through this because we’ve seen the league say no more dynasties and we’re going to have a different title team seven years in a row. I’m ready to walk those back with how this group looks. But I mean, do you view this as okay, maybe we can win the East if we’re an Eastern Conference team that trades for him? Maybe it puts us over the top. If we’re a Western Conference team, maybe it puts us in a better spot. Do we think it it makes us good enough to beat this Thunder team for the next two years? Or should we wait and make our move two years from now when they’ve got to start to break up the group when all those extensions start to kick in? Like, do we go for it now or do we wait and see what happens in OKC? There in lies the Spurs problem for me. I think you got Web andyama, you got Harper, you got Castle, you got more picks coming in. Their team they feel good about. They’ve been a good team this year. I’m just not sure those stakeholders look at that and go, “We’re better than OKC if we make this move.” The one team that in the West I think is the most interesting is Houston for that reason. Yeah, historically a very aggressive team who is right there and hey, a team that can rebound, I mean, imagine unleashing Giannis in this team where like we’re just going to go get every board. pairing Giannis and KD given their history would be pretty awesome from a neutral fan perspective and I think a men Thompson is the kind of player and they have picked they have a lot of good picks too like a men Thompson and quality picks I think that is the kind of package where if you’re Milwaukee it’s like all right we don’t really want to do this but if if it’s going to happen that’s I think one of the teams that would make sense but I I think the East teams a lot of them like if you’re Atlanta and you can win the East like pretty pretty big deal yeah even if you don’t with the title. I mean, it’s been a long time for them. So, I think the East team’s more likely, but I think if you’re in the West, I mean, unless you’re Houston or delusional, I just don’t know if those teams are going to talk themselves into it. Minnesota, but they again don’t have Yeah, it’s like New York. Yeah. If you’re the East, yeah, like we think this definitely makes us the best team in the East that we have the best player in the conference. we’re already presumably a good team and then we just hope that it’s a war of attrition in the west and we don’t even have to worry about the Thunder. Um but yeah, it’s it’s what makes it incredibly complicated is there is no perfect fit out there. There is no team that has the most stats and makes sense. Um there’s not even a team like in the case of the Knicks like eh they got enough that I think you can make it work. And and also, oh, by the way, we haven’t heard Giannis specifically say, I want to be traded. I don’t see this working. Uh maybe that changes because again, I I think what for probably nine 10 more games, you’re not going to have him and you know, you got a fivegame road trip there. You got the Celtics as your next game. You got the Raptors. Um the the Nets game on the road is all of a sudden going to be very interesting to see what happens there. So yeah, I mean there’s a chance that I said in December you’ll get your answer and that was before the Giannis injury in in the sense of like well just be where the Pacers were. Be like a game two games below 500 going into the new year and say disaster of a start. We’re healthy. We feel good about the group we have and now let’s start to play the right way and take off. Uh but losing Giannis for the month is gonna expedite that. I may give you your answer on on where things start to go from here with this group. I think if anything, we’ve kind of gotten our answer on there is no scenario where you’re trading a 2031 first round draft pick or even even this summer unless there is a firm commitment the multiple picks that you can trade and the expiring salaries like no we’re not going down that path. That’s I mean that’s one of my big questions is I mean how how desperate do the Bucks get if things get ugly and and is there really a thought in the organization like if we bring in Zack Lavine we can fix this thing and I think the answer to that particular player is no because again we talked like when they have their offense has been great their half court offense and the rebounding and the defense and Zack Lavine is not helping you on those fronts. Um, I’m definitely worried that there could be a a panic trade. And I think I’ve long argued like the Drew trade, the Dame trade, like you can say panic or desperation, but also objectively good basketball moves, one worked, one didn’t. Um, I don’t think something exists mid-season. Like I’ve talked about Barrett before or whatever. Like RJ Barrett coming in for a first, I that’s not fixing your problems. I just don’t think that’s going to help enough. Um, and you know, Koozma’s been okay. I think helpful to the team by and large. Does some of the things they really need. Actually, I’m surprised he isn’t starting right now. Maybe he will for Sims. Maybe Sims and Porters will start. Who knows? Against Boston. Um, the other thing, and you know, I’ve realized it’s been a lot of like Giannis trade stuff this pod. I do think the other factor and why he hasn’t just come out and said like, “Do it, trade me.” I think Giannis would love if it did work out. I think Giannis would be ecstatic if the Bucks right now rolled off, ripped off five straight wins and we’re clawing at 500, we’re ninth, we’re eighth. like, okay, we’re set up to do that Pacers run. I think there’s still I think he and his heart of hearts would be so happy. And is leaving the door open for that now? Is that going to happen is a big question with probably a dire answer based on overall the way they’ve looked without him this season. But I do think that’s the other thing is he’s kind of waiting to see like how good can it be slash how bad does it get? And the tough part is ton of pressure to put on a team built to play with him without the proven star level players. without him. That’s a tough spot. I don’t think that’s necessarily helping matters with how they’re playing right now. Uh and hopefully it’s not something they’re fixating on too much, but uh I do think that’s a thing, too. Like if they went on some miracle run and KPJ is just going to be 37 and seven and they can win some games, then I think you probably at least for the rest of the year you’re keeping him. Uh but I do think there’s a downside there as well if they continue to just lose every game. I I do to that point. I do genuinely believe Giannis’ preference is for things to work here. Y and to get this turned around and find a way. It’s it’s just if it becomes inevitable that that’s not going to happen is when all of this starts to become a a a bigger debate in question. Um, so you have fear that uh there could be some type of uh panic type of move of let’s have a kid to save the baby type move that happens here leading up to the trade deadline. Um, what I will say that’s gotten interesting too, it’s a name that’s come up quite a bit or names that have come up quite a bit and would seem to make sense for this group when you look at Trey Murphy and and Herb Jones. I mean, I would assume the Pel knowing where they are, knowing the disaster of that trade last summer and like, yeah, we just let a huge asset walk out the door. They do have um your 2027 pick coming. Really weird pick protections there uh with that one. Atlanta could have it, too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Potentially have it. So they could come away from this with nothing for the two years that you really targeted in that trade of Drew Holiday. Um the point of all of it is when you look at where you are right now and the potential of like we have none of these primo assets we thought we would get, you got to start to look around at what can we sell off? Like we’re clearly not where we thought we would be. What can we sell that has some value to it to try to recoup some of those assets? And those are two names that are going to come up quite a bit. Um, what I would say there is even though we talked about being the desperate side, teams know the Pelicans are dealing from a side of desperation, there’s still better offers that are going to be out there for New Orleans, unless it’s just unprotected 2031, which those guys aren’t the guys in my mind to do that for. Yeah, I think um I have to confirm this with Rohan. I think our midweek pod because they just don’t play any games until Thursday is going to be like is there anyone out there that you’d trade that pick for and then discussing like yeah I trade it forama but you’re not getting him right. So is there is there a realistic line and I think the two guys on the pels are two of the most interesting and we can talk 2032 swap as well but I mean you do that like you better screw out of this STD fast because then you are just totally uncontrolled future for seven more years here. Um which is a daunting place to be. The current spot is daunting. Add two more years. I mean, it gets even more. So, I do think those two, either one of them, I mean, Murphy’s got more star potential. Herb probably fits what you need a little bit better. Are the kind of players that like in theory you could at least be like, I get it. Yeah. Yeah. I help this team and fit going forward. You know, it’s not you’re not trading for a 31year-old who’s going to need a new contract. Like under contract players who are exactly what they need at the three and fit with Giannis long term and the guards. I mean, I think that’s got to be kind of a consideration, too, of some of these deals. Like, I’m not bringing in a point guard. Like, the point guard’s the one position outside of Giannis I feel really sturdy in right now. It’s got to be a wing. It’s got to be a wing player, I think. So, um, those guys are interesting. I think before the year, if you asked me, I would have been like, absolutely, send the pick, send the swap, Herb Jones, that’s great. When you’re sitting in 10th, it’s a little harder, I think, to say sign off on that move. For sure. Yeah. I mean, when you’re you’re sitting in 10th and as we mentioned, the Bulls are essentially tied with you. It’s just they’re in a hold my beer off with you to see who can slip even further down there in the standings. But yeah, that’s my big takeaway. And this popped up last week was look, it’s still early. Um, it wasn’t until, if we look at Philly, it wasn’t until mid to late January before Philly made the decision to, let’s kind of pull the plug here. Like teams, you don’t make the decision in the first half of the calendar year. It’s in it’s later in the season, but we unfortunately have to keep this on the radar because, you know, at this point, I just look at the loss column. That’s more important than anything because those are there. You can’t do anything to get rid of them. you are closer to the Wizards when the worst team in the the conference than you are to being out of the playing tournament. So, at some point it’s no longer early and that’s when it starts to become Yeah, we really got to give this some consideration. Yeah. And I mean the um I I guess not nice but it kind of feels like it may not be up to them at this point. I mean, the real the real optionality comes, you know, if Giannis doesn’t go, how much do you play him down the stretch? Yeah. When he’s back. And that’s I mean, I I don’t think has really been discussed much. That’s a really hard conversation. Well, and especially considering um yeah, it’s a tough conversation. The easier regardless, the 65 game thing is, right, the easier quote unquote sell is like this in all likelihood is gone. Like I think best case scenario is he comes back from the injury and is in a spot where he can only miss one or zero games going forward. Yeah. Which I don’t think is reasonable even if you’re trying hard for the standings. Like we’ve never It’s been a long time since we’ve seen the You can’t just play him. You can’t just start him and play him five minutes because the minutes it’s got to be at least 20. Yeah. Yeah. 15 to 20 I think. Um weird specific ruling there. Um but yeah, I mean even but even outside of that, even if he when he gets back, okay, he can only play 64 if he played every game. Like it’s not possible. Yeah. I mean like we’re seeing different sport, but like they’re asking Joe Burrow, right? Like why why are you playing? Basically, it’s like, well, I’m a pro alete and like no one says this, but also like the accolades, no accolades, but like the stats matter. Like what you do matters even if you’re not going to the playoffs. Everything we’ve ever heard from Yian is yeah, he’s a competitor. He’s not gonna be like, “Woohoo, I get to take the year off. I’ll take I’ll take three months off. Cool.” Yeah. Like, so that’s again like I I think it’s easy to say like great if you can keep him. Tank it out. Maybe you get a top four or top four is pretty unlikely, but you get like a top 10 pick, probably worst case you’re looking at, which haven’t had since Don legitimately 10 years ago. Like hopefully this one works better, but um it’s been a long time since the Bucks have had that kind of a draft asset. It’s it’s not that easy if you don’t trade Giannis. Uh and you know, obviously no one wants to see him get hurt anymore, but if he’s healthy, it’s a it’s a hard conversation and and I think they haven’t been great with him, but if they’re 500 ball, that that pick is just not going to be as good. Yeah, I uh I just did the lottery simulator on Tankathon, which I would assume most Bucks fans are are going to be doing quite a bit of. And yeah, it’s it’s routinely like 12, which is kind of where they’re sitting right now. And you get Atlanta over and over again, either winning the lottery or in the uh the top four. There was one I did that had Atlanta number three via New Orleans and the Bucks number four. So, both of them jumped up into that top four. Um, but yes, it feels like that’s what we are going to eventually shift our attention to here, unless something else comes out, which I would assume we’ll just continue to get these drips and drops coming of like, well, my intel is telling me this or um those types of messages and the same types of responses from Doc and and his teammates. So, should make for a very very interesting final twothirds basically of the regular season. And for the first time in quite some time, we are very likely going to be heavily invested in scouting the college game and seeing what can you get here and who are the best small forwards that are out there in the country. Um, right now you can find Tai as we mentioned on the Euroep podcast with Rohan. Um, you guys with multiple shows a week covering all of this. Any Wisconsin herd insights that you want as well. I don’t know how much of you guys have gotten. We’ve seen quite a few comments asking about Victor Oladipo as well. So, if you’re looking for coverage on that, uh, Tai is your guy and I I would assume most of our, uh, our listeners and viewers cross over to the Euroep as well. But, um, any thoughts on on Oladipo and why he’s not up here yet and why the Bucks aren’t just cornering the market on 6’4 two yards? That’s why. Um, I think I haven’t actually gotten out there in a while. The G- League schedule’s even more imbalanced than NBA, but hoping this weekend probably get to see him and now Dennis Smith Jr. in person as well. But I mean, you nailed it, right? The last thing that the Bucks need is more guys who can’t play the the three. And unfortunately, that is probably everything three and above is the hardest thing to find at the G-League level because the size gets snatched up into two ways and true callups so quickly. Um, you know, like the Dannis Jenkins story, for example, is great, but am I surprised that there was a low six-foot whatever player who can really light it up available in the G-League? No. There are a lot of those. Mostly teams don’t need them. If you look around, a lot of great guards in the league these days. Um, so Elipo I think really could have probably helped when KPJ was out, but at this point, uh, shot creating small guard just not not even present on my list of Bucks needs. So, but I will uh be I’ll be excited to provide an update after I get to see him play in person some more and chat with him a bit. Yeah, at this point it’s just our boy Chris Livingston, the one that got away and what they’re really missing here. Tyler Smith just got called up. I mean, former Bucks are having a He’s got a two-way in Houston reportedly. I don’t know if they actually signed it yet, but I saw a report there. Um AJ Johnson still not cracking the Wizards rotation down eight players is a little discouraging, but um yeah. Uh yeah, interesting because I was led to believe they just traded the future Magic Johnson. Um yeah, you can find the coverage from Tai on the Euroep podcast. That’ll do it for our show. Maybe not the greatest vibes and tones uh out there from this episode, but just reading the room and a conversation that probably needed to take place. Thanks for tuning in today to Locked on Bucks. Uh, tomorrow we hope Camille is recovered. Otherwise, I think we’re gonna have Frank to discuss more of this and his thoughts on what we’ve seen. Make sure you subscribe and follow Locked On so you get all the latest episodes. And if we made your Spotify rap proven on social media and you can get a month of our brand new Everyday Club. Just tag our national locked podcast network account on any social media platform and we’ll drop you a code. Be one of the first to join the Everyday Dair Club to get your favorite show ad free exclusive access to the membersonly Discord channel and more. For those of you on video, we’re going to send you to our first ever 247 National NBA YouTube channel. On audio, make sure you make that your second listen NBA game night on Locked on NBA. For Tai, I’m Justin. We’ll talk with you guys once again tomorrow on Locked on Bucks.

Milwaukee Bucks face a puzzling Myles Turner conundrum—has their high-profile frontcourt investment backfired? With Giannis Antetokounmpo sidelined, Turner’s declining usage, rebounding woes, and fourth-quarter benchings spark tough questions about Doc Rivers’ game plan and the team’s identity. Is Milwaukee’s big-man rotation truly maximizing Turner’s skillset, or has strategic confusion derailed what was meant to be a championship-caliber roster?

Justin Garcia and Ti Windish dissect the Bucks’ alarming defensive collapse, lackluster rebounding, and the uncertain future surrounding Giannis Antetokounmpo amid swirling trade rumors. Key segments highlight potential panic trades, the long-term implications of Milwaukee’s asset management, and the impact of upcoming games against the Boston Celtics. With the NBA trade deadline looming and playoff hopes fading, the Bucks must answer: can Turner and Giannis still carry this team, or is a major shakeup inevitable?

0:00 – Turner Minutes & Bucks Usage
13:20 – Turner’s Stats & Fit
24:34 – Giannis Trade Rumors & Future Moves

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Disclaimer: Limited time offer. Upfront payment of: $45 for 3-mo., $90 for 6-mo., or $180 for 12-mo. plan required ($15/mo. equivalent). Taxes & fees Initial plan term only. Greater Than 35GB may slow when network is busy. Capable device required. Availability, speed, & coverage varies. See mintmobile.com.

Quo
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Robinhood
You expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money. Get started today at robinhood.com/yourmoney. Your money. Your move.

All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Options, futures, and crypto trading carry significant risk and may not suit all investors. Securities offered through Robinhood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Futures trading is offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC and not SPIC or FDIC protected. Crypto offered through Robinhood Crypto, LLC (NMLS ID 1702840), not FDIC or SIPC protected. Portfolio management offered by Robinhood Strategies, an SEC-registered advisor.

Gametime
Today’s episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.

FanDuel
Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)