Vegas spread:
Bucks -7.5 o/u 234
Giannis is expected to play.
Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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Spud2nique
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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lethalweapon3
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
Welcome back, Coach Bud! The Wizard of the Whiteboard is back in town once more. The Milwaukee Bucks are on the verge of giving Mike Budenholzer his second 60-win regular season, and perhaps his second Coach of the Year trophy, in the space of five years. As for his former employer, the Atlanta Hawks (12:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, Fox Sports Wisconsin)? We’re good!
Not “good” as in, standings “good.” Yeah, no, we’re doing just fine without you, Bud. Most observers saw his job-scouting caper around this time last spring, eventually taking most of his staff with him, as a destabilizing factor for Atlanta, one that was bound to set Travis Schlenk’s Basketball Club back several years. Whomever took over the coaching reins here in The ATL would certainly need a couple years of patience just to get this in-flux organization back to the 24-58 level where Budenholzer left them.
This is not to suggest that Lloyd Pierce is a better coach. Not in 2019, anyway. Only that, as of now, Coach Pierce has proven himself to be a better fit for this team, this franchise, this NBA city, as it is newly constituted. With six games left in this season, LL Cool P is doin’ it well, already having guided the Hawks to 27 wins and, like it or not, counting.
As a franchise, the Hawks haven’t always done coaching transitions smoothly, or well. Mike Fratello’s full-time Atlanta regime only began because Kevin Loughery, two years into his tenure here, saw the grass a little greener working with his pal Rod Thorn in Chicago. And even Fratello didn’t see his Hawks soar above-.500 during his first two full seasons.
Following up from The Czar, the three-year reign of the milquetoast Bob Weiss was, well, okay. After Lenny Wilkens’ cigar-smoking years here winded down, neither of Lon Kruger or Terry Stotts could lather up consumer confidence that they could return the Hawks to even mediocre levels of competitiveness. Longtime assistant Larry Drew succeeded his former boss, and extended Mike Woodson’s playoff runs. But Atlanta always felt as though they were spinning their wheels under Drew’s watch.
Even five years ago today, after the Al Horford-less Hawks had squandered a five-game winning streak with a six-game losing skid, dropping to 31-41 and on the verge of bowing out of the postseason chase for the first time in many years, quite a few fans and media were side-eyeing Budenholzer’s rookie campaign, as he tried to hold together a longtime playoff-caliber roster. We went all-in on Spurs East for this?
But within a week, Coach Bud and the Hawks would change everyone’s outlook, in Atlanta and beyond. The roller-coaster season that followed erased any doubts, here and elsewhere, about his abilities to make also-rans look oh-so-good.
I’m not sure Bud will wind up out-running Doc Rivers and Mike Malone for this year’s Red Auerbach Trophy. But he ought to get recognition of some sort for being the smartest coach of the last offseason. He faced a future of being tethered to Dennis Schroder as his starting point guard, the two of them tethered as lame ducks to a GM that essentially replaced Bud in that role, and wisely sought out the exits.
He wasn’t just wise enough to Get Out, he avoided Getting In to some stickier situations with desperate franchises and sketchy owners in Phoenix and New York. Shifting from Schroder to Giannis Antetokounmpo as his team’s headliner had exactly the effect for Coach Bud that anyone should imagine.
If anybody in Milwaukee deserves an executive honor, Jon Horst ought to have some hardware on his shelf. To make himself the front-runner for Executive of the Year, he had to have had some forethought when he canned Jason Kidd in midseason of 2017-18 despite the Bucks having a middling 23-22 record. He also elected to free his club from restricted free agent Jabari Parker, and he brought back Ersan Ilyasova for veteran depth.
Brook Lopez came to Milwaukee on a one-year deal, and Bud and the Bucks’ new coaching staff committed him fully into being the floor-stretching big that Giannis might one day become. He stuck with role players like Tony Snell, D.J. Wilson, and Sterling Brown, and all have some utility within Bud’s rotations.
Horst moved on from Delly, which is always a sound decision, but also pried George Hill free from Cleveland in the process, along with Jason Smith from the Wizards. At the deadline, Horst pulled off another protected-draft-pick-laden three-way, flipping Smith into the Pelicans’ Nikola Mirotic. A day after picking up Pau Gasol for the stretch run, this month, he gave Eric Bledsoe 70 million reasons to want to stick around for a few years longer.
All those player-personnel moves made Milwaukee’s NBA-best 57-19 record possible. But at the core of it all, pairing Bud with the coach’s long-coveted Frankenstein’s Monster in Antetokounmpo is what ought to sew up the Executive award for Horst.
I miss the clever out-of-bounds after-timeout play direction, the Budfaces directed at clueless refs and misguided players. I don’t miss Bud’s press conferences and media interviews, not at all. Bud is back in a place where his coaching chops suffice as a sell. But his robotic “yeahnowelikeourcorewereallyvaluethethingshedoesforushere” marbly-mouthiness just doesn’t work to pump up a low-drawing NBA fanbase, particularly one that lacked a surefire billboard-worthy star.
Coach Pierce can draw up some pretty good stuff, too, and has helped Atlanta sustain the pace that Bud and his colleagues helped to ramp up here. But LP also has the wherewithal to understand that in an NBA market, a head coach must be a salesperson, inside and out.
Pierce relies on deep-seated connections with NBA people, valuable links gained from working in many places. He’s candid, yet respectful, with a variety of media, shows he knows his audience, respects and takes personal time to uplift the history of the NBA town in which he draws his paychecks. Like Bud’s relationships with his players, Pierce can talk a dry ham-and-cheese into thinking it’s a Monte Cristo. Unlike Bud, he can then turn around and sell those meals to skeptical fans and media.
Pierce is not just talking up a good game off the court. He’s making sure his squad is learning how to present some good games on the court. Putting the team’s persistently competitive fire on display, his Hawks (27-49) have not dropped more than three straight games since December 5 – roughly, about the time John Collins returned from injury and gathered his sea legs.
The upcoming slate of games (today, at San Antonio, back home versus Philly and in Orlando) this week, before meeting these Bucks in Milwaukee next Sunday, are opponents’ final chance to set the Hawks on a losing streak of any meaningful size.
For what amounts to a real early 11:30 AM tip for Wisconsinites, Giannis’ playing status (questionable, ankle) remains up in the air. Tony Snell (ankle) will miss this game, and rookie first-rounder Donte “Italian Water Ice” DiVincenzo has recently been shelved for the season. Malcolm Brogdon (plantar fascia tear) remains out indefinitely, while the team can only hope that Mirotic (thumb) and Gasol (ankle) will be available in time for first-round playoff action.
With or without a load-managed Greek Freak on the floor for Milwaukee (104.1 D-Rating, best in NBA), the onus will be on Bledsoe and All-Star Khris Middleton to dominate the backcourt play. They’ll still have bench support, via Hill, recent pickup Tim Frazier, and Pat “Irish Cream” Connaughton, to keep the pressure on Hawks rookies Kevin “Red Velvet” Huerter and Trae Young high.
Milwaukee still has homecourt advantage in the East (Magic Number: 3) to sew up. But it’s possible Bud keeps his powder dry this afternoon, instead targeting next week’s rematch as the get-back game while allowing critical players to rest up. If so, expect a much more competitive outcome this afternoon, for Atlanta, than the 144-112 and 133-114 losses they suffered at the hooves of the Bucks back in January.
Bud, Giannis and the Bucks? They’re really good. As for Pierce, Trae and the Hawks fans that Bud left behind? We’re good. Hey, it’s all good!
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
Not “good” as in, standings “good.” Yeah, no, we’re doing just fine without you, Bud. Most observers saw his job-scouting caper around this time last spring, eventually taking most of his staff with him, as a destabilizing factor for Atlanta, one that was bound to set Travis Schlenk’s Basketball Club back several years. Whomever took over the coaching reins here in The ATL would certainly need a couple years of patience just to get this in-flux organization back to the 24-58 level where Budenholzer left them.
This is not to suggest that Lloyd Pierce is a better coach. Not in 2019, anyway. Only that, as of now, Coach Pierce has proven himself to be a better fit for this team, this franchise, this NBA city, as it is newly constituted. With six games left in this season, LL Cool P is doin’ it well, already having guided the Hawks to 27 wins and, like it or not, counting.
As a franchise, the Hawks haven’t always done coaching transitions smoothly, or well. Mike Fratello’s full-time Atlanta regime only began because Kevin Loughery, two years into his tenure here, saw the grass a little greener working with his pal Rod Thorn in Chicago. And even Fratello didn’t see his Hawks soar above-.500 during his first two full seasons.
Following up from The Czar, the three-year reign of the milquetoast Bob Weiss was, well, okay. After Lenny Wilkens’ cigar-smoking years here winded down, neither of Lon Kruger or Terry Stotts could lather up consumer confidence that they could return the Hawks to even mediocre levels of competitiveness. Longtime assistant Larry Drew succeeded his former boss, and extended Mike Woodson’s playoff runs. But Atlanta always felt as though they were spinning their wheels under Drew’s watch.
Even five years ago today, after the Al Horford-less Hawks had squandered a five-game winning streak with a six-game losing skid, dropping to 31-41 and on the verge of bowing out of the postseason chase for the first time in many years, quite a few fans and media were side-eyeing Budenholzer’s rookie campaign, as he tried to hold together a longtime playoff-caliber roster. We went all-in on Spurs East for this?
But within a week, Coach Bud and the Hawks would change everyone’s outlook, in Atlanta and beyond. The roller-coaster season that followed erased any doubts, here and elsewhere, about his abilities to make also-rans look oh-so-good.
I’m not sure Bud will wind up out-running Doc Rivers and Mike Malone for this year’s Red Auerbach Trophy. But he ought to get recognition of some sort for being the smartest coach of the last offseason. He faced a future of being tethered to Dennis Schroder as his starting point guard, the two of them tethered as lame ducks to a GM that essentially replaced Bud in that role, and wisely sought out the exits.
He wasn’t just wise enough to Get Out, he avoided Getting In to some stickier situations with desperate franchises and sketchy owners in Phoenix and New York. Shifting from Schroder to Giannis Antetokounmpo as his team’s headliner had exactly the effect for Coach Bud that anyone should imagine.
If anybody in Milwaukee deserves an executive honor, Jon Horst ought to have some hardware on his shelf. To make himself the front-runner for Executive of the Year, he had to have had some forethought when he canned Jason Kidd in midseason of 2017-18 despite the Bucks having a middling 23-22 record. He also elected to free his club from restricted free agent Jabari Parker, and he brought back Ersan Ilyasova for veteran depth.
Brook Lopez came to Milwaukee on a one-year deal, and Bud and the Bucks’ new coaching staff committed him fully into being the floor-stretching big that Giannis might one day become. He stuck with role players like Tony Snell, D.J. Wilson, and Sterling Brown, and all have some utility within Bud’s rotations.
Horst moved on from Delly, which is always a sound decision, but also pried George Hill free from Cleveland in the process, along with Jason Smith from the Wizards. At the deadline, Horst pulled off another protected-draft-pick-laden three-way, flipping Smith into the Pelicans’ Nikola Mirotic. A day after picking up Pau Gasol for the stretch run, this month, he gave Eric Bledsoe 70 million reasons to want to stick around for a few years longer.
All those player-personnel moves made Milwaukee’s NBA-best 57-19 record possible. But at the core of it all, pairing Bud with the coach’s long-coveted Frankenstein’s Monster in Antetokounmpo is what ought to sew up the Executive award for Horst.
I miss the clever out-of-bounds after-timeout play direction, the Budfaces directed at clueless refs and misguided players. I don’t miss Bud’s press conferences and media interviews, not at all. Bud is back in a place where his coaching chops suffice as a sell. But his robotic “yeahnowelikeourcorewereallyvaluethethingshedoesforushere” marbly-mouthiness just doesn’t work to pump up a low-drawing NBA fanbase, particularly one that lacked a surefire billboard-worthy star.
Coach Pierce can draw up some pretty good stuff, too, and has helped Atlanta sustain the pace that Bud and his colleagues helped to ramp up here. But LP also has the wherewithal to understand that in an NBA market, a head coach must be a salesperson, inside and out.
Pierce relies on deep-seated connections with NBA people, valuable links gained from working in many places. He’s candid, yet respectful, with a variety of media, shows he knows his audience, respects and takes personal time to uplift the history of the NBA town in which he draws his paychecks. Like Bud’s relationships with his players, Pierce can talk a dry ham-and-cheese into thinking it’s a Monte Cristo. Unlike Bud, he can then turn around and sell those meals to skeptical fans and media.
Pierce is not just talking up a good game off the court. He’s making sure his squad is learning how to present some good games on the court. Putting the team’s persistently competitive fire on display, his Hawks (27-49) have not dropped more than three straight games since December 5 – roughly, about the time John Collins returned from injury and gathered his sea legs.
The upcoming slate of games (today, at San Antonio, back home versus Philly and in Orlando) this week, before meeting these Bucks in Milwaukee next Sunday, are opponents’ final chance to set the Hawks on a losing streak of any meaningful size.
For what amounts to a real early 11:30 AM tip for Wisconsinites, Giannis’ playing status (questionable, ankle) remains up in the air. Tony Snell (ankle) will miss this game, and rookie first-rounder Donte “Italian Water Ice” DiVincenzo has recently been shelved for the season. Malcolm Brogdon (plantar fascia tear) remains out indefinitely, while the team can only hope that Mirotic (thumb) and Gasol (ankle) will be available in time for first-round playoff action.
With or without a load-managed Greek Freak on the floor for Milwaukee (104.1 D-Rating, best in NBA), the onus will be on Bledsoe and All-Star Khris Middleton to dominate the backcourt play. They’ll still have bench support, via Hill, recent pickup Tim Frazier, and Pat “Irish Cream” Connaughton, to keep the pressure on Hawks rookies Kevin “Red Velvet” Huerter and Trae Young high.
Milwaukee still has homecourt advantage in the East (Magic Number: 3) to sew up. But it’s possible Bud keeps his powder dry this afternoon, instead targeting next week’s rematch as the get-back game while allowing critical players to rest up. If so, expect a much more competitive outcome this afternoon, for Atlanta, than the 144-112 and 133-114 losses they suffered at the hooves of the Bucks back in January.
Bud, Giannis and the Bucks? They’re really good. As for Pierce, Trae and the Hawks fans that Bud left behind? We’re good. Hey, it’s all good!
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
"Dunking is better than sex." - Shawn Kemp, 1996
Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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lethalweapon3
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
"Dunking is better than sex." - Shawn Kemp, 1996
Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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lethalweapon3
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
More relevant gameday news. Thank you for your valuable service, Dewayne. Don't be a stranger!
~lw3
~lw3
"Dunking is better than sex." - Shawn Kemp, 1996
Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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lethalweapon3
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
"Dunking is better than sex." - Shawn Kemp, 1996
Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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Spud2nique
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
Nice preview lw3, I was a huge Bud guy myself. Just loved his grit and sticktoitiveness. Lloyd is more of a player’s coach and seems to relate better with our young squad. That being said, Bud went into the perfect situation for both him and the Bucks as they are constructed nicely as you illustrated.
No Giannis no Mirotic no Gasol..Brogdon..wow.
Let’s do this!
Go Hawks!!!
No Giannis no Mirotic no Gasol..Brogdon..wow.
Let’s do this!
Go Hawks!!!
Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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Spud2nique
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
lethalweapon3 wrote:Awww, he stepped on a Lego AGAIN? Gotta clean that floor up, TP!
~lw3
That is an underrated pain.
Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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Spud2nique
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
I kid you not this is my fav event! YESSSSSS! Although last time I saw this it was a Nuggets or Grizz game and one baby absolutely smoked the others.
PED testing was needed after that performance.
Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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Jamaaliver
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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ducler
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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hawkmanreturns
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
lethalweapon3 wrote:Awww, he stepped on a Lego AGAIN? Gotta clean that floor up, TP!
~lw3
Dedmon and Prince out? Good job by Schlenk. He has his priorities in order.
Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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Matches Malone
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
Should be a win for you guys this morning. 3rd string PG, backup SG, Two-Way player, backup PF and Lopez.
Gery Woelfel wrote:Got a time big boy?
Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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observer1995
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
Well then, knew Giannis had a great chance at being out but that looks like a classic resting lineup. Wouldn't be surprised if that got countered to be honest with where things are at. A few guys are already out, but they may pull some shenanigans with Trae and Collins minutes wise.
Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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graymule
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
Bucks 4-4 from downtown already!!
Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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observer1995
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
Goodness! This game is likely already over! Looks like that 1st Bucks game (except with their C team) which was a 30+ blowout loss.
Bud is likely laughing EXTREMELY HARD right now.
Bud is likely laughing EXTREMELY HARD right now.
Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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Yungsta404
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
observer1995 wrote:Goodness! This game is likely already over! Looks like that 1st Bucks game (except with their C team) which was a 30+ blowout loss.
Bud is likely laughing EXTREMELY HARD right now.
Who cares about Bud. Seeing the line up they put out there, it looks like they were trying to ruin our tank anyway.
Every lost is important in solidifying the 5th spot.
Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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Radioblacktive1
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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peoriabird
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
Bembry and Anderson are playing extremely well today
Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
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Radioblacktive1
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Re: Game Thread: Bucks at Hawks, 03/31/19
JOHN COLLINS
Finally got tired of people saying he can’t play D
Finally got tired of people saying he can’t play D