Lillard sitting out again. Should beat a crappy Magic team when with just Giannis and 20 minutes of Middleton, but there isn't much half-court offensive talent on this team if Lillard is out and Middleton is limited.
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Bucks down 4 after the first.
Bucks now down 8. I'm not sure the Bucks have a guard capable of playing NBA-level defense on the ball.
Bobby Portis has not been good so far this year. 2 for 16 from three.
Down 17. Just pathetic.
So letâs see here......Badgers lost, the Bucks arenât doing the best, but we DO HAVE THE BADGER WOMEN coming up, and the Packers tomorrow??? Iâll say not the best for the Wisconsin men.........but shoot do the Badger women have to AGAIN, ya know be the WINNERS of all sports here in Wisconsin?? Just saying....
Middleton only played 7 minutes in the first half and was scoreless. I wonder if his knee is acting up?
Bucks trail by 21.
Really embarrassing performance tonight.
Adrian Griffin might have to patent the deer in the headlights look he gives from the bench.
9 games this year and 3 have been completely uncompetitive against three bad teams.
Griffin has basically given up. AJ Green, Thanasis, and AJ Jackson all in at the end of the third.
Crowder now hurt.
Giannis airballs a FT>
Down 16 going to the 4th.
Giannis 3 for 10 from the line.
Bucks cut it to 11 in the 4th by playing Thanasis and Jackson with Giannis, Middleton, and Portis. It points out how bad Beauchamp and Beasley have been for most of the year.
I'm not sure if there is anything they can do at this point, but this Bucks team is not very good.
Adrian Griffin may be a good coach one day, but he was not a good choice for this team. He is in way over his head. He has implemented defensive schemes that don't fit his personnel at all.
Another game against a bad team where the Bucks never get under a double digit deficit in the second half (Raptors, Magic, and Hawks).
I didnât see the game, but the box score speaks volumes.
12-25 from the line. 48%.
Iâm embarrassed for this team. How do you miss more than half your shots from the charity stripe?
Itâs not a good look that Lillard is sitting so much. If heâs not hurt, his ass should be on the floor. He is getting paid a ridiculous amount of money. Suck it up, buttercup.
Firing Bud is really looking like a dreadful decision. And seeing Jrue just fit in perfectly with the Celtics is making me sick to my stomach.
Wisconsin pro sports teams are being plagued by a tremendous amount of gross incompetence right now.
And worst of all, we donât have another first round draft pick until 2028. Weâve sold out the future for this one shot at building a champion, and weâre face planting right out of the blocks.
@lambeausouth posted:Firing Bud is really looking like a dreadful decision. And seeing Jrue just fit in perfectly with the Celtics is making me sick to my stomach.
Bud shit the bed in the Heat series. However, if you were going to fire him, you had to get someone who had a very high floor. In other words, you couldn't hire someone who could fall on their face. Vogel, Monte Williams, Borrego, Doc Rivers, and Terry Stotts would have all fit that. Instead, they hired someone that had never been a head coach. He looks like he's trying to figure it out as he goes along. Maybe Griffin will be good, but you can't let him figure it out over a 2-3 year period with this roster.
Holiday fits in well everywhere. The problem is that he's just not good enough on offense to be your 2nd or 3rd best offensive player in crunch time in the playoffs. He was barely good enough in 2021 as the 3rd option and that's only because Giannis turned in an all-time performance in the Finals and Middleton played like a first ballot Hall-of-Famer throughout the playoff run. Holiday was really bad on offense for large parts of the title run. He was terrible on offense the last two years when he had to be the #2 option when Middleton (2022) and Giannis (2023) got hurt.
On the Celtics, he's the 5th offensive option. Of course he fits well. Imagine him on the Bucks with Giannis, Middleton, and Dame right now. It's not like Jrue is lighting up the scoreboard in Boston (he's shooting 44% and 35% from three) and is averaging 13 points.
The problem was that the Bucks weren't going to win another title with him unless they got 2021 playoff Middleton. That's unlikely. They had to upgrade on offense, and they did, but they didn't complement Dame with players that made sense. You need a Jevon Carter type that can play lockdown defense, not guys that are the poor-man's versions of Dame (all offense, terrible on defense) - Beasley and Payne. Connaughton is nearing the end of the line and has lost a step he couldn't afford to lose.
Beauchamp looks to me to be the next guy in the Sterling Brown, DJ Wilson, and DDV line. They just aren't good enough to be anything more than deep bench players.
I think the guy that they have to try to give more minutes to is Andre Jackson Jr. He can't shoot, but he can do everything else they need.
@lambeausouth posted:Wisconsin pro sports teams are being plagued by a tremendous amount of gross incompetence right now.
That includes Bucky football right? I guess college sports are basically professional now
Something needs to change thatâs for sure. The free throws were bad but that wasnât the reason they lost.
Defensively, they are sloppy and are fouling way too much. Thatâs where they continue to have problems. People will blame that on Dame but overall the team is giving up a lot of easy looks in the paint and outside shots.
Unless something changes they are going to have to make a move to shore up their perimeter defense. That might mean having to deal Pat C or even Portis. Or, it could mean giving Jackson more minutes. He wonât do much offensively, but heâs the one guy on the bench that has the size and athleticism to defend and rebound pretty well.
I also donât know what to think of Griffin.
@Tschmack posted:Something needs to change thatâs for sure. The free throws were bad but that wasnât the reason they lost.
Defensively, they are sloppy and are fouling way too much. Thatâs where they continue to have problems. People will blame that on Dame but overall the team is giving up a lot of easy looks in the paint and outside shots.
Unless something changes they are going to have to make a move to shore up their perimeter defense. That might mean having to deal Pat C or even Portis. Or, it could mean giving Jackson more minutes. He wonât do much offensively, but heâs the one guy on the bench that has the size and athleticism to defend and rebound pretty well.
I also donât know what to think of Griffin.
Griffin thought he could implement a defensive scheme in Milwaukee that was optimized for the team in Toronto last year that had 5 guys all capable of generating pressure on the ball and scrambling around to contest the passing lanes. He had precisely one guy in his top 8 that was capable of doing this (Giannis). Lopez doesn't fit this AT ALL. Portis doesn't either. Middleton is still playing on one leg and it's not clear he's going to get better. Lillard and Beasley are some of the worst defensive players in the league at their positions. Connaughton and Crowder are still OK, but they are both losing some athleticism as they age.
The fact he thought this would work with the personnel on the Bucks is very concerning. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out. At least he seems o have adapted, but he looks like a deer in the headlights out there late in games.
Bud is making us live the adage of "be careful what you wish for."
Well, I never thought I would say this but Memphis is completely sucking right now. They are one of the worst offensive teams in the league in points scored and FG%. They are also 2-8.
What if Horst called up the Grizzlies and said weâll give you Portis and Pat C for Marcus Smart? The dollars work, and it solves issues for both teams. Smart is exactly what this team needs. A guy that will get scrappy and tough and would be fine as the 4th or 5th scoring option on the team.
Beasley canât defend so he goes to the bench. Then you try to bring Beauchamp and Jackson Jr along and Payne has proven he can make some buckets. It makes them weaker in the frontcourt but a whole lot stronger defensively.
When the playoffs come along they are only playing 7-8 guys anyway.
@Tschmack posted:Well, I never thought I would say this but Memphis is completely sucking right now. They are one of the worst offensive teams in the league in points scored and FG%. They are also 2-8.
What if Horst called up the Grizzlies and said weâll give you Portis and Pat C for Marcus Smart? The dollars work, and it solves issues for both teams. Smart is exactly what this team needs. A guy that will get scrappy and tough and would be fine as the 4th or 5th scoring option on the team.
Beasley canât defend so he goes to the bench. Then you try to bring Beauchamp and Jackson Jr along and Payne has proven he can make some buckets. It makes them weaker in the frontcourt but a whole lot stronger defensively.
When the playoffs come along they are only playing 7-8 guys anyway.
I like the idea, but why would anyone want Pat C. for 10 million dollars at this stage of his career? Portis would put up points for them and is from Little Rock so that would make sense.
I would love to see Marcus Smart guard Jayson Tatum in a playoff series, though.
Iâm old enough to remember when we hated Smart.
I still donât care for the guy but he would help them a lot more than Portis or Pat C.
@Pikes Peak posted:Iâm old enough to remember when we hated Smart.
I still do, but we did have to cheer for Grayson Allen the previous two years. We've been conditioned for it now.
@Tschmack posted:I still donât care for the guy but he would help them a lot more than Portis or Pat C.
I think that's the challenge. Outside of their top 4 guys (Giannis, Dame, Middleton, and Lopez), Portis may be the only player on the team that other teams would be interested in.
Connaughton is probably washed up. He's been one of the worst players in the league this year based on advanced metrics. Beasley and Payne were available for the minimum for a reason - mainly they struggle to guard anyone. Crowder is a PJ-type. That's fine, but he's an old 33.
The Bucks have already won a title and Giannis is now extended for 3 years. They'll make the playoffs and maybe get to the second round, but their likelihood of winning a title probably comes down to whether Middleton can make it back to the 2021 version of himself. It's very doubtful. He has some degenerative knee issues that probably make him best suited for a 6th-man offense-off-the-bench type, rather than as a 35 minute a game guy that is an all-star level two way wing.
Horst has done a great job maximizing the title window of this roster and has traded away a lot of draft picks to do it. The problem is that when he has had draft picks, he hasn't drafted anyone other than Brogdon that is an NBA-level starter on a playoff team in the last decade. Maker (10th overall), DJ Wilson (17th overall), DDV (17th overall), Beauchamp (24th overall), Nwora (2nd round), and Brogdon (2nd round). DDV is OK, but if one of those guys is a rotation player this is a much different looking (and younger) team. DDV would probably start for them right now, but that's more a reflection of how bad Beasley and Payne are on defense than how good DDV is. Trading DDV for two months of the corpse that was left of Ibaka's career was one of the worst deals Horst has made.
