"The NBA Cup is contrived!" As if the NBA was created by Zeus and handed down on golden tablets. The whole thing is fucking made up.

If there are three parties in any GA trade—Bucks, Giannis, other teams—and you accept the Bucks aren’t competing this year, only two parties get more desperate as the deadline arrives: GA and other teams. Bucks fans should be ready for 4-6 weeks of waiting for a team’s owner to panic trade for GA.

Rockets can say they aren’t interested in Giannis all they want, but everyone who just watched that overtime knows they’re missing a number one offensive option

For those of us who want action from the Bucks, a reminder that the way to drive leverage for a Giannis deal is for the Bucks to show they’ll actually hang onto him even if the wheels come off. Leverage comes as the deadline gets closer.

I keep trying to fast forward through this Bucks game but my TV keeps saying “you’re already live.”

Oh this is dark.

Fun football: every play a team has to have one player on the field who plays the majority of their snaps on the other side of the ball

One of the great pleasures of any year is in December compiling best books of the year lists and compiling my purchase list for 2026. It is lengthy.

Samanta Schweblin (and her translator Megan McDowell) absolutely COOKED on GOOD AND EVIL AND OTHER STORIES. Incredible collection. Can’t recommend highly enough

The last good website. Bar none.

loath to be too precious about this stuff but I want one lesson of defector to be "you can choose to not do stuff that sucks" even if "doing stuff that sucks" is the default

Never good when the thumbnail is defensive!

Makes much more sense why GA has been more of a lead-by-example leader than vocal leader.

Today’s Giannis trade thought: What if the Knicks really are the only other team he’d play for and the Bucks made it known they weren’t taking the KAT poopoo platter? And this whole saga was really like 2 days? (convo—>no—>Haynes/Stein reporting about no trade) And GA is just “okay, I’m a Buck”

Today’s Giannis trade thought: there are four different kinds of assets to get for him: Good player now Young promising player Premium pick this/next year High volume of distant draft picks Any offer is two of these. Just hope the Bucks are offered and take whatever arrangement you want.

The (accidental?) Milwaukee Brewers tie-in to the new Stranger Things episodes is so great

Packers defense played this perfectly… (And if Williams held on for a half second longer he had DJ Moore wide open)

GAME

On Giannis: Bucks should feel little urgency to trade him this season for anything less than a haul. Siakam got four firsts with a year left on his deal and a handshake on an extension. If Bucks ownership doesn’t trust this FO to draft/hire, more reason to let the next regime make important calls.

I just hope Bucks ownership isn’t looking at this roster and thinking, “man! A couple high level rotation wings and we’re right back in this!” No GA + Doc = no chance

The trick is to get something for a rebuild which involves sending Anunoby (probably) to a third team who wants a good player but has a premium pick this year. Enter: Brooklyn. Angling for cap space star. It’s not the Pels/Bucks picks this year, but Nets and worst of MKE/Pels? It’s okay.

This Cavs skid is making me more afraid of their wild Mobley-for-GA trade package. Horst has one speed and it's full bore. And if ownership has a "win or else" mandate...

Fernando Mendoza's backup is his brother Alberto, which means all the Indiana quarterbacks who didn't make the depth chart are below the Mendoza line.

Maybe this is too earnest, but the X’s and O’s Bucks fans will thrive in a rebuild environment. It’ll be way less fun than competing for championships, but there are some smart fan minds I look forward to engaging with in a potential new era

Can’t tell if Rick Glassman is next to be in Brooklyn or if every guy living in Brooklyn looks like Rick Glassman

The Hawks not wanting to trade the Pels pick for Giannis is just this gif

Something under discussed is if the Bucks really want to pursue two 26 picks and their 27 pick back, KPJ is a great sweetener from a Hawks perspective. He’s the PG Hawks will be without moving Trae and fits their style much better. Hawks get: GA and KPJ Bucks get: Trae, ‘26 Pels, ‘27 Bucks, picks

Something Zach Lowe mentioned that I forgot or never knew: GA’s agent interviewed for the Hawks GM gig last season 👀

Windy saying Giannis is dictating his destination and Shams saying it’s a conversation scans as parents telling their kids, “we’re not arguing; we’re talking.”

There is a fifth wave of ska, beyond that which is known to rude boys

It is weird to be a Bucks fan who happens to be in NYC today. You can have my superstar when you pry him from Milwaukee’s cold, dead fingers. Cannot wait to watch back this huge dub tonight

The message here isn’t trade request. It’s “retool the roster between 12/15 and New Years with the 2031 first or I’m gone.”

The positive side is this: he can be persuaded to stay if he can compete for a title. No more complicated than that (true but also somewhat sarcasm)

Maybe it's just different for some fans hearing it direct and not in Shams-speak ("An exclusive negotiation window was opened...") Of course he asked out. Why else would the Bucks call up one of the worst trade partners in the league?

Good morning and holy shit

The upshot of Doc’s press conference: He doesn’t have the locker room, and he thinks it’s a player issue, not his. He praised ATOs/sets, but when asked if he was surprised by the young Wizards, he said, “I wasn’t. But I’m not playing, so I can’t do anything about it.” Yikes.

There’s no path to keeping Gianni’s that isn’t turning this into a gap year. As long as Buckner is on the staff, nothing about the defense and rebounding will change if Doc goes. It’s Doc’s whole staff that’ll be running the show if Doc goes. Not what you want.

Giannis now resorting to audibly begging refs to call the clear contact 🙏

This lineup is going to feed families

@sethpartnow.bsky.social had an analytics thought mid-Thanksgiving leftovers: If a team gets to ~2 seconds on the shot clock and has no conceivable good look (long heave, random chuck), is it better to take the dead ball turnover than risk giving the defense a live rebound transition possession?

Finally getting some theological clarity on the ethics of reclining in one’s plane seat

Anybody have a video of the jump ball between GA and Hart at the end I’m trying to see something

This remains unbelievable the league will not call clearly unsporting fouls like this flagrant. They’re not going to get GA in a different market. They’re going to get his arm pulled out of its socket

It was very fun to see Eminem rap “Till I Collapse” over “Hello Operator” yesterday. Jack White kills

This is dope. Great holiday market, and go buy this great book

I’m going to make sure it’s real, but the first 2-3 minutes of the second half is what told me they could use a coaching change. The ball was POPPING. Like, we did it! Zing-zing, like Pacers last season. Then…it just died. This team has it in them to play modern NBA ball. They just don’t.

Doc said Myles struggles to shoot the open shots because there’s more freedom in MKE than he had in Indy… Um. Is this why there aren’t AJ pin downs? Or why actions start late? Where the most effective teams have prescriptive systems, the Bucks have “freedom” Maybe play like the best teams? 🤷‍♂️

Anybody else’s national broadcast on NBA TV just turn into other NBA programming?