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The new look Milwaukee Bucks begin the 2026-2027 season with a 128-116 loss to the Washington Wizards from Capital One Arena in Washington, DC.
My initial thoughts to this game without watching it a second time on record: This is a group that’s going to have to learn. I was happy by the play of the young players. It was fun to see the young players on the team step up. It was fun to see what the future might look like, that’s enjoyable. I think when you look at this group now that we’ve seen them play a meaningful game. Kasparas Jakucionis and what he can bring, he was a bright spot tonight.
There’s a lot that needs to be with Kel’el Ware, to me it’s a motor question with whether he can be elite, his motor didn’t look good tonight. The possibility of him being a superstar is there, it’s a matter of consistency, can he be consistent enough? There is a lot than needs to be developed there.
Gary Trent Jr. was a coaches decision DNP tonight.
We need a MUCH better effort from Kyle Kuzma. If you’ve seen any of the preseason stuff, one of the things the Milwaukee Bucks preached was effort. You have a lot of young minds who are being molded into NBA players, and if the vets don’t operate the right way, then it rubs off on them and the young players develop bad habits.
I’m not very thrilled with the way Kyle Kuzma played and Ryan Rollins had a bit of a rough game as well. Myles Turner has been a huge disappointment to me, tonight felt more of the same from last season for Turner in Milwaukee.
The guard play is going to be fun. It’s going to be fun to watch these young guys develop. There’s a reason they released certain players, because they see a lot of talent in these young guys and you need to clear room to give these young guys minutes.
To me, the game changed at the end of the third quarter with 10 seconds left, Milwaukee held a 93-87 lead, Anthony Davis made the first free throw then missed the second free throw, Washington got the offensive rebound and put back and all of the sudden it was a 93-90 lead and then Kyle Kuzma turns the ball over with a second left in the quarter.
I thought Jaime Jaquez Jr. played well tonight and played with great energy. He’s never going to be flashy, he’s more of a grinder type player. Tyler Herro I thought was another guy that had a good game settling things in for the Bucks, although he needs to clean it up in the turnover department. I was happy to see Brayden Burries look solid in his debut. Burries scored 12 points in 15 minutes and grabbed five rebounds and only had one turnover, he also went a perfect 2-for-2 from three-point range after a rough shooting preseason from the perimeter.
It was an encouraging game in my opinion. I’m excited to see this team grow throughout the season, but I wouldn’t mind trading some of the vets for some draft capital.
Up Next:
The Milwaukee Bucks (0-1) will host the Chicago Bulls (0-1) on Friday, October 23rd. Tipoff from the Fiserv Forum is at 3:00 PM (CT).
I’ll be posting more about the Bucks as we go along, but it’s bed time for me now. The Bucks HAVE to get this win on Friday.