What’s up, Brew Hoop family. After the longest offseason for Bucks fans in a while, the new season is finally upon us! I’m here with the first article from media day, plucking out the most newsworthy content from Bucks co-owner and governor Wes Edens’ solo presser, as well as Jon Horst and Taylor Jenkins’ joint presser. The second article includes the best player quotes. Enjoy!
Wes Edens
Wes Edens opened by saying the Bucks brass is “extremely excited” about the season ahead, but also thanked Giannis and his
family for giving 13 years to the Bucks and the city of Milwaukee.
“It’s been a minute since we haven’t had [Giannis] in the building,” Edens said. “It’s good to acknowledge that, but it’s also a great time to change and move on.”
Moving to the coaching change, Edens drew on his experience as Aston Villa’s co-owner to discuss how coaching can impact a team and why choosing the right coach is crucial to success. Edens said he sees the qualities he was seeking in Taylor Jenkins, saying Jenkins may be “the biggest addition in the NBA offseason.”
When later asked what specifically he and the Bucks were looking for in their coaching search, he answered, “somebody who was going to be a builder.”
“Taylor is the right person at the right time,” Edens said. “He’s a known quantity… We know exactly what we are getting with him, and we feel really blessed he was available. He is a tremendous teacher… Look at some of the guys in Memphis and the impact he had on them; we think he can have a similar impact on some of our players”
Regarding Giannis, Edens was quizzed about what went into the decision not to trade him last offseason.
“We won more games from 2018 to 2023 than any other team in the league. We had massive amounts of success. It was the right decision in all of our ownership’s view to try to give that the best chance of having the next year of it. We did a bunch of very aggressive things. They were all with the intention of trying to give ourselves another chance to win a championship.
“But now you look around here, there’s no Giannis, there’s no Khris Middleton, there’s no Brook Lopez, no Jrue Holiday… but we have the next crop of these young folks here that have every right to believe they can be the next group that kind of builds towards that.”
Edens was also asked about the health of the fanbase after some low attendance numbers at Fiserv late last season:
“Wisconsin fans are fanatical sports fans,” Edens said. “Everything kind of goes through a cycle. Obviously when you’re winning 60 games a year, it’s not hard to fill up your stadium. When you win less than that, it’s a little more challenging. But we’ve made big investments not just to the arena and all the programming with it to create the best entertainment that we can.
“People spend a lot of money to come out on a Tuesday night in February; we want them to feel like they’ve had the best experience they can, not just on the court but off. I really believe that fans are very intelligent and are very authentic. If you’re authentic, they really respond to that, and you don’t have to win 75 games to have the arena full again. I feel like we’re going to have a really good year on the court and I think we’re going to have a good year off the court as well.”
Edens conceded that the new TV rights deal—which will have all 82 games broadcast for free over the air—would not be ideal for the organisation’s bottom line, but that it was the right move to make as this new era kicks off.
“We’re gonna be impacted negatively this year, but we made the decision to invest in the fan base and to reach a lot more people. People will get a great chance to see the product we put out there.”
Finally, Edens answered a direct question about whether he’s considered selling his stake in the team: “I haven’t.”
“I mean, circumstances change. You never know, but no, I have no plans to.”
Jon Horst and Taylor Jenkins
Jon Horst was asked the first question about his message to fans regarding the team’s direction as Milwaukee enters the post-Giannis era.
“We talked a lot about having a successful offseason, executing a successful draft, and hiring a great coach as the pillars of our focus when the season ended last year,” Horst said. “We sit here today feeling like we accomplished a number of those things.
“There’s a great level of energy and excitement, buy-in, collectively with the group, and that gives us a foundation to build from. Everything we’re going to do today and going forward is building a group and trying to do it together each and every day.”
Jenkins was then asked about what the word “culture” means to him and how he plans to implement it with the Bucks.
Of course, Horst was always going to be questioned on the elephant in the room: why he signed Gary Trent Jr. to a four-year, $64m deal.
“When you look at Gary Trent and what he’s done for us in the last two seasons… he’s an elite shooter… Only 27 years old. He was big for us in playoff moments, so there’s a big belief in Gary for what we think matters, and that’s elite shooting in the NBA; that’s hard to find. It’s something that Taylor values, and I think he’s even going to maximise more with us, so it was a great opportunity for us to do that, and we acted on it.”
Horst was tight-lipped when asked later about the NBA’s investigation into possible cap circumvention and how he justified Trent’s contract, responding, “We’re working with the league, and we can’t comment any further on that.” Both Wes Edens and Trent himself gave the same answer in their pressers.
Moving on, the players traded in from Miami were obviously a major topic of conversation, with Horst revealing that each of the four players being in the deal was pivotal to getting it across the line.
“We wouldn’t have done the trade without one of those players,” Horst said. “We went into this trying to get players who not only could help us compete now, but can also grow and develop as we go forward… They fit a culture and a style of play that we want to embody… They absolutely check the boxes we were trying to check if we were going to do a trade.”
“They’re the competitors we desire,” Jenkins added.
Another topic discussed was how the organisation plans to champion accountability after the mess that was last season. It sounded like Horst knew things had to change and was determined to make that happen.
“We’re here today talking about building a culture and identity of accountability,” Horst said. “We’ve got a group of guys that we think embody that and that are going to live that. Taylor is going to demand that each and every day, and quite frankly, if they don’t live by it, we’ll figure out the accountable actions and move forward from there.”
When asked what he wants the team’s identity to be, Jenkins cited the team’s new mantra: “Compete. Together. Get Better,” which multiple players later repeated in their pressers.
“It starts with our competitiveness. I’m not going to guarantee wins and losses; we just talked with the team about developing our winning standards and habits. It starts with ‘Compete. Together. Get Better.’”
Horst closed by echoing Edens’ thought on this not being a “rebuild.”
“There’s an urgency to compete today. We believe that building the next great era of Bucks basketball has to have a foundation of competitiveness, and we have to instill that out of the gate. There is a patience component to this… but there’s not a complacency component to this.”
