Holiday and Lopez both out tonight, but they do get Portis back.
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@MichiganPacker2 posted:Holiday and Lopez both out tonight, but they do get Portis back.
Correction. Portis also now ruled out.
Uneven performance so far. Sloppy. Didn’t know Torrey Craig is playing in Indy now…
Bucks giving up some size without Lopez and Portis, and it’s showing. Still up 7.
When you win without Jrue, Brook, and Bobby any win under those circumstances is beautiful.
I can only imagine we’re going to see plenty of “rest” games for Middleton and Giannis once those other guys are healthy again. These guys had a short offseason and Bud is going to need to watch their minutes carefully to allow them to peak again in May and June.
Again, this team is really deep and really good. They have 7-8 guys that can score 20 points or more on any given night and defensively they are really strong.
It’s a long season so will need to pace their guys.
The biggest development is how good Nwora has been on defense. Nwora has a wingspan of almost 7 feet and he's a pretty solidly built guy. He had a couple of nice blocks last night and has been much better fighting through ball screens.
He's not a liability anymore out there. As well as he can create offense, he doesn't have to be Jrue Holiday on the perimeter, he just needs to hold his own and he's more than doing that right now.
Also, the fact that Horst got Grayson Allen for a guy they were going to probably release (Merrill) and two future second picks is impressive. He's not as good an onball defender as DDV, but he's going to provide you more consistent offense from the 3-point line and he's a much better finisher at the rim (where DDV has always struggled).
If you assume Giannis, Middleton, Holiday, and Lopez are #1-4, and Portis and Connaughton are #6 and #7 off the bench, as Tshmacks says the rest of the lineup is much better than last year, at least in the regular season. Replacing Tucker is always going to be the question come playoff time. By advance metrics, Tucker has been one of the worst regular-season players in the league since 2017 (he's had a single-digit PER the last three years). He provided nothing on offense other than some of the most awkward-looking set shots from 3 you'll ever see (he's made enough of them to say on the floor), cannot handle the ball at all, and is too short to finish at the rim. Tucker's value is that when the game slows down come playoff time, he basically just beats the crap out of whoever he's guarding and wears them down. Can Ojeleye and Thanasis do that enough to win? A lot of Tucker's ability is driven by the reputation he's established with the officials that allows him to be more physical than other guys.
If you’re deep enough, you can throw 18 fouls at Durant…
Tucker’s value was guarding Durant. I don’t want to suggest he was a liability against Atlanta and Phoenix, but he was not very effective against those two teams.
Semi O is a poor man’s Tucker and that’s OK because they got a lot better in the backcourt with Hill and Allen (versus Teague and Forbes).
The emergence of Nwora makes Semi and Hood less important although you can never have enough talent. If he can continue to give them meaningful minutes that’s a plus. If he can be at least be an average defender he will get his chances.
@Tschmack posted:
Tucker’s value was guarding Durant. I don’t want to suggest he was a liability against Atlanta and Phoenix, but he was not very effective against those two teams.
Semi O is a poor man’s Tucker and that’s OK because they got a lot better in the backcourt with Hill and Allen (versus Teague and Forbes).
The emergence of Nwora makes Semi and Hood less important although you can never have enough talent. If he can continue to give them meaningful minutes that’s a plus. If he can be at least be an average defender he will get his chances.
Tucker's value was guarding Durant specifically in a playoff series. I've attached this graph that I put into another thread recently, but Tucker is about average guarding Durant over the last 8 seasons. He's about as effective as Khris Middleton.
There are 4 guys that Durant has shot less than 40% against the last 8 seasons: Giannis, Trevor Ariza, Tayshaun Prince, and Wesley Johnson. There's a pretty big dropoff after those guys in terms of Durant's FG percentage going up. What do they have in common? While Ariza is 6'8, his wingspan is 7'2. Johnson was a limited offensive player and was 6'7", but his wingspan was also 7'1." You have to be quick enough to make Durant work to get around you or get position for a pullup, but then be able to get a hand in his face to challenge the shot. In other words, you have to have long arms. If you had to invent a defensive player from scratch to guard Durant, it would be Giannis (7'3" wingspan).
The next guys on that list to round out the top 10 are Tayshaun Prince and Anthony Davis (wingspans of 7'2 and 7'6). Following them are Danny Green (6'6 with a 6'10 wingspan), Paul George (6'11/6'11), Tony Allen (6'4" with a 6'9 wingspan and one of the best defensive players in NBA history), Rudy Gay (6'8 with a 7'3 wingspan), and finally, Jrue Holiday (6'3 and 6'7 - basically Tony Allen with the ability to play offense).
If you are a big guy that doesn't move their feet well enough, you are toast. If you are too short and can't challenge his jumper even if you are close, you are toast.
Tucker is effective on Durant (or Giannis, LeBron, etc.) not because he's going to shut them down during one game in a mid-January outing. He's effective because he's as strong as an ox and just puts a physical beating on you so that after 7 games over 2 weeks, you are worn down.
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Nwora, like Giannis, Middleton, Holiday and to some extent George Hill, have long arms and can disrupt shots and passing lanes because their reach is significant for their size. Holiday is unique because in addition to his reach he’s built like a 2 guard and won’t be bowled over by larger PGs. Giannis is just unique period.
Giannis is basically the modern day version of Magic but a much better athlete and possesses exceptional quickness. He’s more of a guard than a big. But like Durant, that’s what makes him so deadly and effective. Their body type and skills make it almost impossible to stop. The fact that we say those guys have an off game going 25/12 is incredible.
This is what makes Milwaukee such a threat. They really don’t have any holes in their lineup. They play tough, scrappy D and with their size can contest or challenge a lot of shots. They also dominate the glass. Lopez is a legit big. Adding Hill and Allen and Nwora (along with Middleton and Holiday) they have shooting and scoring as well. And then they have Swiss Army knife awesome chemistry guys like Portis and Pat C that are good on both ends of the floor. Semi and Hood and DDV and Thanasis are icing on the cake specialty guys.
@Tschmack posted:Giannis is basically the modern day version of Magic but a much better athlete and possesses exceptional quickness. He’s more of a guard than a big. But like Durant, that’s what makes him so deadly and effective. Their body type and skills make it almost impossible to stop. The fact that we say those guys have an off game going 25/12 is incredible.
I still think the best comparison for Giannis is that he's a 7-foot version of Sidney Moncrief. Moncrief was one of the best defensive players in NBA history, a terrific finisher at the rim, an outstanding rebounder for a guy that was 6'3", and a so-so shooter. He was a much better FT shooter than Giannis, but wasn't that much of a threat from outside. Moncrief is in the HOF and if he had played in NY or LA would be on the top 75 all-time list. He was a better player than Dame Lillard is and if Reggie Miller hadn't have gotten into a high-profile, made-for-TV moment with Spike Lee, he would have ranked higher than Reggie Miller as well.
Giannis does everything Moncrief did but is 9 inches taller.