PG Portland - Bucks Lose

[ShootingtheJ]

Midds didn't look like he wanted to be out there tonight.

It was silly to play him in a back too back. This ain't the playoffs, and the playoffs don't have back to backs.

[ShootingtheJ]

Need a dude like Avdija

Avdija, Camara, heck they even have one more they didn't even use tonight in Banton. We've never had a quick combo forward. We need one, badly.

[ShootingtheJ]

Ajax with 9 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists, didn't miss a shot. Unfortunately, I thought he was awful defensively.

[randy84]

B2B board overreaction meltdown in progress.
The starters played heavy minutes last night. Who could see THIS coming?!

They played heavy minutes to beat the Jazz which tells you all you need to know about this team.

[Packbuckman]

Dam I am glad I went to bed and didn’t see the 4th quarter but giving up 17 offensive rebounds and getting out rebound by 16. Plus they had 10 more ft makes your not winning to many games doing that.
Middleton zero points in 15 minutes both Ajax and Rollins a combined 7-8 fg for 18 pts. No one really played good Defense but those refs sure didn’t make it easier looking at final score the 4th wasn’t any different.

[blazza18]

Wonder how often Doc is talking to Dame and Giannis about their minutes allocation? Doc has Giannis playing the entire first then sitting half the second and Dame’s is so messed up that he’s now gotta sit to get rest with a few minutes to go in the half. This gets ignored in the second half which results in Dame playing huge minutes. Feel like both guys need to be managed better.

[jschligs]

The bucks are 0-5 on the year against the Nets and Blazers who have a combined 32-62 record.

But what this shows me is that young teams that can run and move the ball well will destroy us come playoffs. I look at the Cavs/OCK and honestly in a 7 game series we'd get waxed. Heck, there are probably a few more teams with that DNA that would smash us.

[emunney]

A team who is not good on the boards and very short on bigs loses one big and gets **** clobbered on the boards. This one's on the FO.

With Bobby out, we're one back spasm away from playing Liam Robbins 20+ mpg. Untenable. You have a 15 man NBA roster, there's no good excuse for not having a backup at every position.

[Ron Swanson]

I get that we've been shorthanded lately, but this kind of workload for your three most important guys (Dame/Giannis/Brook) is completely unsustainable. Doc has to find a way to not run these dudes into the ground before the playoffs even start. I don't care if that means more Delon Wright and Pat minutes. 36-year old Brook shouldn't be averaging the most minutes of his career since 2016, and 34-year old Dame shouldn't be playing 80-minutes on a B2B.

[paulpressey25]

The loss isn’t on Khris, as this was a team L

But it highlights the massive decline this team has experienced due to Middleton’s injuries and drop-off. 2021-2022 regular season Khris would have played 34 minutes and put up a 26/6/6 line and the Bucks win.

You just can’t lose that type of talent and not replace it.

[CharityStripe34]

Avdija and Kamara would look amazing in Bucks jerseys.

[Brewhoopfan]

Avdija and Kamara would look amazing in Bucks jerseys.

Portland has some nice young talent, but they need an alpha badly. Deandre Ayton might be the most underachieving talent in the NBA. Will be interesting to see if they use their assets to make a move next year.

[Frank Nova]

The loss isn’t on Khris, as this was a team L

But it highlights the massive decline this team has experienced due to Middleton’s injuries and drop-off. 2021-2022 regular season Khris would have played 34 minutes and put up a 26/6/6 line and the Bucks win.

You just can’t lose that type of talent and not replace it.

This. For how far removed we are from our championship and the decline most players since have been on, it’s kinda crazy that Lillard for Jrue Holiday has been the only thing we’ve done to try and shake things up. Look at Jrues decline in Boston, imagine if Khris and Jrue were still equal parts of our “big 3”, we’d be a play in team right now. The Bucks are a 2 man show that looks like a juggernaut when “the others” show up and contribute and looks like a disaster when Dame and/or Giannis have off nights and no one else contributes. It is a team sport but the 3rd best player on the team can’t be as inconsistent as Khris has become, it’s killing our momentum and ability to sustain long term success.

[-Jragon-]

We have another fundamental flaw and I'm not completely sure how to exactly fix it - but I'll offer something. When Brook sets a screen, he's not rolling or cutting, he just stops there; not even a "pop" where he takes a few steps away from Dame. I think I get why.. by keeping Brook at the top, it helps him get back on D and also theoretically should take a big out of the paint for penetrators. So why isn't it working? Teams don't mind Brook shooting that 3 with a small guy in front of him, so the big still can stay in the paint.

The other problem is that there is so much upside for us if Dame takes those shots instead since he can get scorching hot at a much higher level than Brook and is 20x more dangerous when he penetrates, compared to Brook thereby teams are choosing - especially at the end of quarters - to sell out on Dame and either let Brook shoot his bricks or foul Giannis and let him brick free throws.

The fix would be that you start the quarters with Giannis and Brook drawing fouls in the paint and once teams are over the limit, then Dame will have much less contact and can get into destroy mode... with Dame in destroy mode and them over the limit, he's constantly getting 2, 3 or even 4 points per play... Giannis, at the end of quarters getting fouled more is getting 0, 1 or 2 points. Good for his little MVP pageant but bad for us trying to get a lead on a B2B on the road. Brook thinking that he has the green light everytime he's open is why i'm not against trading him anymore. We honestly need guys that are willing to pass up their own shots knowing that the greater good at the end of quarters is to let Dame close. That's the recipe.. even Giannis needs to get more on board and pass to Dame out of those long 2s at the end of quarters/halves. Dame ending quarters and halves watching Brook brick 3s and Giannis brick longs 2s/fts has to stop or we'll exit the playoffs in the 2nd round. Dame is learning when to defer to Giannis but Giannis (and Brook) doesn't know when to defer to Dame. It's like he doesn't know he's terrible at FTs. Brook's 3 pnt % isn't terrible but minute to minute, game to game there isn't much upside to him taking 10 - 15 shots. Dame can get on streaks of like 5/6 threes during a game and put us up 15+... Brook can't. Our guys just don't accept who they really are and our coaching is better this year but they don't seem to be able to get through to them. Honestly, we have some guys like Brook that should focus on everything except shooting (maybe 5 shots/game) and let Dame get 25 - 30 .. .especially when he's hot. Too easy for a fast defense to force the ball out of Dame's hands and they know he'll not get it back.

[BUCKnation]

Portland's a weird team for us. They seems extra motivated due to Dame and even Ayton is motivated, which is rare, due to the Finals. After we got up, it definitely felt like we wanted to coast like the night prior but they had extra energy and momentum, then you have a bunch of bad shooters making their shots and its not a good recipe. Bad games from our bench didn't help things either.

[-Jragon-]

Also I'll repeat what I said in the GT... optically speaking, KM is the worst NBA defender I've ever seen. It's honestly embarrassing, I didn't see 1 play last night where KM was in a proper position with his knees bent and a forearm low on someone's hip. 1 time they even had him in the paint spun like sideways or backwards. On drives, he sporadically just like jumps into guys trying to cut them off with his arms at their shoulders level instead of staying down and sliding, giving him a little space. It's too easy of a foul call for a ref. The KM dudes were saying it's a weak call but that is getting called 9 of 10 times just from not being in a proper position -- like ever.

[CharityStripe34]

We have another fundamental flaw and I'm not completely sure how to exactly fix it - but I'll offer something. When Brook sets a screen, he's not rolling or cutting, he just stops there; not even a "pop" where he takes a few steps away from Dame. I think I get why.. by keeping Brook at the top, it helps him get back on D and also theoretically should take a big out of the paint for penetrators. So why isn't it working? Teams don't mind Brook shooting that 3 with a small guy in front of him, so the big still can stay in the paint.

The other problem is that there is so much upside for us if Dame takes those shots instead since he can get scorching hot at a much higher level than Brook and is 20x more dangerous when he penetrates, compared to Brook thereby teams are choosing - especially at the end of quarters - to sell out on Dame and either let Brook shoot his bricks or foul Giannis and let him brick free throws.

The fix would be that you start the quarters with Giannis and Brook drawing fouls in the paint and once teams are over the limit, then Dame will have much less contact and can get into destroy mode... with Dame in destroy mode and them over the limit, he's constantly getting 2, 3 or even 4 points per play... Giannis, at the end of quarters getting fouled more is getting 0, 1 or 2 points. Good for his little MVP pageant but bad for us trying to get a lead on a B2B on the road. Brook thinking that he has the green light everytime he's open is why i'm not against trading him anymore. We honestly need guys that are willing to pass up their own shots knowing that the greater good at the end of quarters is to let Dame close. That's the recipe.. even Giannis needs to get more on board and pass to Dame out of those long 2s at the end of quarters/halves. Dame ending quarters and halves watching Brook brick 3s and Giannis brick longs 2s/fts has to stop or we'll exit the playoffs in the 2nd round. Dame is learning when to defer to Giannis but Giannis (and Brook) doesn't know when to defer to Dame. It's like he doesn't know he's terrible at FTs. Brook's 3 pnt % isn't terrible but minute to minute, game to game there isn't much upside to him taking 10 - 15 shots. Dame can get on streaks of like 5/6 threes during a game and put us up 15+... Brook can't. Our guys just don't accept who they really are and our coaching is better this year but they don't seem to be able to get through to them. Honestly, we have some guys like Brook that should focus on everything except shooting (maybe 5 shots/game) and let Dame get 25 - 30 .. .especially when he's hot. Too easy for a fast defense to force the ball out of Dame's hands and they know he'll not get it back.

Gianni was 70% from the field and him drawing fouls does help Dame penetrate. He had quite a few drives to the basket. I don't think Giannis is going for the MVP, his issue is that if he sees his running mates (i.e. Khris) struggle he feels the need to put on his Superman cape.

It's obvious we have flaws in the roster, and part of that was not realizing that guys like Brook and Bobby, while good players generally, are matchup specific for when it really matters and should've been moved earlier (especially Brook). I think it's a decent bet that Horst figured Brook is a great matchup for Embiid had we faced the Sixers in the playoffs, though that matchup has never happened or may never. He should've been dealt the second Game 7 at Boston was over. Instead, he had back surgery and was given an extension.

[Profound23]

Midds didn't look like he wanted to be out there tonight.

It was silly to play him in a back too back. This ain't the playoffs, and the playoffs don't have back to backs.

I don't think it makes any sense to play any of our four main starters (Lopez, Middleton, Giannis, Dame) in back to backs. Either stagger them, or keep them all out of one game. For those who say we can't afford a loss, we still lost even with them playing. This is one of the reasons Giannis gets hurt every year. He only knows one mode and that is great in the playoffs but eventually causes injury after 75+ games, with all of the dumb a** back to backs the NBA loves to schedule.

[Turk Nowitzki]

Bud would've definitely just completely punted one these games if he were still around. This is not a team built for back to backs.

[fansinceforever]

Just gotta get some new blood in here or these games will keep happening.

We don't have enough Bigs who can play, we've got a lot of guys who are very one dimensional and we have core players that just can't rev up like they used to.

Time for a shakeup.