MILWAUKEE (AP) — If it wasn’t obvious enough already, the youth of the Milwaukee Bucks’ two draft choices became apparent when second-round pick Tyler Smith discussed the origins of his love for bowling.
“I was in Vegas this year (and) there was really, like, nothing to do out there,” Smith said Tuesday during an introductory press conference for himself and first-round pick A.J. Johnson.
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MILWAUKEE (AP) — If it wasn’t obvious enough already, the youth of the Milwaukee Bucks’ two draft choices became apparent when second-round pick Tyler Smith discussed the origins of his love for bowling.
Milwaukee Bucks 2024 draft picks AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith are introduced at a news conference Tuesday, July 2, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks 2024 draft picks AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith listen to head coach Doc Rivers at a news conference Tuesday, July 2, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks 2024 draft picks AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith are introduced at a news conference Tuesday, July 2, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks 2024 draft picks AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith laugh with head coach Doc Rivers at a news conference Tuesday, July 2, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks 2024 draft picks AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith pose for a picture with head coach Doc Rivers and general manager Jon Horst at a news conference Tuesday, July 2, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Bucks coach Doc Rivers’ stunned reply: “In Vegas?”
Smith explained that his status as a teenager didn’t give him much of an opportunity to sample the Las Vegas nightlife, so he and his friends often would spend their spare time at a bowling alley.
“Keep that mentality,” general manager Jon Horst responded.
The Bucks are banking on the likelihood that Johnson and Smith will have developed into key NBA performers by the time the two 19-year-olds have grown up.
Milwaukee appears to be in the latter stages of a championship window and can’t spend much in free agency due to salary-cap concerns. But rather than drafting players who spent a few years in college and could help right away, the Bucks took a chance on the long-term upside of Johnson and Smith.
“One of the things we liked about both of them is their work ethic and their drive,” Rivers said. “You can see, these two guys want to be great. They don’t want to just come in here and be potential players. They want to be players. Again, we just can’t wait to get to work.”
Johnson is a 6-foot-6 guard who initially committed to Texas in high school before bypassing college basketball and spending the last year in Australia’s National Basketball League, where he played just 7.7 minutes per game while competing with other pros.
Smith, a 6-11 forward, also went directly to the pros rather than playing in college and averaged 13.4 points for the NBA G League Ignite.
Whether either player will contribute much as a rookie remains uncertain.
“The main focus is really just working to a point where the coaches want to play us, like we can actually help the team win,” said Johnson, the 23rd overall pick in the draft. “So I guess we’re just trying to get to that as fast as possible, learn and get as good as we can possibly get, so we can get on the court as fast as possible and help the team win games.”
They’ll get the opportunity to work on a veteran-laden team with an experienced staff. Rivers’ core of assistants will include a couple of former head coaches in Darvin Ham (Los Angeles Lakers) and Dave Joerger (Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings).
Rivers said Johnson and Smith both possess a combination of skill and athleticism that should help them thrive.
“Now it’s our job to try to teach them the game, get them stronger, get them ready,” Rivers said. “But we have a head start. Both of them are excellent shooters. They just have skill to their game, and that’s what drew me to them.”
The Bucks need these picks to work out because they don’t have much draft capital in future seasons.
They currently don’t have any draft picks in 2025. They also traded their 2027 and 2029 first-round selections. Other teams have the right to swap first-round picks with them in 2026, 2028 and 2030.
That limits Milwaukee’s opportunities to boost its roster as the Bucks try to regroup after two straight first-round playoff exits.
The Bucks have surrounded 29-year-old, two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo with plenty of older players: Damian Lillard (33), Khris Middleton (32), Brook Lopez (36), Bobby Portis (29) and Pat Connaughton (31). The back half of the roster is full of players who are 24 or younger.
“We’ve got six returning core guys that we know are ready now to compete at a high level and take us to where we want to go,” Horst said. “We’ve got three returning young vets that contributed last year and should take another jump this year in MarJon (Beauchamp), AJ (Green) and Andre (Jackson Jr.). Chris Livingston had a great first year with us. He’s working his (tail) off and he’s going to be ready to contribute also.
“And now we’ve got Tyler and AJ pushing them. And we’ve got three spots on our roster right now in free agency that we’re going to go and figure out the best balance in how they fit the rest of that group.”
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Milwaukee Bucks 2024 draft picks AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith are introduced at a news conference Tuesday, July 2, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks 2024 draft picks AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith are introduced at a news conference Tuesday, July 2, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks 2024 draft picks AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith listen to head coach Doc Rivers at a news conference Tuesday, July 2, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks 2024 draft picks AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith are introduced at a news conference Tuesday, July 2, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks 2024 draft picks AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith laugh with head coach Doc Rivers at a news conference Tuesday, July 2, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks 2024 draft picks AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith pose for a picture with head coach Doc Rivers and general manager Jon Horst at a news conference Tuesday, July 2, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Beryl ripped off roofs in Jamaica, jumbled fishing boats in Barbados and damaged or destroyed 95% of homes on a pair of islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines before rumbling toward the Cayman Islands and taking aim at Mexico's Caribbean coast after leaving at least seven dead in its wake.
What had been the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, weakened to a Category 3 by early Thursday but remained a major hurricane. Its eye was forecast to pass just south of the Cayman Islands overnight.
“Weakening is forecast during the next day or two, though Beryl is forecast to remain a hurricane until it makes landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula,” the National Hurricane Center in Miami said in its 8 a.m. ET update.
Mexico's popular Caribbean coast prepared shelters, evacuated some small outlying coastal communities and even moved sea turtle eggs off beaches threatened by storm surge, but in nightlife hotspots like Playa del Carmen and Tulum tourists still took one more night on the town.
Mexico's Navy patrolled areas like Tulum telling tourists in Spanish and English to prepare for the storm's arrival.
Early Thursday morning, the storm’s center was about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Grand Cayman island and 385 miles (620 kilometers) east-southeast of Tulum, Mexico. It had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 20 mph (about 31 kph). Beryl was forecast to make landfall in a sparsely populated area of lagoons and mangroves south of Tulum in the early hours of Friday, probably as a Category 2 storm. Then it was expected to cross the Yucatan Peninsula and restrengthen over the warm Gulf of Mexico to make a second strike on Mexico's northeast coast near the Texas border.
The storm had already shown its destructive potential across a long swath of the southeastern Caribbean.
Beryl's eye wall brushed by Jamaica's southern coast Wednesday afternoon knocking out power and ripping roofs off homes. Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Jamaica had not seen the “worst of what could possibly happen.”
“We can do as much as we can do, as humanly possible, and we leave the rest in the hands of God,” Holness said.
Several roadways in Jamaica’s interior settlements were impacted by fallen trees and utility poles, while some communities in the northern section were without electricity, according to the government’s Information Service.
The worst perhaps came earlier in Beryl's trajectory when it smacked two small islands of the Lesser Antilles.
Michelle Forbes, the St. Vincent and Grenadines director of the National Emergency Management Organization, said that about 95% of homes in Mayreau and Union Island have been damaged by Hurricane Beryl.
Three people were reported killed in Grenada and Carriacou and another in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said. Three other deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where four people were missing, officials said.
One fatality in Grenada occurred after a tree fell on a house, Kerryne James, the environment minister, told The Associated Press.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has promised to rebuild the archipelago.
In Cancun on Wednesday afternoon, Donna McNaughton, a 43-year-old cardiac physiologist from Scotland, was taking the approaching storm in stride.
Her flight home wasn't leaving until Monday, so she planned to follow her hotel's advice to wait it out.
“We’re not too scared of. It’ll die down,” she said. “And we’re used to wind and rain in Scotland anyway.”
Associated Press journalists John Myers Jr. and Renloy Trail in Kingston, Jamaica, Mark Stevenson and María Verza in Mexico City, Coral Murphy Marcos in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Lucanus Ollivierre in Kingstown, St. Vincent and Grenadines contributed to this report.
Workers chops a tree uprooted by Hurricane Beryl in St. James, Barbados, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
Members of the Red Cross transport a Union Island evacuee on a stretcher as she arrives in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The island, in the Grenadines archipelago, was hit by Hurricane Beryl. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)
Evacuees from Union Island arrive in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The island, in the Grenadines archipelago, was hit by Hurricane Beryl. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre).
Members of the Red Cross transport a Union Island evacuee on a stretcher as she arrives in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The island, in the Grenadines archipelago, was hit by Hurricane Beryl. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)
Evacuees from Union Island arrive in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The island, in the Grenadines archipelago, was hit by Hurricane Beryl. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)
This GOES-East GeoColor satellite image taken at 1:20 p.m. EDT, and provided by NOAA, shows Hurricane Beryl moving towards Jamaica, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (NOAA via AP)
A man fishes in the sea ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Rescuers recover the body of a policeman who state authorities said died in a car accident while checking damage caused by heavy rain in Alto Lucero, Veracruz, Mexico, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)
Rescuers recover the body of a policeman who state authorities said died in a car accident while checking damage caused by heavy rain in Alto Lucero, Veracruz, Mexico, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)
Tourists lounge on the beach ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
State employees evacuate turtle eggs from the beach to protect them from the incoming Hurricane Beryl, in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
State employees evacuate turtle eggs from the beach to protect them from the incoming Hurricane Beryl, in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
A Mexican soldier stands guard on a beach ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Tourists swim in the ocean ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Furniture store employees board up windows for protection ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Workers remove an advertisement from a billboard for protection ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Workers remove an advertisement from a billboard for protection ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
People lounge on the beach as the sun sets ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
This image provided by NASA shows Hurricane Beryl from the International Space Station on Sunday, July 1, 2024. Beryl was roaring toward Jamaica on Wednesday, July 3, with islanders scrambling to make preparations after the powerful Category 4 storm earlier killed at least six people and caused significant damage in the southeast Caribbean. (NASA via AP)
Furniture store employees board up windows for protection ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
