BigO wrote:I hope all the positivity regarding Kuzma and KPJ continue after this 2 week gauntlet coming up. Everything KPJ and Kuz does is seen with rose colored glasses right now.
There is no doubt the two of them bring athleticism and in the case of KPJ, high end bball skills. It's just that both of them have an extensive record with other teams that is consistent and are red flags (and I don't mean off court stuff with KPJ).
Indicting as rose-colored the vision of realGMers who've seen, verily, with their own two eyes these three new Bucks play--isn't viable. Two or more of your peers gathered here witnessed Kuzma move the ball & defend at will, KPJ pass and rebound and *not* ballhog willfully, and Sims turns out to be The Inverse Paul Mokeski who picks-&-rolls and dunks a lob
like he's *seen it done before*. Unlike some on the roster. This quality play unfolded before your very eyes. Though understandably unrecognizable to some in a Bucks forum, the oncourt performance came first, the appreciative recognition it generated, second.
That's the sequence. These events, these plays executed, are NBA roses by definition. When you haven't seen real roses in too long, ya might think it's the glasses (but somehow always someone else's). Qualitatively: the entire roster moved the ball the moment Kuzma hit the court. Massive upgrade. *Quantitatively*: one of the 3 just magically pulled a triple double out of his hat, in few minutes, w/o starters on-hand. I mean IF statistical metrics are your thing. Prior games in which Dame & Giannis *each* scored 36 to 40 points *also* featured little ball movement, no spark, few points from other guys, and a close finish a
nd a likely defeat.I'll take the spark.
To your larger point.
It's SPORTS. Expect to lose all the time. It's the NBA, it's the Bucks, if that helps. There's no world where winning effortlessly all the time is a) ever gonna happen, or b) could ever be enjoyable or worthwhile. Expectations don't go up just because we've acquired a few promising bball players.
Inevitably, the Bucks will lose games. Inevitably, these guys will make mistakes. (Kuzma as 'Closer' w a 3pt prayer when Green's on the court will not cut it.) Inevitably, this will come as *no surprise* to anyone with a sense of perspective. Inevitably, it will infuriate many whose unreasonable expectations are more or less, but definitely and absolutely, unwarranted.
Fully prepared to watch a gelling, developing roster rise together to meet increasingly tough challenges. There's no other reason to be here, collapse or not. I get it tho//when all the Donte not finishing, Khris buttafingers, G dribble&falldown eeiuuughhh!//is all seared into our realGM brain--I get it. I understand. It's easy to believe that believing in that historical style of play is not, somehow, leaning like a crutch on rose-colored glasses.
Gonna say it again. We saw realGMers assert
as fact the notion that Sims, KPJ, Kuz were bad, dead-end no-good not-NBA players--BEFORE they'd so much as set foot on the court in a Bucks uniform. When no one could know. Fans fronting this bad take have been shown to have no basis in reality to speak about. So who's wearing reality-distorting glasses? Those interested in seeing how K, KPJ, Sims do haven't made undue or unearned claims.
