Milwaukee Bucks: GM’s Bobby Portis Remarks Express What Fans Feel to the T for Returning 6th Man

Portis Provides Much More Than Stats for Milwaukee Bucks

Since signing with the Bucks ahead of the 2020-21 campaign, Portis has supplied consistent scoring and rebounds off the bench while spacing the floor with his 3-point shot. Last season, he served an unfortunate 25-game suspension for accidentally taking a banned substance from a personal assistant, which he believed was a regular pain pill. The rest of the time, he served up the usual: 13.9 PPG, 8.4 RPG, and solid shooting splits.

It was actually a bit of down year from beyond the arc, as Portis shot only 36.5%, the lowest of his Bucks career. Not too awful for a down year – typically, he’s been closer to 40%. Rostering BP as a backup big is a luxury few teams have.

Mulling over a player option for next season, Portis drew interest around the league as free agency neared, according to reports. Ultimately, he returned to the Bucks on yet another team-friendly deal. Not only does Portis fill up box scores and sustain the second unit, he is wildly popular among fans and important to team culture.

Horst does not underappreciate his value, something he made clear in an interview last week with The Athletic’s Eric Nehm.

“I did not want to go through a season, a practice, a day without Bobby Portis as part of the team I’m a part of,” Horst  said. “I think Bobby is so much the ethos of who we are. He is the underdog. He fights. He grinds. There’s no one that cares more, in my opinion, about the Milwaukee Bucks than Bobby.” Embracing a roster model of Giannis plus role players, the team will have to embody BP’s grit and enthusiasm as a whole. Retaining Portis was a big win for the Bucks, for a multitude of reasons. Yet they easily could have lost him.

Fellow sixth-man big Naz Reid, also on a player option, earned a five-year, $125 million deal to return to Minnesota. While Reid is several years younger, Portis probably would have made more money by leaving Milwaukee. A reflection of fan gratitude as well, Horst is hardly unaware of that fact. “Bobby wasn’t short on options, but he wanted to be here. Bobby chose us.”