Is the Bucks roster in better, same or worse shape than when LED took over?

[Baddy Chuck]

Of course not, they're BILLIONAIRES.

[Chuck Diesel]

For me the Middleton injury highlights the fundamentality poor job of roster building John Hammond has done throughout his nine years as Bucks GM. We can't continually give the new ownership a pass on basketball operations because they kept the team in Milwaukee. If they don't make drastic changes our babies will be posting on the Las Vegas Bucks forum in twenty years.

The problem with blaming Hammond though is we know for a fact that he has been meddled with a ton over the years. Half the moves we make under the new ownership group are clearly Kidd's moves. It's also why his job is so safe. I would be willing to bet internally his resume looks much better than what we see from the outside. Vasquez? Yeah that was Kidd. Vaughn? That was Kidd. The list goes on and on. There have been enough secondary sources verifying these things that you have to believe it is true regardless of what Alex says.

Ok, whatever. Blame Jim Paschke then. Things consistently being so muddled & the murky power structure is an indication of poor management from the top. Hammond is definitely culpable. We shouldn't have to still be having this conversation.

[bigkurty]

I personally think the rest of the squad is worse now however Larry going off the rails couldn't be helped. And I do feel we are one move away from actually having a better surrounding cast if we can somehow trade a C for a 3&D rotation sg/sf. If you look at all the moves they made, it is not hard to see how we got here. Just about every move could have been argued with some logic at the time the moves were made except for the Vazquez deal. As a team, it's not like they are doing anything clearly dysfunctional IMO. Managing a team is kind of like gambling at times. You make some good bets and some bad ones. Every team makes bad moves except for maybe Golden State recently who basically lucked into what they have cause Kohl meddled with Hammond.

[Ron Swanson]

This seems like such a reactionary thread to the Middleton injury. Yes, this team is in much better shape than it was in May 2014. Assuming that Middleton comes back healthy next year, you can't just conveniently ignore the most important factor, and that's the progression of Giannis, Middleton, and Jabari from what they were 2 years ago. Jabari and Middleton's injuries have been unfortunate setbacks, but no amount of ancillary moves (i.e. the Delly's and Plumlee's of the league) are going to compensate for that.

[freewhitemoon]

3&D wings are in such high demand, no one is going to trade even an extremely mediocre one for our crappy Cs. OKC spent the last 4 years trying to get a 3&D wing and ultimately failed. You either have to develop your own or overpay in free agency. Look at the contracts that Bazemore and Crabbe got, both of whom are barely + players.

[coolhandluke121]

Can't blame them for Sanders but pretty much all the improvement in our outlook comes from JAM. It's close in ability, but I probably take the 2014 supporting cast.

However, when you take contract into account, it looks even worse; other than JAM and the guys on their rookie deals, there's not a single guy I wouldn't gladly trade for the rights to Szymon Szewczyk right now.

Take the case of Ersan vs. Mirza. Ersan had a down year but would rebound and average 11.5/5 on just over a 55% ts the following season, with his typical +8 differential between ORtg and DRtg. Mirza has only been positive once, and it was a +1. He's (theoretically) 2 years older than Ersan and signed through age 34 at $10m per, whereas Ersan came off the books this summer.

What supporting cast member is a comparable value to Knight? He's better than Monroe. Not sure what they have in Delly but he sure looked like a scrub towards the end of the season. Makes Charlie Bell look like an elite athlete. Not that I like BK, but they sure wasted an asset there.

Zaza was on a good deal and improved with age. Nearly averaged a double-double and made an all-star game with Dallas. No big man on the current team has contributed as much to wins for any team as he did over the last 2 years of his contract.

The current supporting cast is "better" only in name recognition and salary. They don't do much for wins.

[BUCKnation]

Overall yeah, but we still make dumb moves that pretty much cancel out our good ones

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

Knight or Delly
Ilyasova or Teletovic
Sanders or Monroe
Pachulia or Plumlee
Wolters or MCW
Mayo or Beasley
Butler or Terry
Delfino or Novak
Raduljica or Vaughn

wow. depressing to think of it this way

[AussieBuck]

Bring back Miroslav!

[Badgerlander]

It's obviously better but Hammond STILL doesn't know how to balance a roster and continues to overpay mediocre talent like Plums and is poor at asset management...Alas LED hamstrung themselves from hiring a quality GM by hitching us to Kidd. sigh


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[GHOSTofSIKMA]

It's obviously better....

at best its comparable. there isnt a clear upgrade on the roster so to say obviously better is just silly.

[FlagsFlyForever]

When I think of this team's future, I only think of Giannis, Middleton, and Jabari. Those three guys were inherited from Kohl. Everybody else on the roster is replaceable. LED are entering their third season and haven't added any valuable assets and in fact lost one in the MCW trade.

[midranger]

It's clearly worse.

Most of that has to do with Sanders going off the reservation, which is really not LEDs fault. But it happened.

Additionally, I know Brandon Knight is public enemy #1 here, but we've been a pretty terrible team since he was traded. He's obviously sucked in Phoenix, but he was better here than any other player outside the top 3 in the last couple years. And we played better when he was here.

[Chuck Diesel]

Bring back Miroslav!

*Only for games against Bogut

[worthlessBucks]

The main issue for me is we should have oh so much more on our balance sheet. Unfortunately, scratching the backs of agents, buddies, and former teammates takes precedence. Small market, so we're in no position to be pissing away draft picks or letting your coach run the show. Hire good people and then you let those people do their jobs. Same problem as before thus far.

"Look at these idiots posting ideas, like they know what they're doing. Count the zeroes and commasssssssssssssssssss"

[Badgerlander]

It's obviously better....

at best its comparable. there isnt a clear upgrade on the roster so to say obviously better is just silly.

Not shocked in the least that you don't see it


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[Baddy Chuck]

Our core got better. The rest, not so much.

[Prez]

Basically our FO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz-PtEJEaqY&feature=youtu.be&t=7s

[vegaspacker]

I look at it this way. The game has morphed into a 3pt scoring situation.

Terry, Telly, and Delly are some of the better players capable of accomplishing this at a high rate.

Yeah, we lost Midds for a few moments and that was unexpected. Thon might become a good guy beyond the arc. Jabari gets a green light now as well as Giannis.

We have more 'We' than 'Me' guys now. Bayless, BK, Have It All, Baddy, GNeal types are not in the equation... Cept maybe 'Bees' hoping he has an epiphany...

MCW is saying the right things now, and maybe Monroe is used more efficiently.

I see more impact potential guys than say... Inglis, JoB, Wolters, Copeland, Kenyon, Caron, Sessions, Ennis etc...

[vegaspacker]

Vaughn is an enigma with a very short leash, so far he has been a whole of not good. MCcaw is the guy I would rather have, but someone apparently saw something. Perhaps they need a prescription adjustment, but we'll see.

Jason Kidd has been demoted from draft selection/personnel, which is good, but yep it is still a goofy roster.

I am in the passenger seat and hope the grand scheme makes more sense than I realize.