"We're not vocal enough; We're not hungry enough"- Giannis Antetokounmpo believes Milwaukee Bucks have regular season to "find themselves" after winless preseason
Giannis Antetokounmpo had a rough outing against the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night. Playing the final preseason game for the Milwaukee Bucks, the two-time league MVP managed 24 points and 14 rebounds but struggled against a spirited Nets defense, going just 6-for-21.
To add to the misery, the Bucks lost 97-107, finishing 0-5 in the preseason. Milwaukee also lost to the Chicago Bulls, suffered two defeats to the Atlanta Hawks and lost their preseason opener to the Memphis Grizzlies.
But Antetokounmpo isn't overly worried about his team. The Greek Freak said it was all about building good habits:
"No, it doesn't worry me. What worries me is our habits. It's all about habits. At the end of the day, if we are 2018 or 2017, we were 5-0, do you remember? No, you don't remember. I don't remember, either. It doesn't really matter.
"All that matters is what you can carry over from the preseason to the regular season. We had five games to do that. We had training camp to do that, to build good habits. Now, we have the regular season to build good habits."
Antetokounmpo stressed that the emphasis will be on doscovering the team's identity as the Bucks head into the regular season:
"Try to connect and build our chemistry as a team, find our identity in who we are as a team – are we going to be an offensive team, are we going to be a defensive team, are we going to be a little bit of both, what are we going to do?
"And game by game, you get better. Nobody remembers game one. Nobody remembers game five. Nobody remembers the preseason. All that everybody remembers is if you had a good year throughout the whole journey and the end. We got to keep building good habits."
Even as he reiterated that this was only the preseason, the 2019-20 Defensive Player of the Year talked about some flaws with the Bucks:
"Right now, I feel like we’re not vocal enough. We’re not urgent enough. We’re not hungry enough. But at the end of the day, it’s the preseason. We have the whole regular season to find ourselves.”
Tonight capped a 0-5 preseason for the #Bucks. Giannis Antetokounmpo isn't worried about it saying tonight, not playing well can be a good reminder of how hard it is.
He says the team can find themselves in the regular season (question from @eric_nehm) #FearTheDeer @CBS58 https://t.co/gdXxaZIeIZ
Last winless preseason saw Bucks win NBA Finals, Antetokounmpo finish as Finals MVP
If you think that the Bucks finishing their preseason winless was a total disaster, you may want to think again. Yes, it is correct that the Bucks finished the preseason without winning a single game for only the second time in the last decade. But the last time the Bucks finished winless in the preseason was 2020, and the Bucks went on to win the 2021 NBA Finals.
Giannis Antetokounmpo put up one of the all-time great performances in those finals versus the Phoenix Suns. Antetokounmpo averaged 35.2 points, 13.2 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game while shooting 61.8% in six games.
This is the second winless preseason #Bucks have had in the last decade.
They won the NBA Finals the first time.