SPORTS LINE
The Milwaukee Bucks.
Whether the team got better or made the right decisions is a question that won’t be answered until we see this team in action over the coming months. The Milwaukee Bucks and LA Clippers made a trade ahead of the trade deadline, which officially closed at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday. The Bucks sent forward MarJon Beauchamp to the LA Clippers in exchange for guard-forward Kevin Porter Jr. Selected 24th overall by the Bucks in the 2022 NBA Draft, Beauchamp is averaging 2.0 points and 1.2 rebounds this season. Beauchamp’s minutes have declined since last season from 12.7 minutes per game in 2023-24 to 4.7 minutes per game this season. The NBA made the trade of Khris Middleton, the Milwaukee Bucks’ all-time leader in three-pointers and its No. 3 leading scorer, official late Thursday night. In what turned into a four-team deal between the Bucks, Washington, New York, and San Antonio, the three-time all-star was sent to Washington. Losing Middleton stings. The Milwaukee Bucks fanbase was saddened when longtime forward Khris Middleton was traded in exchange for Kyle Kuzma. Middleton may not be the All-Star of old, but he was the longest-tenured Buck, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s running mate, and a key piece of the 2021 championship team.
In his place comes Kuzma, who is having an objectively rough season. He’s shooting a career-low 42 percent from the field and a disastrous 28.1 percent from deep, and if you think that’s bad, it gets worse. Among 315 NBA players who have appeared in at least 30 games this season, Kuzma ranks 294th in effective field goal percentage. Porter Jr. comes with massive baggage. However, strictly from a basketball perspective, he adds ball-handling, scoring, and positional versatility, but he’s also an inefficient scorer who ranks 305th in effective field goal percentage among players who have played at least 30 games this season. Lillard, Kuzma, Antetokounmpo, and Lopez are locked in as starters. The biggest question is who gets the final spot in the backcourt. Rivers has several options, including AJ Green, Gary Trent Jr., or Taurean Prince if he wants more shooting. But for now, Jackson Jr. provides the best perimeter defense, even if it messes with spacing.
The Brewers.
All regular-season weeknight home games (Monday-Thursday) will start at 6:40 p.m. All Saturday regular-season home games will have first pitch times of either 3:10 p.m. or 6:10 p.m. As the Brewers get ready to start playing in Arizona, they’ll have 18 games on radio and seven on television. This is in addition to some games being streamed as a webcast. 18 games on the radio (14 on AM 620 WTMJ/Brewers Radio Network and four on 94.5 FM ESPN), seven TV games on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin, and nine webcasts. The Brewers open up spring training with a split-squad matchup on Feb. 22 against the Cincinnati Reds. That will be a home matchup that kicks off a month’s worth of games before the regular season begins on March 27. The regular season begins Thursday, March 27 at 2:05 p.m. CT against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium with the home opener on Monday, March 31 at 1:10 p.m. against the Kansas City Royals at American Family Field. The Brewers are coming off a season that saw them win the National League Central by a whopping 10 games and they are poised to be good again this year as they get former MVP Christian Yelich back from injury. Milwaukee Bucks. The Milwaukee Bucks made some controversial moves at the NBA’s trade deadline.
