Thought this deserved its own post.
The Bucks have the longest title contention window in the league - at least 3 more years of Giannis, Middleton, and Holiday.
Bucks owners ponied up. That's about 600 million total for those 3 guys.
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Who says the Bucks don’t have a super team?
This is fantastic news for Milwaukee and not so fantastic news for the rest of the league.
You know damn well a team like Miami or Toronto or LAL or Clippers would have gone after him big time given the fact Giannis was taken off the market already.
And thank you New Orleans for basically giving the guy away. Go back to when this deal was made and the experts were mocking the Bucks for how much they gave up. I said back then assuming he extends with the Bucks this is a steal for Milwaukee. Those draft picks likely won’t amount to shit because for the next 3-4 years the Bucks should be one of the best in the league.
in the end, much like David Stearns with the Brewers, Jon Horst seems to get the last laugh.
Quite frankly, Jrue Holiday is my favorite Bucks player. Tremendous signing.
The only team that is close to the Bucks when you look at who has the best top 3 players is the Nets. The Nets might have the best offensive top 3 in NBA history, but the Bucks top 3 actually play defense (and two of them are among the best defensive in the NBA).
Now they have 3 top 20 players in their primes for the next 4 years. The ownership and Horst upheld their commitment to the city, the fans, and their star to compete at the highest level.
If they can get legit NBA players out of Nwora, Diakite, and/or Merrill, that will be a huge development for this franchise. They’re going to need to do some development to avoid having to pay for FAs.
The signing also increases the odds that vets will want to come to Milwaukee (at a discount) to chase a ring. I agree they need guys like Nwora to develop and contribute, but Milwaukee has all of a sudden become a very popular destination if winning is important to you.
Look no further than Bobby Portis and PJ Tucker. They had numerous other options.
The Nets are similar to OKC when they had Westbrook, KD, and Harden. Or GS with Klay, Steph, and KD. The difference is both the Warriors and Thunder were much better defensively. As dangerous as Brooklyn is, as a team they are average at best defensively.
On the other hand, the Bucks have two elite level defenders in Giannis and Holiday, and Middleton, Tucker, and DDV are plus level defenders as well. Lopez is an elite rim protector.
It’s going to be fascinating to see how the East plays out as the top 4 teams (Miami as #4) are all capable of winning the conference. It’s going to boil down to who stays healthy and who hits their shots. The matchups will matter as well. Miami probably matches up best with the Bucks but I’m not sure they have enough firepower to beat the Bucks in a long series.