Bulls at Bucks on New Year's Day

No one wathcing tonight.

Giannis ends with 29-12-8 despite being 10 for 18 from the line.

Now 38 for 63 from the line for the year

I watched portions of the game.  Tough to get excited about an early season game v the Bulls.  

Good to see them bounce back a bit from the Heat loss.  Didn’t think they would win by 30 but that’s sort of the way the season has gone so far.  2 against Detroit coming up.

All things being equal, they’re not playing too bad for a team with half the roster turned over. Getting beaten by Miami in a game the starters shoot 15-55 because they were on the second night of a BTB isn’t horrible, and they got beat on opening night by a lucky step-back 3 with Giannis in Tatum’s face. They’d be 4-2 without that Boston loss.

The fact that they’re having these monster offensive outbursts says something about what is possible when they get used to each other, as well as the way Holiday flips the script. They’re now a top 3 point shooting team.

Their defensive struggles in the Knicks game were related to the poor shooting, something that resurfaced in the second Miami game. Bad shooting usually leads to easy offense.

The thing that is jumping out to me is the identity crisis that is Giannis right now. He’s totally inside his head shooting the ball. He doesn’t know what he wants to do with the ball once he has it. He’s trying not to default to pound it right at them, but that then is making him indecisive when he has the ball. His comfort zone is not there anymore- and so now he’s a player without an identity on offense. That’s not a great thing... and it’s a weakness teams will be happy to exploit. It’s showing up on the free throw line, too.

Defensively he is clearly not playing as hard. Maybe related to the “get in shape” comments he’s made, but he’s not nearly as aggressive. I suspect this is by design. He’s not trying to be the 30 minute, balls to the wall player he has been. He wants to be the 38 minute, there at the end of the game guy that helps them win a championship. And you’ll see him flip the intensity switch around the last month of the season.

Music - I agree with you on the indecisiveness. It's almost like he catches the ball and stops to think "OK, what did we talk about how I should approach this situation in practice yesterday"

He did show a nice jump hook yesterday. I like that a lot better than the fadeaway baseline jumper every time.

He has to get better on the FTs. We are almost at Hack-a-Shaq time at this point.

Other than DDV and Holliday at times I haven’t seen the defensive effort and intensity from this team.  Clearly Augustin and Forbes don’t play much D and Portis is more of a disruptive force than a defensive  force.  Hopefully Torrey Craig gets back soon as he can help stem the tide once the opposing shooters get going.  

I think the Bucks will be OK but it just shows how good this team can be considering Giannis is playing at a B or B+ level instead of the A level we are used to seeing from him.  The good news is Middleton and DDV have taken a step forward and Holiday is as good as advertised.  

@MichiganPacker2 posted:

Now 38 for 63 from the line for the year

That is ridiculous. He needs to work on that part of his game. Big time. He should be no worse than 75%

Aim for the square on the backboard & Harvey catchings those FT's in. FT's ain't that hard. $250 trillion a year he needs to improve.

I never understood why nobody has ever followed up the Rick Barry style. Some guys with really big hands have trouble shooting FTs because they they palm the ball up instead of spinning it off the stem with their index finger to get the optimal backspin (which I was taught by someone at a Dick Bennett camp years ago). Durant has very small hands for a 7 footer which probably explains part of his shooting skill (he has trouble palming a basketball).

The granny-style FT will work for anyone, If you just get it on the rim it has a very high chance of bouncing in, you almost never have too little arc, and it's very repeatable.

These guys will say they don't want to do it because they'll be made fun of, but I'd rather make 80% doing that than shoot 55% the normal way.

@Boris posted:

That is ridiculous. He needs to work on that part of his game. Big time. He should be no worse than 75%

Aim for the square on the backboard & Harvey catchings those FT's in. FT's ain't that hard. $250 trillion a year he needs to improve.

That’s just it- I think he does. I think he might even do too much.

Personally, I think he’s getting bad advice. His routine at the line takes too long, and from the moment he’s done with his dribbles until he starts the shooting motion, he holds the ball too long. It's not a natural flow. Whether you’re shooting a FT or a jump shot, it has to feel the same because muscle memory is how you’re generating the form. And even if it is not textbook- if it’s repeatable, it succeeds.

That’s why he short arms it and it’s why I think he has gone from 75% to 50% in his time in the NBA. He holds the ball there and thinks about it- I’ve been shooting a basketball for 40 years and know that the more you think about what you’re doing the greater the chance you’re going to miss. It’s the golf analogy I’ve been using- the harder you try the worse it gets. And like Jim Furyk or Shawn Marion, or Bill Cartwright- as long as you can repeat it you’ll make a lot more than you miss.

@Boris posted:

That is ridiculous. He needs to work on that part of his game. Big time. He should be no worse than 75%

Aim for the square on the backboard & Harvey catchings those FT's in. FT's ain't that hard. $250 trillion a year he needs to improve.

Probably the most frustrating thing about it.... he works incredibly hard but still gets poor results.  As Music City pointed out he almost tries TOO hard to concentrate when shooting FTs to the point that it isn't a free flowing motion.

He overthinks it so much that he tenses up at the line and it causes misses.  That is going to be a tough thing for him to work through as he clearly mentally is in a funk when it comes to that part of his game.