Originally, the Milwaukee Bucks weren’t even supposed to be the Milwaukee Bucks. “Robins” was the most popular suggestion in a statewide naming contest in 1968, but somehow the judges weren’t so sure about the less-than-fierce image of the little birds with their distinct orange-red breasts. So they opted for “Bucks,” a name that honored Wisconsin’s antlered-state animal, the white-tailed deer. Contest winner R.D. Trebilcox, who was awarded a brand-new AMC Javelin for his efforts, suggested the name because
the animals are “spirited, good jumpers, fast and agile.”
Well, going by this year’s outfit, the front office might want to think about another contest.
You certainly wouldn’t blame any adult male deer for being upset about any sort of connection to Milwaukee’s basketball team these days. The current Bucks are hardly spirited, fast, agile, or, frankly, good at doing many things on a basketball court. At 1–9, they’re tied with Utah and Sacramento for the worst record in the NBA. During their current six-game losing streak, the Bucks have been outscored by 15.7 points per game. Autsch!
Knicks will face rebuilding Bucks team
New head coach Taylor Jenkins might already miss the days of coaching consummate professionals like Ja Morant in Memphis, but he should have expected these kinds of growing pains. Everybody and their grandmother knew that the start of the post-Giannis era would be painful in Milwaukee and that it would take time to rebuild a team bereft of picks, outlandish young talent, and meaningful numbers of serious basketball players.
Yes, the Bucks trot out a few solid names like Tyler Herro (21.4 points per game) and Jaime Jaquez Jr. (15.2 points, over 42 percent from three). In theory, they also have some nice young pieces in rookies Brayden Burries (10.5 points) and Nate Ament (over 40 percent from three), along with former Heat hoopers Kel’el Ware and Kasparas Jakučionis. But that’s already where the Buck stops (no pun intended), unless you want to count what’s left of Kyle Kuzma’s and Myles Turner’s careers as promising. In reality both of them, and probably a few others, have their agent on speed dial these days, hoping for a trade out of Wisconsin sooner rather than later (see the video of an obviously overweight Turner below).
The rebuilding reality is showing itself in some pretty awful numbers for the Bucks early on. Their offensive rating ranks 27th in the league, and their defensive rating ranks even worse at 28th. One thing they do plenty of is jack up triples (second most in the NBA). The only problem is they hit about a third of them. They play fairly fast, too, with the sixth-highest pace in the league. In the end, though, little in their statistical profile suggests that they actually know what they’re doing. Which, of course, is fine for a team this early in a full-blown rebuild.
Knicks looking to win 4th game in a row
What does all that misery mean for the Knicks tonight? It means they’ll have to concentrate on themselves and make sure the focus is on realizing their own potential, both in this contest and going forward. The world champions have looked a lot better lately as Jalen Brunson has rounded into form (32 points per game and 8 of 17 from three in his last two games) and their outside shooting has gotten less streaky (37.5 percent over the last three). Karl-Anthony Towns has been an Everest-sized rock so far this season, and most of the backups have conducted themselves fairly well in their minutes.
How many minutes some of those reserves see against Milwaukee will likely depend on the availability of Josh Hart, who missed Saturday’s game with right ankle soreness. A roster battle is brewing at backup point guard, with Tyler Kolek making the most of his opportunity while Jose Alvarado was briefly out with an injury last week. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few games and, frankly, over the rest of the season.
Looking over at the Bucks, it’s certainly a good problem to have. Milwaukee enjoyed some really good teams over the last decade and change and even has a mesmerizing championship to show for it. That makes the current state of the franchise at least somewhat bearable for the fans, I hope. We all know what hopelessness feels like in the NBA. But as bad as everything looks right now, better times will come. They’ll get their young stars to cheer for, and they’ll get a system in place that’s fun to watch.
And they might even be “spirited, good jumpers, fast and agile” again, just like Bucks are supposed to be.
Game Details
Who: New York Knicks (5-4) vs. Milwaukee Bucks (1-9)
Date: Tuesday, November 10, 2026
Time: 7:30 PM ET
Place: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
TV: MSG
Follow:@ptknicksblog andbsky
