{"id":181467,"date":"2025-07-19T14:37:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T14:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/181467\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T14:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T14:37:15","slug":"the-ultimate-reason-bucks-signed-cole-anthony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/181467\/","title":{"rendered":"The ultimate reason Bucks signed Cole Anthony"},"content":{"rendered":"

The post The ultimate reason Bucks signed Cole Anthony<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Weeks after signing Myles Turner and releasing Damian Lillard, the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> added guards Cole Anthony and Gary Harris in free agency. General manager Jon Horst explains that he made the move to build around Giannis Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n

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Horst said that while Anthony cannot simply replace a player like Lillard, he believes the former first-round pick still has a high ceiling<\/a>, he told \u2018The Athletic.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea on Cole is, and you can see a theme, there\u2019s another 24-, 25-year-old guard,\u201d Horst told \u2018The Athletic.\u2019 \u201cHe just turned 25 in May. Cole\u2019s an electric scorer. Two years ago, he was in the running for NBA Sixth Man of the Year. In our system, in our metrics, he\u2019s performed like a kind of starter, key reserve at different points in his young career.\u201d<\/p>\n

By releasing Lillard, the Bucks have an opening at point guard they have yet to fill. Anthony, who averaged 16.3 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game in his career-best 2021-2022 season, is the leading candidate to fill the void.<\/p>\n

Barring any further moves, Anthony will likely compete with 2025 Summer League star Jamaree Bouyea<\/a> and rookie Mark Sears for point guard minutes. Harris, Gary Trent Jr., AJ Green and Andre Jackson Jr. will also factor into the backcourt rotation.<\/p>\n

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Bucks GM Jon Horst compares Cole Anthony<\/a> to Bobby Portis\"Vincent<\/p>\n

Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n

While Anthony will have to compete in training camp, Milwaukee is already bullish on his role with the team. Horth added that he sees Anthony as a \u201cguard version of Bobby Portis\u201d on the Bucks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he can be one of the guys that you\u2019ve seen year in and year out come into our system and get a higher dose of better shot quality because of playing with Giannis and playing in our system and improve as a shooter,\u201d Horth said. \u201cI think he could have a huge shooting year, which would be massive for him and us.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he\u2019s just got an edge to him. I hope he takes this as an affectionate thing. When I saw the idea of Cole Anthony, him being free and our chance to get him, I think he\u2019s like a guard version of Bobby Portis. I think he can bring so much swag and energy to our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Anthony has never been known as an elite shooter. The former five-star recruit has hit just 34.5 percent of his career three-point attempts. However, few players create space quite like Giannis Antetokounmpo. Anthony is coming off a 35.3 percent three-point season, the second-best of his career.<\/p>\n

Related: Milwaukee GM shuts down Kyle Kuzma trade rumors<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Why Bucks were \u2018nervous\u2019 about Bobby Portis in free agency<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The post The ultimate reason Bucks signed Cole Anthony appeared first on ClutchPoints. Weeks after signing Myles Turner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3775],"tags":[23797,7,507,103,406,125,404,122,123,26456,20265,3536,102,121,3871,367,6,361],"class_list":{"0":"post-181467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-andre-jackson-jr","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-bobby-portis","11":"tag-bucks","12":"tag-cole-anthony","13":"tag-damian-lillard","14":"tag-gary-harris","15":"tag-gary-trent-jr","16":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","17":"tag-jamaree-bouyea","18":"tag-jon-horst","19":"tag-mark-sears","20":"tag-milwaukee","21":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","22":"tag-milwaukeebucks","23":"tag-myles-turner","24":"tag-nba","25":"tag-the-bucks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114880410041068259","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}