@Tschmack posted:Two other nuggets that have come to light is the Hawks tried to trade for Holiday and the Bucks tried to trade for Oladipo. Ultimately the Bucks gave up more to New Orleans but got their guy. More importantly, they offloaded Bledsoe and Hill salaries which quite frankly aren’t looking so great at the moment.
The key takeaway is both Sacramento and Indiana insisted on DDV being included in either a Bogs trade or a Oladipo trade. That tells me that several teams are high on DDV so retaining him may have been the right move anyway. Oladipo wouldn’t have been a good fit IMO and you give up DDV and still may keep Bledsoe and don’t get the key guy in Holiday.
Keeping DDV, and adding Augustin and Forbes to replace Bogs offensively was a really nice recovery. They also replaced Ersan with a more athletic version in Portis for less money. Let’s also not forget they kept a great locker room gritty Swiss Army knife guy in Par C and got a sneaky good wing defender in Torrey Craig. Oh, and they also kept B Lopez.If DDV continues to develop offensively like he’s capable of doing then this team could be very, very good. He’s already a plus defender. He just needs to get more consistent in other aspects.
Good post. The thing about DDV that's a key to note is that the things he really needs to improve on are things he is very likely to improve on, which are mostly related to improving his strength. He's played one full year in the NBA and his 3 point shooting last year was at ~33.5% in both the regular season and playoffs. That needs to improve to the 37/38% level, but that's doable. In his final year at Villanova he shot 40% from the college 3 point line, so getting physical stronger should only help stretch that college shooting percentage out a couple of extra feet from where he 3 point line was in the NCAA in 2018.
The real thing that I noticed watching the games was that it seemed like at least 1-2 times every half, DDV would get around a guy trying to close out at the 3 point line, drive all the way to the lane, get bumped a little bit in traffic (not enough to draw a foul), and come up just a bit short on the finish. Some more time in the weight room is going to add that extra strength to convert those finishes and maybe even make them "And-1s."
The other thing I always go back to is how he played in that NCAA title game. Whatever some guys have that gives them confidence in pressure situations, DDV has "it." The guy that personified this trait more than anyone else in Bucks' history is Sam Cassell who seemed better in the clutch than at other times in the game. Ray Allen had it, but that just meant he stayed as good as he was at other times of the game. They both loved being the guy that took the pressure shot. Middleton that going for him as well, but not to the same extreme as Cassell with the irrational confidence and swagger that you need. DDV has a chance to have that. That's what they were really sold on about Bogdanovic, hitting pressure shots. It's the thing that Giannis doesn't have to his game.
I'm glad they didn't get Oladipo. I don't see him as a good fit, and he's a huge risk in terms of how much longer it's going to take for him to get over a bad injury. You know exactly what you are getting with Holiday.