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Bucks Fans — Your Draft Angst is Over!

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You know you felt it deep down inside. Just admit it. Would the Bucks make the right selection with the #2 overall pick next Thursday? What if they took Jabari Parker and he didn’t pan out as expected, while Andrew Wiggins became a star with Philadelphia?  Or Cleveland shocked the NBA world and selected Wiggins, leaving the Bucks to make a decision on Joel Embiid and his back? Or the Bucks passed on Parker and he became the next Grant Hill, while Wiggins struggled with becoming the next Gerald Green. Those are natural thoughts and all part of being a fan of a team that hasn’t had much luck or made many right decisions over the past two-decades.

As many of you now are aware, Joel Embiid is having surgery tomorrow for a navicular fracture in his right foot. The injury was discovered by Cleveland doctors examing his films after he worked out for the Cavaliers last week. The general consensus from the internet news reports tonight is that the surgery has a 4-9 month recovery time, has a decent chance of recurring and is harder for big-men to recover from given the large amount of mass they carry as compared to smaller players such as guards or small forwards.

Here are some answers to common questions stemming from the Embiid news.

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More Chad Ford Analysis and SOB Draft Party!

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We’ve noted in the past that we do not view this site as your daily source of Bucks news, as there are many other great outlets that cover events on a daily basis. However today we stumbled upon a nugget that Bucks fans may want to check out — a podcast interview just completed between ESPN Draft analyst Chad Ford and David Locke, the radio voice of the Utah Jazz. The podcast link and some interesting nuggets contained therein are discussed below.

In the meantime, with only one week to go, have you made your plans for draft night? If not, we’ve got a great option for you to consider. Here are the details:

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Some Thoughts on Last Week……

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Last week was a great time for all Bucks fans as new owners Wes Edens and Marc Lasry made the rounds, talking about themselves, the Bucks and their plans for the future.

Frank Madden at Brewhoop has a nice summary of some of the sportstalk radio interviews. They are worth listening to if you have not already.

We have a few observations on what all went down last week and wanted to share them — better late than never! Continue reading

Save Our Bucks

Cultural Task Force Meeting and Draft Party Recap

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On Wednesday, May 28, 2014, the Milwaukee Cultural Facilities Task Force will be meeting at the Milwaukee Art Museum.  The meeting is expected to run from 8:00am to Noon.  At this meeting, the 48-member task force will hear from different community leaders about how cultural and entertainment events can help create a more vibrant Milwaukee Metro Community and benefit the region as a whole. Continue reading

Save Our Bucks, Alex Lasry, Mallory Edens, Milwaukee Bucks

Winning Takes Balls! – A recap of Lotto Night and Look Ahead to the #2 Pick

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It was a wonderful evening for Bucks fans last night as the team secured the #2 pick in the upcoming draft. While we all would have liked the team to secure the top pick, remember that the alternatives were drafting #3 or #4. With the second pick the Bucks have a number of great options to explore between now and the NBA Draft on June 26th.

Top Six Reasons Why This Was a Great Night:

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A Few Thoughts on Questions Raised by @SykesCharlie

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We had a chance to listen to the 11:00am hour of the Charlie Sykes Show this morning on WTMJ 620 AM, the flagship station of the Bucks. Between Charlie, Jeff Wagner and various callers, there were a number of reasonable questions raised regarding the sale of the Milwaukee Bucks and their future in Milwaukee. Some of the discussion revolved around points raised in our article from yesterday that we encourage you to read in conjunction with the Q & A below.

We didn’t take detailed notes on each question or point discussed on Sykes show, but there were clearly some common themes that we wanted to provide our thoughts on, thus we’ve paraphrased questions raised during the show and offered our thoughts to those questions below. So let’s get started! Continue reading

Some Urban Myths that Popped Up This Week

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In the wake of the Milwaukee Bucks’ sale announcement, a few critics of either the Bucks or a new arena decided to quickly get vocal about things. As a result, a number of urban myths were started to advance the narrative that the community doesn’t need to build a new arena nor bother to retain the team in Milwaukee, as it has no positive economic impact.

Here were some of the “truths” advanced last week in certain quarters around town:

“The ‘buyback clause’ in the franchise sale agreement is a bad faith attempt by the NBA to coerce Milwaukee into a new arena and/or take away our team”

“It is completely unfair that the NBA can tell Milwaukee to build a new arena in order to keep the team in Milwaukee long-term”

“We just heard that the Golden State Warriors are going to build their own privately-financed arena! This is a GAME-CHANGER and the Bucks should pay for all of it!”

“The Bucks have no economic impact. If they left, people would just spend their ticket money on movies, restaurants or other activities”

We’ll debunk all these myths and more!  Read on!

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The Next Chapter Begins……

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It has been 48-hours since the sale of the Bucks was announced. We wanted to wait before posting our thoughts, to allow some time to absorb the details. Our reaction to the news is extremely positive and we are optimistic about the team’s long-term future in the City.  Let’s now talk specifics: Continue reading

About Those Hedge Fund Managers……

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We haven’t published two pieces in one day, but given the news broken by Bill Simmons that hedge fund managers Marc Lasry and Wes Edens are the front-runners to purchase the team, we felt there needed to be a bit more commentary on the subject.

In our earlier piece, we provided some background on Lasry and Edens for those unfamiliar with them.  We encourage everyone to read that article first, as it will help provide context for this companion discussion. In this piece, we’d like to sound a note of caution for Bucks fans that the long-term future of the franchise could still be fragile if Senator Kohl goes forward with a sale to Lasry and Edens. Continue reading

Some Big News Dropped Yesterday….

Editors Note: After this piece was published, we followed up with a companion piece that talks in more detail about how the Bucks themselves make an attractive hedge fund target in a sense, and some of the potential risks of selling to Lasry and Edens.

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Most of you following the Bucks on social media received the news regarding the names of the front-runners to purchase the Bucks, as reported by Bill Simmons in his weekly “Mailbag” column over at Grantland. That said, we aren’t sure this giant tree falling in the forest made an impact locally, so we’re here to offer some thoughts on it.

A week ago this time, Simmons set Bucks Nation ablaze with his report that the Bucks were very close to being sold, for a price in the $525 million dollar range. That lead off a speculative frenzy as to who the potential buyers might be. We thought Rich Kirchen of The Business Journal might have nailed it with his profile of Chicagoan Dr. Richard Chaifetz, a self made millionaire who has in the past few years been linked to groups trying to purchase the Minnesota Timberwolves and St. Louis Rams.  Not the case, as Simmons followed up yesterday with his reporting that:

The guys who thought they had it as recently as two days ago? Hedge-fund billionaires Marc Lasry and Wes Edens, who slid under the radar this entire time and thought they landed the Bucks with an offer in the $550 million range (slightly more than Vivek Ranadivé paid for the equally unappealing Kings). As recently as Wednesday, Lasry and Edens were expecting the NBA to vote on their bid at next week’s Board of Governors meeting.

So … what happened? Continue reading