Bucks sign Forbes!

[Gianstoppable]

If his defense could be hidden I think Forbes could be the sneaky pickup of the offseason

[DrWood]

Think we'd all love a lineup of 5 guys who can defend, pass, and shoot above 36% on 3's. Absent that luxury, Forbes is a guy you can mix and match when you go small. Putting him in Holiday/DDV/Middleton/Giannis lineups loses you next to nothing defensively. This is also why I'm not a fan of overpaying one-dimensional 3PT flame-thrower types when you can dig up guys like Forbes on the minimum. Let other teams break the bank for Joe Harris and Davis Bertans when I can get the 80% version of them for free just because he's 6 inches shorter.

Another factor in this is if you break the bank for Harris or Bertans, it's a lot harder to bench them if they are getting destroyed on defense. Teams are still going to attack those types of players. If Forbes is getting beat so bad it is compromising the entire defense, it's easy to pull him for someone else. That becomes a lot more difficult when it's a highly paid guy. We saw that with Bledsoe.

except Bledsoe was one of our best defenders.

[tedbrogen]

Think we'd all love a lineup of 5 guys who can defend, pass, and shoot above 36% on 3's. Absent that luxury, Forbes is a guy you can mix and match when you go small. Putting him in Holiday/DDV/Middleton/Giannis lineups loses you next to nothing defensively. This is also why I'm not a fan of overpaying one-dimensional 3PT flame-thrower types when you can dig up guys like Forbes on the minimum. Let other teams break the bank for Joe Harris and Davis Bertans when I can get the 80% version of them for free just because he's 6 inches shorter.

Another factor in this is if you break the bank for Harris or Bertans, it's a lot harder to bench them if they are getting destroyed on defense. Teams are still going to attack those types of players. If Forbes is getting beat so bad it is compromising the entire defense, it's easy to pull him for someone else. That becomes a lot more difficult when it's a highly paid guy. We saw that with Bledsoe.

except Bledsoe was one of our best defenders.

That's another reason it was really tough to bench Bledsoe. Even though he was the main reason the offense was cratering, removing him was sacrificing point of attack defense. That should be different with Jrue as he seems far less likely to lose the ability to play offensive basketball in the playoffs.

[DrWood]

I remembered hating him in college. He was 21-35 shooting vs. Wisconsin in 4 games. Including his season high of 21 points as a jr.

[-Jragon-]

Bringing this back to say I'm enjoying having Forbes on the team.. it feels like Malcom Brogdon is back except with a quicker trigger.... it's a warm feeling seeing Giannis pass it over to him for a 3. Ok I'm done.

[Turk Nowitzki]

Yeah, I actually have zero problems with Forbes, other than the fact that he should probably be starting, which isn't ideal if he's our best option.

[higharc]

From the Sam Merill thread:

In a related note, Forbes will be eligible to be traded on February 6th.

Hoping we don't give up on Forbes so quickly. For all the talk of how bad he has been (and I agree he's been pretty bad at defense), he has gone 3/7 from 3 so far.

I haven't seen the abysmal defense people advertised.
He may be abused due to his size, but in the limited sample we have seen so far, he is rotating correctly and he does give effort.
I think in one possession he was posted by Wiggins and he stood his ground enough. Granted it was just Wiggins...

[ShootingtheJ]

From the Sam Merill thread:

In a related note, Forbes will be eligible to be traded on February 6th.

Hoping we don't give up on Forbes so quickly. For all the talk of how bad he has been (and I agree he's been pretty bad at defense), he has gone 3/7 from 3 so far.

I haven't seen the abysmal defense people advertised.
He may be abused due to his size, but in the limited sample we have seen so far, he is rotating correctly and he does give effort.
I think in one possession he was posted by Wiggins and he stood his ground enough. Granted it was just Wiggins...

The problem with Forbes is that he's redundant with Merrill.

Also, dealing him for a minimum salary player would free up enough space to fill the 15th spot sooner, like adding Frank Mason

[theFireBlanket]

Yeah, I actually have zero problems with Forbes, other than the fact that he should probably be starting, which isn't ideal if he's our best option.

Why should he be starting over DDV(?), who's shooting well, while providing plenty of things Forbes doesn't.

Unless you want to bolster the bench with DDV it doesn't check out.

[coolhandluke121]

The problem with Forbes is that he's redundant with Merrill.

Also, dealing him for a minimum salary player would free up enough space to fill the 15th spot sooner, like adding Frank Mason

Don't forget the contract issue with the 2nd-round picks. Should have saved part of the MLE to give them 3-year deals and get full Bird Rights, as you have pointed out several times. I would have rather taken my chances on one of Merrill, Pat, Craig, or Mason being good enough to be the 4th guard than screw up those contracts. You would think the Bucks have had more than enough good 2nd-round picks over the years to understand the importance of that.

[coolhandluke121]

Yeah, I actually have zero problems with Forbes, other than the fact that he should probably be starting, which isn't ideal if he's our best option.

Why should he be starting over DDV(?), who's shooting well, while providing plenty of things Forbes doesn't.

Unless you want to bolster the bench with DDV it doesn't check out.

I think bolstering the bench with DDV should be strongly considered. Obviously he's been terrific in the starting lineup so far, but ultimately I think he's going to be under-utilized on most nights playing with those guys. I'm not saying he should be a primary scorer or ball-handler by any stretch of the imagination, but I think he will be wasted as a 5th option.

[ShootingtheJ]

The problem with Forbes is that he's redundant with Merrill.

Also, dealing him for a minimum salary player would free up enough space to fill the 15th spot sooner, like adding Frank Mason

Don't forget the contract issue with the 2nd-round picks. Should have saved part of the MLE to give them 3-year deals and get full Bird Rights, as you have pointed out several times. I would have rather taken my chances on one of Merrill, Pat, Craig, or Mason being good enough to be the 4th guard than screw up those contracts. You would think the Bucks have had more than enough good 2nd-round picks over the years to understand the importance of that.

This is true, but maybe I've been haphazard in saying we screwed up. It's possible Nwora and Merrill's agents demanded 2 year deals to get there clients paid sooner, causing them to drop in the draft.

I wish we knew.

[ShootingtheJ]

Yeah, I actually have zero problems with Forbes, other than the fact that he should probably be starting, which isn't ideal if he's our best option.

Why should he be starting over DDV(?), who's shooting well, while providing plenty of things Forbes doesn't.

Unless you want to bolster the bench with DDV it doesn't check out.

I think bolstering the bench with DDV should be strongly considered. Obviously he's been terrific in the starting lineup so far, but ultimately I think he's going to be under-utilized on most nights playing with those guys. I'm not saying he should be a primary scorer or ball-handler by any stretch of the imagination, but I think he will be wasted as a 5th option.

We've been staggering minutes so far, so I think we can start DDV and still get him 2nd unit minutes, with Forbes or Merrill getting some 1st unit minutes.

I prefer starting with the finishing group, and that has to include DDV.