Bucks: Teletovic envisions better second season.
Mirza Teletovic hopes his second season with the Milwaukee Bucks looks different from his first. Aesthetically, he’s already made a change that ensures that will happen.
During the first week of the team’s training camp, Teletovic has been wearing protective glasses and he expects to wear them throughout the season.
The 6-foot-9 sharpshooting forward, who wore contacts while playing in the past due to astigmatism in both eyes. He underwent corrective Lasik surgery this month, something he had long planned on doing and just recently found the time.
“Every time the contact moves everything is blurry,” Teletovic said Thursday at the Bucks’ Sports Science Center, noting that he’ll have to go back again to complete the procedure. “Astigmatism was the main thing that I wanted to remove so I did it. It’s really good.”
Teletovic readily admits his first season in Milwaukee didn’t go as well as he had hoped.
One year removed from setting the NBA record with 179 three-pointers off the bench while shooting 39.3% from long range for the Phoenix Suns, Teletovic settled into a smaller role with the Bucks and never found a rhythm, making just 104 three-pointers (34.1%) over 70 games.
He told then-Bucks general manager John Hammond in spring he had been through this before in his rookie season with the Brooklyn Nets in 2012-’13. With greater comfort in his second season, he had much better results (8.6 points per game, 39.0% shooting on three-pointers).
That type of bounceback performance is something that both Teletovic and Bucks head coach Jason Kidd — who was Teletovic’s coach in Brooklyn in 2013-’14 — hope he can repeat.
“Being able to be comfortable, understanding when he’s going to be in the game, I think we’re going to see a better Mirza,” Kidd said.
Teletovic’s playing time last season was down from what he might be used, Kidd mentioned, as he acclimated to the Bucks, played behind Giannis Antetokounmpo and shared minutes with Michael Beasley.
“Mirza, when he’s on the floor our threes went up,” Kidd said. “No matter if he’s making shots or missing shots he helps us on the floor on the offensive end.”
Ready to cash in: Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is starting a four-year, $100 million contract this season, is locked in with the Bucks through the 2020’21 season. When it comes to his shoe deal, though, Antetokounmpo is a free agent.
Antetokounmpo’s contract with Nike runs through the end of the month and the 22-year-old Greek star is considered the hottest available commodity for a new sneaker deal, likely including a signature shoe that would hit the market next season.
He’s been courted by Nike, Adidas and Li-Ning.
The bidding will likely prove quite lucrative for Antetokounmpo, who could net a deal worth upwards of $7 million per season, with $10 million per year within the realm of possibility.
“It’s fun to be a sneaker free agent,” Antetokounmpo said. “You get a lot of shoes and you keep a lot of shoes — I give a lot of shoes to my brothers.
“I haven’t decided yet, I’m not even close yet. … I’m not in a rush right now, I’m just focusing on basketball.”