Last week, I was a little (pleasantly) surprised to see how many Bucks fans were forecasting a high playoff seed for this squad after only one game: 71% of our respondents felt they’d secure home court
advantage in their first-round series. That optimism appears to be founded, if Milwaukee’s 4-1 start is any indication, including wins over New York and Golden State (sans Giannis). In keeping with that, we decided to up the ask a little this week, with many of these answers coming in before the Warriors victory last night: can the Bucks win 50 games this season?
An even more decisive majority! In our preseason roundtable, none of us at Brew Hoop felt they’d eclipse 50, which they haven’t done since 2023. The consensus was 45–48 wins—still higher than how most national sources and Vegas felt—and maybe we were a little too bearish. But it’s only been five games, and as we saw last year, these early results don’t have too much bearing on end-of-season finish. Milwaukee was 1-4 through five games in 2024–25, including a couple of really disheartening defeats, and they managed to right the ship to 48 wins. With that in mind, I see no reason why 4-1, with a couple of really encouraging dubs, won’t result in 48 wins or better.
Next up, with the same caveat that a lot of these votes came in before last night, we are again asking about the point guard corps. In the absence of Kevin Porter Jr., the T-Shirt Twins of Ryan Rollins and Cole Anthony have looked simply outstanding. On the heels of back-to-back career-best outings, more than a few folks are wondering if Rollins should keep his starting gig. But for now, what about in the closing lineup?
It might be recency bias, but Rollins’ combination of great (maybe we can even say excellent) on-ball defense, spot-up shooting, and suddenly improved distribution is just what you want from the one in clutch moments. We saw KPJ do it in a similarly small sample size last year too, though, hence the pretty close split between each T-Shirt Twin. At this point, I personally want to see how Porter does upon his return—which I imagine will come in the next few games—before I make any sort of call here. But it’s a good problem to have!
