Dame hot to begin. Bucks up 34-26
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Bucks up 38-30 after one. It was 16 at one time.
Mostly Dame going off for 18 in the first even though he went 3 for 6 from the line.
Still up 9 in the second, but how long do we have to watch Connaughton get roasted ?
Bucks now trail even with Giannis and Dame going off. They just aren't very good outside their top 2.
Bucks up 1 at the half.
Giannis with 17-5-5 on 8 for 12 from the floor.
Dame with 26-3-6 on 7 for 10 from three.
Bucks down 3 going to the 4th. Dame and Giannis playing about as well as they can. Prince has been good. Portis has played hard. Lopez and Trent Jr. have been awful - 1 for 11 from the floor.
Bucks about to lose contact. My god, their bench is just unbelievably terrible. After Portis, it's like a bad G league team.
Cavs on a 7-0 run as the Bucks give up multiple wide open layups to start the 4th. It looks like they can't even play basic defense.
Yikes. Glad I have the IOWA game to watch instead!
Doc Rivers had Giannis playing with Jackson Jr., Prince, Trent Jr., and Wright? He truly is an idiot as they fall farther behind.
@MichiganPacker2 posted:Doc Rivers had Giannis playing with Jackson Jr., Prince, Trent Jr., and Wright? He truly is an idiot as they fall farther behind.
Showcasing him
Bucks getting outhustled at the end here. Giannis with an unfortunately common half-ass boxout.
Bucks lose as Mitchell hits a shot with 0.3 seconds left to win by 1.
Bad teams lose games like this. The Bucks are just a bad team at 1-5.
Trent Jr. finishes the game 1 for 10 and has Mitchell hit the game winner in his face.
Jackson Jr., Connaughton, Wright, Beauchamp, Green, Rollins, Smith, Robbins.
That might be the worst set of 8 guys on any NBA roster.
I never thought I'd long for Thanasis. He was better than some of those guys.
It sucks they lost like they did but I was happy to see that they played hard through the whole game. Especially Lillard. A better bench past Portis and the Bucks probably walk away with a win. Oh well. At least they showed signs of life. I'll take it.
The fact that Dame and Giannis played well and they still lost indicates the state of this team.
Giannis is averaging like 30 and 12 to start the year.
All that matters is they are 1-5.
They can’t really make any moves to improve because they’ve traded away all their picks and given their cap situation that hampers them even more.
I never would have imagined 3 years removed from a title that they should blow it up but the current NBA model isn’t structured to sustain long term success.
So, I think it’s time to really consider dealing Dame and Giannis and anyone else they can.
San Antonio and Utah and OKC have a crapload of picks and Giannis alone should net you 4-5+ 1st rounders and a couple of players. Hell, the Knicks gave up that much draft capital alone for Mikal Bridges and he’s maybe 3/4 the impact player that Giannis is. I heard an OKC and SA rumor of 7 picks and maybe a player or two for just Giannis.
Dame won’t net you nearly as much but if you said Dame for Herro and Duncan Robinson and a couple of picks to Miami I make that move as well. Or look at the Lakers for a couple of players and picks.
After next year, Middleton and Pat C and Portis come off the books and Lopez is done after this year. Lopez may have some trade value this year with his expiring contract and Portis has a very cap friendly deal so it’s possible they could get some draft capital there as well.
You move Dame and Giannis and Lopez and Portis and it’s entirely possible they restock their war chest for down the road because the reality is for at least the next couple of years no one is beating Boston out of the East.
@Tschmack posted:The fact that Dame and Giannis played well and they still lost indicates the state of this team.
Giannis is averaging like 30 and 12 to start the year.
All that matters is they are 1-5.
They can’t really make any moves to improve because they’ve traded away all their picks and given their cap situation that hampers them even more.
I never would have imagined 3 years removed from a title that they should blow it up but the current NBA model isn’t structured to sustain long term success.
So, I think it’s time to really consider dealing Dame and Giannis and anyone else they can.
San Antonio and Utah and OKC have a crapload of picks and Giannis alone should net you 4-5+ 1st rounders and a couple of players. Hell, the Knicks gave up that much draft capital alone for Mikal Bridges and he’s maybe 3/4 the impact player that Giannis is. I heard an OKC and SA rumor of 7 picks and maybe a player or two for just Giannis.
Dame won’t net you nearly as much but if you said Dame for Herro and Duncan Robinson and a couple of picks to Miami I make that move as well. Or look at the Lakers for a couple of players and picks.
After next year, Middleton and Pat C and Portis come off the books and Lopez is done after this year. Lopez may have some trade value this year with his expiring contract and Portis has a very cap friendly deal so it’s possible they could get some draft capital there as well.
You move Dame and Giannis and Lopez and Portis and it’s entirely possible they restock their war chest for down the road because the reality is for at least the next couple of years no one is beating Boston out of the East.
Dame and Giannis both played well. If they both play remotely close to that well against the Bulls and Nets earlier (really meaning Dame would have played well), the Bucks are 3-3 instead of 1-5 (soon to be 1-6 with a loss at Cleveland on Monday).
An unknown in all this is Middleton. It leaked out a couple of months ago he had surgery on both ankles, but that he'd be ready near the start of the season. At this rate, it could be February before he can play a full game. They have 2.5 guys that can generate offense on their own. Dame, Giannis, and Portis if you feed him on the block. Everyone else is well below average. Opposing teams must laugh when they see the Bucks have Connaughton run the offense (which Doc tried to do a few times earlier this year). Jackson Jr. can create, but the fact he acts like Ben Simmons (a couple of times yesterday he was under the basket by himself and threw the ball back outside) prevents him from fully effective.
The East is way better and deeper than I think a lot of people imagined.
Cleveland and Orlando and Indiana are all young and talented and on the rise. Boston and NYK aren’t going anywhere. If Philly gets healthy they should be decent. Miami needs to make a move or two but could very well be in the mix also.
Milwaukee’s issue is their 3 best players are all old - or are declining - including Giannis. Even Philly has a guy like Maxey that’s younger. The Bucks don’t have that type of guy.
Which is why I’m more of the belief they need to hit the reset button. The more time marches on the less Giannis and Dame will be worth in terms of trade value.
@Tschmack posted:The East is way better and deeper than I think a lot of people imagined.
Cleveland and Orlando and Indiana are all young and talented and on the rise. Boston and NYK aren’t going anywhere. If Philly gets healthy they should be decent. Miami needs to make a move or two but could very well be in the mix also.
Milwaukee’s issue is their 3 best players are all old - or are declining - including Giannis. Even Philly has a guy like Maxey that’s younger. The Bucks don’t have that type of guy.
Which is why I’m more of the belief they need to hit the reset button. The more time marches on the less Giannis and Dame will be worth in terms of trade value.
Miami relies on a 35 year old Jimmy Butler. I don't see them as a real title threat.
The Bucks problem isn't just that there top 3 guys are old. Everyone on the roster is old. Everyone of their rotation players other than Trent will be over 30 by the end of the year. Their 4th best player is a Lopez and he'll be 37 before the end of the season. Delon Wright will be 33 by the playoffs (if they make it). Connaughton will be 32 and he's been a net negative for 2 years now. Taurean Prince is 31. Portis turns 30 in January. The only guy younger than 30 are Trent Jr. (26 this season).
Bud was a much better coach than Doc, but neither one is known for developing younger players. Bud turned around the team in 2018 by going out and getting a couple of veterans that fit the system (Lopez and a young Connaughton) and then Bud or Horst trading away almost every young asset they had for Holiday and then Lillard.
It’s why I think they have to make a move or moves. This team as currently constructed isn’t a real threat with or without Middleton.
Assuming everyone was healthy I could see them winning a playoff series and ironically they are probably the one team that’s best suited to take down Philly. The problem is even though the pace slows down and teams shorten their bench in the postseason the Bucks have some glaring weaknesses. Their defensive rebounding and transition defense isn’t good at all. They turn the ball over way too much and when outside shots aren’t falling they don’t seem talented or disciplined enough to make the extra pass or play unselfish.
Lillard would seem like the obvious guy to move but I don’t think they can fix their age and athleticism issue with just one move.