Welcome to the 2017-18 edition of the Young Bucks Tracker. This year, we're taking a different tact. With Milwaukee now having a G League franchise, the Wisconsin Herd, each Thursday we'll either track the progress of the players who might be of help to the Bucks in the future or a current member of the Milwaukee roster. We'll also give updates on the other young players from the previous week.
This is the 9th edition of the 2017-18 Young Bucks Tracker.
SPOTLIGHT ON …
Center Marshall Plumlee
The name Plumlee is a familiar one to basketball fans. Marshall is the youngest of a trio of brothers, all of whom hover around 7-feet tall. Each played at Duke and all are in the NBA. Miles Plumlee played briefly for Milwaukee over parts of three seasons and is now in Atlanta while Mason is on the Nuggets.
Unlike his brothers, however, Marshall Plumlee was not a first-round pick. In fact, he wasn't even drafted.
But here's what we do know about the youngest Plumlee. He didn't start at Duke until he was a redshirt senior, averaging 8.3 points and 8.6 rebounds. After going undrafted, he signed with the Knicks. And, oh, he really loves "The Matrix" and is big on grooming and fashion.
He's also a big body, something Milwaukee seemingly needed and a reason the team signed him to a two-way contract last week. Listed at 250 pounds, Plumlee is the heaviest active player on the roster. (Jabari Parker is listed at 250, but he's obviously not able to play yet; Mirza Teletovic, also injured, is listed at 242. Rookie D.J. Wilson is next at 236.)
Plumlee has some NBA experience with the Knicks, playing 21 games with New York last season, averaging 1.9 points and 2.4 rebounds in 8.1 minutes. But he was waived by the team over the summer to create cap space and hooked on with the Clippers and eventually their G League team, Agua Caliente.
After averaging 8.7 points and 7.8 rebounds in 26.6 minutes for Agua Caliente, the Bucks swooped in. It didn't take long for Plumlee to get the call to Milwaukee.
Plumlee played in one game for the Wisconsin Herd on Jan. 17 and then was in uniform for the Bucks three days later in Philadelphia, where he helped out a short-handed Milwaukee team by scoring six points and pulling down six rebounds in just nine minutes. Two nights later, Plumlee had four points and two rebounds, and had a box score +/- of plus-10, in just over eight minutes.
It's an extremely small sample, Plumlee is averaging 20 points (the same as Eric Bledsoe) and 16.0 rebounds (only Xavier Munford, who has played two minutes is better) per 36 minutes.
Sent back to the Herd, Plumlee had 19 points and 10 rebounds in a Wednesday afternoon game before being summoned back to practice with Milwaukee.
Judging by his recent performances, Plumlee might just be able to settle into Milwaukee's regular rotation.
BUCKSHOTS
-- In scoring a career-high 32 points in a win over Phoenix on Monday, Malcolm Brogdon had double-digit field goals (11) for the first time in his career. Brogdon also had a box score +/- of plus-16, giving him a plus-35 over his last three games.
-- Without Giannis Antetokounmpo for two games and Brogdon for one, rookie Sterling Brown played in 67 minutes last week, the third-highest total for any Milwaukee player behind just Khris Middleton (79) and Bledsoe (71). Brown averaged 9.0 points while making 7 of 14 shots, including 4 of 10 3-point attempts.
-- Plumlee wasn't the only Bucks player under contract to take the floor for the Herd on Wednesday. Top pick D.J. Wilson had a team-high 25 points on 11-of-20 shooting as well as 10 rebounds over 30 minutes, while Xavier Munford, who is on a two-way contract, had 14 points and nine rebounds in 41 minutes.
