@lambeausouth posted:The Nets have been missing a first ballot Hall of Famer, one of the greatest perimeter shooters of the last quarter century, for all but one minute of the two games, and the Nets are shooting 44.4% (36 for 81) from behind the arc. The Nets are shooting better from 3-pt range than our two-time MVP is shooting from the free throw line. He’s 2 for 10. 20%.
As I said before. I am done with Bud. Absolutely done. No arguments, please. His team is mentally soft, maybe the softest team I’ve seen as a Wisconsin sports fan. The Bucks get punched in the mouth, snd they go sit down, suck their thumbs, and have a good cry.
And Middleton? He’s utterly worthless. Giannis hasn’t played well, but anybody that’s contended KM is a good #2 is kidding themselves. He’s good about once every three games against the true top tier teams, and when he’s off, Stevie Wonder could outshoot him. So expect him to have a bang up game 3. The Bucks will win somehow, playing just well enough to give Bucks fans a false hope. Then, Lucy will pull the football away, and we’ll land flat on our ass. Good grief.
Middleton is 13 for 43 from the floor (30%), and 3 for 13 from 3. That’s 23%. He’s as predictable as the atomic clock.
I won’t waste any of my time watching the rest of the series. I know how this ends, and my hopes of seeing a Milwaukee sports team win a title in my lifetime heads into year #50 of futility.
I agree with most of this, but Middleton is not worthless. He's a borderline all-star that gets misused by Bud against elite teams.
Bud's schemes work against crappy teams, but it's really just iso ball. Middleton would be most effective if you used him like Klay Thompson is used and not like Kevin Durant. Let him run off picks or put him in screen and roll. Limit his dribbling. He's a great shooter, but when they get to the playoffs every play called for him is isolation. He's not an elite athlete by NBA standards, so he really has to work to get open against good defensive players.
As for Giannis on offense, I mean what can you even say at this point? Most of this game was him standing outside of 15 feet and when he got the ball he just settled for jump shots over and over. He was stoned by Blake Griffin. The same guy who he dominated when he was with the Pistons and even at the beginning of Game 1 of this series.
How many times did Jrue Holiday initiate offense tonight? Why not use him to initiate the offense, back his guy down low, and force double teams?
What happened to the pick and roll with Giannis/Khris, Giannis/Holiday, etc? How many times did the Bucks actually swing the ball tonight? Force Durant to work on defense? It was like if you were going to design a defense to make one of the greatest players in history as comfortable as possible, this is what you'd do. Durant could sit and rest on defense with no ball reversal or forcing him into pick and rolls and he could stand around on offense until he got the ball in a space against the zone and shoot uncontested shots. Any uncontested shot within 25 feet is like a layup for most players, and yet he got about 6-8 of those tonight.