The Bucks signed free-agent guard/forward Brandon Rush to a training camp contract, they announced Tuesday night. By adding the veteran outside shooter, Milwaukee intensifies the competition at its wing positions and could potentially have to make another roster move if Rush impresses during the preseason.
Rush, 32, appeared in 47 games (33 starts) last season for the Timberwolves, averaging 4.2 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 21.9 minutes. The nine-year NBA veteran has played for five teams in his career, with averages of 6.8 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 22.0 minutes over 481 games (163 starts). He was on the Golden State Warriors’ NBA Championship-winning squad in 2015.
A 6-foot-6 swingman, Rush has been a dependable 3-point shooter over his career (40.2 percent), including a high-water mark of 45.2 percent – and 3.6 3-pointers made per game – in 2011-12. Last season in Minnesota, Rush shot 38.6 percent from beyond the arc, which would have been the sixth-best mark on the 2016-17 Bucks. Notably, Rush is also long, with a 6-foot-11 wingspan that would fit in well on the Bucks.
The 13th overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft out of Kansas, Rush has played for the Portland Trail Blazers, the Indiana Pacers, the Utah Jazz, the Warriors and the Timberwolves during his career. He tore his left ACL early in the 2012-13 season, but returned later the next season and has found a niche as a role player who can consistently hit a spot-up 3-pointer. In 2015-16, Rush started 25 games and connected on 41.4 percent of his 3s for Golden State.
With the addition of Rush, and after re-signing veteran guard and fan favorite Jason Terry on Monday, Milwaukee now has 16 players on its roster, including 14 with guaranteed contracts. Guard Gary Payton II, who played in six games late in the season for the Bucks last year and competed on their 2017 Summer League team, has a non-guaranteed deal. Training camp starts next week at Milwaukee's new Downtown practice facility.
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.
