@Tschmack posted:While Lopez thrived against Miami, I don’t like him as much against Brooklyn because it tends to draw Giannis away from the paint where he is obviously much less effective.
I also like the idea of Giannis defending Durant. Tucker is better served coming off the bench.
The other problem they have is that I think the loss of DDV was underestimated in terms of the impact it would have. He doesn't make a 40 point difference obviously, but he completely changes the floor spacing in that starting group relative to Tucker. Tucker is virtually no threat on offense. He made himself into a viable NBA player by being a tenacious defender, getting extra possessions on hustle plays, and developing one offensive skill to keep himself on the court (an awkward-looking corner 3). It takes him a long time to load up to shoot that corner 3 and good defenders can recover and challenge him on a close out. If he's on a team with Chris Paul and Harden (like he was with the Rockets) he gets those shots off more easily. On the Bucks, if he's on the court with Giannis, that means you have at least 2 guys you can back off of and let them try to beat you from outside. It becomes the Bledsoe problem all over again. It's compounded by playing Lopez too. While he's a competent 3-point shooter, teams are still fine with making him beat you from 3 as well. Holidays decent too, but he's not lights out. Middleton is the only guy you really prioritize making sure he never gets a look from the three-point line that is uncontested. Besides the Giannis wall, the priority for teams that beat the Bucks is to make sure Middleton never gets uncontested looks. The reason he dropped to the second round is that he's not an elite athlete by NBA standards. Good defenders can bother him one-on-one.
Of course, you could run Forbes out there in the starting unit, but he's a such a defensive liability that they headhunt him immediately. He's liable to give up 12 points for every 10 he scores, but that's better than still giving up the equivalent of 8 and scoring 2 (Tucker). Connaughton is the compromise guy to start, but his strength is that he's adequate at almost everything but his weakness is that he's great at almost nothing.