SPORTSLINE
The Milwaukee Bucks.
Can the Buck’s head coach lead the team to the promised land of an NBA championship? The club has improved to a 37-28 record following a dominant 126-106 victory over an ailing Los Angeles Lakers squad on Thursday night. Milwaukee is currently in a three-team battle for the Eastern Conference’s No. 4 seed and home-court advantage. But head coach Doc Rivers is employing a controversial first five. After the Bucks traded former All-Star small forward Khris Middleton to the Washington Wizards in exchange for combo forward Kyle Kuzma, Rivers opted to demote former starting shooting guard Andre Jackson Jr. (who is now out of the rotation) and move swingman Taurean Prince, who had been starting over Middleton, to a shooting guard role next to All-Star point guard Damian Lillard. Since coming over at the NBA Trade Deadline, Kevin Porter Jr. has served as Milwaukee’s second-unit floor general. One of his favorite targets as a facilitator has been Sims, the uber-athletic big man who also came over in a deadline deal.
The early returns on Rivers’ unorthodox starting lineup have been positive so far. These two will continue to be key pieces for the Milwaukee Bucks. Doc Rivers should continue to use these two together. He’s experimented with playing them in lineups that do not feature one another, but it’s clear that they play best when they are featured together. They’re both hovering around 15 minutes per game right now, and it will be interesting to see if they stay there or if Doc Rivers opts to unleash this new duo a bit more nightly. It’s a simple formula, but the Porter-Sims duo is making the Milwaukee Bucks’ bench a bit more interesting by offering something new offensively.
The Milwaukee Brewers.
This is a team that can be good in 2025. Opening Day is roughly two weeks away and the Brewers have won the National League Central in three of the last four years. Milwaukee has plenty of talent, but the focus has been made on who the team has lost over the last few months rather than the guys currently on the roster. There’s always a handful of prospects that break out in a big way each season, especially in the Milwaukee Brewers system. Last year, we saw big breakouts for Cooper Pratt, Jesus Made, and Mike Boeve. All three are now among the Brewer’s top overall prospects. The 2023 first-round pick had a rough first full season in pro ball. As a result, a lot of people are down on Brock Wilken heading into 2025. Wilken suffered facial fractures after a hit-by-pitch early on in the season. Even though he returned from the injury, the hit did mess with his vision and with Wilken’s vision messed up, it makes it difficult to hit Double-A pitching.
Hitting is all about hand-eye coordination and if one part of that isn’t working as normal, the results can be disastrous, as we saw. Now, Wilken is refreshed and ready for a new season to begin and his eyesight is back to normal. That’s the important part. Provided he doesn’t deal with another injury like that, Wilken could put up the big numbers the Brewers expected him to when they drafted him. He’s young and has a lot to offer to the team.
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