On Thursday morning, the NBA suspended Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis Jr. for 25 games after he tested positive for Tramadol. On Thursday night, Bucks coach Doc Rivers defended Portis before the team’s 116-110 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.
“I want to make something clear: Bobby’s not a drug user,” Rivers said. “I hate that it just says that you flunked the drug policy. And so when people read that, the first place they go is the wrong place. This is as big a mistake as can be made, like, it’s a mistake. And, so it bothers me on a lot of levels. Rules are rules, I get it, I get it — but there are also human circumstances and common sense to me.
“Bobby’s not a cheater. And so to me, that’s where we have to try to figure out how to change this a little bit. Because when it’s clear that a guy — tormazol, toradol, I don’t even know — when it’s that close and it’s clear, you can tell now from the blood samples, that that was the only time ever, you would think that we could do something less severe. But we have this rule like if you do it, you’re out, and that’s the way it is, so I just feel bad for Bobby, on so many levels.”
The Bucks chose not to appeal the suspension. Rivers told reporters that the risk of the appeal being unsuccessful and the suspension then ending later in the season was too great of a risk, even if the team disagreed with the severity of the punishment.
The suspension is the latest in a tumultuous season for Portis. In November, Portis’ home was burglarized while he was playing a game as part of a string of high-profile burglaries targeting professional athletes. In January, Portis’ grandmother, whom Portis lived in the same home with as a child, passed away. The 10-year veteran will now need to prepare for the postseason while missing the Bucks’ next 25 games.
“Dude’s gone through a lot this year,” Rivers said.
What will the Bucks miss with Portis’ suspension?
First and foremost, the Bucks will miss his production.
Outside of the six games he missed while mourning his grandmother’s death, Portis has missed one other game this season. He has been one of the team’s most dependable and consistent players in his five seasons for the Bucks. In 46 games this season, primarily coming off the bench, the 30-year-old big man is averaging 13.7 points and 8.3 rebounds in 25.2 minutes per game, again putting him among the league’s most productive sixth men.
Rivers did not want to undersell Portis’ production but made it clear that Milwaukee would miss more than just the points and rebounds.
“It’s funny, what the people don’t see is there’s certain guys that you need,” Rivers said. “Shootaround (on Thursday) was different. Bobby’s the one guy, he’s the voice (saying), ‘Stop f—ing around in practice.’
“And he’s the guy that tells everybody that on our team. And, today, it was me saying that, and it’s just not the same. Let me tell you, Bobby’s voice is bigger and better. Obviously, we miss him on the floor. But I have that saying, ‘You can’t replace a human being.’ You just can’t. And especially one as special as Bobby.”
While Portis didn’t attend Thursday’s shootaround, he can practice while suspended. Rivers said the team is still working with the league to see if Portis can travel with the team, even though he is not allowed in arenas on game nights starting two hours before tip-off. Regardless, the Bucks will miss his voice and his energy on the bench and on the floor during games.
Since he arrived in Milwaukee in 2020, Portis has been one of the players who brings the emotional fire and that has made him beloved in the Bucks’ locker room. At times, Portis has needed teammates to calm him down or help him control his emotions, but Rivers in particular has connected to that energy and praised Portis’ leadership since he took over as Milwaukee’s coach last season.
How will they try to replace Portis?
The Bucks could sign a free agent immediately. At the trade deadline, Milwaukee sent out four players and only brought back three, so it has an open roster spot.
NBA rules also permit the Bucks to move Portis to the suspended list after the first five games of his suspension and sign a replacement player, but signing a free agent right now would not require another roster move first.
For now, though, the Bucks will turn to the rest of their roster to make up for Portis’ absence for the next 24 games. That will require Rivers to go about things differently than he had planned. In his first media comments following the Feb. 6 trade deadline, Rivers told reporters that he planned to start Kyle Kuzma at small forward, alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez, when the team became fully healthy.
Rivers used that combination on Thursday along with Damian Lillard and Taurean Prince against the Clippers, but Kuzma, Antetokounmpo and Lopez only played 10 minutes together. Rivers staggered them throughout bench units, and Antetokounmpo only played a little less than 24 minutes (23:45) because of a minutes restriction.
“We didn’t know when (the suspension) was going to happen, so I can tell you, today, we’ll figure it out,” Rivers said before Thursday’s game. “The one thing I really wanted — Kyle to play more minutes at the three, just to have incredible size and a lot of that — will be taken away now.”
Rivers used a nine-man rotation Thursday night, just as he has done throughout the season, with Gary Trent Jr., AJ Green, Jericho Sims and Kevin Porter Jr. coming off the bench.
Who needs to step up?
The Bucks were already expecting big things out of Kuzma, but it is still fair to put their biggest trade deadline acquisition at the top of the list of players who need to step up in Portis’ absence. The 29-year-old was always expected to score and rebound after the All-Star break, but now Kuzma will need to do it more at power forward than small forward.
“It doesn’t matter too much to me,” Kuzma said after Thursday’s game. “I’ve always said my entire career, I’m just a basketball player, whether it’s playing the three or the four, coming down the stretch, initiating offense. Basketball is such a positionless game and I’ve been playing the game and all types of positions my whole entire life.”
The Bucks will also be expecting more than anticipated from Sims. Both general manager Jon Horst and Rivers described Sims as a fourth big man in a three-big rotation immediately after the trade deadline. While early indications suggest that Kuzma will slot into the big-man rotation before Sims, the 26-year-old will get more opportunities.
Sims played 17 minutes on Thursday, going scoreless in his first appearance with the Bucks. But he grabbed two rebounds and showed off his defensive versatility, switching onto James Harden, Kawhi Leonard and Ivica Zubac.
“I feel like I got to display that a little bit,” Sims said of his ability to switch on defense. “I know there’s going to be different coverages throughout the season. I’m just ready to lock into anything.”
Playing Kuzma at a different position will also mean the Bucks need even more on the wings from Green, Prince and Trent.
What is the path forward?
The Bucks are confident in what Portis can do for them and, even if he won’t be in game shape, he should be healthy and ready to hop back into his normal role with four games remaining in the regular season. The team, though, still needs to get through the next 24 games and learn how to survive and thrive without him, even if they believe their peak postseason form includes Portis.
It’s a difficult reality to conceptualize, so Lillard told reporters the Bucks don’t need to waste time thinking about it.
“I think any time you start to think that far ahead, you’re putting stress on yourself that has not even come yet,” Lillard said. “We know that he will be gone for 24 games now, and we just gotta try to focus on getting the job done. I think the good thing is we know who Bobby is to our team. We know what he brings. It’s not like we’re plugging in a new player. I think that would be different.”
Lillard said the Bucks need to focus on playing the best basketball possible each night and taking lessons from those games.
“In the playoffs, you need to have depth and you need to be able to trust guys, so I think that is one thing that it will give us,” Lillard said. “We’re going to find out over these next 24 games what we actually have — who we can trust, in what situations we can trust them, who can help us and how they can help us depending on who we end up matched up against and things like that. I think that has to be the mentality.”
On Thursday, that meant closing out a tight game with tough perimeter defense, setting Lopez up for three blocks in the final six minutes. If Lillard’s mindset is going to work for the Bucks, it is going to require different efforts from different players each night, and that happened on Thursday. The Bucks will try to see if they can replicate another such effort on Friday against the Washington Wizards.
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(Photo: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
