Bucks 2022-2023 Season Thread

[areacodes]

Figured we should start a thread for the upcoming season.

Bucks play their second preseason game in Abu Dhabi tomorrow and third overall.  So far they are 0-2 but that doesn’t really matter.

Any predictions for the season?

[nate82]

15 minutes ago, areacodes said:

Any predictions for the season?

I will go with 3rd in the East and they will at least make the ECF.  They have a Finals team just need to stay healthy. 

[sveumrules]

2 minutes ago, areacodes said:

Figured we should start a thread for the upcoming season.

Bucks play their second preseason game in Abu Dhabi tomorrow and third overall.  So far they are 0-2 but that doesn’t really matter.

Any predictions for the season?

If everybody stays healthy & is ready to go come playoff time they’ve got as good a chance as anybody.

I essentially look at the roster like this…

Postseason Players: Giannis, Khris, Jrue, Bobby, Pat

Regular Season Players: Brook, Wes, Grayson, Carter, Hill, Ibaka

Wild Cards: MarJon, Jingles 

Garbage Time: Thanasis, Nwora 

Top three things I’m looking forward to are the continued evolution of Giannis, how MarJon/Jingles fit in, and how Horst & team manage to turn some of those RSPs into one more guy that can handle playoff minutes before the deadline.

[GAME05]

Darn, looks like I gotta pass up box seats for a Thanksgiving game this year.

[GAME05]

I'll be interested in seeing how Lopez does this season and if he has any further decline in his ability to defend a pick-and-roll. I could see that as being an issue and certainly expect the team to make a deadline addition at the 5.

If Giannis can keep up the relatively good FT shooting he started showing he's probably winning himself another MVP.

[homer]

Kinda crazy how much discord there's been with the Phoenix, Boston, Golden State teams.....lucky to have good dudes on the Bucks team and coaching staff.

[UpandIn]

10 hours ago, homer said:

Kinda crazy how much discord there's been with the Phoenix, Boston, Golden State teams.....lucky to have good dudes on the Bucks team and coaching staff.

Yeah, trash move by Draymond. Nice punch...vs a guy you have about 6 inches and 60 pounds on. And it's not like Poole was in his face, he just didn't back down.

[UpandIn]

15 hours ago, sveumrules said:

If everybody stays healthy & is ready to go come playoff time they’ve got as good a chance as anybody.

I essentially look at the roster like this…

Postseason Players: Giannis, Khris, Jrue, Bobby, Pat

Regular Season Players: Brook, Wes, Grayson, Carter, Hill, Ibaka

Wild Cards: MarJon, Jingles 

Garbage Time: Thanasis, Nwora 

Top three things I’m looking forward to are the continued evolution of Giannis, how MarJon/Jingles fit in, and how Horst & team manage to turn some of those RSPs into one more guy that can handle playoff minutes before the deadline.

If we stay healthy, Ingles could be an ENORMOUS pickup for us. His style of play, his skill set, all of it suits what we need perfectly. And he's somehow always been a good defender despite not being the most explosive athlete.

I think Carter can also play a much bigger role. I was excited they brought him back. Especially vs certain teams, he could play a very big role(GSW for example). Equally as important, his minutes in the regular season, taking minutes of Holiday's plate while picking up the defense, with 2 of the big 3 getting older, the more important that becomes. 

I also think Nwora will get more than garbage time. Bucks could have saved a whole lot of money by letting him walk, but they're spending ~11 million this year to keep him. Maybe it's to help match salaries in a potential trade and add a little upside, but with Middleton and Ingles on the shelf to start the year, I could see 25+MPG for him. 

I also want to see Ibaka and if he looks any better a year further removed from the back surgery. Maybe he's a little more mobile, add something to the defensive end? Probably optimistic, but bringing him back was a big of a surprise. 

 

Outside of Ingles, no major questions with this team. I'd like to see Giannis workload lightened as well as Jrue and Middleton, but the Owners have REALLY committed to this team. That 100K bonus Jrue got the year they won the Title is going to hurt that much more this year with the repeater tax now kicking in, but...there hasn't been a move we haven't made yet because we couldn't afford it.

 

 

No 1st round pick this year as NO has it straight up, so I'll say 58 wins, 2nd seed to Cleveland and I think our biggest threats will be Cleveland with all their length, Boston and...the Nets. Too much talent. They should be the prohibitive favorites AGAIN with their talent, but Simmons won't even shoot in the pre-season, so that still seems to be an issue.

[Brewcrew82]

Can't wait for Thursday. Need Giannis to restore my sanity after watching the Badgers and Packers this weekend. Though, I would probably expect a loss in Philly without Middleton and Pat. 

[CheezWizHed]

14 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Can't wait for Thursday. Need Giannis to restore my sanity after watching the Badgers and Packers this weekend. Though, I would probably expect a loss in Philly without Middleton and Pat. 

I was thinking the same thing, but it seems like the first half of the NBA season is a snoozefest now that we are annual locks for the playoffs.  

I started liking NBA basketball again after they changed the defense to allow more zone (and avoid the offense of 4 people on one side of the court with a superstar playing 1on1 on the other side...aka JordanBall).  But then we suddenly turned it into the "just don't get hurt" season.

[areacodes]

This is a little old, but the Bucks were picked to win the Eastern Conference and NBA Title in the annual GM survey.

https://www.nba.com/news/2022-23-gm-survey

[jay87shot]

I was disappointed with the offseason because we just kept all the old guys as the 10-15 spots on the bench. I would rather take a chance on a young guy than Serge, Wes, or Hill and then if none of those young guys show out there will be a few vets on the buy-out market who would be as valuable as those old guys.

That said I'm going to say 56-26, with a chance 35% chance to make the finals. Especially if the secondary players Portis, Pat, Ingles, Reddick, etc can hit some shots.

[Samurai Bucky]

3 hours ago, areacodes said:

This is a little old, but the Bucks were picked to win the Eastern Conference and NBA Title in the annual GM survey.

https://www.nba.com/news/2022-23-gm-survey

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Signed,
Don Nelson

[Oxy]

3 hours ago, jay87shot said:

I was disappointed with the offseason because we just kept all the old guys as the 10-15 spots on the bench. I would rather take a chance on a young guy than Serge, Wes, or Hill and then if none of those young guys show out there will be a few vets on the buy-out market who would be as valuable as those old guys.

That said I'm going to say 56-26, with a chance 35% chance to make the finals. Especially if the secondary players Portis, Pat, Ingles, Reddick, etc can hit some shots.

Do you mean Jon Scheyer?

[jay87shot]

2 hours ago, Oxy said:

Do you mean Jon Scheyer?

Whoops, Grayson

[Brewcrew82]

Nice season opening win against the Sixers. Kind of let it get away from them in the 4th quarter after they had a chance to really blow the game open with Embiid on the bench, but credit to Harden who started making shots. Says a lot about how good this team is that we can win in this environment against a Sixers team with their full supporting cast absent Middleton and Connaughton. Also, funny to see Embiid get booed in the second game of the season by Philly fans. lol

[UpandIn]

5 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Nice season opening win against the Sixers. Kind of let it get away from them in the 4th quarter after they had a chance to really blow the game open with Embiid on the bench, but credit to Harden who started making shots. Says a lot about how good this team is that we can win in this environment against a Sixers team with their full supporting cast absent Middleton and Connaughton. Also, funny to see Embiid get booed in the second game of the season by Philly fans. lol

And Jrue was BRUTAL offensively. 

But Carter looked good. The new defensive...scheme, ideology, whatever you'd like to call it, that seemed effective. Very few open 3's. Gave up some layups we otherwise wouldn't have.

Really hope Beauchamp is going to be part of the rotation early in the season and tonight was an exception. Otherwise, nice opening night. 

[brooks_quichenick]

That was a fun win. Liked what I saw from Jevon, thought Grayson played ok and Lopez was great. Giannis is obviously Giannis. Jrue's defense as usual, was just excellent. What a putrid offensive performance though, he'll have to improve that. Bobby struggled as well.

I think Joel Embiid is the most overrated player in the NBA, and he really showed why last night. He was abysmal.

[areacodes]

As if we needed it, but another reason why Giannis is awesome.

 

[CheezWizHed]

On 10/21/2022 at 2:58 AM, UpandIn said:

Really hope Beauchamp is going to be part of the rotation early in the season and tonight was an exception. Otherwise, nice opening night. 

No, he isn't ready.  Guy needs major work offensively.  Maybe he can play some role minutes to shut down a wing given our injuries, but he isn't ready to breack the main rotation. I'd be a little more hopeful on that next year.

[UpandIn]

7 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

No, he isn't ready.  Guy needs major work offensively.  Maybe he can play some role minutes to shut down a wing given our injuries, but he isn't ready to breack the main rotation. I'd be a little more hopeful on that next year.

He needs NBA minutes. ESPECIALLY in blowouts. I know we're still looking at trades and I'd guess we're trying to build some type of value for Nwora, rebuild Hill's value, but he'd likely be our best on ball defender on the wing(or at least when Jrue's not playing) and his shot looks fine. 

Obviously he's not a finished product or anywhere near it, but with Middleton and Connaughton out, he should be getting some minutes. Of course...we know Bud would rather have bamboo placed under his finger nails than play rookies. 

But for the oldest team in the league, it's important to actually develop him. 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Beauchamp will get to play. I think they are just doing the whole rookie thing right off the bat. I will say he looks pretty explosive based on his one bucket, definitely a strong athlete. I agree though that he needs to find solid minutes eventually. With the construction of this roster they badly need one of those types to pan out. 

I was at the game last night and was struck by the amount of open seats on a home opener on a Saturday night. I was in the lower bowl and my row was empty. Lousy opponent yes. But it was 70 degrees on a weekend. It wasn't what I'd call low attendance but I was just surprised by how many empties there were. 

[HarryDoyle]

52 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

Beauchamp will get to play. I think they are just doing the whole rookie thing right off the bat. I will say he looks pretty explosive based on his one bucket, definitely a strong athlete. I agree though that he needs to find solid minutes eventually. With the construction of this roster they badly need one of those types to pan out. 

I was at the game last night and was struck by the amount of open seats on a home opener on a Saturday night. I was in the lower bowl and my row was empty. Lousy opponent yes. But it was 70 degrees on a weekend. It wasn't what I'd call low attendance but I was just surprised by how many empties there were. 

Well, since you have to sell your first born to attend a regular season NBA game as it is and people are struggling to feed their families and fill their gas tank, it shouldn't be a surprise at all.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I think the Bucks have reached the point where a ticket package makes sense. I bought an 11-pack and split it with a sibling, I think the total was $2175 for 2 seats to 11 games in the lower bowl, they are great seats but not right at midcourt where the cost explodes. There are some great games in there; the home opener, about 5 weekend games including one with Miami, and the Golden State game. 

I'm probably overpaying for Tuesday night with Indiana, but I got sick of wanting to go and then backing out because one single game would cost $450. Setting a schedule ahead of time makes it much more likely to go. 11 games for just over $1k to see one of the best teams in the league in the lower bowl is a great value imo. 

I made the decision not to renew my Brewers tickets so it just transferring an expense elsewhere.

[UpandIn]

43 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

I think the Bucks have reached the point where a ticket package makes sense. I bought an 11-pack and split it with a sibling, I think the total was $2175 for 2 seats to 11 games in the lower bowl, they are great seats but not right at midcourt where the cost explodes. There are some great games in there; the home opener, about 5 weekend games including one with Miami, and the Golden State game. 

I'm probably overpaying for Tuesday night with Indiana, but I got sick of wanting to go and then backing out because one single game would cost $450. Setting a schedule ahead of time makes it much more likely to go. 11 games for just over $1k to see one of the best teams in the league in the lower bowl is a great value imo. 

I made the decision not to renew my Brewers tickets so it just transferring an expense elsewhere.

There's also just the fact that Bucks fans are kinda getting spoiled. Years past, we waited for opening night. Now it's just kinda waiting until we get to April before some start paying attention.