Bucks get creative while practicing in isolation
Typically, Brook Lopez would be trying to hit a last shot and howling at the moon if he didn't. George Hill would be working on the three-pointer, joking around with everyone. And the Milwaukee Bucks players would linger after practice for a little more work and a little competitive talk about who could finish what.
Now a workday is eerily silent. The Bucks have been doing only individual workouts since resuming the season June 22 with coronavirus testing in Milwaukee. No team practice has been permitted at the Sports & Science Center downtown. Isolation is part of the NBA's safety protocol, which means the Bucks have had to work out on their own.
“It's been weird,” Khris Middleton said Friday during a video conference call with reporters. “Usually we're all encouraging each other, talking to each other, joking around with one another, playing music.
“Now we literally have somebody following us with disinfectant spray and a towel after everything we touch. That's a little bit different – and not the most ideal way you want to work out – but right now it's the safest.”
To bring a competitive element – or just to keep the tedium of drills at bay – they've gotten creative. Comparing numbers, creating phantom players, the Bucks are doing whatever it takes to mentally prepare for a dive back in to the season by July 31.
“We can still do competition numbers between the amount of shots we hit during the workout and comparing that to somebody else's board,” said Middleton. “You know, just focusing on our own craft and trying to figure out a way to get better just by ourselves, which we've been doing since we were kids.”
Guard Donte DiVicenzo admits this is unusual. The team chemistry here was strong, and practice competition made up a large part of that. “It's tough,” he said.
So DiVincenzo said he's been dribbling and shooting around unseen defenders and teammates.
“You have to use your imagination during this time. That's the positive I'm taking out of it,” said DiVincenzo. “I'm using my imagination of where defenders are going to be, how they're going to cut me off. Once I get into the game – even practice down in Orlando – I've
kind of mentally prepared myself with my imagination.”
A big fan of video games, DiVincenzo said he doesn't have a hard time placing phantom people on the court in anticipation of how players would move and flow.
“I'm visualizing like the entire defense,” said DiVincenzo. “You're not going to dribble from one side of the court to the other, just because when you're playing in the game, there's going to be five defenders and four other offensive players. The way I do it is, I'm envisioning where those players on our team would be in those spots, and I'm trying to stay within a narrow lane to kind of just limit my dribbling.”
Even before the Bucks all returned to work in Milwaukee, during the shutdown, DiVincenzo tapped in to this imaginary basketball scene for this mental preparation. It's not unlike what kids do.
“It kind of took me back to being a little kid again, dribbling the ball outside, doing those little moves on the sidewalk and stuff like that,” said DiVincenzo. “You're outside just being a kid again. I was trying to work on things that could slip, ball handling and stuff like that.”
When the Bucks depart for Orlando next week, they will follow even more safety protocols to get settled in Florida. If all goes well, they should be able to start playing against one another again with contact in practice.
That's what this team needs. They push each other and challenge one another. They hold one another accountable. To get back to where they left off, leading the NBA and beating teams by an average double-digit margin almost all season long, they need to push one another again first in practice.
“One, you have to be comfortable being around people again,” said Middleton. “For so long we've been told to stay away from pretty much everybody, which can play mental games more than anything.
“When you add actually playing basketball games against physical contact, it takes a while to get used to get used to that pounding, to get used to that physicality, running up and down the court.
“It's not something that usually comes back within a week or two; it takes a little bit longer. The way this whole thing in Orlando is set up, the team that can pull it together the fastest or the quickest will probably have the best shot.”