PG Hawks: One Good Quarter

[stillgotgame]

A good way to make me question your input is arguing for Griffin on the merits of record. There's a reason he got fired at 30-13.

I'm not defending Griffin. I'm pointing out there's less wrong with this roster than it appears. Even a clueless rookie coach was 30-13.

Why can't we play small when Giannis is out instead of playing Brook 40 minutes?
Everyone on this board knows Brook is a liability in a lot of matchups, why doesn't Doc.

[Willie Colon]

jrue declined alot but his identity and style was what this team needed. were soft and weakminded. he wasnt..

In the 2022-23 season Jrue was an all-star and he averaged 19/7/5 on great efficiency. Was sixth in DPOY voting. He was our identity.

Last year in the playoffs Jrue stepped up when needed to get another ring.

Even despite his age and fall-off, I’d much rather have a backcourt of Jrue and Grayson and that 2028-2030 draft control than Dame.

Revisionist bs. Our identity was that we were getting too old and slow. Couldn't hack it against the elite teams with Jrue as our second best player. Not to mention that he was a brutal playoff performer, including getting eaten alive by Butler in his final Bucks act. He didn't just get traded for no good reason.

With Boston, he's the fourth option at best and Derrick White is/was more important. Boston was already elite without him and have two pgs that could fill his role if he went down.

[higharc]

The reason posters who watched the game say Kuzma was fine is because he tried to play the correct way most of the time. Remember that he doesn't even know the team defence and the offensive plays yet. Give him some practices and a chance to integrate before the hot takes. Also, from what I saw, no reason he cannot play next to Giannis with the starter. His shot is not THAT broken.

Also, as some have mentioned, Brook and Bobby shouldn't play much together. Limit those minutes as much as possible and put athletic (mostly faster) 3-4s next to them. Sims or Smith should get some minutes. Not because they are good. Just to lower the minutes of Brook and get him some rest.

The above are somewhat obvious and someone may have some optimism. The shooting guard position is more of a riddle. No available player is good enough to say he can start for the playoffs there. All options are flawed. We must find in the next games the one that brings the most balance between offense, defense and ball handling help.

[Dick Tate]

A rebuild isn’t going to bring a championship, just a trade demand from Giannis.
This is why the Bucks held on to the ‘31 1st.

[Sigra]

Before this trade deadline I had maybe 3 people on foe list. Now its probably more like 15.

And I dont blame them. Its me. I am geting old and I just cant stand that much negativitiy. In few days when people calm down I will see to return them but right now, I dont know, life is too short for that much noise

[Bernman]

I'd try Bobby/Giannis/Kuzma/Green/Dame starting V. Switch on everything. Those players are good at it, outside Dame, who'd just have to guard a big on the perimeter initially. Our bigs could help if they post him.

Brook's getting cooked & if Bob has 1 strength on d it's switching. On O, try to get Bob & Kuz to stand outside the 3-pt line, or pick for Dame, & otherwise not get in the star's way too much. You could also unlock offensive rebounding, which is a route to better o/more shots. We're not doing it to get back on d. But that's part bcuz of Brook. Otherwise you just have to convince Dame to try.

You have to look for far from ideal solutions because the personnel dept didn't provide them. Unfortunately Doc's one of the worst at pushing the right buttons in the NBA, so we may well need to fire him for these ideas.

[paulpressey25]

I would be curious to see what a Dame package would be. I feel that the trade Dame mantra is the same as the fire Bud mantra. If you told me we were getting rid of Bud to hire Doc I would have absolutely disagreed. So, I need to see what the alternative is before I would advocate trading Dame.

Why don't we fix our C and SG position before we start trading off All-Stars.

Am absolutely convinced we could have gotten Fox for Dame. Seven years younger and a better player at this point.

[Sigra]

Lilard was defended by that Daniels guy who is great defender. I remember Dame having trouble with him earlier in the season too. So without Giannis and with Dame having bad matchup....we played good about 50% of this game. Not enough.

[jute2003]

The teams problem isn't that brook is slow. It's that doc insists on playing him and Bobby together, even when Giannis is active. Not only is bobby slow, he also sucks at everything else on the defensive end. Add in the insistence on playing those two with khris before the trade and it was the slowest **** unit in the league.

Hopefully as kuzma and Sims get integrated and comfortable, Doc gets away from the bull.

[JayMKE]

The team shouldn’t have fired Budenholzer, simple as that. He shouldn’t have been scapegoated for the Miami series and it was some bad karma doing it the day or so after his brother died. We thought the grass was greener but it wasn’t, instead of Nurse or Atkinson they were interested in guys like Mark Jackson/Monty Williams/Adrian Griffin/Doc Rivers. We didn’t appreciate the foundation that was built and now it’s just a fading memory, now it’s back to the slapped together dysfunctional poverty franchise the team was before.

I have no expectation that Doc is going to turn this around or get these guys sharing the ball/playing defense

[bucksfansince88]

Wonder how stotts would’ve had us playing. We should’ve brought him back when we decided to part ways with Griff

[-Jragon-]

The teams problem isn't that brook is slow. It's that doc insists on playing him and Bobby together, even when Giannis is active. Not only is bobby slow, he also sucks at everything else on the defensive end. Add in the insistence on playing those two with khris before the trade and it was the slowest **** unit in the league.

Hopefully as kuzma and Sims get integrated and comfortable, Doc gets away from the bull.

This is a good post.. Bobby Brook and Pat are our remaining sloths... don't ever play Pat and don't ever have Brook and Bobby on at the same time... this isnt that F--ng hard... it will help obviously when GA is back and if Sims can bridge the gap by playing some min with Bobby instead

[-Jragon-]

Wonder how stotts would’ve had us playing. We should’ve brought him back when we decided to part ways with Griff

Dame time..

Dame would have 25+ shots per game if the team actually listened to him.. doubt they would have.. we're still stubborn -- even after the recent trade

[-Jragon-]

What are the chances that Giannis asks out this summer? Selfishly I want him to just ride it out like Dirk and stick with us no matter what, but I won't blame him if he does end up leaving. This is the first time I've felt uneasy about the Bucks situation. Could you realistically talk him into a re-tool once some of the deadweight contracts come off the books and possibly trading Dame? Would he be okay working with another new coach and possibly new GM here or will he look elsewhere for that stability?

Jimmy Haslem cursed us. That's all I keep coming back to. Bad luck just follows that man.

If every year we are still making moves that keep us in the finals conversation he will probably stay.. once he feels a rebuild that's it I'd say because we're not going to stop paying him anytime soon like what happened to Butler

[ShootingtheJ]

Better yet, trade Dame, and get the players we really need.

i feel fairly certain our best course of action is to trade dame for a full rebuild package if we dont ride this thing out.

if we deal dame for a "win now" package we'll probably win even less immediately.

were to the point where were boxed in

giannis can dictate his future here but a full rebuild is what should come next. anything other than that will be painful if youre setting championship goals

I would be curious to see what a Dame package would be. I feel that the trade Dame mantra is the same as the fire Bud mantra. If you told me we were getting rid of Bud to hire Doc I would have absolutely disagreed. So, I need to see what the alternative is before I would advocate trading Dame.

Why don't we fix our C and SG position before we start trading off All-Stars.

The 1st problem is buying in to the hype of a player being called an All Star after you see first hand his minimal on court impact.

[-Jragon-]

I don't trust Doc to figure out that Brook needs to be a situational player now. I'm not saying the big guy is fully cooked, but last night was one of the worst games I've seen from him. Constantly getting turned around on defense, too slow in transition, and Buckner still asks him to guard the perimeter, which makes zero sense to me. Put him in a drop when he's in or just bench him already and roll with Giannis/Kuz/Portis/Sims frontcourt rotation.

The yolo 3s 6 ft behind too... all those shots should go to guards... screen and get your tubby a$s in the paint or at minimum shoot from the actual line .. you arent steph.. swing the ball

[Matches Malone]

What are the chances that Giannis asks out this summer? Selfishly I want him to just ride it out like Dirk and stick with us no matter what, but I won't blame him if he does end up leaving. This is the first time I've felt uneasy about the Bucks situation. Could you realistically talk him into a re-tool once some of the deadweight contracts come off the books and possibly trading Dame? Would he be okay working with another new coach and possibly new GM here or will he look elsewhere for that stability?

Jimmy Haslem cursed us. That's all I keep coming back to. Bad luck just follows that man.

If every year we are still making moves that keep us in the finals conversation he will probably stay.. once he feels a rebuild that's it I'd say because we're not going to stop paying him anytime soon like what happened to Butler

Seems like a situation a GM could enjoy building. You have your centerpiece with Giannis and a trade chip with Dame. Most of our other big contracts are expiring or will be and you can maybe package that and a pick for a player. See if you can attract any free agents or trade for a distressed all-star on another team. Lots of avenues to go with Giannis at the forefront.

[-Jragon-]

Kuzma difference to me is that he's switched on in all phases of the game.. KM was switched on only when he had the ball. He was flying down the court on the fast breaks too which was Nice

[ShootingtheJ]

Wonder how stotts would’ve had us playing. We should’ve brought him back when we decided to part ways with Griff

Dame time..

Dame would have 25+ shots per game if the team actually listened to him.. doubt they would have.. we're still stubborn -- even after the recent trade

Dame Time is a losing strategy. No one wins with slow paced, pounds the dribble, defenseless basketball. The Bucks won before Dame, they win now when he's off the floor, and they'll win big when they cash in his trade value on the next sucker.

[BroncoBuck]

Brook’s off the books next season. He’s a niche role player now, but at 20 million the Bucks are forced to play him more. Ideally Sims will cut into his playing time, but that’s asking a lot for a guy who hasn’t played much in general and is joining a new team.

The Bucks could’ve cut the chord with Brook 2 years ago when Houston desperately wanted him and Giannis brought him back. I’m just glad they didn’t move him for a bad contract during the deadline this year. Let him expire and keep your options open this summer.