Bucks in Charlotte for 2

Bucks were up 11 but give up an 8-0 to only lead by 3 going into the second.

Nwora is not good. Looks overmatched against these Hornet guards.

Hornets now on a 14-2 run. Jordan Nwora 0 for 4 on offense and even worse on defense. They don't have anyone else to put in for him so they are stuck with him.

Bucks went 10 minutes without a FG but still only down 2 after Middleton scores 5 quick points to stop a 19-2 Hornets run.

Nwora, Galloway, Hood, and Ojeleye should not be getting NBA minutes, so it's no surprise runs like this are going to happen.

Bucks about to lose contact - now down 8.

Middleton is their only offense.

Giannis not bothering to box out or rebound much tonight.

Who thinks having a team playing it's 3rd game in 4 nights on the road against  a team that has two days rest is fair?

Bucks only down 6 at the half. SHould have been 20, but the Hornets are pretty undisciplined.

Nwora, Hood, and Galloway are a combined 0 for 14 from the field (0 for 8 from three).

Ish

Pack it in and rest for Monday. Down 13.

Don't see Nwora ever being a guy you want getting minutes for a playoff team. He finally hits a shot and then while he's throwing up the "finally" arm shrugs - he gets beat for an easy layup on the other end.

How did the Bucks fare out this time last year???  Wins and losses I mean....where can I find stats from last year to now.

Check the internet

Down 14 going to the 4th.

4 guys that should be in the G league (Ojeleye, Hood, Nwora, and Galloway) have played 68 cumulative minutes and have gone 1 for 20 from the field for 3 points.

Giannis, Middleton, and Portis are 25 for 47

The rest of the team is 6 for 33.

If Jordan Nwora plays at the level of good G league player they win tonight.

1 for 11. 3 points in the 31 minutes with terrible defense.

Trade him for a second-round pick if you can get it. Just an embarrassing performance.

I just don’t get the scheduling at all.  BTB on the road and it’s early is pretty much a recipe to lose.  

@Tschmack posted:

I just don’t get the scheduling at all.  BTB on the road and it’s early is pretty much a recipe to lose.  

With the home team having two days off before. It's just idiotic.

The weird thing was the guys who play big minutes produced and the guys that should have been more rested were beyond awful.

Giannis, Middleton, and Portis were outstanding

29 for 54 from the floor, 8 for 15 from three, 23 for 25 from the line. 89 points, 35 rebounds.

Mamu and Matthews were at least serviceable

5 for 14 from the floor, 3 for 9 from three, 4 rebounds. 13 points in 45 total minutes.

Nwora, Hood, Galloway, and Ojeleye.

1 for 22 from the floor, 1 for 13 from three. 3 POINTS IN 78 total minutes.

In particular, Nwora has been maddening to watch.  He’s capable of having huge games like he did against New Orleans, then he basically goes 0-fer against Charlotte.  

@Tschmack posted:

In particular, Nwora has been maddening to watch.  He’s capable of having huge games like he did against New Orleans, then he basically goes 0-fer against Charlotte.  

A lot of similarities to Bryn Forbes last year (and a lot of other NBA players for that matter). Other than the Miami series last year, Forbes was the master of going something like 3 for 4 from deep in the 4th quarter of a game the Bucks were up comfortably in. Even in the Miami series, he'd get hot when the Bucks were already ahead. He put the Heat away, but they were fairly low-pressure shots.

Nwora played well earlier in the Pelicans game, but then scored another 9 points in the last 2:30 by hitting every open shot he had. When the pressure's off, he looks like Steph Curry.

A lot of NBA guys are great shooters in practice and in low-pressure situations, but as soon as things get tight or the stage gets bigger they tighten up.

Despite what some posters on this forum will say, Middleton is the example of the opposite. He's a good shooter, but is prone to stretches where he struggles. But he gets better in the clutch. Middleton hit clutch shots in the playoffs last year that reminded you of someone like Durant (obviously he's not on Durant's level, but he rose to the moment).

Holiday is another example. He was putrid in the Nets series and in particular the first 43 minutes of Game 7. Then, after a 2 for 17 start to the game, he hit some of the biggest shots in Bucks history to bring them back.

Some of it's getting the reps, but a lot of it is the ability to play smoothly under pressure and some guys just don't have it. Maybe it's just that some guys aren't afraid to take the shot and fail while others would rather not be "the guy"

Middleton, Holiday, Sam Cassell, Ray Allen, and Giannis (at least in the Finals) have it. Eric Bledsoe, Mirotic, etc. don't and wilt. That ability is why Bobby Portis was out there hitting shots in the Finals while Mirotic had to be benched two years before that in the playoffs. (Interestingly, Portis got a bad reputation in large part because he punched out Mirotic in practice when they were both with the Bulls).

I don't think Nwora has "it" yet and I'm not convinced he ever will. He's a guy that seems more of a fit to average 20 points a game playing on a lousy team than averaging 10 or 12 hitting open shots on a playoff team.

It’s not like Nwora has had a ton of time to prove himself.  IMO, that’s different than guys like Forbes and Bledsoe or Mirotic.   The good news is you see what he’s capable of doing.  The bad news is for all intents and purposes he’s unproven and unreliable.  

The NBA is in such a weird place with their schedule and COVID19 and load management that it’s hard to assess game by game or week by week because every night you see outcomes that make no sense.  The Suns got blown out at home by Miami and Indiana worked over Utah.  Not exactly two games you’d think would end up that way.

This is why I’m not getting overly excited about the regular season.  You just need to ride the waves and handle the ups and downs as best as you can until playoff time.  And hope that one of their Big 3 doesn’t miss a significant amount of time.

We see what this team can do when (relatively) healthy and motivated.  They are a tough out and they have the best and hardest working player not named KD on the the face of the planet.  They also have confidence knowing they can win it all.  

Certainly, every one of their foes in the East have question marks.  In the West, Phoenix and Utah and GS look really good but until he proves it I can’t trust Chris Paul.  Utah needs to show their style of play can win in the playoffs.  And Golden State would have an interesting time matching up against the Bucks and all the defenders Milwaukee could throw at them. In the end, that’s why I still like the Bucks over any other team.

Holiday is out of protocols, but still out tonight. Hill, DDV, and Allen also remain out. Connaughton is questionable.

26-16 and about to face the Warriors next. Curry might score 60 if all 5 guards remain out.

Start of Game 2 -Bucks go up 17-10, bring in DDV, and give up an 8-0 run. DDV with 2 badly missed threes and a bad turnover.

Bucks again giving L. Galloway minutes over J. Smart. They both suck, but why even have Smart on the roster at this point? Get him to Oshkosh and let him get some reps.

Now 16-0 run. DDV misses another three that leads to a breakout 3 at the other end. Connaughton misses a couple as well.

DDV with ANOTHER turnover that leads to a transition three.

Get DDV OUT NOW.

The Bucks may have just lost this game. An 18-2 run to end the quarter.

Embarrassing, but that's what you get when you have to play shit like Galloway, Mamu, and Hood, and DDV absolutely shits the bed. You can't play a worse 5 minutes than DDV just did. He was -16 in 6 minutes, and that captures how bad he was. If you extrapolated his performance to 36 minutes he'd go 0 for 18 with 12 turnovers, and he got lit up by Rozier.

And almost on cue, Nwora gets beaten for multiple offensive rebounds.

Really dumb turnovers by a bunch of guys tonight. They are really missing not having a real point guard (Holiday or G. Hill).

Get Mamu out. Once teams get a chance to scout guys like him he's helpless

Bucks playing crappy again, but the Hornets banking in a bunch of shots.

Bucks about to lose contact. About to go down 7.

Middleton cannot play point guard. The fact he has to is an indictment of DDV,

Hornets went on an 18-2 run when Giannis sat in the 1st and a 13-2 run when Giannis sat in the 3rd.

Now Hornets are up 12.

Down 15 and Giannis starting to clank FTs.

Bucks down 9 going to the 4th. Nwora's played well, but very few others have.

DDV just f'd up again by fouling a 3 point shooter. Just stupid. He's 0 for 7 with two turnovers and given up 6 FTs buy fouling 3 point shooters twice.

The Bucks are probably going to lose this game because Connaughton, DDV, and Galloway are 0 for 16 and 14 of those were open 3s. Giannis has 8 assists, but he probably should have about 6 more.

Giannis airballs a fadeaway shot against a guy with 5 fouls.

That was an absolute embarrassment. Bucks are now tied for 5th in the East in terms of losses.

I don't ever want to see Nwora on the court in crunch time again.

Good thing they retained that "Flexibility" by waving Demarcus Cousins. Mamu is unplayable and they would have probably won at least one of these games had they waived Ojeleye for the flexibility. It was just some billionaires wanting to save money.

DDV can eat shit

0-8 really? He’s been utterly useless for a year now

The bench was 3 for 23 tonight after going 2 for 15 on Saturday.

5 for 38 from your bench in a two-game series is about as bad as it gets. Mamu was 3 for 8, so the backup guards and wings were 2 for 30 off the bench.

@Tschmack posted:

DDV can eat shit

0-8 really? He’s been utterly useless for a year now

He's just not consistent enough on offense to play in crunch time in the playoffs. I'd rather have him out than Nwora. Nwora looked good in the box score tonight but he couldn't even execute brining the ball up in the 4th quarter and he was a turnstile on defense.

I'd love to see them move him and DDV for a rotation piece you could use in the playoffs, but I'm not sure Grayson Allen is much better. I wouldn't trust any of those guys in a playoff series. They are lucky they have Matthews back, but they need another guy.

There are rumors they are interested in Haliburton from the Kings, but I can't imagine the Kings would anything the Bucks would have to offer.

To me, ideally a guy like DDV coming back from a mess of injuries, he’d play in the G league for a month just to get back in real true game level condition.  I think he probably can play well again, but working the kinks out at the NBA level is hurting the team right now.

With both DDV and Grayson Allen playing like garbage, the 2 guard position is in bad shape right now.

@fightphoe93 posted:

To me, ideally a guy like DDV coming back from a mess of injuries, he’d play in the G league for a month just to get back in real true game level condition.  I think he probably can play well again, but working the kinks out at the NBA level is hurting the team right now.

With both DDV and Grayson Allen playing like garbage, the 2 guard position is in bad shape right now.

There is lot of chatter about them scouting the Kings heavily and some rumors about Haliburton being their target.

I just don't know what they have to offer that anyone would want.

Giannis, Middleton, Holiday, Portis, and Connaughton are untouchable (the latter two might have two of the best contracts in the NBA for their production). Wes Matthews isn't going anywhere with that bargain contract (and neither is George Hill). Because of his contract and his health, Lopez isn't going anywhere until next year (when his expiring contract in 2024 would have some value)

Mamu, Ojeleye, Hood, J. Smart, and Thanasis (also untouchable) don't even have big enough contracts to be filler in any meaningful trade and no one would want them anyway.

So, it's some combination of DDV, G. Allen, and Nwora. If you all three of those guys you can take back somewhere between 10 and 13 million in a trade if you throw in some filler like Ojeleye or Hood. But doesn't anyone really want those guys? Maybe if you move Lopez too and take back a bad longer-term contract along with someone you want?

G. Allen doesn't play good enough defense to get big playoff minutes (think the Bryn Forbes minutes is his role). Nwora showed last night who he was. He can make some shots in most games, but his defense is like a turnstile and he can't handle the ball well enough to survive playoff defense.

DDV is the guy that maybe some other team thinks can get more out of. He's a good rebounder and a good defender, but his typical game involves multiple plays where he'll look like an all-star driving to the rim with some great moves and then end up blowing the layup when even mildly challenged. He just can't finish consistently and he can't handle the ball well enough to trust him to do so.