It's Dame Time!

[tedbrogen]

I'm surprised to see some of the NBA media questioning whether the Bucks improved much when considering the defensive downgrade from Jrue to Dame.

Jrue was an all-world defender, unquestionably, and there are very few players in this league who can defend on his level. But you can find really solid wing defenders on the cheap. They might not be good offensive players or guys who you want out there in crunch time, but if you need someone who can play 10-15 minutes a game and just harass the hell out of a talented guard, you can find those guys.

I continue to ask, would Jimmy have scored more points somehow if Dame was guarding him instead of Jrue?

[StickeeFingaz]

Still can’t believe it. Need the press conference and the training camp photos/videos.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

Any regrets on not having Bud back knowing this move in hindsight? Though maybe Stotts was a low-key move to get Dame on-board.

[DingleJerry]

I'm surprised to see some of the NBA media questioning whether the Bucks improved much when considering the defensive downgrade from Jrue to Dame.

Jrue was an all-world defender, unquestionably, and there are very few players in this league who can defend on his level. But you can find really solid wing defenders on the cheap. They might not be good offensive players or guys who you want out there in crunch time, but if you need someone who can play 10-15 minutes a game and just harass the hell out of a talented guard, you can find those guys.

Same, well said. you don't have to 35 mil for good/great D bad O guys. Which is what Jrue becomes in the playoffs. Marcus Smart is like 17 mil per year. That said, they probably do now have to start digging for some kind of good D combo G, or hope you get lucky with Beauchamp. If they knew this was happening maybe they'd have targeted someone else besides Beasley then who would've been a better compliment.

[Ruben Quevedo]

CP3+Kuminga+Moody+28 1st works salary wise and I'd assume the Blazers would be happy with that.

It also works without Moody, but then I'd think Portland would want another pick or swap and the only option in that case currently is a 27 or 29 swap because the Warriors have a bunch of picks lock up until one conveys in 24, 25, or 26.

CP3 wouldn't be a bad mentor for one season for Scoot and Kuminga would be their PF of the future so they can then ditch Grant sometime after January 15th when he is trade eligible.

Kuminga is extremely talented but he's been so bad on the floor that there's no way Portland should take him as a centerpiece for Jrue. He's a sweetener in my opinion.

28 unprotected first is the centerpiece. It coincides with the year after Curry's age 39 season and Jrue/Thompson's age 37 season, I believe.

You just ask for Kuminga and Moody as lottery tickets and to try and strip the Warriors of anyone who could turn into something that would be good in 2028.

I think a 28 first is also quite speculative. Even if it's the 10th pick...how much is the 10th pick 5 years from now worth today? Not that much in my opinion.

If I'm GS I do that deal in a second. If I'm Portland, I'm looking elsewhere for better offers.

[Ruben Quevedo]

Any regrets on not having Bud back knowing this move in hindsight? Though maybe Stotts was a low-key move to get Dame on-board.

No. It was time. And even with Dame we absolutely need more creative sets on offense.

I do wish we hired a coach with a successful track record. Health and Griffin's competence will probably determine our season.

[DingleJerry]

Have such a long time vet like Stotts at Griffin's side does really balance or help reduce that risk/concern quite a bit though.

[bucksfansince88]

I do expect a semi-disappointing start to the season. But once Giannis remembers that he can also be incredibly effective without the ball, then dear god.

I am also a little worried that Coach Griffin now has a tremendous amount of pressure to succeed. The Stotts hire will absolutely be clutch for this team.

Giannis, Dame, and three great shooters in crunch time. That’s terrifying. I have no idea how you stop a late game high PNR with Giannis and Dame without leaving at least one shooter, but probably two, open.

I don’t even know who leads this team in scoring. Probably Giannis, but would anyone be shocked if it were Khris? The guy will be the least guarded he’s been since he broke out and should no longer have the type of ball handling duties he’s had to have over the past few years. Obviously it could be Dame.

Giannis may average a triple double.


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I got Khris having his best season ever if he stays healthy and stays at around 28-32MPG. I'm feeling something like 24, 7, 4 on great efficiency.

He won't get the shots for 24 ppg. If he's healthy he should be pretty damn efficient though.

I think theres at least 15-18 FGAs for Khris this season

[MiltownHawkeye]

...is Khris the best player Dame has ever played with?

(I say this as someone who thinks Aldridge on the Blazers was ridiculously overrated)

I know Aldridge has been all NBA, which I don't think Midds has, but Midds has a 40 point finals game, so I'd take Midds.

(I know, I know, Aldridge never got to the finals)

All-NBA teams were really light on available/viable forwards during a lot of the years Aldridge got his selections though. Tons of guys aging out (Dirk, KG, Amare, Melo), being injured (KD, Griffin), etc. I always thought was an inefficient 20/10 guy that bogged down those Blazers teams despite his numbers and they barely missed a beat when they gave the keys to Dame and lost LMA to the Spurs.

[ReasonablySober]

Read on Twitter

Listened to this live yesterday. Highly recommend

Watch on YouTube

Soooooo good.

[Ron Swanson]

Any regrets on not having Bud back knowing this move in hindsight? Though maybe Stotts was a low-key move to get Dame on-board.

Don't think we can properly answer until we see Griffin's imprint, but this is definitely something to monitor. Bud will never get the credit he deserves for constructing a pretty unique outlier type of championship team based on the resources we had available (no draft-and-developed lottery picks, no big free agent acquisitions). Our constant postseason downfall was always that we never had that one uber-talented co-star for Giannis that could warp defenses independent of Giannis' gravity.

We built a historically great defense and largely relied on a patchwork backcourt rotation through cheap assets and bargain bin FA shopping. I can only imagine how differently each of the last two postseasons go if you replace Jrue with Dame, so my biggest fear at this point is that we indeed jumped the gun on firing Bud when he never had the luxury of this kind of talent combo to work with. Griffin certainly has his work cut out for him.

[crkone]

Any regrets on not having Bud back knowing this move in hindsight? Though maybe Stotts was a low-key move to get Dame on-board.

Don't think we can properly answer until we see Griffin's imprint, but this is definitely something to monitor. Bud will never get the credit he deserves for constructing a pretty unique outlier type of championship team based on the resources we had available (no draft-and-developed lottery picks, no big free agent acquisitions). Our constant postseason downfall was always that we never had that one uber-talented co-star for Giannis that could warp defenses independent of Giannis' gravity.

We built a historically great defense and largely relied on a patchwork backcourt rotation through cheap assets and bargain bin FA shopping. I can only imagine how differently each of the last two postseasons go if you replace Jrue with Dame, so my biggest fear at this point is that we indeed jumped the gun on firing Bud when he never had the luxury of this kind of talent combo to work with. Griffin certainly has his work cut out for him.

I was mainly worried that the Bucks were regurgitating the same roster with minute changes and hoping some schematic differences would help the fact that they were terrible on offense in the playoffs. I'm more confident now with Lillard obviously, but the coach was supposedly the architect behind the implementation of some pretty interesting defenses. I think they'll be able generate a great offense with Lillard now without even trying but they do have our ex's on the bench to help.

[theFireBlanket]

Any regrets on not having Bud back knowing this move in hindsight? Though maybe Stotts was a low-key move to get Dame on-board.

Don't think we can properly answer until we see Griffin's imprint, but this is definitely something to monitor. Bud will never get the credit he deserves for constructing a pretty unique outlier type of championship team based on the resources we had available (no draft-and-developed lottery picks, no big free agent acquisitions). Our constant postseason downfall was always that we never had that one uber-talented co-star for Giannis that could warp defenses independent of Giannis' gravity.

We built a historically great defense and largely relied on a patchwork backcourt rotation through cheap assets and bargain bin FA shopping. I can only imagine how differently each of the last two postseasons go if you replace Jrue with Dame, so my biggest fear at this point is that we indeed jumped the gun on firing Bud when he never had the luxury of this kind of talent combo to work with. Griffin certainly has his work cut out for him.

To be fair, Khris was injured year two of the Jrue seasons, & Giannis in year 3. In the respective playoff exits. Then Bud's brother died in the Heat series, coinciding with Giannis being out/hampered.

You know Mike wishes he could've coached this team too. But his last team just had bad health luck for a few years.

Maybe Jrue & Khris shouldn't have hopped that flight to Japan. Little more gas for Jrue & maybe better recovery for Khris.

Just wondering there, with KM. Then again it was a slippery floor vs. Chicago. But he also tore up his wrist. You never know.

[DingleJerry]

Yup those are just bad luck/breaks. They had some breaks in the Finals win year, but also had to overcome Giannis being out too. The real kick themselves of the Bud era is the Toronto series, nothing crazy happened and you just blew a 2-0 lead including an OT game to go up 3-0. Whoever won that was faves to win the title due to the KD injury. Though, maybe the Klay injury doesn't happen in the alternate timeline. But with no KD you go into that series expecting to win.

[crowhead76]

Any regrets on not having Bud back knowing this move in hindsight? Though maybe Stotts was a low-key move to get Dame on-board.

Don't think we can properly answer until we see Griffin's imprint, but this is definitely something to monitor. Bud will never get the credit he deserves for constructing a pretty unique outlier type of championship team based on the resources we had available (no draft-and-developed lottery picks, no big free agent acquisitions). Our constant postseason downfall was always that we never had that one uber-talented co-star for Giannis that could warp defenses independent of Giannis' gravity.

We built a historically great defense and largely relied on a patchwork backcourt rotation through cheap assets and bargain bin FA shopping. I can only imagine how differently each of the last two postseasons go if you replace Jrue with Dame, so my biggest fear at this point is that we indeed jumped the gun on firing Bud when he never had the luxury of this kind of talent combo to work with. Griffin certainly has his work cut out for him.

Griffin also was an assistant on another first time head coach's staff who happened to win a championship after trading for a superstar. He seems to be uniquely qualified.

[MVP2110]

Damn woj said Horst didn't even tell Giannis about the trade beforehand. That's wild

[BUCKnation]

A big difference between Jrue and Dame, and the way I'm explaining it to those who are questioning the defensive impact, is that last Miami series. Jrue was guarding Jimmy on most of those possessions and I'm not sure he fared much better than Dame would have 1 to 1. Jimmy was still getting 50 either way. The difference is that those late game offensive collapses in games 4 and 5 likely don't happen with Dame.

[emunney]

Damn woj said Horst didn't even tell Giannis about the trade beforehand. That's wild

Maybe Giannis told Horst about it.

[MVP2110]

Damn woj said Horst didn't even tell Giannis about the trade beforehand. That's wild

Maybe Giannis told Horst about it.

Woj said Horst didn't want to put Giannis into a position where he had to sign off on a Jrue trade because of how loved Jrue was in the locker room

[theFireBlanket]

A big difference between Jrue and Dame, and the way I'm explaining it to those who are questioning the defensive impact, is that last Miami series. Jrue was guarding Jimmy on most of those possessions and I'm not sure he fared much better than Dame would have 1 to 1. Jimmy was still getting 50 either way. The difference is that those late game offensive collapses in games 4 and 5 likely don't happen with Dame.

Wes would've been on Jimmy if Jrue didn't force him off. Jrue only commands that matchup because of reputation. Dame isn't guarding Jimmy unless there's a switch.

So Wes naturally takes that role in game 5. Pat, Khris, Grayson spells him. *Pure one player swap for that series.