Are the Bucks fool's gold?

[The_Hater]

my issue with them is that when giannis gets loaded up on, they are either relying on Giannis to hit shots over the top from 8-12 feet, or they are relying on a bunch of average shooters to win them games against teams with great shooters and offense

The Bucks are 2nd in the league in 3 pt%, take away Giannis poor percentage, since he’s the passer in your scenario, and I believe they would rank 1st. So this is a very odd take.

[TravisScott55]

Foolish take. Nobody is beating the Bucks in the east.

[Vampirate]

Does anyone have them beating either LA team? Is making the finals this year and the next enough to get Giannis to sign the Supermax? because after he puts himself down for 35 percent of the cap and middletons making 30+, how do they improve if they cant beat those teams?

Seems simple enough. Lebron ages out and the Clippers break up or Kawhi's health becomes a more significant issue. They don't have to add another star to pass the LA teams. Now maybe Lebron never ages out--dude's a freak after all. But this generation of stars is coming to an end. KD is coming off a major injury. Who knows what the Warriors look like now.

The Spurs and Lebron have warped everyone's ideas of how long windows stay open. Those are massive exceptions and not the rule.

My issue with the Bucks is simply age, they are definitely poised to at least contend for a championship in the next year or 2 however, aside from Giannis, most of their core players will be on the wrong side of 30 once Giannis hits FA.

(for the record I have him staying in Milwaukee at about an 80% chance)

[ropjhk]

You need a unique combination of: strength, length, footspeed and IQ to stay with Giannis in transition and keep him out of the paint. Siakam is long and quick, but not strong enough. Kawhi had the perfect body type, even though he's quite a bit shorter than Giannis. OG is long, built like a tank and has very quick feet, so yeah, that's probably the Raptor's best bet.

And I honestly do think OG has all-defense potential. I just don't see the experience being there yet.

Boston has length, but lacks the frontcourt wall.
Philly has size, but not sure they have the defensive chemistry to close out on the shooters
Miami has Bam (who is a nightmare) but not sure who they have behind him to form that wall
Indiana doesn't have the defenders

Going to be REALLY hard to stop the Bucks this year.

My issue is that they gave middleton that money, and if they sign giannis to the supermax, they have no way of improving their team other than MLE and this bucks team already has a questionable set offense against good defense. Totally agree with you otherwise.

That's a problem for next year.

[hongdayuan]

The issue being that the Raptors couldn't stop him wijthout Kawhi taking the point on defense. When it was Siakam, we couldn't stop him.

So, who in the East has both the man defender and help defense to slow Giannis down? I don't think there is anyone this year, unless OG really shows up.

You need a unique combination of: strength, length, footspeed and IQ to stay with Giannis in transition and keep him out of the paint. Siakam is long and quick, but not strong enough. Kawhi had the perfect body type, even though he's quite a bit shorter than Giannis. OG is long, built like a tank and has very quick feet, so yeah, that's probably the Raptor's best bet.

And I honestly do think OG has all-defense potential. I just don't see the experience being there yet.

Boston has length, but lacks the frontcourt wall.
Philly has size, but not sure they have the defensive chemistry to close out on the shooters
Miami has Bam (who is a nightmare) but not sure who they have behind him to form that wall
Indiana doesn't have the defenders

Going to be REALLY hard to stop the Bucks this year.

it wasn't just kawhi's man-to-man abilities, but his understanding of forcing giannis into gasol. Siakam tried to defend giannis for the first two games by staying with him and that didn't work. Kawhi steps up from game 3 really by forcing giannis into the wall. OG has the tools but you are right, he's probably not seasoned enough to replicate what kawhi has done last year. As good as Nurse is as a coach, it's hard to coach experience and instinct into a young player like OG.

With all that being said, i have no problem with a pleasant surprise.

[JShuttlesworth]

Today, I have the Bucks as my favourite to come out of the East.

Last year I had all the confidence in the world that we were coming out of the East.

Let's see how I feel when the playoffs start.

[SK21209]

They're not fool's good in the sense that they're 100% a title contender if not the favorite. But the advanced numbers say they're one of the best teams of all time and I don't think that's true; it's similar to how I felt about the 2018 Rockets. I think over the last 5 years or so basketball has started to mirror baseball in that you can kind of "figure out" the regular season beyond just being a great team by playing certain styles. I don't think the 2020 Bucks are one of the best teams of all team just like I don't think the 2020 Mavericks are the best offensive team of all team, even though that's what the numbers tell me.

[The_Hater]

Does anyone have them beating either LA team? Is making the finals this year and the next enough to get Giannis to sign the Supermax? because after he puts himself down for 35 percent of the cap and middletons making 30+, how do they improve if they cant beat those teams?

Seems simple enough. Lebron ages out and the Clippers break up or Kawhi's health becomes a more significant issue. They don't have to add another star to pass the LA teams. Now maybe Lebron never ages out--dude's a freak after all. But this generation of stars is coming to an end. KD is coming off a major injury. Who knows what the Warriors look like now.

The Spurs and Lebron have warped everyone's ideas of how long windows stay open. Those are massive exceptions and not the rule.

My issue with the Bucks is simply age, they are definitely poised to at least contend for a championship in the next year or 2 however, aside from Giannis, most of their core players will be on the wrong side of 30 once Giannis hits FA.

(for the record I have him staying in Milwaukee at about an 80% chance)

Except these 30+ vets are the role players, Giannis and Middleton are both still in their prime. The Lakers, Raptors and Clips also have a lot of key rotation players past 30 with Lebron, Lowry and George, top 2 players on these teams, all 30+. Kawhi is 29. All of these players will be logging a lot more playoff minutes than Lopez, Hill and Matthews will in Milwaukee and if they get injured, the blow to their team’s playoff chances will be far more crippling.

Regardless, in most instances, having a mixture of vets and youth is a good thing. Predominantly young teams rarely compete for titles.

[bon]

Same concerns as last season (another one being Giannis' 4th quarter scoring) but nobody seemed to care then. Probably won't matter this year either I'm sure

[JayMKE]

The team with the best record in the league, on pace for 70 wins, with a 25 year old back to back MVP, Pop's former right hand man and two time COTY as HC is fools gold? Seriously, get off our nuts Toronto fans. Bucks win Game 3 of ECF last year and they're NBA champions right now.

[bon]

The team with the best record in the league, on pace for 70 wins, with a 25 year old back to back MVP, Pop's former right hand man and two time COTY as HC is fools gold? Seriously, get off our nuts Toronto fans. Bucks win Game 3 of ECF last year and they're NBA champions right now.

If your MVP/GOAT scored more than 12 points that game then maybe you could have

[The_Hater]

The team with the best record in the league, on pace for 70 wins, with a 25 year old back to back MVP, Pop's former right hand man and two time COTY as HC is fools gold? Seriously, get off our nuts Toronto fans. Bucks win Game 3 of ECF last year and they're NBA champions right now.

A Toronto fan didn’t start this thread, and even then the OP only linked the opinion of someone else. It wasn’t necessarily his own.

Perhaps you should take the time to read the entire thread instead of acting like a compete ass and baiting an entire fan base?

[Texas Chuck]

I don't think the 2020 Mavericks are the best offensive team of all team, even though that's what the numbers tell me.

I think people misunderstand this. Do you know that at one point the 2004 Mavericks were the "best offensive team" of all-time? The worse constructed roster of Dirk's prime. This was a horrible mistake by Dallas which is proven by 3 of the top 6 gone by the next season and Finley gone the year after that. But offensively they put up efficient numbers. But neither the 2004 nor the 2020 Mavericks are remotely good enough defensively to contend for titles. Nor for the most part were the SSOL Suns. If you have a great offensive coach and great offensive superstar like a Dirk, Nash (or both in the case of the Mavs), a Harden, a Luka and your team is willing to sacrifice defense for offense you can in fact get elite offensive results.

Just like if you don't care about offense, you could put together an absolutely stifling defense. Mind you, you couldn't win enough doing this, but its possible.

The 2020 Mavericks score points more efficiently than any team ever has. It's not just "the numbers tell me", it's true. But they aren't really the "best" offensive team of all-time because they can't play defense well enough with those lineups to contend. That's the challenge Donnie Nelson faces--how do I incorporate more defense into this team without sacrificing too much of the offense? And the answer to both questions begins with KP. If his offense continues to trend upwards as it was the 2nd half of the season, then you can replace a Tim Hardaway Jr with a wing defender. And if his defense continues to improve then you can afford to employ a rim-runner like Powell who is a below average defensive big. It's why Dallas made such an aggressive offer to get him.

Back to the Bucks---this is truly an elite defense. Whether or not their regular season SRS translates to a title or now IDK, but its been historically a great indicator of playoff success.

[JayMKE]

The team with the best record in the league, on pace for 70 wins, with a 25 year old back to back MVP, Pop's former right hand man and two time COTY as HC is fools gold? Seriously, get off our nuts Toronto fans. Bucks win Game 3 of ECF last year and they're NBA champions right now.

If your MVP/GOAT scored more than 12 points that game then maybe you could have

Maybe if your MVP didn't bolt first chance he got you'd still have a chance this year too but a lot of things could have made things turn out differently. Bledsoe/Mirotic providing all the bricks needed to 'build a wall' around Giannis, Van Vleet shooting like 80% from 3 put you over the top. It's not rocket science, one team(who mind you was an amazing team in its own right) got hot while the other got cold. I like our chances this go around.

[Duffman100]

The team with the best record in the league, on pace for 70 wins, with a 25 year old back to back MVP, Pop's former right hand man and two time COTY as HC is fools gold? Seriously, get off our nuts Toronto fans. Bucks win Game 3 of ECF last year and they're NBA champions right now.

A Toronto fan didn’t start this thread, and even then the OP only linked the opinion of someone else. It wasn’t necessarily his own.

Perhaps you should take the time to read the entire thread instead of acting like a compete ass and baiting an entire fan base?

Along with many Raptor fans in this thread admitting the Bucks were going to win the East.

[JayMKE]

The team with the best record in the league, on pace for 70 wins, with a 25 year old back to back MVP, Pop's former right hand man and two time COTY as HC is fools gold? Seriously, get off our nuts Toronto fans. Bucks win Game 3 of ECF last year and they're NBA champions right now.

A Toronto fan didn’t start this thread, and even then the OP only linked the opinion of someone else. It wasn’t necessarily his own.

Perhaps you should take the time to read the entire thread instead of acting like a compete ass and baiting an entire fan base?

It's safe to say its almost always Toronto fans pushing this narrative, this thread is what over 50% you guys? Lets not pretend to be blind to whats happening here.

edit: yes there are some of you that are sane and don't have a weird chip on your shoulder against the Bucks still but its definitely a thing

[Duffman100]

The team with the best record in the league, on pace for 70 wins, with a 25 year old back to back MVP, Pop's former right hand man and two time COTY as HC is fools gold? Seriously, get off our nuts Toronto fans. Bucks win Game 3 of ECF last year and they're NBA champions right now.

A Toronto fan didn’t start this thread, and even then the OP only linked the opinion of someone else. It wasn’t necessarily his own.

Perhaps you should take the time to read the entire thread instead of acting like a compete ass and baiting an entire fan base?

It's safe to say its almost always Toronto fans pushing this narrative, this thread is what over 50% you guys? Lets not pretend to be blind to whats happening here.

edit: yes there are some of you that are sane and don't have a weird chip on your shoulder against the Bucks still but its definitely a thing

Just to be clear, out of the 7 open Raptor fans in this thread, 5 believed the Bucks are the better team, 2 don't (or at least have doubts)...

I'm not really sure why Raptor fans would have a grudge against the Bucks..

[The_Hater]

The team with the best record in the league, on pace for 70 wins, with a 25 year old back to back MVP, Pop's former right hand man and two time COTY as HC is fools gold? Seriously, get off our nuts Toronto fans. Bucks win Game 3 of ECF last year and they're NBA champions right now.

A Toronto fan didn’t start this thread, and even then the OP only linked the opinion of someone else. It wasn’t necessarily his own.

Perhaps you should take the time to read the entire thread instead of acting like a compete ass and baiting an entire fan base?

It's safe to say its almost always Toronto fans pushing this narrative, this thread is what over 50% you guys? Lets not pretend to be blind to whats happening here.

edit: yes there are some of you that are sane and don't have a weird chip on your shoulder against the Bucks still but its definitely a thing

So you admit that your rant was about random things that happened previously and had absolutely nothing to do with this particular thread? And then in response, you decided to act no differently than the posters you have decided to speak out against here.

Should I just report you for baiting and hijacking the thread then? Let me know.

[SFour]

I think Bledsoe and Middleton are going to choke again...whether that’s in the ECF or Finals we’ll have to wait and see. At that point Giannis is going to start questioning if he wants to re-sign

[GiannisAnte34]

I think Bledsoe and Middleton are going to choke again...whether that’s in the ECF or Finals we’ll have to wait and see.
At that point Giannis is going to start questioning if he wants to re-sign

We all know that winning the Finals is the pre-qualifier to resigning