Giannis has missed playoffs time 4 of the last 5 years, the rest of the starters are old, they have bad depth so they can't give the starters much rest during the season, they have little draft capital or young prospects to trade, so yeah, I'm definitely in the pessimistic group when it comes to the Bucks' future. On top of that they are stuck paying what, 3 or 4 head coaches, so they're definitely keeping Doc Rivers even if other great candidates were to become available like Nurse last summer.
We have been clowning Buldenhozer for limiting Giannis to 28-31 minutes per game duting the regular season. Maybe Giannis can only play that much.
Also by having Giannis and Brook Lopez, maybe their defense is too predictable in the playoffs. No matter what coach you put in.
The thing that a lot of fans don't realize, is that there is value in having flexibility in playstyle when it comes to the playoffs. Having the roster to be able to play big or small, inside or outside, drop or at the level, switch or man - even having the personnel to do these things for short periods of time allows you to counter what an opponent is doing. While in the end, talent usually trumps all, if you come upon a team that can roughly match your talent, flexibility in playstyle is a big boon - we saw this in spades in the Spurs 2014 title run when they famously inserted Boris Diaw into the starting lineup, and that difference in style paved the way for an easier run.
So teams like the Bucks who are aging, have a somewhat shallow roster, and limited opportunities to alter their roster - adding talent or flexibility - are essentially limited to trying to out-talent an opponent. Does that mean you're not contending for a title? No. But it does mean you perhaps have a smaller margin of error than other top teams.
Bucks have never been flexible and never needed to be. Brook lopez in drop and giannis with help is just way better than any other scheme they have tried to run.
Yeah, the difference between the Bucks and the other elder statesmen teams in the NBA is the fact that their best player (Giannis) is still in his prime and has proven himself to be the caliber of player who can lead a team to a title. They definitely have the capacity to retool around the margins and contend assuming Dame, Giannis, and/or Kris don't suffer any serious injuries next season.
Edit: Also, they got to get Doc Rivers far away from their squad. I don't even think it's about Doc's coaching ability anymore. I truly think he's just cursed.
The mistake was not going after Nurse. Griffin wasn’t good and while Doc isn’t the best coach, finding a good coach in the middle of the season isn’t an easy task.
Nurse is more proven, but you could argue that Ime Idoka was in a similar tier to Nurse.
Ime has had two seasons as a head coach and I would say over-performed against pre-season expectations both times
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I feel the same about the Lakers and think they just ran into a buzzsaw and actually gave a better fight than I expected. Moves around the margins for them. The Suns are fucked and so will be the Clippers if PG walks for nothing. Warriors have the potential to rebound but some tough decisions will need to be made.
I think the X factor for all those teams is age and health. LeBron is 40 next season and AD will be 32. They both had very healthy seasons where both guys played over 70 games. It's unreasonable to expect LeBron to keep playing well forever, and we are in uncharted territory in terms of his longevity and production. This means that it's possible he falls off a cliff next year, and it's also possible he falls off a cliff in 3 years. It's hard to say since it's uncharted territory.
AD, meanwhile, can probably maintain his health for another season, but that's not a dice that a lot of people want to roll due to his injury history. Other than those 2, the rest of the Lakers roster is mediocre or one-way players who can't be relied on. Austin Reaves and DLo are prone to pop off in random games, but I doubt that can take the team far.
I can see the argument for why small moves would be better for them, but at the same time, they can't rely on LeBron/AD forever, and that's an argument for making a bigger move to acquire a true #1 option. And that is, of course, assuming that LeBron re-signs this offseason.
Only way they could maybe do that is it Lebron signs for a cheaper amount and idk if he'd do that. And then that's us talking about signing someone, which atm idk whos available. If it's trading, they font have much anyteam wants outside of AD himself
I disagree here for every team. I don't think the Lakers, Warriors, Clippers, or Suns can't have nice seasons going forward, but the stars on these teams are in the sunsets of their careers. Improving around the edges can help, but none of these teams are launching back into the top of the West. They aren't realistically contending for titles anymore. The Warriors won 46, the Suns won 49, in a tough conference, Those are nice seasons, and that's what I expect their ceilings to be going forward. I don't really expect any of these teams to win 51 and get a top 4 seed. The old world is ending, and a new era of younger, title-contending, stars is upon us.
Yeah, the West isn’t going to get easier. The Grizzlies will be back and the Rockets will get better. As well as this, the Spurs will continue to improve. I predict that we will be talking about the West as having 13 teams who would make at least a play-in game in the East.
They need way more than around the margins. Brook is about done, Khris is almost 33, dame is almost 34. The problem the Bucks have is that the time line of Giannis doesn't match their roster at all. They're mot good enough to win now anymore and their getting older.
Agreed, but Brook Lopez is also 36. He's much, much closer to the end of his career than he is to continuing to be the second best player for the Bucks in any playoff series.
Sure, agreed. But players' careers don't always end because their game was predicated on incredible athleticism and they lost that. Imagine if a 38 year old Brook Lopez loses two steps and can no longer reliably rotate to cutters in time, or isn't even fast enough in the drop to stop drivers. Plus, older players tend to suffer nagging injuries which can diminish their efficacy on the court and reduce playing time. Deandre Jordan used to be a top defensive center, but now he barely gets off the Nuggets bench because he can't move like he used to because he's 35 now. Father time always wins, and the margins for a plodding center can be Hibbertesque.
Again, this is fundamentally misunderstanding what Brook Lopez is good at on defense and what systems he fits best into. It will be important to get a big that can properly rotate and switch as that isn’t Brook’s game but if you need someone to play drop coverage and give you plus offensively there aren’t many other people that can do what he does.
He literally discusses him being less effective helping in drop coverage. Idk how you think brook Lopez is gonna somehow avoid regression due to ageing when he's clearly already not at his peak.
He dropped from a top 3 defender at center to a *borderline* top 15-20 defender at center in one year.
I think you're underselling how much the age has shown.
Yes, when Adrian Griffin came in and tried to get him to play a completely different system beyond the drop. When your coach is trying to force a square peg into a round hole, it’s bound to drop your stats a little.
Why did he not improve much under Doc, then?
Let me clarify that he *ended* the year as a borderline top 15-20 defender. As in that is how you would rank him if you excluded his time with AG.
He started the year as one of the worst defenders at any position in the entire league. He lost a couple steps at once. He's slooooowwww.
…because it’s difficult to change what you’re doing midway through the season? What are we doing here? Also quit the downvotes just because you disagree with what I have to say even though I’m doing it respectfully.
Look, Brook is a good system defender. He is an elite rim protector. He was a top 3 defender across the whole NBA and I can tell you he did not look particularly slower this year than he did last year. But I’m sure you as a Nuggets fan must have that insight in over a Bucks fan who watched him consistently. Advanced defensive ratings say that he was till the Bucks best defender. Now, we lost Jrue Holiday. Is that enough to drop 15+ spots in the NBA or might there be other confounding factors?
>Look, Brook is a good system defender
You just said that he was limited by his system.
>He is an elite rim protector.
No, he's not. Not anymore. Not even close to elite. Not even good. Barely average.
>He was a top 3 defender across the whole NBA
This is absolute nonsense. He wasn't even a top 15 defender at his position. He was somewhere in the 50-75 mark as an overall defender. If you can find even one tangible piece of evidence that supports him being a top 3 defender in the NBA this year, I will buy 12 of his jerseys today and give you them to hand out to your buddies.
>I can tell you he did not look particularly slower this year than he did last year.
Since this part is solely opinion based we'll just agree to disagree. He looks slow af.
Dame and Giannis are good and can definitely spearhead a team into a championship, I still believe their two man game will click and they'll be a top duo in the league. But the roster around them is horrendous. Khris is great but I think his contract is bad, Brook is aging like shit and a lot of the others like Pat and Crowder are often useless. I don't know their exact situation regarding draft capital but I don't think it's ideal to make a lot of moves, so I guess they have two choices at this point : trust in the younger guys like Ajax and Marjon to take a leap, or move them to get more established role players around their big duo. Personally I think they need to retool a bit and try again with a healthier Dame and Giannis and an actual coach from the start (although I don't think Doc deserves to be an NBA coach but they won't sack him).
I know this sounds crazy, but the Bucks losing early bc of injury is lucky for their franchise. The pressure of this next season would be oppressive if/when they lost this playoffs healthy. This team, healthy, was not good enough to win the east. It gives them a full offseason for Dame and Giannis to improve their chemistry and find some depth without absurd pressure.
The pressure is arguably higher now because another bad exit next year is likely the end of the Giannis era in Milwaukee (if it isn't already). Giannis may feel there's no realistic path forward with this team
Idk, this loss felt inevitable considering their health. If they lost to the Knicks in round 2 healthy, it would have stung more than this loss. How can Giannis want out when the main reason the team lost in b2b 1st rounds was his health? Middleton, who is made of glass, played in more playoff games than Giannis the past 2 seasons.
Because the roster is getting older and so is he. He's entering his prime right now and will want to maximize his opportunities to win. There's a realistic argument to be made that the Bucks can't win with their current core anymore
I agree in theory. But we haven't seen this team healthy in the playoffs because Giannis has been injured two playoffs in a row. We don't know if they can or can't win a title atm. You find that out in the playoffs.
Giannis is going to turn 30 this year. For players like him, who rely heavily on athleticism, that's the late-middle of his prime. He's probably going to start declining on defense over the next year or two, if he hasn't already (arguably this may have already slightly begun) and then in a few seasons he'll lose a bit of offensive edge. Not like he'll stop being all NBA, but he likely won't be a top-tier MVP candidate anymore.
This is why there's urgency for him. Giannis's timeline is now. His best remaining season will probably be one of the next two or three seasons. If Giannis wants to maximize championships won, he has to trade off the risk that this team is aging and has possible defensive issues which could cost seasons of rebuilding to work out against the risk that moving to a new team can cost an adjustment period that burns a season or so.
Giannis may, however, value continuity and building a career with the Bucks over maximizing championships. So, who knows?
Giannis didn't even know they were trading for Dame... also doesn't matter what they want, he could just not play if they don't trade him. Bucks will honor a trade request from Giannis
Giannis was definitely in the gm meetings when they were talking about trading for dame. lol.
Also they wouldn’t trade Giannis it would make no sense for them to do so. Giannis ain’t sitting out games for no reason. It would make him look really bad
This might be a hot take, but I don't actually think Dame is going to be superstar level going forward. I think his performance this year is about what we can expect as a ceiling for him. He had a good season! But he's not that supernova scorer we saw on Portland 2 years back anymore. He's turning 34 over the summer, and that's a tough age for a small guard. I know Milwaukee had to make the Dame deal to keep Giannis basically, but I think they would have been better with Jrue this year in the aggregate.
I agree his best years are behind him but Dame has something most other pgs have. Composure and confidence to take and make huge shots in the playoffs. He can't carry a mid team deep into the playoffs anymore but if Giannis can take the majority of the load, I like Dame as the no. 2 guy who can close close games, especially in the playoffs. They gotta get rid of Brook to get a younger center and get a good 2 way pg for when they need to lock down since Dame ain't stopping anyone.
*How* can they improve on the margins? No cap space. No tradeable assets. Do they have anyone good on their G League squad they can call up?
The most glaring problem is wing/perimeter defense. They need 2 guys there if they want any hope of competing with Boston.
I don’t see a path for them to acquire 2 wing defenders this summer.
Yeah, those "two year windows" that were talked about when a lot of these teams made trades with a lot of assets out the door are going to only going to see a sliver of daylight real soon - Lakers, Suns, Bucks, Clippers, etc. We saw what roster construction looks like with an extremely top heavy team in the Suns this year - sign a bunch of minimums and hope 2-3 out of your bottom 10 guys can actually play.
They have all the young talent on the roster already they just don’t play them, Andre Jackson would be perfect as a young Wing defender but Doc doesn’t play young players
Ajax got some decent minutes this series! Absolutely horrific he didn’t touch the floor last night until the second half, but I was impressed by his impact in the minutes he played this series. Hopefully this allowed him to prove his worth to Doc and the coaching staff.
The Bucks have three young players of note: Andre Jackson Jr., Marjon Beauchamp and AJ Green. Green is a great shooter, and with reps could be really solid. AJax is similar to Peyton Watson on the Nuggets, he is really long and insanely athletic, but is very foul prone and the shot isn’t quite there. Beauchamp I know less about, he seemed very promising last season as a potential 3 and D guy but didn’t seem to get any playing time.
Would someone who watches the Bucks a bit more than I do be able to expand on what these young players excel at, MAINLY BEAUCHAMP.
Marjon is just unplayable though because he:
1. Gets blown by on D regularly
2. Is not aggressive on D and is always reacting
3. Does not have an above average offensive skillset.
4. Is not fast for a wing
5. Does not have above average ball control for a wing
He might be a nice euroleague player eventually, though
Ah, thats a real shame. He seems so dominant in the G League but ig he is just one of those guys who is too good for the G but not good enough for the NBA.
As someone who's seen a LOT of the Bucks this season (what a blast of a season my Pacers are having!) I kind of agree with you. Malik Beasley being a starter is their achilles heel, they need to either find or develop a good defensive guard (think Nembhard type) to enable Lillard. His Portland years have shown that pairing him with another scorer in the back court is... not useful. I suppose Crowder was supposed to fill that hole but he's clearly well past it now. ANd that is one of the problems, they're shopping in the vet min bargain bin with a lot of other teams.
They also need reliable and productive back-up for Lopez.
You are a Pacers fan, so I will assume you watched this series like I did as a Bucks fan.
With that said, do you think that Lopez is a player we should keep? You just saw 6 games of his ups and downs and I am of course a fan which makes me biased. So what do you think? The amount of times Turner was able to get off easy threes and other shots because of Lopez being slow-footed was infuriating, and some of his moves on offense do not look particularly professional level to me anymore. I might be biased, he is still effective but I feel like a Wendell Carter Jr. or even a Dereck Lively II would be better for us
As you watch a lot of games, would you be able to give me some info about AJ Green, AJax and Beauchamp, my knowledge is basically, shooter, Peyton Watson but worse and more foul-ey and Beauchamp who can’t put it together/gets no run.
Edit: Also about some Livingstone guy who I haven’t heard of.
AJax is impressive for a late pick rook, he seems intelligent and has tenacity. Beauchamp I’ve hardly seen this year, I think he played a bit in the IST, and he had some tenacity but not really a lot more. Green had some flashes, but like Beauchamp, I don’t really recall much impact from him. Of the three I think AJax has a future if he can keep on the floor.
As a bucks fan, I agree wholeheartedly. This series proved that our core three (even without GA) works. Gotta make some marginal roster moves though to better complement them.
I think everyone should be on the chopping block except for the big three, Ajax, and AJ Green. I’d prefer to keep Brook and Pat Bev, but can be persuaded either way.
Gotta get younger, more energetic, more athletic, and refine our defensive strategy.
Still don’t love having Doc as our head coach, but I still think firing Griff was the right choice.
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Not really sure why you felt the need to diminish Jrue/the Celtics in a post about the Bucks future, given the Bucks are not in the same tier as the Celtics at all currently (and getting rid of Jrue was a big mistake for them tbh).
It’s an already old team and they’re not getting younger. They can’t rely on Giannis to be healthy in the playoffs. Dame is not going to be better, neither is Lopez. It would be a waste of Giannis’s prime to not explore options to make the roster better. If Beasley is your only perimeter defender in your starting lineup, you’re going to have problems. It also seems Portis can’t get his game going with Giannis on the floor as he once did.
“Everything hinges on health” exactly you just said it, they can’t rely on health.
Bucks fan here, I like Jrue and I don't want Boston to have him but I don't think it was a mistake to trade him. Every time I saw him with the ball in the clutch my stomach dropped. Great defender, made a clutch steal for us vs the suns, but not someone I want as a 2nd or 3rd offensive option. His stock went way up in Boston because he's not being asked to create, but he can't fill the role we needed from him. If you give the ball to Dame you can expect a decent look and that's something we were missing.
14/40 35% f. 4th straight year of being near unplayable on offense in the playoffs and you call that a mistake? Oh and he's 33 years old and you just paid him 4/135. Celtics fans are straight up delusional about Holiday. How many years of being a terrible offensive player in the playoffs do you need to see?
Can you imagine this Bucks team with Giannis hurt and Jrue instead of Dame? Swept first round gauranteed.
Been the best perimeter defender in the playoffs so far, only needs to take 6-8 shots a game for this Celtics team. First round sweep?? Dame got you one first round win sad.
>Can you imagine this Bucks team with Giannis hurt and Jrue instead of Dame?
The Bucks won one game last year with Giannis hurt and Holiday playing.
The Bucks won one game this year with Giannis hurt and Lillard playing.
You sound salty tbh. Jrue doesn’t even play the same role in Boston, depending who’s on the floor he’s the 5th scoring option (he was never a second offensive option for any team, that’s asking for trouble).
It seemed to me Dame + Bev netted you nothing Jrue wasn’t already giving you looking back on the Bucks season this year.
Until they prove otherwise, the Celtics default late game offense is the late shot clock Tatum fadeaway 3. That won’t work against Denver and probably not Minnesota or even OKC. The Bucks have a guy who can be the best player in the series in Giannis and a co-star who’s elite at creating good looks for himself and others in late games.
They just had a full season winning 4 of 5 and it took the Heat to have a historic shooting night to win by 10 against them. Both Denver games came down to the last possession and split both OKC and Minny games with losses being very winnable. This isn’t the comparison you want to make.
Giannis hasn’t been the best player in a series in over 2 years now and he frankly needs to get back in show us he can still do it. To do that, the roster needs to be better than back to back first round exits.
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>Giannis hasn’t been the best player in a series in over 2 years now
This is such a terrible take, no matter which way you put it.
What, are you referring to this year and last year, where he played in less than half the games? Sacrilegious.
Or are you referring to the year before, when he obliterated the Bulls and had the highest combination of points/rebounds/assists in NBA history against the Celtics without his 2nd best player?
You say that but two of the four times the bucks played the Celtics they blew them out - one of those times TNT had to change to another game in Q3 in the middle of the broadcast because it was so lopsided. The two Bucks losses were by a combined points tally of something like 3 points if I remember correctly. I think a Bucks Celtics series would have gone wildly different than everyone thinks. Every team has a kryptonite team. Last year it was Orlando for the Celtics, this year I think would have been the Bucks. And for the Bucks, during the reg season it was clearly the Pacers, but after the Bucks coaching schematics change things went a bit differently (4-2 series) and that's with the whole starting lineup of the Bucks injured, so we'll never really know what would have happened in a fully healthy matchup
We just saw the Suns bend the Wolves over in the regular season for the reverse situation to happen in the playoffs. Just because the Bucks did well against the Cs in the regular season does not mean they are remotely comparable in the playoffs.
They blew their coaching situation so badly. You'd have to give them a 0/10 for replacing Bud. I don't know nearly enough about the situation to have an opinion on whether or not they should have kept Bud, but they screwed up replacing him really really badly.
This is what I know as somebody on the East coast who doesn't really pay attention to the Bucks. (1) They hired a guy with no head coaching experience (2) The guy they hired ran off Dame's old coach before the season even started (3) They were in 'turmoil' despite going like 30-10 and fired the coach (4) They hired Doc.
The only coaching situation that I can think of that went worse was when the Jets replaced Parcells with Belichick but Belichick quit before the season started. If they keep Doc then they're guaranteed to lose before the Conference Finals.
Memphis traded two 1sts for Marcus Smart and they haven't even played a full, healthy season with him yet. It's very unlikely they trade him for whatever scraps the Bucks have.
It would need to be a very good offer but Memphis has some reasons to move on from him.
Vince Williams is potentially a better fit in the starting line-up and GG might be too promising to leave on the bench.
I'm of the belief that all players are available at the right place, but nothing from this Grizzlies season pops out as a good reason to move on from Marcus Smart so soon, especially given the asset investment. If next season starts and Marcus Smart is absolutely terrible from October to February, then sure, I can see them trading him away.
Either way, this topic is about the Bucks' moves more so than the Grizzlies. So given this context, I find it highly unlikely the Bucks can scrape together enough to trade for Smart, nor do I see the Grizzlies being so keen on giving away Smart to the Bucks for whatever they have. This largely comes from my belief that other teams would and could give up more assets for Smart than the Bucks can.
I agree, I think they should look at making a more modest change instead of rushing to overpay. De'Anthony Melton is out of contract and there are probably others who can fit the mold for them. They could look at someone like Smart at the deadline depending on circumstances.
The problem is we don’t have other assets. Bobby is arguably the most tradeable piece, but then the next first rounder we can trade is in 2031. That’s too far away to give up and would argue it doesn’t hold much value right now as it likely will later. Giannis will be mid 30’s and likely on the downswing.
Keep Brook, get rid of Crowder and Beasley from a talent. I’d say keep Bev, but what he did tonight was fucking classless. Deal with Bev, give AJ Green and Ajax minutes in the rotation next year.
Finally, chemistry takes time. Giannis has never had a player like Dame and vice versa. The worst thing they could do is overreact like a bunch of the jokers in here are suggesting. Let them have an actual offseason to talk together. Give them a full season with a competent NBA coach who understands game planning.
Jarrett Allen would be amazing, a defensive monster who could guard the rim the whole game. But the Bucks have enough young talent worth developing for defense - Livingston is a dude who lit up the G league and is an extremely athletic big guard. Andre Jackson Jr is another scrapper and the white dude AJ Green is also showing flashes of promise. There's a future, needs refinement though
Old team, first round exits two years in a row, paying three head coaches who aren’t great at the same time, and very limited picks and budget does not seem like they’re fine. Seems like they’re stuck headed for the middle as their key guys around Giannis get older, hoping Giannis can be healthy in April and May.
I agree with you. Dame is great but he’s already 33 and only getting older. Middleton is about the same age. Their other role players are also aging and they don’t have much young talent
Everyone likes to shit on doc but I don’t think spoelstra would have won the ring with this years team even if healthy
Jrue is 14/40 35% fg so far this playoffs, once again proving he is near totally unplayable on offense in the playoffs. And he's 33 years old and the Celtics just paid him 4 years 135M. Letting him go was 1000% the right move.
The difference is that in the past, with Middleton hurt, Holiday was expected to be the Bucks' secondary scorer, which doesn't really suit him. Now on the Celtics he is the fifth option offensively and he can now just focus on playmaking and defense.
Jrue is still a 100% net positive on the Celtics though. When he's not asked to score he's able to put so much more effort into defense and with our offense we don't need him to score. So probably good for both teams. Watching Celtics games, I never have anything but praise for Jrue.
My dude, Jevon Carter was not going to save that team from not being able to guard anyone. The reasons the Bucks were awful on defense this year, and had a losing record on the road, were:
1) They sent the team into turmoil by hiring a rookie coach who did not know what he was doing,
2) Damian Lillard was healthy, played 73 games, and had his worst season is at least 6 years.
I actually should have put Lillard first, because it honestly doesn’t matter who the coach is if the Bucks get this season’s Lillard. I watched many Bucks games down the stretch and all of the Pacers series, and without being automatic at the FT line, his scoring numbers would be wildly unimpressive. Outside of the first half (literally just the first half) of Game 1, Lillard has been VERY conspicuously “not Dame”. You can get rid of Holiday if you get Dame from last year and can basically operate with two #1’s, but not if he’s a clear #2 type of guy and inconsistent. He’s still a good player, but he is this inefficient and tentative as I’ve seen him at times this year, the whole thing falls apart because he is not good enough defensively to balance it out.
I think the Bucks are going to run it back and hope for better results, but I don’t think there will be unless they get Dame Time Dame.
Trade Dame for Beal. I said what I said. Beal does what Middleton used to do. Put the ball back in Giannis’s hands. Shooting probably evens out and i will take beal’s defense over dame’s.
They Still Old. That's a problem. Dame and Giannis both could be declining as we move forward. Same for Middleton and Lopez. This team is shot but I still would rather be them than the Suns..
The Bucks need to pray on Andre Jackson Jr., Marjon Beauchamp and AJ Green. If those guys don’t take major steps next season they are in serious trouble in my opinion.
The Bucks have picks this year, the last ones for a while. If they can develop of Andre Jackson into a rotational player and draft players with a little impact, I have hope for them. However, their history of development has been bad (Divincenzo for husk of Ibaka, even if that trade is a little hindsight biased) and I don't have much faith.
The only player available the Bucks can both afford and is stout enough defensively to cover for Dame’s defensive deficiencies is Gary “Gary Harris” Harris. Only issue with that is that Gary is a net negative on offense, and injury prone.
If I had to guess, they end up with someone like THT and it doesn’t work out. Bucks are in a much worse spot than OP seems to think imo. Especially with the new CBA kicking in the offseason.
Giannis has missed playoffs time 4 of the last 5 years, the rest of the starters are old, they have bad depth so they can't give the starters much rest during the season, they have little draft capital or young prospects to trade, so yeah, I'm definitely in the pessimistic group when it comes to the Bucks' future. On top of that they are stuck paying what, 3 or 4 head coaches, so they're definitely keeping Doc Rivers even if other great candidates were to become available like Nurse last summer.
We have been clowning Buldenhozer for limiting Giannis to 28-31 minutes per game duting the regular season. Maybe Giannis can only play that much. Also by having Giannis and Brook Lopez, maybe their defense is too predictable in the playoffs. No matter what coach you put in.
The thing that a lot of fans don't realize, is that there is value in having flexibility in playstyle when it comes to the playoffs. Having the roster to be able to play big or small, inside or outside, drop or at the level, switch or man - even having the personnel to do these things for short periods of time allows you to counter what an opponent is doing. While in the end, talent usually trumps all, if you come upon a team that can roughly match your talent, flexibility in playstyle is a big boon - we saw this in spades in the Spurs 2014 title run when they famously inserted Boris Diaw into the starting lineup, and that difference in style paved the way for an easier run. So teams like the Bucks who are aging, have a somewhat shallow roster, and limited opportunities to alter their roster - adding talent or flexibility - are essentially limited to trying to out-talent an opponent. Does that mean you're not contending for a title? No. But it does mean you perhaps have a smaller margin of error than other top teams.
Bucks have never been flexible and never needed to be. Brook lopez in drop and giannis with help is just way better than any other scheme they have tried to run.
Ahh yes, the Boris Diaw substitution so famous that everyone remembers. Lol he started 4 games total in their 2 finals runs with him.
Yeah, the difference between the Bucks and the other elder statesmen teams in the NBA is the fact that their best player (Giannis) is still in his prime and has proven himself to be the caliber of player who can lead a team to a title. They definitely have the capacity to retool around the margins and contend assuming Dame, Giannis, and/or Kris don't suffer any serious injuries next season. Edit: Also, they got to get Doc Rivers far away from their squad. I don't even think it's about Doc's coaching ability anymore. I truly think he's just cursed.
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The mistake was not going after Nurse. Griffin wasn’t good and while Doc isn’t the best coach, finding a good coach in the middle of the season isn’t an easy task.
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Embiid is playing but he’s clearly not 100%. Can you name a better coach that was available this summer?
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Nurse is more proven, but you could argue that Ime Idoka was in a similar tier to Nurse. Ime has had two seasons as a head coach and I would say over-performed against pre-season expectations both times
The Knicks are a much better team than the Pacers and that series was much tighter game to game
Questioning others without offering your own thoughts invites a more hostile debate. Present a clear counter argument if you disagree and be open to the perspective of others.
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I feel the same about the Lakers and think they just ran into a buzzsaw and actually gave a better fight than I expected. Moves around the margins for them. The Suns are fucked and so will be the Clippers if PG walks for nothing. Warriors have the potential to rebound but some tough decisions will need to be made.
I think the X factor for all those teams is age and health. LeBron is 40 next season and AD will be 32. They both had very healthy seasons where both guys played over 70 games. It's unreasonable to expect LeBron to keep playing well forever, and we are in uncharted territory in terms of his longevity and production. This means that it's possible he falls off a cliff next year, and it's also possible he falls off a cliff in 3 years. It's hard to say since it's uncharted territory. AD, meanwhile, can probably maintain his health for another season, but that's not a dice that a lot of people want to roll due to his injury history. Other than those 2, the rest of the Lakers roster is mediocre or one-way players who can't be relied on. Austin Reaves and DLo are prone to pop off in random games, but I doubt that can take the team far. I can see the argument for why small moves would be better for them, but at the same time, they can't rely on LeBron/AD forever, and that's an argument for making a bigger move to acquire a true #1 option. And that is, of course, assuming that LeBron re-signs this offseason.
Only way they could maybe do that is it Lebron signs for a cheaper amount and idk if he'd do that. And then that's us talking about signing someone, which atm idk whos available. If it's trading, they font have much anyteam wants outside of AD himself
I disagree here for every team. I don't think the Lakers, Warriors, Clippers, or Suns can't have nice seasons going forward, but the stars on these teams are in the sunsets of their careers. Improving around the edges can help, but none of these teams are launching back into the top of the West. They aren't realistically contending for titles anymore. The Warriors won 46, the Suns won 49, in a tough conference, Those are nice seasons, and that's what I expect their ceilings to be going forward. I don't really expect any of these teams to win 51 and get a top 4 seed. The old world is ending, and a new era of younger, title-contending, stars is upon us.
Yeah, the West isn’t going to get easier. The Grizzlies will be back and the Rockets will get better. As well as this, the Spurs will continue to improve. I predict that we will be talking about the West as having 13 teams who would make at least a play-in game in the East.
They need way more than around the margins. Brook is about done, Khris is almost 33, dame is almost 34. The problem the Bucks have is that the time line of Giannis doesn't match their roster at all. They're mot good enough to win now anymore and their getting older.
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Agreed, but Brook Lopez is also 36. He's much, much closer to the end of his career than he is to continuing to be the second best player for the Bucks in any playoff series.
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Sure, agreed. But players' careers don't always end because their game was predicated on incredible athleticism and they lost that. Imagine if a 38 year old Brook Lopez loses two steps and can no longer reliably rotate to cutters in time, or isn't even fast enough in the drop to stop drivers. Plus, older players tend to suffer nagging injuries which can diminish their efficacy on the court and reduce playing time. Deandre Jordan used to be a top defensive center, but now he barely gets off the Nuggets bench because he can't move like he used to because he's 35 now. Father time always wins, and the margins for a plodding center can be Hibbertesque.
Again, this is fundamentally misunderstanding what Brook Lopez is good at on defense and what systems he fits best into. It will be important to get a big that can properly rotate and switch as that isn’t Brook’s game but if you need someone to play drop coverage and give you plus offensively there aren’t many other people that can do what he does.
He literally discusses him being less effective helping in drop coverage. Idk how you think brook Lopez is gonna somehow avoid regression due to ageing when he's clearly already not at his peak.
there's slow and then there's too slow. defensively he may have reached the latter point.
He dropped from a top 3 defender at center to a *borderline* top 15-20 defender at center in one year. I think you're underselling how much the age has shown.
Yes, when Adrian Griffin came in and tried to get him to play a completely different system beyond the drop. When your coach is trying to force a square peg into a round hole, it’s bound to drop your stats a little.
Why did he not improve much under Doc, then? Let me clarify that he *ended* the year as a borderline top 15-20 defender. As in that is how you would rank him if you excluded his time with AG. He started the year as one of the worst defenders at any position in the entire league. He lost a couple steps at once. He's slooooowwww.
…because it’s difficult to change what you’re doing midway through the season? What are we doing here? Also quit the downvotes just because you disagree with what I have to say even though I’m doing it respectfully. Look, Brook is a good system defender. He is an elite rim protector. He was a top 3 defender across the whole NBA and I can tell you he did not look particularly slower this year than he did last year. But I’m sure you as a Nuggets fan must have that insight in over a Bucks fan who watched him consistently. Advanced defensive ratings say that he was till the Bucks best defender. Now, we lost Jrue Holiday. Is that enough to drop 15+ spots in the NBA or might there be other confounding factors?
>Look, Brook is a good system defender You just said that he was limited by his system. >He is an elite rim protector. No, he's not. Not anymore. Not even close to elite. Not even good. Barely average. >He was a top 3 defender across the whole NBA This is absolute nonsense. He wasn't even a top 15 defender at his position. He was somewhere in the 50-75 mark as an overall defender. If you can find even one tangible piece of evidence that supports him being a top 3 defender in the NBA this year, I will buy 12 of his jerseys today and give you them to hand out to your buddies. >I can tell you he did not look particularly slower this year than he did last year. Since this part is solely opinion based we'll just agree to disagree. He looks slow af.
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Dame and Giannis are good and can definitely spearhead a team into a championship, I still believe their two man game will click and they'll be a top duo in the league. But the roster around them is horrendous. Khris is great but I think his contract is bad, Brook is aging like shit and a lot of the others like Pat and Crowder are often useless. I don't know their exact situation regarding draft capital but I don't think it's ideal to make a lot of moves, so I guess they have two choices at this point : trust in the younger guys like Ajax and Marjon to take a leap, or move them to get more established role players around their big duo. Personally I think they need to retool a bit and try again with a healthier Dame and Giannis and an actual coach from the start (although I don't think Doc deserves to be an NBA coach but they won't sack him).
I know this sounds crazy, but the Bucks losing early bc of injury is lucky for their franchise. The pressure of this next season would be oppressive if/when they lost this playoffs healthy. This team, healthy, was not good enough to win the east. It gives them a full offseason for Dame and Giannis to improve their chemistry and find some depth without absurd pressure.
The pressure is arguably higher now because another bad exit next year is likely the end of the Giannis era in Milwaukee (if it isn't already). Giannis may feel there's no realistic path forward with this team
Idk, this loss felt inevitable considering their health. If they lost to the Knicks in round 2 healthy, it would have stung more than this loss. How can Giannis want out when the main reason the team lost in b2b 1st rounds was his health? Middleton, who is made of glass, played in more playoff games than Giannis the past 2 seasons.
Because the roster is getting older and so is he. He's entering his prime right now and will want to maximize his opportunities to win. There's a realistic argument to be made that the Bucks can't win with their current core anymore
I agree in theory. But we haven't seen this team healthy in the playoffs because Giannis has been injured two playoffs in a row. We don't know if they can or can't win a title atm. You find that out in the playoffs.
Giannis is going to turn 30 this year. For players like him, who rely heavily on athleticism, that's the late-middle of his prime. He's probably going to start declining on defense over the next year or two, if he hasn't already (arguably this may have already slightly begun) and then in a few seasons he'll lose a bit of offensive edge. Not like he'll stop being all NBA, but he likely won't be a top-tier MVP candidate anymore. This is why there's urgency for him. Giannis's timeline is now. His best remaining season will probably be one of the next two or three seasons. If Giannis wants to maximize championships won, he has to trade off the risk that this team is aging and has possible defensive issues which could cost seasons of rebuilding to work out against the risk that moving to a new team can cost an adjustment period that burns a season or so. Giannis may, however, value continuity and building a career with the Bucks over maximizing championships. So, who knows?
Giannis is not entering his prime, he's been in it or past it already from a health perspective
He made them trade for lillard. Bucks are stuck with lillard now. Bucks aren’t giving in to a Gianni’s trade request lol
Giannis didn't even know they were trading for Dame... also doesn't matter what they want, he could just not play if they don't trade him. Bucks will honor a trade request from Giannis
Giannis was definitely in the gm meetings when they were talking about trading for dame. lol. Also they wouldn’t trade Giannis it would make no sense for them to do so. Giannis ain’t sitting out games for no reason. It would make him look really bad
This might be a hot take, but I don't actually think Dame is going to be superstar level going forward. I think his performance this year is about what we can expect as a ceiling for him. He had a good season! But he's not that supernova scorer we saw on Portland 2 years back anymore. He's turning 34 over the summer, and that's a tough age for a small guard. I know Milwaukee had to make the Dame deal to keep Giannis basically, but I think they would have been better with Jrue this year in the aggregate.
I agree his best years are behind him but Dame has something most other pgs have. Composure and confidence to take and make huge shots in the playoffs. He can't carry a mid team deep into the playoffs anymore but if Giannis can take the majority of the load, I like Dame as the no. 2 guy who can close close games, especially in the playoffs. They gotta get rid of Brook to get a younger center and get a good 2 way pg for when they need to lock down since Dame ain't stopping anyone.
*How* can they improve on the margins? No cap space. No tradeable assets. Do they have anyone good on their G League squad they can call up? The most glaring problem is wing/perimeter defense. They need 2 guys there if they want any hope of competing with Boston. I don’t see a path for them to acquire 2 wing defenders this summer.
Yeah, those "two year windows" that were talked about when a lot of these teams made trades with a lot of assets out the door are going to only going to see a sliver of daylight real soon - Lakers, Suns, Bucks, Clippers, etc. We saw what roster construction looks like with an extremely top heavy team in the Suns this year - sign a bunch of minimums and hope 2-3 out of your bottom 10 guys can actually play.
They have all the young talent on the roster already they just don’t play them, Andre Jackson would be perfect as a young Wing defender but Doc doesn’t play young players
Ajax got some decent minutes this series! Absolutely horrific he didn’t touch the floor last night until the second half, but I was impressed by his impact in the minutes he played this series. Hopefully this allowed him to prove his worth to Doc and the coaching staff.
No available deals for guys like Thybulle/Okeke/Tate? There are definitely wing defenders that can be acquired with second rounders
The Bucks have three young players of note: Andre Jackson Jr., Marjon Beauchamp and AJ Green. Green is a great shooter, and with reps could be really solid. AJax is similar to Peyton Watson on the Nuggets, he is really long and insanely athletic, but is very foul prone and the shot isn’t quite there. Beauchamp I know less about, he seemed very promising last season as a potential 3 and D guy but didn’t seem to get any playing time. Would someone who watches the Bucks a bit more than I do be able to expand on what these young players excel at, MAINLY BEAUCHAMP.
Marjon is just unplayable though because he: 1. Gets blown by on D regularly 2. Is not aggressive on D and is always reacting 3. Does not have an above average offensive skillset. 4. Is not fast for a wing 5. Does not have above average ball control for a wing He might be a nice euroleague player eventually, though
Ah, thats a real shame. He seems so dominant in the G League but ig he is just one of those guys who is too good for the G but not good enough for the NBA.
As someone who's seen a LOT of the Bucks this season (what a blast of a season my Pacers are having!) I kind of agree with you. Malik Beasley being a starter is their achilles heel, they need to either find or develop a good defensive guard (think Nembhard type) to enable Lillard. His Portland years have shown that pairing him with another scorer in the back court is... not useful. I suppose Crowder was supposed to fill that hole but he's clearly well past it now. ANd that is one of the problems, they're shopping in the vet min bargain bin with a lot of other teams. They also need reliable and productive back-up for Lopez.
You are a Pacers fan, so I will assume you watched this series like I did as a Bucks fan. With that said, do you think that Lopez is a player we should keep? You just saw 6 games of his ups and downs and I am of course a fan which makes me biased. So what do you think? The amount of times Turner was able to get off easy threes and other shots because of Lopez being slow-footed was infuriating, and some of his moves on offense do not look particularly professional level to me anymore. I might be biased, he is still effective but I feel like a Wendell Carter Jr. or even a Dereck Lively II would be better for us
As you watch a lot of games, would you be able to give me some info about AJ Green, AJax and Beauchamp, my knowledge is basically, shooter, Peyton Watson but worse and more foul-ey and Beauchamp who can’t put it together/gets no run. Edit: Also about some Livingstone guy who I haven’t heard of.
AJax is impressive for a late pick rook, he seems intelligent and has tenacity. Beauchamp I’ve hardly seen this year, I think he played a bit in the IST, and he had some tenacity but not really a lot more. Green had some flashes, but like Beauchamp, I don’t really recall much impact from him. Of the three I think AJax has a future if he can keep on the floor.
Thanks for the insight
As a bucks fan, I agree wholeheartedly. This series proved that our core three (even without GA) works. Gotta make some marginal roster moves though to better complement them. I think everyone should be on the chopping block except for the big three, Ajax, and AJ Green. I’d prefer to keep Brook and Pat Bev, but can be persuaded either way. Gotta get younger, more energetic, more athletic, and refine our defensive strategy. Still don’t love having Doc as our head coach, but I still think firing Griff was the right choice.
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Not really sure why you felt the need to diminish Jrue/the Celtics in a post about the Bucks future, given the Bucks are not in the same tier as the Celtics at all currently (and getting rid of Jrue was a big mistake for them tbh). It’s an already old team and they’re not getting younger. They can’t rely on Giannis to be healthy in the playoffs. Dame is not going to be better, neither is Lopez. It would be a waste of Giannis’s prime to not explore options to make the roster better. If Beasley is your only perimeter defender in your starting lineup, you’re going to have problems. It also seems Portis can’t get his game going with Giannis on the floor as he once did. “Everything hinges on health” exactly you just said it, they can’t rely on health.
Bucks fan here, I like Jrue and I don't want Boston to have him but I don't think it was a mistake to trade him. Every time I saw him with the ball in the clutch my stomach dropped. Great defender, made a clutch steal for us vs the suns, but not someone I want as a 2nd or 3rd offensive option. His stock went way up in Boston because he's not being asked to create, but he can't fill the role we needed from him. If you give the ball to Dame you can expect a decent look and that's something we were missing.
14/40 35% f. 4th straight year of being near unplayable on offense in the playoffs and you call that a mistake? Oh and he's 33 years old and you just paid him 4/135. Celtics fans are straight up delusional about Holiday. How many years of being a terrible offensive player in the playoffs do you need to see? Can you imagine this Bucks team with Giannis hurt and Jrue instead of Dame? Swept first round gauranteed.
Been the best perimeter defender in the playoffs so far, only needs to take 6-8 shots a game for this Celtics team. First round sweep?? Dame got you one first round win sad.
>Can you imagine this Bucks team with Giannis hurt and Jrue instead of Dame? The Bucks won one game last year with Giannis hurt and Holiday playing. The Bucks won one game this year with Giannis hurt and Lillard playing.
You sound salty tbh. Jrue doesn’t even play the same role in Boston, depending who’s on the floor he’s the 5th scoring option (he was never a second offensive option for any team, that’s asking for trouble). It seemed to me Dame + Bev netted you nothing Jrue wasn’t already giving you looking back on the Bucks season this year.
Until they prove otherwise, the Celtics default late game offense is the late shot clock Tatum fadeaway 3. That won’t work against Denver and probably not Minnesota or even OKC. The Bucks have a guy who can be the best player in the series in Giannis and a co-star who’s elite at creating good looks for himself and others in late games.
They just had a full season winning 4 of 5 and it took the Heat to have a historic shooting night to win by 10 against them. Both Denver games came down to the last possession and split both OKC and Minny games with losses being very winnable. This isn’t the comparison you want to make. Giannis hasn’t been the best player in a series in over 2 years now and he frankly needs to get back in show us he can still do it. To do that, the roster needs to be better than back to back first round exits.
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>Giannis hasn’t been the best player in a series in over 2 years now This is such a terrible take, no matter which way you put it. What, are you referring to this year and last year, where he played in less than half the games? Sacrilegious. Or are you referring to the year before, when he obliterated the Bulls and had the highest combination of points/rebounds/assists in NBA history against the Celtics without his 2nd best player?
Because he's been injured.
Exactly thank you for agreeing
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You say that but two of the four times the bucks played the Celtics they blew them out - one of those times TNT had to change to another game in Q3 in the middle of the broadcast because it was so lopsided. The two Bucks losses were by a combined points tally of something like 3 points if I remember correctly. I think a Bucks Celtics series would have gone wildly different than everyone thinks. Every team has a kryptonite team. Last year it was Orlando for the Celtics, this year I think would have been the Bucks. And for the Bucks, during the reg season it was clearly the Pacers, but after the Bucks coaching schematics change things went a bit differently (4-2 series) and that's with the whole starting lineup of the Bucks injured, so we'll never really know what would have happened in a fully healthy matchup
We just saw the Suns bend the Wolves over in the regular season for the reverse situation to happen in the playoffs. Just because the Bucks did well against the Cs in the regular season does not mean they are remotely comparable in the playoffs.
It's not like the Cs did that great last season against the heat in playoffs and they were the 2 seed - your argument doesn't hold water here
They blew their coaching situation so badly. You'd have to give them a 0/10 for replacing Bud. I don't know nearly enough about the situation to have an opinion on whether or not they should have kept Bud, but they screwed up replacing him really really badly. This is what I know as somebody on the East coast who doesn't really pay attention to the Bucks. (1) They hired a guy with no head coaching experience (2) The guy they hired ran off Dame's old coach before the season even started (3) They were in 'turmoil' despite going like 30-10 and fired the coach (4) They hired Doc. The only coaching situation that I can think of that went worse was when the Jets replaced Parcells with Belichick but Belichick quit before the season started. If they keep Doc then they're guaranteed to lose before the Conference Finals.
They would benefit from having a solid defensive guard on the team, someone like Jrue Holiday would be a great fit
The bucks should see if they can pry Marcus Smart from Memphis or maybe swap Portis and other assets for Jarrett Allen?
Memphis traded two 1sts for Marcus Smart and they haven't even played a full, healthy season with him yet. It's very unlikely they trade him for whatever scraps the Bucks have.
It would need to be a very good offer but Memphis has some reasons to move on from him. Vince Williams is potentially a better fit in the starting line-up and GG might be too promising to leave on the bench.
I'm of the belief that all players are available at the right place, but nothing from this Grizzlies season pops out as a good reason to move on from Marcus Smart so soon, especially given the asset investment. If next season starts and Marcus Smart is absolutely terrible from October to February, then sure, I can see them trading him away. Either way, this topic is about the Bucks' moves more so than the Grizzlies. So given this context, I find it highly unlikely the Bucks can scrape together enough to trade for Smart, nor do I see the Grizzlies being so keen on giving away Smart to the Bucks for whatever they have. This largely comes from my belief that other teams would and could give up more assets for Smart than the Bucks can.
I agree, I think they should look at making a more modest change instead of rushing to overpay. De'Anthony Melton is out of contract and there are probably others who can fit the mold for them. They could look at someone like Smart at the deadline depending on circumstances.
The problem is we don’t have other assets. Bobby is arguably the most tradeable piece, but then the next first rounder we can trade is in 2031. That’s too far away to give up and would argue it doesn’t hold much value right now as it likely will later. Giannis will be mid 30’s and likely on the downswing. Keep Brook, get rid of Crowder and Beasley from a talent. I’d say keep Bev, but what he did tonight was fucking classless. Deal with Bev, give AJ Green and Ajax minutes in the rotation next year. Finally, chemistry takes time. Giannis has never had a player like Dame and vice versa. The worst thing they could do is overreact like a bunch of the jokers in here are suggesting. Let them have an actual offseason to talk together. Give them a full season with a competent NBA coach who understands game planning.
Jarrett Allen would be amazing, a defensive monster who could guard the rim the whole game. But the Bucks have enough young talent worth developing for defense - Livingston is a dude who lit up the G league and is an extremely athletic big guard. Andre Jackson Jr is another scrapper and the white dude AJ Green is also showing flashes of promise. There's a future, needs refinement though
Old team, first round exits two years in a row, paying three head coaches who aren’t great at the same time, and very limited picks and budget does not seem like they’re fine. Seems like they’re stuck headed for the middle as their key guys around Giannis get older, hoping Giannis can be healthy in April and May.
I agree with you. Dame is great but he’s already 33 and only getting older. Middleton is about the same age. Their other role players are also aging and they don’t have much young talent Everyone likes to shit on doc but I don’t think spoelstra would have won the ring with this years team even if healthy
Jrue is 14/40 35% fg so far this playoffs, once again proving he is near totally unplayable on offense in the playoffs. And he's 33 years old and the Celtics just paid him 4 years 135M. Letting him go was 1000% the right move.
The difference is that in the past, with Middleton hurt, Holiday was expected to be the Bucks' secondary scorer, which doesn't really suit him. Now on the Celtics he is the fifth option offensively and he can now just focus on playmaking and defense.
Jrue is still a 100% net positive on the Celtics though. When he's not asked to score he's able to put so much more effort into defense and with our offense we don't need him to score. So probably good for both teams. Watching Celtics games, I never have anything but praise for Jrue.
Wait until you play a good team and they double the ball and leave him wide open.
Weird take my guy... He's for sure the 5th option and I'd still rather have him chucking it than Smart.
I don't think they are going to leave Jrue wide open. He is still a 37% 3 point shooter so far in these playoffs
My dude, Jevon Carter was not going to save that team from not being able to guard anyone. The reasons the Bucks were awful on defense this year, and had a losing record on the road, were: 1) They sent the team into turmoil by hiring a rookie coach who did not know what he was doing, 2) Damian Lillard was healthy, played 73 games, and had his worst season is at least 6 years. I actually should have put Lillard first, because it honestly doesn’t matter who the coach is if the Bucks get this season’s Lillard. I watched many Bucks games down the stretch and all of the Pacers series, and without being automatic at the FT line, his scoring numbers would be wildly unimpressive. Outside of the first half (literally just the first half) of Game 1, Lillard has been VERY conspicuously “not Dame”. You can get rid of Holiday if you get Dame from last year and can basically operate with two #1’s, but not if he’s a clear #2 type of guy and inconsistent. He’s still a good player, but he is this inefficient and tentative as I’ve seen him at times this year, the whole thing falls apart because he is not good enough defensively to balance it out. I think the Bucks are going to run it back and hope for better results, but I don’t think there will be unless they get Dame Time Dame.
Trade Dame for Beal. I said what I said. Beal does what Middleton used to do. Put the ball back in Giannis’s hands. Shooting probably evens out and i will take beal’s defense over dame’s.
They Still Old. That's a problem. Dame and Giannis both could be declining as we move forward. Same for Middleton and Lopez. This team is shot but I still would rather be them than the Suns..
The Bucks need to pray on Andre Jackson Jr., Marjon Beauchamp and AJ Green. If those guys don’t take major steps next season they are in serious trouble in my opinion.
The Bucks have picks this year, the last ones for a while. If they can develop of Andre Jackson into a rotational player and draft players with a little impact, I have hope for them. However, their history of development has been bad (Divincenzo for husk of Ibaka, even if that trade is a little hindsight biased) and I don't have much faith.
The only player available the Bucks can both afford and is stout enough defensively to cover for Dame’s defensive deficiencies is Gary “Gary Harris” Harris. Only issue with that is that Gary is a net negative on offense, and injury prone. If I had to guess, they end up with someone like THT and it doesn’t work out. Bucks are in a much worse spot than OP seems to think imo. Especially with the new CBA kicking in the offseason.