PG Pistons - Giannis & Brook!

[ReasonablySober]

Giannis would turn into a pile of dust if he had to shoulder that kind of offensive load night in and night out. I'm certainly not against trading Dame (or anyone, I guess), but if we still want to contend with Giannis we would need to get back legitimate contributors for Dame.

[-Jragon-]

"We can just ride Giannis to 60 points every night" coming from the same crowd as the "we had to work Giannis too hard last year so he broke apart for the playoffs."

Get healthy, make Khris actually play basketball and get some of his playmaking in there (once again, we are stuck with having only two actual playmakers in the rotation with Midds sidelined) and watch this team play markedly better.

true, and the same people that want to trade Dame thought that Thon Maker just needed more minutes.

[soxperry]

I think if we are committed to Dame, the answer might be Giannis going all out on defense and giving Dame the Portland keys on offense with Giannis doing his thing when Dame sits

[rayallenscalves]

Brook's stocks up to 3.7 per game, including a would-be career-high 1.3 steals per game, which is double what he's put up in the last decade. Now let's hope Giannis can keep up his recent stock production.

[PG Graveyard]

Anyone going nba conspiracy on those reviews last night? Neither of those were even close to a foul. I’m going with the league trying to bury the Bucks so they can get Giannis out of Milwaukee.

[PG Graveyard]

I think if we are committed to Dame, the answer might be Giannis going all out on defense and giving Dame the Portland keys on offense with Giannis doing his thing when Dame sits

Anytime you can take the keys away from a guy who scored 60 last night you have to do it.

[MissKhriddleton]

Trade Dame for what? The team is completely devoid of talent around Giannis, specifically offensive talent, and you want to trade Dame lol? The offense was gross yesterday, it took a historic performance to beat the Pistons, including overcoming a 99.36% chance of someone making at least 1 of 2 free throws. Trade everyone but Dame.

[BuckFan25226]

I think if we are committed to Dame, the answer might be Giannis going all out on defense and giving Dame the Portland keys on offense with Giannis doing his thing when Dame sits

Or you know....we could have focused on getting those defensive minded bigs/role players around Dame and Giannis so we wouldn't have to even have this conversation.


We know BP isn't locking anyone up, I love Brook but when he's drawn away from the hoop, he's a liability. Our defensive frontcourt will be an issue all year, especially if we have Dame as our PG.

[buckboy]

Giannis' sweet midranger tonight is what I've longed years for. Channel that every night, Giannis.

Brook and Beas jersey swap was adorbs.

Better than this one anyway:

[Brewhoopfan]

Fun game! Hot takes:

As much as everyone wants the Giannis/Dame 2 man game to work......It's painfully obvious Giannis is simply much better with the ball in his hands facing the basket. Let them take turns, and get Giannis in the dunker spot when Dame runs PnP with Brook. Mix in some Giannis PnR with Mids if he ever plays again.

GG from Brook, but the Pistons were absolutely eating his lunch on both ends to begin the game. Maybe he's capable of showing some fire on a more regular basis? The days of him being a regular post threat are behind him so bombs away is more realistic.

The starting lineup was just brutal, and I'm thinking that the Bucks are really going to need some ball and player movement to create scoring opportunities. Then I remembered Doc was coaching the team, so 80s ISO here we go! Then Giannis goes into God mode and bails Doc out.

Most importantly: Some life from GTJ. The Bucks desperately need his ceiling.

Promising: AJAX catching under the hoop and dunking! More of that, please.

The Pistons had 31 fast break points, shot 47% from 3, and outrebounded the Bucks. Only 1 player on the planet is capable of overcoming overcoming those odds and carrying a team to a win.

[GiannisAnte34]

hard to ignore that last call in regulation, pretty sure betting played a role influencing that

[-Jragon-]

Trade Dame for what? The team is completely devoid of talent around Giannis, specifically offensive talent, and you want to trade Dame lol? The offense was gross yesterday, it took a historic performance to beat the Pistons, including overcoming a 99.36% chance of someone making at least 1 of 2 free throws. Trade everyone but Dame.

Well put. Seeing AJax fly around reminds me that we play better when we have guys that can get fast breaks. Speed/fast breaks/hustle combined with the talent of Giannis and Dame is the way forward. GTJ, AJax, TP (I guess) - most of our young guys are fast... Brook is slow, but something about him makes him an X factor sometimes. Khris and Bobby are pretty slow. No I don't think we should get Usain Bolt but if we get real 3 and D guys that can move -- that makes us a dangerous finals contender. Having plodders like Bobby and KM eating 30+ minutes or whatever will always give opposing teams a target to attack to stay close in games.

[Profound23]

A couple of things to give Doc and his staff credit:

The last offensive play of regulation was drawn up perfectly. Everything worked well, Prince just missed a wide open shot.

The last defensive play of regulation, kudos to the staff for pulling up the play from the night before during the timeout. Having everyone ready, and with a great defensive stop by Giannis that the refs tried to rob from him.

[LUKE23]

The Bucks were 19 points/100 better with Dame off the floor in last years playoffs. He hurt both the offense and defense.

A four-game sample when he wasn't even really fully healthy that series, and without GA? Yeah, that's a trash take.

For lineups 750+ minutes last season, with Dame playing worse than he is this year, the Bucks were the second-best net rating in the NBA at +17.5. A four-game sample size that doesn't include Giannis in the playoffs does not trump that. We should be making zero wholesale changes until we get a 15-20 game sample size with our core three offensive players, and yes, I realize that means Midds injured ass needs to get back on the court.

[Matches Malone]

I'm on the fence with Dame. We absolutely need his offensive firepower, but when he's not on offensively, he's just a traffic cone out on the court. Many have said he's a rhythm player, and needs the ball in his hands to get going off the dribble, but if Giannis is demanding the ball as well, and seemingly unwilling to become a true big, is Dame ever truly going to shine here or are we wasting time trying to make this pairing work?

[pifhluk23]

Trade Dame for what? The team is completely devoid of talent around Giannis, specifically offensive talent, and you want to trade Dame lol? The offense was gross yesterday, it took a historic performance to beat the Pistons, including overcoming a 99.36% chance of someone making at least 1 of 2 free throws. Trade everyone but Dame.

The trade Dame people are insane and apparently didn't watch him in the playoffs last year... We wouldn't get anywhere close to his caliber of a player in return, it's just complete nonsense.

[LUKE23]

I'm on the fence with Dame. We absolutely need his offensive firepower, but when he's not on offensively, he's just a traffic cone out on the court. Many have said he's a rhythm player, and needs the ball in his hands to get going off the dribble, but if Giannis is demanding the ball as well, and seemingly unwilling to become a true big, is Dame ever truly going to shine here or are we wasting time trying to make this pairing work?

I think it's less about the duo, and more about the trio.

[LUKE23]

The way I view it is this - we made the Dame trade because we continually saw Jrue unable to come through as a third scorer in the postseason. The theory is, you move Dame to option 2 and Midds to option 3, and those are legitimately some of the best 2/3's in the NBA, along with GA, who is currently playing at MVP level. This isn't about fit and it isn't about defense, it's about putting a three-man lineup on the court that is going to decimate teams offensively. They were 125.1 O rating last year as a 3-man lineup. Yes, I realize that means Midds has to be healthy, and they need to all be healthy entering the playoffs. But we have seen them just mow teams down before.

Why trade Dame for a theoretical better fit? You may improve the defense. You are NOT going to increase the offensive ceiling of the team in the postseason. No chance.

[BUCKnation]

Literally like a week and a half ago we lost to the Cavs in the last minute with only Dame, wth are these posts.

[machu46]

Anyone going nba conspiracy on those reviews last night? Neither of those were even close to a foul. I’m going with the league trying to bury the Bucks so they can get Giannis out of Milwaukee.

I think the Brook one was probably correct since he definitely had his arm on Cade's arm and could reasonably argue he prevented Cade from elevating for his shot. The block itself was obviously completely clean though.

The lob is much tougher. I don't think it should have been a foul but I was also kinda surprised the refs could even review it. I kinda assumed it was going to be a case where they could only review the time left when the foul was called since it wasn't a challenge.