BucksRule18 wrote:The more I think about it the more confident I get about the Bucks possibly repeating next year.
I completely understand the Nets were dealing with injuries during the Bucks series, but I highly doubt they would've beaten us in 5 or 6 games if Kyrie didn't get injured. Since the Bucks got off to slow starts in every series, the first 2 bad losses against the Nets were likely not indicative of how the rest of the series would play out. After all their slow starts the Bucks had a total record of 16-2 in the playoffs, once they settled in. They beat the Heat 4-0, won 4 of the last 5 against the Nets, same with the Hawks, and then went 4-0 against the Suns. The only 2 games they lost were the Giannis injury game and Game 5 to the Nets when they were up 17 in the 3rd, and then Durant went Jordan mode.
Going back to the Nets series, I truly believe we still beat them if Kyrie does not get injured. In that scenario, Harden would likely have not come back with his hamstring. Also, for people complaining that if the Nets had all 3 superstars healthy, I would counter that if this was the case, then losing DDV was not fair to the Bucks either. I'm not saying DDV is Kyrie or Harden, but for a team lacking guard depth, losing DDV was devastating.
I don't worry about Kyrie. Dude is a sieve on defense and the Nets get all the ISO scoring they need from KD anyway, he is more or less redundant on that team. DDV and Jrue will take turns making his life miserable, in the end he will still get his 20, but at the same time he will take 10 off KD and give up 10 on defense.
It's Harden that is the problem. Harden has found a spot on D near the block where he's actually a net positive because he's pretty unmovable. He doesn't really do very much but you will notice his player always being forced to fadeaways somehow, and that player was actually Giannis a couple of times. And he boxes out pretty hard as well. But most importantly he is a genius passer, he does things KD and Kyrie could never dream of. The whole offense is different with Harden, if he doesn't score he always somehow finds a lob or an open man or a foul, and he never looks to take shots away from KD, so whatever he does comes on top of what KD does.
