the joy thanasis exudes while watching basketball from the 15th man role never ceases to amaze me, he is my favorite 15th man in the history of nba basketball
I picked marjon as a breakout guy, but now 3 coaches, bud, grif, doc didn’t seem to like what they’ve seen. At some point, I have to trust their judgement. Aj green on the other hand, keeps beating the odds, at least so it seems?
here's one, in 11 games, 23 offensive fouls called on giannis, last yr 72 games 68 fouls, so right now giannis on pace to have double the offensive fouls called on him.
Also, right now giannis 4.8 to's game, 2.2 of those are offensive fouls.
lebron, 3 off fouls this yr - LOL
My take on bud vs grif debate:
Bud’s job yr 1 was to transform a poorly coached good team into a well coached great team. He did so, but then burnt out.
Grifs job is to take a well coached stagnate team & interject change & bring them back to life.
Very different tasks.
Based on the east coast media take, you’d think the Celtics just went on a 48 covert special forces op to rescue orphans from a ruthless 3rd world dictator then miraculously showed up to play the bucks in spite of no sleep for 48 hours.
It’s JUST back to back games - yikes.
cool thing about jrue's block at the end, butler never once complained, he didn’t even flinch, just walked away
that is a man’s man, in a league full of whiney little babies, esp given how hard he competes.
not calling timeout with less than 10 seconds left IMO is the best way to handle down 1-3 or tied games after a make. inbound it to the alpha & take advantage of the confusion. it's something that you can practice for a few minutes every day, so your team is ready. nice job bud
Giannis pretty much runs the nba whether the biased east coast media likes it or not. he’s got more charm & charisma than the rest of the all star participants combined. He just can’t help himself, none of it’s an act, he’s the real McCoy!
maybe someone else posted this, I didn't think of it, a poster on brewhoop did, named - Buckin_travesty
"Since being up 2-0 on Toronto this team is 1-10 in their last 11 playoff games excluding the 1st round... "
bucks are 3-12 when allowing 43.8% or more on 3pt%
21-1 allowing 36.6% or less
19-12 in between the two numbers
Seems kind of a simple way to win more games, defend 3pt% better - LOL.
I understand the starting 5 has a great 5 man rtg. But guess what, they will with or without Beasley starting.
If folks are too scared to start marjon or Ajax, just start pat.
But freeing up Beasley to get more shots off the bench, will help the bucks, 90% guaranteed lol
I stood up for griffin in spite of the evidence,mostly cause I hate bud, and you can’t hate everyone. But I was wrong, grif was awful. Still, I’m over the moon bud is gone & doc is actually good at things bud was bad at, things I wanted to see in grif.
IMO lebron didn't learn to win titles until he got to miami. It took lots of losing in the playoffs for his 1st title. took jordan longer than many realize too. It's possible, the biggest change to the nba landscape in the past 12 months is giannis learned how to win!
IMO I'm not hypocritical by being happy with the khris contract, even though I was opposed when it was given to him. my criteria, then & now, remained unchanged, I wanted to pay 180M for a 2nd fiddle who'd score 20 ppg & win a title. Khris did that & more - hat's off to him.
with a day or two to think about it, I'm leaning toward jrue on harden, let any or all of giannis, khris, tucker defend KD as required, and let any tom, dick or bryn defend kyrie. If kryie scores 100, good for him, but I'm letting jrue defend harden.
Lillard imo really switches it on when team needs him and off when team is ok without him.
This game he had dametime set to ‘cruise control’ lol.
Do you see that too?
whoever is working with giannis on his free throws is not doing a very good job. I would guess right now, just a guess, giannis is suffering from info overload, rather than underload. I'd consider changing his shooting mentor, and to focus on just one positive thought.
boogie said something like: engine of the team is GA, we all come in and do our jobs. such a positive impact on the bucks team this year, could not have wished for more. Reminds me of the popavich comment, 'find vets over themselves', sure seems like boogie is one of those guys!
Brook has proven for 5 yrs now he can stand aound the paint all game long (all game, not just drop on pnr) & anchor a top 5 defense.
grif needs to figure out how to best deploy the other 4 with brook. Bud used the other 4 too passive. That’s the ‘change’ bucks need from grif.
if those who read this & believe me when I post that a big bucks need is the ability to get high ts% & usg% similtaneously & can defend on ball at SG, marjon should immediately move to the front of the sg rotation. last 15 games, 19.2% usg/59% ts% & a respectable 11% tov%!!!!!!!
Ajax is just such a good basketball player.
Not the kind of player stat geeks or east coast talking heads like might like, but the kind of guy lunch pail carrying basketball players want on their team & don’t want to play against.
Jrue’s ts% has been less than 50% (48,46, 49% respectively) the past 3 yrs in the playoffs. I think that’s enough proof for me. I’d like to see bucks politely move on, in spite of how difficult that might be.
A staple of the bucks new offense should be 15-20 bone crunching pnr’s with dame & brook.
Soft hi usage scorers like cam Thomas or herro be much less likely to score 40 on dame after getting knocked to the floor 15 times a game.
until the bucks get kuzma or oubre or clarkson or someone like that, marjon is the closest thing the bucks have as that shot in the arm the roster needs. I'd love to see what 30mpg +/-4 would look like from him. Right now, he' earned it vs his competition on this roster.
awesome start for the bucks this year. IMO bucks r missing 2 roles now that could come back to bite them in the post sea:
1 - a big defensive wing so jrue doesn't have to do so much, esp since he is also valuable on offense
2 - a big, defensive C, so brook can rest 10-12 games
giannis had no fouls yesterday, 38 minutes, with zion on the floor, another sign of giannis playing smarter basketball, allows him to go after things much harder in the 4th qtr.
to all those posters who are spinning the 'its just two games narrative' - well it NOT. bucks are now 9-16 in their last 25, including 4-1 vs a near g league orlando team, other than that, 5-15. Something is seriously wrong with budball.
one of my game one adjustments, I'd move khris to ariza, & put donte on robinson. I'd tell donte, if he EVER sags off of robinson, he's getting pulled. I'd tell him to follow him to the huddle, to the half time locker room, & to the john. If donte can't, I'd try pat, same rules
Marques would be the
#1
rated national color commentator should he either want to or be given an opportunity, he added another tool to his repertoire last night, as he did an impression of bill Clinton’s voice. What a ham / talent!
What do these four have in common?
Nikola Jokic
Lauri Markkanen
Julius Randle
PJ Washington
They’re the only players to run over 100 pick-and-rolls as a ball handler and over 900 as a screener.
The Hornets should try to keep Washington but his versatility can help a
A win is a win, 11 in a row baby. Can only beat the team the other team wishes to field on a given night, bucks did just that tonight. Awesome job by the team.
I have a in Dave jaeger. Sounds like he is running the x’s & o’s, doc the players & refs. Look to see bucks run 2 sets a night,different ones each game,10-15 a night with various reads, keeping the best ones, building the offense up in next 10 games. Let’s see if that’s the case.
If the celts think the bucks were tough game 1, bucks IMO can not only replicate this, they can even ramp it up even to a higher level. If I'm the bucks, I don't want to give the celts even a glimmer of hope, I want to be the team playing with a sense of urgency tonight!
Bucks, to bud’s credit, even if he couldn’t figure it out last yr, are tearing the wall apart this year. key is to just move the ball, move players around, get brook involved in the offense, 4 on 2 is pretty easy basketball, if the 4 are moving both the ball & themselves.
@BucksFilmRoom
Hill 1st time. I wanted hill to startin front of Eric. I probably was the only one, but I liked his defense almost as much & he was more consistent on offense imo. But Payne is decent, nice to have. Tyty best project pg too. Nice rotation, esp, with dame as the frontman.
giannis guards kawhi poorly because he can't get thru picks well, and he also doesn't see them coming. I would not let him guard kawhi, immediately they started running ball picks for him. giannis can't guard iso pnr ball handlers, eps those who know how to initiate contact
id trade jrue now. No more playoff ts% of 49, 48, 46 (48,49 if you count Eric) low assist, low playmaking, bad choices pg’s for me, defense be damned. 5 yrs of that is enough.
Giannis keeps progressing, been true all 9 yrs, this yr jump shooting, ft shooting & one that is not mentioned as much, his basketball IQ has skyrocketed. all 9 yrs, his humility,thirst for success & willingness to work has never wavered, I can't wait to see 'what's next'
if ibaka (& sandro) can help the depth at big man, a 2nd hole in the roster was a 2nd alpha wing defender, so khris doesn't have to do that for long stretches. I'm hoping marjon helps fix that, but I'd still be ok picking up a 6'7-6'8 vet wing who specializes on defense.
I've been an nba fan for longer than the bucks have been a franchise. The national media narrative never changes, when a big market team plays smash mouth ball that team gets idolized for toughness, passion & heart. when a small market team does it, the refs/rules need to change
Bucks roster doesn’t have personnel to play above the break pressure defense.
My guess is if grif remains, next yr this time, roster will be very different.
Bucks current roster don’t just need a drop defense (a pnr concept), they need a gap defense replacing ball pressure.
I thought the play of the bucks backups was nothing short of spectacular today. Good for them. Can't understand why anyone would trash them or belittle them or complain about them. They were great! All of them.
@bucks
#bucks
Both bud & grif coached as if there was one way to play defense. I can’t believe that. Imo there are multiple ways to defend, not just every game, but every play. I looked for grif to disguise defenses he played but he didn’t , I look for doc to be much harder to predict.
Reactions around the margins from suns game:
1 - I know he’s just a ten day, but Leonard is my perfect sized 14th man styled big, big
2 - Grayson is playing great defense all yr long &.not just on bad players
3 - crowder didn’t play as well this game as he did the 1st game
Dame & giannis closed it out, 100% of the plays in final 4 minutes. If they continue to play that way, bucks WILL be very dangerous in playoffs.
Khris & Malik in each corner, can’t get much better than that either at close out time.
bucks now have won 10 of their last 28 games. Vs knicks, same problems as last 2 playoffs vs toronto/heat, pg gets in paint, stays patient, keeps def pg on his hip, off ball defense sags in too much, giannis walled up (knicks ran wall really well) - not one game, it's been 28
do the bucks win more games when giannis makes 3's? apparently:
9-0 when he made 3 or more
7-1 when he made 2
11-1 when he made 1
2-3 when he made none
Offense 3rd, def 21st ytd for bucks after pacers dismantled the def
Bucks top 5 guards/wings are all bad at defense
Bucks could have a staff of pop, Phil, Riley all in their primes & still not be good on def with this roster
Horst, the guy who hired grif, needs to step up.
the bucks main issue on defense is NOT the drop, it's the overhelping off ball. I thought nobody ever would be worse at overhelping than donte (pat is bad too), but allen proved me wrong. The exception to this was IMO when tucker played, he seemed to yell at everyone to hug up
I'd call the bucks adjusted defense 'drop and hug' - so brook still drops, jrue still fights over the pick, but the other 3 hug up on their man rather than sag in the paint to help
IMO heat series is 100% about giannis. If giannis really is THAT guy, at some point, he has to prove it. If he plays like THAT guy, bucks win 4-0. If he plays like he has in past playoffs, it'll be a coin flip 7 game series. So this game, series & title run r all about giannis.
watched a 7 min clip of the greek team's 1st game, I thought Greece used giannis near perfectly, possibly 'better' than the bucks use him. lots of screen setting, slipping, posting up low'ish, seemed to be moving around inside alot more. IMO this is the giannis Off sweet spot
congrat's to all bucks fans, this is one all fans can agree on, a true victory. to use my favorite success oriented mantra ever, jeb bartlett after solving world hunger or nuclear crisis on the west wing, he calmly asked. 'What's next'?
The adjustment I’d make now has several moving pieces.
Malik moves to 6th man, with him being on the court for khris or lillard & playing on ball, not off. Goal is 18-20% usage & 20-24 mpg.
Until Jae returns or a trade is made marjon or Ajax starts, they combine for 40 mpg.
Griffin presser is almost a repeat of my 12 months worth of tweets, creativity, adjusting, more aggressive on defense, ball and player movement, i can’t find anything to criticize
I have a sneaking suspicion that if the celts win the thrilla in Vegas, the IST WILL be regarded as the most important win in the history of basketball. If the bucks win, it’ll be regarded as a meaningless exhibition. I hope the latter not the former theory gets tested lol.
I've considered thanasis a joke, a side show, an unfortunate cost of doing business. I rated him 0 star, below replacement level. I've been tempted to do this upgrade for a while, but I'm officially increasing his rating to 1.5 star, above replacement but below roatation level
give or take a role or two, the 10 man rotation last nite as follows:
eric 34 george 14
wes 20 george 11 donte 17
khris 32 donte 4 pat 12
giannis 32 marv 16
brook 28 robin 14 giannis 6
giannis zero fouls at half time, one for the entire game, I really am liking the 'chill' style of defense from giannis 1st 3 qtr's, regardless of how many pts he gives up, I think him being free of foul worry in the 4th qtr, is a huge advantage in close games, offense & defense
Many don’t like to think about it, but ONE of these trade periods, the bucks have to get younger in order to get BETTER. not singling out anyone, nor everyone, but this window can close while opening a second giannis era window. Imo that’s going to be the true Horst challenge.
giannis is the best iso rim finisher in history. Making him a pick setting lob catching pf fixes nothing. vary his attacks, less top of key iso, more 2nd / 3rd side, getting him the ball after a series of coordinated actions, pushing all 5 defenders around, then let him strike
IMO portis is proof why the bucks should bring in 3-4 players each yr like hood, allen, hill & semi, why they were smart bringing in craig, portis, augustin, forbes last yr (pat a few yrs back)
all the team needs is 1-2 of those guys to stick, and it was a pretty good off season
Jokic now leagues best player, and it’s not even particularly close. He’s playing with a different set of cheat codes, but his gap vs the field is where Giannis’s was a couple of yrs ago. Hats off to him, now bucks got figure out how to catch up then get ahead again.
had a nice back & forth about marjon today. Regardless of how marjon gets used this year, during practice I'd be OK if wes & marjon held private workouts the entire time & I'd have wes sitting next to marjon all game long. what wes knows is what marjon needs to learn on Def
my favorite moment in this game, when sandro came off in the 1st half after getting dominated by sabonis, he was greeted by brook, who held court along with semi, explaining defense to sandro - awesome vet leadership
My 1st social reaction to meyers L signing involves a passage from my own religion, something about glass houses & rocks.
My 1st basketball reaction, just how many stretch 7 footers who weigh 260 exist in the world? Zone drop & let er fly!
Horst is ok with the move, so am I!
What did I learn from the badgers new HC hire process? IMO there are no guarantees, but in order to get a chance at a luke fickell, a team must first part ways with their mike budenholzer oops I mean paul chryst.
giannis was 11-12 last night inside of 3 feet, eric was 7-7. After the slow start inside probably due to rib injuries, eric has been on fire for the last few games. Watching coby white try to guard eric inside, was like watching a bowling pin try to defend a bowling ball.
to all those saying boogie was not playoff capable, just which one of semi, mamu & thanasis do you think is playoff capable? the reason for 9th thru 15th players is to backup the top 8, not be better than the top 8. Although not ideal, boogie surely > what bucks now have!
Nice thing about Ajax, he might be able to be part of the 3 ‘ball guy’ trio with dame & Giannis, screening, driving, passing, with khris a very active spacer. B4 u scoff at him setting screens, entertain how most likely guys like Grayson, Steph or Pritchard will be guarding him.
The NBA is looking to avoid a ‘last picked’ situation in the NBA All-Star draft this year, per TNT
NBA All-Star captains will now pick reserve players first, then will pick the starters right after.
Regarding grif, I’m not team optimist, I’m simply not team pessimist either. I’m ok with how grif things are right now. And … I feel grif things are on an upswing.
But dame is the reason I’m team optimist about the bucks. Imo he’s been fantastic.
I watched the whole game, start to finish. Bucks played great. Hats off to entire group, and the head coach. Old adage, playoff series doesn’t start until a road win. Let’s hope that happens game 3, not game 2.
Tyty looked good last night too. He is exactly the type of project pg i wanted the bucks to bring in at
#3
pg. Payne is pretty close to my vision at
#2
pg. Dame other than Steph, is exactly what my vision at
#1
pg. that’s kind of cool, nice job horstie!
Wes helps the offense more than other potential 5th starter on this current roster. Wtf u might ask, has OR finally lost it? My rationale, Wes takes the pressure off of khris (and jrue to a certain extent) on defense, so those 2 can be better on offense - LOL
Some of you probably don’t read my posts that often so you’ll have to trust me when I say I’m not a big ref blamer. But geez, it felt like refs missed call after call at the end of bulls - bucks game. Did others see that too?
One more comment then I’m off to play golf in 40 deg wisc weather. Bucks are last in def rtg in playoffs, but are almost 10 worse than 12th. Bottom 5
Nets 114
Heat 117
Clips 119
Twelves 121
Bucks 124
Even in 3 g sample size, that’s bad.
gotta play jevon vs the pg's, 24-30 mpg, jrue vs big wings, khris vs worst wing on the floor as the main defense! the jevon / jrue pairing was the bucks secret defensive sauce while khris was out, gotta get back to that, khris is at least as good as grayson defending bad wings
odd draft for the bucks IMO. Just my pov, seemed counterintuitive, I'd have thought, the bucks have too many developmental 1st/2nd yr players on the roster, not enough higher upside talent, which would imply using
#31
, instead, bucks added 2 more lower tier players to the mix?
IMO best game giannis has ever played - the blueprint on how to GOAT for Giannis. The block was fancy goat'in, but the inbound steal was special & giannis stopped paul at the end, leading to the jru steal, khris layup to clinch + the reb - quick pass to khris sequence. Wowzers!
saw geroge hill had a little chat with thanasis after the game, both were all smiles, but thanasis was doing some nodding, hill doing the talking, probably something to do with nba etiquette involving winning by 47 pts