Milwaukee Bucks 2018 - 2019

[DuWayne Steurer]

The Bucks scored 144 on Sacramento today. They are good.

 

8 guys in double figures. 56 attempted threes. Talk about chucking it up there.

[Outlander]

So we have him for 4 more seasons, counting this one?

 

That is pretty far out to worry about now imo.

3, including this one.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

This flies in the face of national media reports, but I believe Giannis will sign his next big deal with the Bucks. When that comes due the Warriors will likely be starting to fall apart. Some competitive balance will be restored and the Bucks will have a few playoff runs under their belt. Athletes blow smoke all the time but I just have a gut feeling he is not going to bolt for the Knicks or something.

[FVBrewerFan]

This flies in the face of national media reports, but I believe Giannis will sign his next big deal with the Bucks. When that comes due the Warriors will likely be starting to fall apart. Some competitive balance will be restored and the Bucks will have a few playoff runs under their belt. Athletes blow smoke all the time but I just have a gut feeling he is not going to bolt for the Knicks or something.

 

Giannis has always said he's loyal and wants to stay with the Bucks for his entire career. Athletes say that all the time, but Giannis is a very genuine person. He has already extended his contract once instead of becoming a FA.

 

Yea, the lure of NY, LA, etc. doesn't mean anything to him. If they get terrible, sure I could see him looking around. Especially if he can be part of a "big 3" somewhere and has reason to believe the Bucks are regressing. That's a long shot though, because with him around it will be tough for the Bucks to be a bad team.

[TURBO]

clunker of a game last night.

[homer]

Portland couldn't miss....particularly from mid range. One of those games...

[lcbj68c]

Why can't the Bucks defend the 3? Opponents are just camping out beyond the arc without a defender within 3 steps. I just roll my eyes and they pour them in.

[superfly]

Bucks have been toying with the Warriors....man this is fun. (yes i'm sure GS will make a run in the 4th)

[DuWayne Steurer]

That was never really a game. Granted, the warriors were without green, and then without curry in the 4th quarter, but even so the Bucs just really had their way all night long.

[trwi7]

That was never really a game. Granted, the warriors were without green, and then without curry in the 4th quarter, but even so the Bucs just really had their way all night long.

 

Warriors top 3 players played 90 minutes. Bucks played 81. Yeah Curry was out but they were getting steamrolled when Curry played too. Green being out was pretty big though.

 

I love how we can get our top guys rest though. Last year Giannis was tied for 2nd and Middleton was tied for 6th in most minutes played per game. This year Giannis is tied for 58th and Middleton is 66th. Part of that is we're just blowing out teams and that probably won't continue at the pace it has so far but having the ability to just take teams out at a pace that wouldn't have been possible last year and allowing our top players to rest is huge for the close games where we'll actually need them for 36-40 minutes.

[KeithStone53151]

That was never really a game. Granted, the warriors were without green, and then without curry in the 4th quarter, but even so the Bucs just really had their way all night long.

 

Warriors top 3 players played 90 minutes. Bucks played 81. Yeah Curry was out but they were getting steamrolled when Curry played too. Green being out was pretty big though.

 

I love how we can get our top guys rest though. Last year Giannis was tied for 2nd and Middleton was tied for 6th in most minutes played per game. This year Giannis is tied for 58th and Middleton is 66th. Part of that is we're just blowing out teams and that probably won't continue at the pace it has so far but having the ability to just take teams out at a pace that wouldn't have been possible last year and allowing our top players to rest is huge for the close games where we'll actually need them for 36-40 minutes.

 

Maybe, maybe not. It's not like we are facing the Cleveland Browns of the NBA over and over again. We've beaten good teams by substantial margins. Maybe the Bucks are just that good this year. Lopez seems to have really taken this team to another level.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Yeah they've played the Sixers, the Raptors, the Warriors, the Celtics, they played a lot of good teams already. Bud has done an excellent job of rotational minute sharing, and really just, I don't know, spreads the minutes out much better than kidd ever did. It helps that he's got a bit more Talent than they had last year of course. Snell not playing 30 minutes a game doesn't feel like a huge liability out there, Divincenzo is already contributing quite a bit, Lopez and Ersan, a couple of bigs that can shoot and help space the floor properly, we're really seeing how huge that is in the context of the way bud wants them to play. This team can go far

[JohnBriggs12]

Always overlooked on the Bucks is John Henson. Henson is a terrific athlete and none of the previous coaches knew how to get the most out of him. He's the guy keeping Maker on the bench. I love that Budenholzer gave him the green light to shoot 3's. He gave Henson what he needed. When coaches tell guys "don't do this and don't do that because we don't believe you can do it" it affects their entire game. Henson's playing the best ball of his career right now.

[trwi7]

I'm not saying they aren't good or haven't had a tough schedule, I'm saying that it's not likely they keep up their +13.6 point differential. I don't really think that's much of a hot take considering the 73 win Warriors only had a +10.8 differential. There are going to be some single digit wins where the game is close and we need Giannis and Middleton to play 35+ minutes to close it out.

[coolhandluke121]

The Bucks have been an especially hard follow over the last few years, simply because they have had so much turnover. They'll acquire a guy, he'll be the "next big thing" for awhile, and they eventually give him away for pennies on the dollar. Or they draft a guy, don't play him, and he's gone in a few years. There's been no building or plan in place for so long ... much like the early 2000s Brewer teams. I used to follow the Bucks pretty closely, but seeing them draft guys like TJ Ford and Jennings, who showed so much promise, only to eventually give them away, really soured me. They make acquisitions like Knight and Michael Carter-Williams out to be exciting, then drop them. Greg Monroe ... Tim Thomas ... this team's recent history is littered with flashes in the pan. I hope Giannis isn't next, but the team's history doesn't give me much hope.

 

The problem with all those guys isn't that they came and went, it's that the Bucks thought they were worth building around in the first place. There's so much happening in basketball that doesn't show up in a box score, and it's much harder to see than in baseball for example. Guys who score can make an offense worse by not taking good shots, guys who are good one-on-one defenders can make a defense worse by not rotating off the ball, and guys who get more rebounds than average can make your team rebounding worse by not boxing out. These are things that the people in charge of the Bucks have no understood for years, and that's why they always sucked despite having some prospects who many people thought would be good. Another big issue is motor. Two guys can have the exact same stats and remarkable skills, but one guy can be 10x more valuable than the other because of what he's doing on plays that don't result in stats for him (rotating to impede a guard's progress to the basket, even though it's not his man, screening a guy two passes ahead of an easy layup that only the scorer and passer get credit for, boxing out so someone else can get a rebound, constantly moving off the ball to keep defenses off balance, etc). Look at Cousins and Towns compared to KG and Duncan, for example. Two stupid, lazy players who will never amount to anything compared to a lot of other guys with similar numbers.

 

There should be no concern whatsoever about Giannis being a flash in the pan.

[coolhandluke121]

In a lot of ways, I see this as being a nearly perfect team despite not having multiple elite players like Magic/Kareem, Jordan/Pippen, Oscar/Lew, Shaq/Kobe, or whatever. I think the biggest flaw is going to be foot-speed on the perimeter. Now to be fair, nobody is shutting down great backcourts these days, but the Bucks are going to have trouble closing out on 3-point shooters and staying in front of quick guards and that could keep them from being a truly great team in this era.

 

Brogdon is big and strong and would have been a great combo guard in the 90's, but this is not an era in which he can much more than a good 6th man IMO. I actually think he's a small-ball 3-guard these days. DDV is terrific but his quickness is average at best for a guard in today's game. Bledsoe looks pretty spry right now, but we know about his knees and he looked glued to the floor in last year's playoffs. I'm worried about how well he would hold up if the Bucks re-sign him. Limiting his minutes this year is crucial, but they don't have a true back-up pg, and certainly not one who can mitigate the quickness issue.

 

This is the only thing, besides maybe injuries, that would cause me to reluctantly bet against 60 wins this year. I don't think it would be too hard to address, but we'll see. Ersan, Lopez, and DDV are such terrific additions. Each one of them is already better than Jabari was for the team because of how perfectly they complement the best players. It kills me that for years they could have easily traded Jabari for the potential final piece of a dynasty and turned their nose up at every obvious red flag, but I guess in a way it's more fun to win without having an embarrassment of riches.

[FVBrewerFan]

That was never really a game. Granted, the warriors were without green, and then without curry in the 4th quarter, but even so the Bucs just really had their way all night long.

 

 

Granted, Warriors were without Green, but the Bucks shot horribly from 3. If they shoot even their avg 3P%, it's an even bigger blow-out. I don't believe the Bucks > Warriors, but they last night. That's got to build confidence that they really believe they could hang with them in a series.

 

Also, word of caution on Coach Bud. If you recall, everyone bought into Kidd and his system when he first arrived, same thing with Skiles. Now there are legit reasons why this situation is different, and not as likely to go south. Just pointing out that generally players buy into almost any new coach, especially as long as they're winning.

[coolhandluke121]

 

Also, word of caution on Coach Bud. If you recall, everyone bought into Kidd and his system when he first arrived, same thing with Skiles. Now there are legit reasons why this situation is different, and not as likely to go south. Just pointing out that generally players buy into almost any new coach, especially as long as they're winning.

 

Yes, they were buying into the system, but it was a bad system. Skiles was the architect of a great defense that was designed to force teams to take as many long 2's as possible, and on the other end they ran an offense that... took as many long 2's as possible? That's what it often seemed like anyway.

 

Kidd's trapping was just something the league figured out, and he couldn't adjust. And even when they bought in, it wasn't sustainable because it was one of the worst defenses in the league if everyone didn't do everything perfectly. He couldn't adjust it for personnel and it was too rigid.

 

Coaches do always have a honeymoon period, no doubt. Budenholzer is considered a coach that players like though. It's more about not having a grating personality and being overly critical or stubborn, like Skiles and Kidd. I'm not worried about coaching and chemistry being an issue any time soon. I am very worried about free agency this summer though.

[Austin Tatious]

I see your point about Bud, and caution is prudent. But, I really think his resume speaks top drawer coach. I don't think he will try to fit square pegs into round holes. I think he knows how to use his talent.

 

Some of the guys on the second unit are so much fun when you look at DiVicenzo, Connaughton, et al.

[RollieTime]

Jimmy Butler has been traded to the 76ers with Justin Patton for Robert Covington, Dario Saric, Jerryd Bayless, and a 2022 second round pick.

 

Quite an interesting trade since the Rockets offered 4 first round draft picks in October for Butler and couldn’t reach a deal.

 

Covington and Saric are solid pieces, but acquiring Butler without giving up any first round picks in the trade is strange from the Timberwolves perspective. If I would have been told that the Bucks could have acquired Butler without needing to give up a single first round pick, I wouldn’t of believed it for one second. Getting Butler for what they did and most likely locking him up with a long term deal soon, it seems like the 76ers came out way ahead in this one.

[Dean Machine]

. Getting Butler for what they did and most likely locking him up with a long term deal soon, it seems like the 76ers came out way ahead in this one.

 

Except his is a malcontent jerk and has ruined every situation he has ever been in.

[coolhandluke121]

. Getting Butler for what they did and most likely locking him up with a long term deal soon, it seems like the 76ers came out way ahead in this one.

 

Except his is a malcontent jerk and has ruined every situation he has ever been in.

 

I wouldn't want anyone who is content in those situations to be honest. The blame goes to Chicago's window closing and Derrick Rose still thinking he was the star in Chicago, and to lazy bums like Wiggins and Towns getting supermax deals despite not giving 1/10th the effort that Butler does. Butler is an incredible competitor and he'll do fine in Philly.

 

Saying all the right things and never raising a fuss but being lazy and entitled is a much worse quality in a teammate than what Butler does.

[coolhandluke121]

Fun game today. I remember on realGM when nobody wanted to trade Jabari for Deandre and Lou.

 

In fairness to them, that was a long time ago (almost a year now!), when no reasonable person could be expected to realize that Jabari was not a future star in this league.

[superfly]

. Getting Butler for what they did and most likely locking him up with a long term deal soon, it seems like the 76ers came out way ahead in this one.

 

Except his is a malcontent jerk and has ruined every situation he has ever been in.

 

I wouldn't want anyone who is content in those situations to be honest. The blame goes to Chicago's window closing and Derrick Rose still thinking he was the star in Chicago, and to lazy bums like Wiggins and Towns getting supermax deals despite not giving 1/10th the effort that Butler does. Butler is an incredible competitor and he'll do fine in Philly.

 

Saying all the right things and never raising a fuss but being lazy and entitled is a much worse quality in a teammate than what Butler does.

 

I don't disagree on Wiggins, but i've heard some *rumors* that would give Towns good reason to not give a care to what Butler tells him. I would too if it was true. Butler is a first class @__ regardless of that and put it on full display this preseason if there was any doubt about it.

[RollieTime]

I think the Brook Lopez signing is working out pretty well for the Bucks.