PG Denver - Great Win!

[emunney]

Since the 2-8 start we’re tied with Minnesota for 6th in DRTG. 48 game sample size, with room to improve if Doc started Green instead of Prince.

So, since Doc started playing the yutes.

[drew881]

The two big problems going forward:

1) Creating offense. With KM, we had an elite shot maker and faciltator. Take that away and replace it with an inefficient offensive player and Bucks aren't left with enough offense.

2) Still worried about point of attack defense. The Bucks guards can't stay with good guards. Dame is bad at it and Price isn't much better. Herro embarrassed him. Who is guarding Cleveland's guards?

Number 1 is probably the most worrying. 2021 we were able to really muck up playoff games and grind out dirty wins. I don’t know if that is the NBA anymore, with teams hitting so many threes at a high clip. It seems like every on here views the Celtics as being fragile but I worry we can’t keep up with a team like them, no matter how much we try defensively. Even teams like the Pacers blew the doors off us, scoring 120+ in all their wins.

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I really wish he had guy who can get you the big 20-25 point game off the bench. You need 2 of those guys. I’m hopeful that Porter can be that guy, but after the fun start he seems to be trending down with Doc. Bobby is one who could come close. Don’t think Trent is that guy.

[MickeyDavis]

After chewing on it for a day I'm still really happy with the win. Sure it's just one game but it sure was fun. Back and forth. Several lead changes. 67 second half points. Giannis' rebounding. Contested rebounds and boxing out, something he doesn't always do. Not only did Trent have 15 points he had 3 steals. Prince had 2. Brook didn't hit 3's but he did everything else.

A very fun night of basketball. Something the team, and this board, needed.

[emunney]

SGA is definitely going to win MVP and Jokic deserves to. I don't think Giannis has a real case at this point, if only given the games he's missed. But if I have to win one game, there is no question who I'm taking.

[FrieAaron]

That Brook dunk was awesome.

[Daver]

The two big problems going forward:

1) Creating offense. With KM, we had an elite shot maker and faciltator. Take that away and replace it with an inefficient offensive player and Bucks aren't left with enough offense.

2) Still worried about point of attack defense. The Bucks guards can't stay with good guards. Dame is bad at it and Prince isn't much better. Herro embarrassed him. Who is guarding Cleveland's guards?

I see so if herro goes out n puts up 40 agsinst holiday or white nothing will be said about holidsy or white i assume.Herro has put up some good games agaist other grest D defending guards whats your point

[tedbrogen]

Not sure why we are concerned about bench scoring. Trent or Green can go off on any night. KPJ can get buckets. Bobby can get buckets.

Even if they do the smart thing and move Prince out of the starting lineup, they’ll still have three capable bench scorers. That’s before mentioning the may always have at least one of Dame, Giannis, or Kuz out there with the bench guys giving them a guy to attack the rim.

[Dick Tate]

It's great to be on board with any trade and support the team, which you are very clearly doing. But it's another thing entirely to continue to state things as objective truth regarding Kuzma when they just aren't true. Kuzma has shown to be most effective leading bench units. He struggles playing off of our stars so far since he's been used to iso ball in Washington for a while. He is nowhere near the playmaker Khris is, and he has most definitely been a 1-6 type of shooter from three since coming here. Both numbers and an eye test back these up.

Pretty small sample size there. Last night was the 4th game he's started with Giannis and Dame. The starters together last night were +17.

[blazza18]

SGA is definitely going to win MVP and Jokic deserves to. I don't think Giannis has a real case at this point, if only given the games he's missed. But if I have to win one game, there is no question who I'm taking.

Jokic

[BigO]

The two big problems going forward:

1) Creating offense. With KM, we had an elite shot maker and faciltator. Take that away and replace it with an inefficient offensive player and Bucks aren't left with enough offense.

2) Still worried about point of attack defense. The Bucks guards can't stay with good guards. Dame is bad at it and Prince isn't much better. Herro embarrassed him. Who is guarding Cleveland's guards?

I see so if herro goes out n puts up 40 agsinst holiday or white nothing will be said about holidsy or white i assume.Herro has put up some good games agaist other grest D defending guards whats your point

The real question is what's your point? Is your point that all guards play the same defense?

Prince isn't a good defender of forwards, let alone point guards.

Prince got beat over and over by Herro. Watch the game and if you can't tell bad defense was played by Pbrince, then it tells me everyting I need to know.

And it wasn't Prince's fault. He never should have been covering a point guard.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

Thoughts:

1) Neither Bud or Doc have used Brook the right way on offense. Yesterday was a breath of fresh air. Keep Brook low. Post him up and force teams to adjust, especially when Giannis is off the court.

2) Brook has admirably taken up some of the slack on rebounding and scoring, left by the BP absence. Keep him down low. Use Giannis as a high low tandem.

3) I find it funny that posters praise Kuzma's defense (I think he's been pretty good too), yet the defensive metrics show he's been bad. I shared that just the other day. Shows the flaws of defensive metrics. Either don't use them or use them for everyone.

metrics for a sample under 10 games arent metrics yet

[humanrefutation]

SGA is definitely going to win MVP and Jokic deserves to. I don't think Giannis has a real case at this point, if only given the games he's missed. But if I have to win one game, there is no question who I'm taking.

When Giannis is locked in, there's something about his all-encompassing presence on both sides of the court that has only been matched by peak LeBron in recent memory. He just dominates both ends of the court. Bullying on one end and dominating on the other.

Jokic is an unmatched player on one end and, well, there on the other. He's crafty defensively, but he's not a defensive force.

[AussieBuck]

Thoughts:

1) Neither Bud or Doc have used Brook the right way on offense. Yesterday was a breath of fresh air. Keep Brook low. Post him up and force teams to adjust, especially when Giannis is off the court.

2) Brook has admirably taken up some of the slack on rebounding and scoring, left by the BP absence. Keep him down low. Use Giannis as a high low tandem.

3) I find it funny that posters praise Kuzma's defense (I think he's been pretty good too), yet the defensive metrics show he's been bad. I shared that just the other day. Shows the flaws of defensive metrics. Either don't use them or use them for everyone.

The thing with Brook going low was, Jokic was beating him down the court the other way. It's always a gamble having Brook anywhere but up high because of how slow he is end to end. Which is totally fair given his age, size and minutes he plays.

[AussieBuck]

Is Kuz a new fan favorite? Would love to know the list of Bucks who can go 5-15 and get a positive nickname around here

He didn't shoot the ball well but 16/9/5 with 1 turnover is a really good night for him.

his defense and energy is having the same impact pj tucker had. i had no idea he could defend like he can. trying to take him off the dribble is a dam chore.

his rebounding and just being able to play the most minutes of everybody with alot of pace and bounce is worth far more than if hed have made a couple extra buckets. i think if you didnt look at the boxscores at all and just watched the game youd never have a problem other than maybe some of the 3's he takes but all the guys shoot dumb 3's.

good stat or bad stat who cares but his net rating of +19 says it all to me

It just shows that we've been playing with such a slow team. I don't care that much if Kuzma and Porter give us efficient scoring night to night, what they add on D, getting loose balls, cutting, running, rebounding is giving the team another gear.

Dame/Green/KPJ/Kuzma/Giannis is what we need to see next.

[crkone]

He didn't shoot the ball well but 16/9/5 with 1 turnover is a really good night for him.

his defense and energy is having the same impact pj tucker had. i had no idea he could defend like he can. trying to take him off the dribble is a dam chore.

his rebounding and just being able to play the most minutes of everybody with alot of pace and bounce is worth far more than if hed have made a couple extra buckets. i think if you didnt look at the boxscores at all and just watched the game youd never have a problem other than maybe some of the 3's he takes but all the guys shoot dumb 3's.

good stat or bad stat who cares but his net rating of +19 says it all to me

It just shows that we've been playing with such a slow team. I don't care that much if Kuzma and Porter give us efficient scoring night to night, what they add on D, getting loose balls, cutting, running, rebounding is giving the team another gear.

Dame/Green/KPJ/Kuzma/Giannis is what we need to see next.

Yeah my issue is when the Giannis/Dame two man game gets going one of the guys standing in the corner is Kuzma. His man will help out and then you need him to make a shot. I've seen too many failures in the playoffs because the Bucks couldn't hit a three and they'll be going at some fantastic three point shooting teams. They'll need to keep up and I don't trust Doc to put them in the right positions.

[tedbrogen]

It's great to be on board with any trade and support the team, which you are very clearly doing. But it's another thing entirely to continue to state things as objective truth regarding Kuzma when they just aren't true. Kuzma has shown to be most effective leading bench units. He struggles playing off of our stars so far since he's been used to iso ball in Washington for a while. He is nowhere near the playmaker Khris is, and he has most definitely been a 1-6 type of shooter from three since coming here. Both numbers and an eye test back these up.

Pretty small sample size there. Last night was the 4th game he's started with Giannis and Dame. The starters together last night were +17.

Denver is a good matchup for the oversized starting lineup because Prince can kind of stick with Murray since Murray isn’t super quick. Dame gets to guard a guy who can’t really attack matchups. Then you have three super tall guys to keep Jokic away from the rim as much as possible. And Denver’s only bench piece to switch things up is Westbrick who took some timely bad threes last night to really get the Bucks rolling.

As much as I rag on Prince, he was busting it to fight over screens last night.

The issue is this starting lineup will get cooked by any quick guard. It’s why Herro went off and next time they face the Cavs their backcourt might put up 80 points combined. Hilariously though it’s probably a decent lineup against the Celtics because they don’t have a quick guard initiating things. Although they could just force Dame to switch onto Tatum or Brown and attack him relentlessly.

[tedbrogen]

his defense and energy is having the same impact pj tucker had. i had no idea he could defend like he can. trying to take him off the dribble is a dam chore.

his rebounding and just being able to play the most minutes of everybody with alot of pace and bounce is worth far more than if hed have made a couple extra buckets. i think if you didnt look at the boxscores at all and just watched the game youd never have a problem other than maybe some of the 3's he takes but all the guys shoot dumb 3's.

good stat or bad stat who cares but his net rating of +19 says it all to me

It just shows that we've been playing with such a slow team. I don't care that much if Kuzma and Porter give us efficient scoring night to night, what they add on D, getting loose balls, cutting, running, rebounding is giving the team another gear.

Dame/Green/KPJ/Kuzma/Giannis is what we need to see next.

Yeah my issue is when the Giannis/Dame two man game gets going one of the guys standing in the corner is Kuzma. His man will help out and then you need him to make a shot. I've seen too many failures in the playoffs because the Bucks couldn't hit a three and they'll be going at some fantastic three point shooting teams. They'll need to keep up and I don't trust Doc to put them in the right positions.

If his man helps off him in the corner, he should run to the rim for a lob. They used that a couple times last night for easy buckets. There’s plenty of space to do that if the other two guys on the floor can shoot the three and that should be the case as long as Dre isn’t out there.

[emunney]

SGA is definitely going to win MVP and Jokic deserves to. I don't think Giannis has a real case at this point, if only given the games he's missed. But if I have to win one game, there is no question who I'm taking.

Jokic

Good guess but no