Bulls vs Bucks 1ST Round

[drosestruts]

I try to not get too dissapointed. My preseason expectations were the Bulls as the 6th seed, we were.

When it was clear we were playing Milwaukee in the first round my expectations were a sweep. We stole a game.

And yet - I remain upset and deflated by watching this team. Not sure what it is, it's not so much they're falling short of expectations, it's how they're falling short. Before the series I'd have said a sweep is at least a learning opportunity and we're getting playoff experience. But it's hard to see how this series is helping anyone on Chicago.

[prolific passer]

Bulls lack of size and bench is what has been hurting them in this series. Especially with the bucks frontline of 7 foot Lopez, 6'11" Portis, and 6'10" Giannis.
Portis had 3 double doubles in the series and the bucks won those 3 games.

[MAQ]

We can be critical all we want of our bench, and it would be justified, but when it comes to the playoffs, our stars need to step up and lead the charge, and the hope that the role players contribute along the way.

When it's all said and done, the star players are the ones who shines and steps up when it matters, and it's ALWAYS been that way during the playoffs and Finals. That's where the true stars, and the regular season stars become exposed, but we can't continue to put so much emphasis on our role players, when it's our best players who aren't stepping up to the challenge.

Not sure I agree. It is true that stars are made in the post season. They definitely have their moments and are needed to carry the team.

However the best teams always have their role players step up throughout the playoffs as well. Just in this series alone, the Bucks can that Bobby Portis and Grayson Allen for the victories in games 3 and 4.

The depth displayed on those GSW teams. Fred Van Vleet being a known commodity. Mikal Bridges. The 04 pistons. The NBA playoffs are littered with role players fulfilling their roles to the fullest. I definitely think it's fair to point out the lack of depth/impact players on our team beyond our best players.

[Lexluthor]

I don't understand why Tony Bradley is not getting more playing time

[cool007]

I don't understand why Tony Bradley is not getting more playing time

Because he sucks.

He is slow footed, not athletic, liability on offense etc. I still don't mind trying him over Tristan for a 3-5 minutes if it doesn't work out, sit him. We just don't have enough skilled bigs - best option is Vuc or playing small, unfortunately, Bucks bigs are pretty skilled and making us pay for it.

It is what it is. We knew it all season long - Bucks were probably THE WORST matchup for us and that's who we got in the 1st round.

[nitric0]

Had a thought at work that our season has been ended by Bobby Portis and Grayson Allen. Let that sink in

[jc23]

Had a thought at work that our season has been ended by Bobby Portis and Grayson Allen. Let that sink in

especially when you see them play vs a good team in the next round.

[kodo]

Just when you think it couldn't get uglier.

Read on Twitter

[Ice Man]

Had a thought at work that our season has been ended by Bobby Portis and Grayson Allen. Let that sink in

Bobby is an outright good player. Helped by the fact that we're tiny, but the guy can play. He's a major playoff asset for the Bucks against all opponents. Grayson, on the other hand ... sigh.

[madvillian]

Stan Van going off on twitter about fans criticizing coaches with cliches like "he didn't make adjustments". Rightfully so. That's easy to say, well what adjustments are you going to make? What adjustment to you make in game 86 or whatever to make Coby White a viable consistent bench scorer? How do you redesign an offense based on a gimpy Lavine and a Vuc that has basically a stalemate down low in Lopez?

You don't, at least not easily.

I don't think BD is some great championship coach but he's not a moron either and he's had some pretty good success with better players so find some better players and then worry about the coach.

[Michael Jackson]

I really believe that the Bulls will take this to 7... I think they will keep this competitive until the first 7 minutes of game 5, then they will fold, knowing they took the Bucks to 7 (minutes)

[Ice Man]

Stan Van going off on twitter about fans criticizing coaches with cliches like "he didn't make adjustments". Rightfully so. That's easy to say, well what adjustments are you going to make? What adjustment to you make in game 86 or whatever to make Coby White a viable consistent bench scorer? How do you redesign an offense based on a gimpy Lavine and a Vuc that has basically a stalemate down low in Lopez?

As Stan says, the adjustment criticism is overdone, but perhaps BD can and should be criticized for not instilling a stronger defensive mindset. When you look across the East, the four best teams -- the four highest seeds, all of whom look to be advancing -- all have ferocious defenses. Now, you can say that is because of their personnel, and that is largely true. On the other hand, Miami gives major minutes to Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, and Tyler Herro, and it starts a 6' 4" "power forward," so that's not entirely true.

I think this team can and should have more junkyard dog in it. But yeah, adjustments ... when the opponents have Bobby Portis as their 6th man and you have Coby White, shrug. There isn't any magic coaching dust to fix that.

[MrSparkle]

Stan Van going off on twitter about fans criticizing coaches with cliches like "he didn't make adjustments". Rightfully so. That's easy to say, well what adjustments are you going to make? What adjustment to you make in game 86 or whatever to make Coby White a viable consistent bench scorer? How do you redesign an offense based on a gimpy Lavine and a Vuc that has basically a stalemate down low in Lopez?

As Stan says, the adjustment criticism is overdone, but perhaps BD can and should be criticized for not instilling a stronger defensive mindset. When you look across the East, the four best teams -- the four highest seeds, all of whom look to be advancing -- all have ferocious defenses. Now, you can say that is because of their personnel, and that is largely true. On the other hand, Miami gives major minutes to Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, and Tyler Herro, and it starts a 6' 4" "power forward," so that's not entirely true.

I think this team can and should have more junkyard dog in it. But yeah, adjustments ... when the opponents have Bobby Portis as their 6th man and you have Coby White, shrug. There isn't any magic coaching dust to fix that.

Well... Bam, PJ Tucker, Jimmy and Lowry are All-Defensive players, while we have 1 guy like that... and unfortunately he's injured, and the shortest guy on the court.

Zach/Vuc/Demar are historical poster childs for 1-way players... I think Demar and Vuc have the brains to play better defense, but they don't have the feet and the aggressive personality to do it. I think Zach has the feet, urge and athleticism, but absolutely lacks the brains and awareness to be an effective defender. Gambles a lot, doesn't see the corners well, doesn't read offensive sets well, and often just plain loses his man when he's not being faced up 1-on-1.

I think just 1 of these guys are enough to create a big defensive problem for 20-25 MPG... let alone 30-40 MPG... let alone 3 of them sharing the floor together for an entire playoff game... throw Coby in there, and you have yourself the CARMELOs.

[chitownsports4ever]

I don't understand why Tony Bradley is not getting more playing time

Because he sucks.

He is slow footed, not athletic, liability on offense etc. I still don't mind trying him over Tristan for a 3-5 minutes if it doesn't work out, sit him. We just don't have enough skilled bigs - best option is Vuc or playing small, unfortunately, Bucks bigs are pretty skilled and making us pay for it.

It is what it is. We knew it all season long - Bucks were probably THE WORST matchup for us and that's who we got in the 1st round.

Bradley should get some minutes when they have Lopez, Portis ,and Giannis on the floor together because if nothing else it clogs up the driving lanes for Giannis . I mean he cant do any worse than Demar defensively but at least we would be more physical around the basket

[GoBlue72391]

I said after game 2 that even without Middleton our chances are still incredibly low due to the fact that our margin of error is so small while the Bucks' is comparatively large.

Milwaukee has arguably the best player on the planet and their role players are better than ours, not to mention they have the advantage of the refs being on their side. We didn't get our first FT until nearly halfway through the 3rd quarter in game 4. In game 3, we didn't get our first FT until the waning minutes of the first half, and in game 2 Giannis had more FTs than our entire team combined. That's a massive obstacle for any team to overcome, regardless of opponent.

There was a window of opportunity for us to win this series, but it hinged on us playing at the top of our game and/or required a string of miracle games from DeMar, and obviously neither of those things have happened.

[GoBlue72391]

The Bucks adjusted to DeMar after his 41-point performance in game 2, and we haven't been able to counter that with adjustments of our own. We have no answer for the way they're game-planning against him, which is terrible news given how reliant we are on his isolation scoring.

Milwaukee's defense is absolutely stifling, and it's a struggle to get anything at the rim in the halfcourt. We're pretty much forced to take any shot that is even remotely open, the vast majority of which are jump shots. To compound our complete inability to get anything inside, we also happen to be in the midst of a team-wide shooting slump. We're getting a fair amount of open shots and decent looks, most of which are 3s, but we just can't knock them down. On the other end of the spectrum, we're doubling Giannis and leaving Milwaukee's role players open, who drain anything they toss up.

It's like a perfect storm of coaching ineptitude + an ice-cold streak by our shooters + a blazing hot streak by Milwaukee's shooters + the refs favoring the Bucks.

I know this probably comes off as stating the obvious, but we were only going to go as far as DeMar/Zach could take us. Now that Milwaukee has put together a defense that neutralizes those two our odds were always going to be very slim, but combined with our role players being unable to hit the broad side of a barn coupled with Milwaukee being seemingly automatic from 3, our chances went from low to nonexistent.

[coldfish]

Stan Van going off on twitter about fans criticizing coaches with cliches like "he didn't make adjustments". Rightfully so. That's easy to say, well what adjustments are you going to make? What adjustment to you make in game 86 or whatever to make Coby White a viable consistent bench scorer? How do you redesign an offense based on a gimpy Lavine and a Vuc that has basically a stalemate down low in Lopez?

You don't, at least not easily.

I don't think BD is some great championship coach but he's not a moron either and he's had some pretty good success with better players so find some better players and then worry about the coach.

I couldn't take MJ in a 1 on 1 game but I know enough to say he is pretty good at basketball.

Coaching is difficult but its not because X's and O's are hard to understand. Its hard to get players to buy in and execute. Its hard to think about a ton of things at game speed.

Making adjustments is about pulling different things out of your toolbox. BD has spent the entire season putting nothing in his toolbox. He never tried zones on defense, kept the same scheme, barely had any offensive plays, etc. BD can't make any adjustments because he wasted the entire season not making adjustments.

[chitownsports4ever]

Stan Van going off on twitter about fans criticizing coaches with cliches like "he didn't make adjustments". Rightfully so. That's easy to say, well what adjustments are you going to make? What adjustment to you make in game 86 or whatever to make Coby White a viable consistent bench scorer? How do you redesign an offense based on a gimpy Lavine and a Vuc that has basically a stalemate down low in Lopez?

As Stan says, the adjustment criticism is overdone, but perhaps BD can and should be criticized for not instilling a stronger defensive mindset. When you look across the East, the four best teams -- the four highest seeds, all of whom look to be advancing -- all have ferocious defenses. Now, you can say that is because of their personnel, and that is largely true. On the other hand, Miami gives major minutes to Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, and Tyler Herro, and it starts a 6' 4" "power forward," so that's not entirely true.

I think this team can and should have more junkyard dog in it. But yeah, adjustments ... when the opponents have Bobby Portis as their 6th man and you have Coby White, shrug. There isn't any magic coaching dust to fix that.

Those top 4 seeds are in at least year 3/4 with their core guys the Bulls are months in.

Remember the Sixers have gone through Redick, Jimmy, Covington, Greg Monroe, Shamet ,McConnel ,and Horford the last few years

The Celtics have gone through Olnyk, Gerald Green, Crowder, Horford twice , Rozier ,Isaiah Thomas ,Avery Bradley , Hayward, Monroe , Kyrie , a Morris Twin ,

The Bucks have gone through Beasley ,Dellavedova ,Brogdon , Payton Jr , Monroe ,Snell ,Plumlee ,Maker ,Bledsoe, Mirotic ,Gasol, Wood , and Divencenzo.

The Heat have gone through Olynyk ,DJJ, Whiteside ,Dragic , Iggy ,Crowder, Leonard , Ariza, Bradley, Nunn, Bjelica, and Precious

All but the Heat are on their second coach in the last 5 years

Those teams are also in the midst of very long journeys while ours has just started and we are really just putting mechanisms in place to identify who fits and who doesn't and what works and what doesn't .

[TokeBulls]

Am I a garbage fan for jumping in the Celtics bandwagon? I don't have a true vested interest, but I enjoy watching them and their style. I want them to win.

[chitownsports4ever]

Stan Van going off on twitter about fans criticizing coaches with cliches like "he didn't make adjustments". Rightfully so. That's easy to say, well what adjustments are you going to make? What adjustment to you make in game 86 or whatever to make Coby White a viable consistent bench scorer? How do you redesign an offense based on a gimpy Lavine and a Vuc that has basically a stalemate down low in Lopez?

You don't, at least not easily.

I don't think BD is some great championship coach but he's not a moron either and he's had some pretty good success with better players so find some better players and then worry about the coach.

I couldn't take MJ in a 1 on 1 game but I know enough to say he is pretty good at basketball.

Coaching is difficult but its not because X's and O's are hard to understand. Its hard to get players to buy in and execute. Its hard to think about a ton of things at game speed.

Making adjustments is about pulling different things out of your toolbox. BD has spent the entire season putting nothing in his toolbox. He never tried zones on defense, kept the same scheme, barely had any offensive plays, etc. BD can't make any adjustments because he wasted the entire season not making adjustments.

but...but Demar was having a great season and in the mvp conversation he couldn't interfere with that