Laughing and juggling a basketball with his feet, soccer-style, at the end of practice on Wednesday, it was easy to see that Thon Maker was feeling upbeat but hard to tell if his injured wrist was feeling better.
A few minutes later, though, Maker was on the floor and participating in drills at the Bucks’ training facility, throwing and receiving post passes, as Jason Kidd watched closely behind him. Offering one-on-one instruction – and occasionally a joke, especially when Maker chucked a pass over the head of assistant coach Sean Sweeney – Kidd seemed optimistic about the rookie big man’s chances of making his preseason debut against the Mavericks on Saturday.
"We hope so," Kidd said when asked afterward if Maker would play in Madison, where Milwaukee’s first preseason home game will take place at the Kohl Center. The 7-foot-1 Maker, who was sidelined with a sprained right wrist suffered last week during training camp, suited up but did not play Monday in the Bucks’ preseason opener against the Bulls in Chicago. On Tuesday, Maker had said his wrist felt good and the last remaining test would be in full-contact practice.
That portion of practice was not open to media, but Kidd said there had been no setbacks on Wednesday and Maker, who was still wearing his small black brace, would be monitored and evaluated over the next few days.
"We’ll see how he gets through this week," the head coach said. "We’ve got tomorrow off and then we’ll go Friday, and hopefully he gets through practice Friday and we’ll see how he does on Saturday."
And, assuming Maker plays, what does Kidd expect from the raw and physically gifted 19-year-old whose life (and resulting basketball journey) has taken him from Africa to Australia to North America?
"My expectation is he’s going to be a rookie," Kidd said with a smile.
So pencil Maker in for 30 and 15.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
