Milwaukee Bucks 2017 - 2018

[LouisEly]

Over his last five games, Henson is 27-35 (77%) from the floor. Over his last nine games, 46-63 (73%). I don't know that I've ever seen that type of shooting % over that long of a stretch from anyone.

[Baldkin]

Over his last five games, Henson is 27-35 (77%) from the floor. Over his last nine games, 46-63 (73%). I don't know that I've ever seen that type of shooting % over that long of a stretch from anyone.

 

I mean, DeAndre Jordan shot 72% from the floor for the season last year on 7.1 attempt a game.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Over his last five games, Henson is 27-35 (77%) from the floor. Over his last nine games, 46-63 (73%). I don't know that I've ever seen that type of shooting % over that long of a stretch from anyone.

 

I mean, DeAndre Jordan shot 72% from the floor for the season last year on 7.1 attempt a game.

 

Doesn't DeAndre Jordan only dunk? That's actually not that impressive.

[CheezWizHed]

Giannis is leading the All-Star vote!

 

1. Giannis Antetokounmpo (863,416)

2. LeBron James (856,080)

3. Kyrie Irving (802,834)

4. Kevin Durant (767,402)

5. Steph Curry (735,115)

6. James Harden (602,040)

7. Russell Westbrook (438,469)

8. Joel Embiid (433,161)

9. Anthony Davis (393,000)

10. Kristaps Porzingis (359,459)

11. Klay Thompson (359,442)

12. DeMarcus Cousins (356,340)

13. Draymond Green (325,612)

14. Paul George (291,495)

15. DeMar DeRozan (259,368)

 

Its a good thing he isn't a write in candidate... no way I could spell it correctly without looking.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I can't wait for Matthew dellavedova to not be a buck anymore. There's a big gap between being a hard-nosed physical player and just being a dirty player and he's a dirty player. He's also not a very good player and those two combined make me hate him and hate the fact that he's on the bucks.

[tmwiese55]

I can't wait for Jason Kidd to not be the coach anymore. Never thought I'd be the type of fan rooting for losing, but that's where I am right now.

[FVBrewerFan]

I can't wait for Jason Kidd to not be the coach anymore. Never thought I'd be the type of fan rooting for losing, but that's where I am right now.

 

He's trying to win games without a true center, and only two big men on the entire roster- including one who isn't close to being a finished product yet. Then they have 4 PGs (if you include Payton) and about 26 SG vying for playing time. That makes it tough to win games, it also makes it tough to make everyone happy. Jabari coming back may help in one way, but takes minutes away from others.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think they need to move on from Jason Kidd too. But, as usual, he isn't completely to blame.

[tmwiese55]

Except he's had more of a hand in this roster construction than anyone left in management, so that's on him too.

 

But yea, I agree and have no idea why they have 9 guards sit on the bench while they have such a glaring need for a 3rd big with some bulk to him. What are they waiting for to bring in a big, and i don't mean some swing big trade has to happen now. Just a D league or scrap heap pickup with some thickness to take Thon's minutes would be a boost. That said, a coaching move that we've all been waiting for with that big guy issue is to unleash Giannis at the 5 for 5-7 mins a game. The D is getting torched anyway, just try to outscore teams. And I know you can't have Giannis play the 5 for 25 mins a night, but another few mins to reduce how much Thon has to play can only help. Thon is a complete trainwreck, so anything to reduce his time on the court helps. We'll see if he finally tries this once Jabari is back.

 

essentially the team is the same it's been the last 3 years in spite of having the best talent it's had since 2001. In the last 3 years Giannis has progressed to top 5 player in the world and you added a legit PG. Yet the record is the same and the D still gets torched every night, in spite of Giannis being amazing on D and Bledsoe being pretty good on D. You have a great PnR PG now and the best slasher/finisher in the league, yet you run almost no ball screens with Giannis/Bledsoe. It's still high post feeds to the bigs or backdown ISOs like it's 1998. And the D system is just a joke.

[FVBrewerFan]

Can't disagree with any of that, and didn't mean it make it sound as though I'm defending Kidd. We don't know how much of a voice he's had in the roster construction, but I'm pretty sure it's not his idea to have only two big men- one mediocre and one bad.

 

That said, Kidd is horrible. I am alarmed that they almost never have ball screens for Giannis. They don't work the offense to get open looks from their 3P shooters as every other team seems to do. All too often it's Giannis or Middleton in ISO. Ridiculous.

 

And the defense, don't get me started. The league has figured out the Bucks defense like two years ago. Draw the double, then kick it around the perimeter for a wide open corner 3.

[GAME05]

One thing I didn't like when Kidd was hired is that he's got money invested with the owner and they already had a friendly relationship. But that only means when it comes time to fire the coach, it likely delays things a year or two just because of that relationship, or the owner thinks of the money he'd lose if Kidd got fired and then pulled his money out.

 

Sure Kidd doesn't really have a big man on the team, but he used to with Monroe and the team wasn't any better. And while Monroe wasn't the ideal type of center, few teams have ideal players at every position. I can't excuse a coach for not being able to manage around that since that's a coach's job in the first place.

 

Not only should they be better this year, but they're at about max payroll right now with Parker due a small raise and none of the bad contracts coming off the books. It seems like you could peg this team for having the exact same roster next year. There's only so much better Giannis can get and he's 100% carrying this team to begin with.

[tmwiese55]

Well said, GAME.

 

I'd add that PArker's raise will be more than small. If he was willing to take a team friendly deal they'd have done it before the deadline, he's trying to get 100mil or more if he stays healthy this year.

 

What's killing their depth is missing on 3 straight #1 picks. And all reports/leaks indicate Kidd was key in drafting Vaughn and Thon. Supposedly not so much in Wilson this year. But obviously that's all speculation.

 

Think of how much this team has invested in the 5 position to have nothing to show for it. Sanders #1 pick and subsequent contract. Henson #1 pick and contract. Plumlee contract. Monroe contract (of course led to Bledsoe at least, but he didn't exactly pan out when here overall). Thon #1 pick. Nothing to show for it besides Henson has at least been competent this year.

[superfly]

"Defense keeps getting torched every night"

 

They're T-10 in the league in defense per NBA.com. Allowing less PPG than Golden State, Cleveland, Houston, three of the four representatives in the E/W conference finals this year. No they aren't regarded as defensive powerhouses, but all those teams do is win and/or win championships.

 

https://stats.nba.com/teams/defense/?sort=W&dir=-1

 

I know Kidd is vehemently disliked around here, and there are things I wish he'd do better too. Please do name a few coaches you think are better though that aren't named Poppovich or Brad Stevens. Lebron makes the coach wherever he goes and Kerr lives off the best team in decades. Most coaches in the NBA are a dime a dozen, it all comes down to the players he has.

 

I'm not sure what you expect out of this team on defense when you're playing a stick that can't shoot beyond 5 feet (Henson) 30 minutes a night that has not progressed very much in 5 years, and an EXTREMELY raw and new to the game Thon Maker 20 minutes a night. We are likely hoping DJ Wilson or Thon can become that lengthy big that can run the floor and contribute as a secondary piece to Giannis/Bledsoe/Parker in time. Whoop de doo Rashad Vaughn flopped, after the first 5 picks of any NBA draft it is a total crapshoot. They took a shot on a kid that is so young he's only 21 today, and it probably won't pan out.

 

This isn't 1999 anymore, defense is not a priority in this league until you get deep in the playoffs. It's all about who can shoot the 3 ball, scoring in general, and who shows up every night. We looked into Dwight Howard several times recently, looked at JaVale McGee and ZaZa for trade recently, and who knows what else. The bottom line is there just isn't much out there for quality bigs. The 76ers had to take 2 elite draft picks just to find one that would work...and they had to gamble on his injury history to boot. Not sure what you expect the Bucks to do when we have people to pay soon.

[tmwiese55]

They're not top 10 in the league on D. They're bottom 10. My best guess is you read that graph upside down my friend. The lower number the better for D rating. this one has them at 23. BBall reference has them at 25th. And it's been like this for three years now.

 

And no defense is still very important in the NBA. It's just much more difficult now due to the rules and offenses are so advanced (besides the Bucks iso offense) that they can just pick you apart if you're a mess like the Bucks. Modern offenses will just pick you apart if you're not on your game. The only team below them that is supposed to be a good team is the Cavs and no one denies their D is awful, the other teams below them are the worst teams in the league.

 

There has really never been more of an emphasis on defensive schemes/systems as there is now. In the past when the game was all one on one it simply came down to effort and stopping your guy, now you have to work together and have a plan. Of course though I'm not going to deny in the slogs of 82 games there is games and quarters where teams/players efforts just take a dip. No denying that. We're talking about schemes though. And yes scoring/pace is up which makes average joes think no D is being played, which we're not even talking about here. We're keeping it relevant by comparing to the rest of the league, and they're very bad going on 3 years now.

 

You're right thought that they have to get a respectable C to take thon's minutes, he gets killed every night. Tough not to blame Kidd though when he was responsible for picking Thon.

 

Also, I would name literally every coach in the NBA as being better than Jason Kidd. He is honestly starting to be talked about by national writers as the worst Xs and Os coach in the NBA.

[FVBrewerFan]

I'm not sure what you expect out of this team on defense when you're playing a stick that can't shoot beyond 5 feet (Henson) 30 minutes a night

 

Not sure what shooting from over 5 feet away has to do with defense?

[homer]

They're not top 10 in the league on D. They're bottom 10. My best guess is you read that graph upside down my friend. The lower number the better for D rating.

 

Chart was sorted by total wins. If you sort by DRtg you get a different story.

[tmwiese55]

They're not top 10 in the league on D. They're bottom 10. My best guess is you read that graph upside down my friend. The lower number the better for D rating.

 

Chart was sorted by total wins. If you sort by DRtg you get a different story.

 

Yea Drating is what I was going off and what I clicked on when I followed the link. I assumed that's what he meant since he said D. But yea what you just said could explain the top 10 too

[TURBO]

DJ Wilson was horrible in garbage time a couple nights ago. Dude looked absolutely lost on the court with real NBA players. Didn't like the pick when they drafted him, and still don't like it.

[FVBrewerFan]

DJ Wilson was horrible in garbage time a couple nights ago. Dude looked absolutely lost on the court with real NBA players. Didn't like the pick when they drafted him, and still don't like it.

 

Whenever I see him on the court I'm shocked by how small he looks. If he has a taller, lanky guy at least I would have hope he could turn into something.

[tmwiese55]

DJ Wilson was horrible in garbage time a couple nights ago. Dude looked absolutely lost on the court with real NBA players. Didn't like the pick when they drafted him, and still don't like it.

 

Yea this looks really bad. I had no opinion at the draft as I was all in on the Donovan Mitchell wagon at the time. But really just didn't know anything about DJ other than vs UW and the tourney run last year, so i went into the year with no opinion and willing to give time. But he looks like he has no chance. In the GLeague his rebounding numbers have been laughably bad too. I saw something totaling up minutes played by rookies (who haven't been hurt all year like a Fultz or Giles) and he was so far behind everyone else it was shocking. At the time he'd played like 30 mins and no one else had played less than like 400, obviously just best guess remembering but it was something of that nature. That's a really bad sign there that he can't even get on the floor.

[Baldkin]

DJ Wilson was horrible in garbage time a couple nights ago. Dude looked absolutely lost on the court with real NBA players. Didn't like the pick when they drafted him, and still don't like it.

 

Yea this looks really bad. I had no opinion at the draft as I was all in on the Donovan Mitchell wagon at the time. But really just didn't know anything about DJ other than vs UW and the tourney run last year, so i went into the year with no opinion and willing to give time. But he looks like he has no chance. In the GLeague his rebounding numbers have been laughably bad too. I saw something totaling up minutes played by rookies (who haven't been hurt all year like a Fultz or Giles) and he was so far behind everyone else it was shocking. At the time he'd played like 30 mins and no one else had played less than like 400, obviously just best guess remembering but it was something of that nature. That's a really bad sign there that he can't even get on the floor.

 

He can't get on the floor at their position where 2 guys are hurt and they are resorting to playing Middleton at the 4.

[GAME05]

Draymond Green said of the game last night that at the end of the 3rd and in the 4th Quarter the Bucks were just running the same play over and over again.

[adambr2]

Incredible that a team with a bonafide superstar and solid supporting cast is not only not near the team of their conference, but a possibility to miss the playoffs.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Incredible that a team with a bonafide superstar and solid supporting cast is not only not near the team of their conference, but a possibility to miss the playoffs.

 

John Henson isn't a starting caliber center, and they don't have a backup center, and they don't have a power forward at all. Their front court is super bad. Jabari Parker coming back probably doesn't help that all that much. We don't know how good he'll be when he comes back. It's one thing to have a superstar and say "carry our team", but to just not have a front court at all is so so stupid.

[adambr2]

Henson isn't the problem. He's actually been much better since Moose got traded than I expected.

 

Giannis IS a frontcourt player in his own right. Teams don't run through a center anymore.

 

It was the same story when Moose was here. Issues go beyond this. It's Kidd.

[tmwiese55]

Henson is a backup caliber C playing a few more mins than normal backups. Giannis is a 4 and one of the best 5 players in the world. Of course they have no depth there but the starting front court isn't the problem. If I remember correctly their starting lineup, or possibly the lineup with the starters except Brogdon in Snell's place is one of the best statistical lineups in the league. I am shocked they haven't brought in any thicker C to take thon's minutes, that simple addition should drastically help the team because Thon is absolutely terrible.

 

Still, this is the third year of this and they've remade the team and added players to the top of the roster several times, yet the results are the same. A middling record. The coach has to go.