Bucks News, Trade Ideas, Transactions - Beal for Midds discussed last year

[ReasonablySober]

Summer League is ours.

[raferfenix]

- Middleton's kind of the forgotten guy here. He was not 100 percent at all last year. Him having another year under his belt away from the surgery, hopefully with a full summer being healthy and no basketball for a few months, longest offseason he's had without an injury in a few years.

Khris had surgery on both ankles this summer. Not major surgery but there is no such thing as minor surgery at his age and given his history.

Where Middleton falls on the spectrum btw "All-Star again" and "wake me for the playoffs like Robert Horry" much less "on the way to cooked" might be the biggest variable for the season.

The Athletic pod also noted that "Khris needs to give them something or he needs to play well enough to bring them something if they need to move him."

He played well enough in the playoffs that I'm not sure we'd necessarily need to wait for him to prove himself further...

...but also if we've been quietly shopping him already we probably/hopefully wouldn't hear about it until it's done like we did with Jrue.

[raferfenix]

I think Ham coming back isn't something that's talked about enough

Bobby agrees (at least circa May 2023) -- especially when it comes to our defense.

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Ham might also matter that much more if the Bucks intend to keep Bobby long term.

According to a source, Portis is interested in joining the Lakers to reunite with former head coach Darvin Ham.

https://lakersdaily.com/report-bobby-portis-interested-in-joining-lakers-to-reunite-with-davin-ham/

That and whether Taurean Prince is actually a PJ replacement vs a minor upgrade to Jae Crowder if only for this season.

“Yeah, Darvin Ham is obviously someone I’m super close with,” Prince said in an interview with Lakers Nation...Ham’s insistence on playing Prince heavy minutes during the regular season was a confusing decision after it was clear he was being asked to do too much on the floor. Prince looked much better off the bench playing limited minutes as he was simply asked to space the floor and guard bigger wings instead of initiating his own offense.

https://lakersnation.com/lakers-news-taurean-prince-reflects-on-darvin-hams-firing/

Not to mention the Giannis relationship.

Another keen difference from 2021 is that Bucks assistant Darvin Ham, a known favorite assistant of Antetokounmpo’s, sources said, has since departed the franchise to take the Lakers’ head coaching job.

https://sports.yahoo.com/bucks-epic-flameout-leads-to-questions-about-mike-budenholzers-coaching-future-154246003.html

[MickeyDavis]

Yeah lots of the usual Lakers drama to contend with but some reports were Darvin wasn't very good as a HC. Some are better suited to being assistants (Grief). Hopefully Darvin wasn't promised the Bucks gig when Doc moves on.

[emunney]

Still think 47 wins for that Lakers roster is pretty damn good.

[rilamann]

Ham returning is big and an underrated move by the Bucks. I think he's a really solid basketball coach. I guess that you can make a case that maybe he's not HC material and he is better suited as a really solid assistant.

But Ham basically got fired because he couldn't beat the Nuggets of prime Joker in the playoffs with a not so great Lakers squad. I don't think that is a fire-able offense. Thanks, Lakers.

And what tops it off is the Lakers fired Ham and then turned around and hired JJ Reddick....lmao.

I still can't believe that someone actually hired JJ Reddick to be an NBA head coach. The Lakers are a mess and I love it.

[BigO]

Efficiency is efficiency. Dame's 2PT (49%) and eFG (51%) were right at his career averages, and he was still drawing shooting fouls at the 2nd highest rate of his career, even with the new continuation rules nerfing the foul-baiting stuff. It's his dip in 3PT volume (8.7 per-36) and efficiency (35%) that caused the slight efficiency drop compared to last season. For all this stuff about his age and him "breaking down", there sure isn't much evidence of it. Dude still looked plenty quick off the dribble from the eye test.

You fix Dame with two things:

1) Tell Giannis he's not bringing the ball up court off the inbounds anymore. If he gets a rebound and wants to push, great. Otherwise that's Dame's job. Doc claims he will do that this season.

2) Last year he was the Charlie V. in our defense. A hole every team knew they could exploit. Bud would have figured out how to hide/scheme around this. Griff and Doc had no clue. The better personnel this year should help, but the defense is the single biggest thing this team needs to solve for.

PP-you woke me up from my summer time hibernation. The idea that Bud was some kind of defensive guru is a repetitive myth that grows with time in the minds of some realgmers. Bud was the recipient of near elite defensive talent and he used them wisely, although robotically.

The year that Lopez was out the entire season, the Bucks were 14th in the NBA in defense. And that's despite having Giannis and Jrue.
It wasn't Bud's fault (although continuing the drop defense in Brook's absence wasn't exactly Einstein level coaching).

The Bucks had a very bad defensive backcourt last season. Allowing penetration all the time is a recipe for bad defense that no coaching can overcome.

[raferfenix]

Windy is emphatic the Bucks aren’t trading Brook.

Sources told him firmly that’s the case. And when Lopez went to the team and said: ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ They’re like, ‘No, we’re not trading you’.

Windy says we are changing the structure of our defense though and Greg Buckner was brought in from the Cavs as part of that. The trade rumors were an assumption that major defensive changes must mean Lopez is out.

1:05 mark about:

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[blazza18]

The Bucks kinda need a good, young, cheap centre to fall into their lap and until that happens Brook kinda has them over the barrel.

[JayMKE]

The Bucks kinda need a good, young, cheap centre to fall into their lap and until that happens Brook kinda has them over the barrel.

Yeah I was hoping they’d find a guy in the draft, FA was a crap shoot being double apron team that could only sign min guys so didn’t expect much there. Trading Brook for someone like Bruce Brown would open a huge hole, they might be better at switching but the defense would tank overall without rim protection. I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to the drop, the Bucks got to play to strengths.

[htr]

I always thought frank kaminsky fit the profile of a brook lopez backup to a tee. But alas it appears unlikely to occur..

[KidA24]

I always thought frank kaminsky fit the profile of a brook lopez backup to a tee. But alas it appears unlikely to occur..

Frankie was the Giannis backup. The change of pace shooter who would move the ball willingly.

[nagawicka]

Yeah lots of the usual Lakers drama to contend with but some reports were Darvin wasn't very good as a HC. Some are better suited to being assistants (Grief). Hopefully Darvin wasn't promised the Bucks gig when Doc moves on.

Holding your own in the middle of the Lakers drama, dunno; you'd haveta be suspicious of anybody that came through a run as head coach WITHOUT getting fired. I mean they all do, but that long run starting Prince isn't a 'suck-up-to-the-largest-contracts-&-egos' in minutes distribution. Bet longtimeoldschool Bucks vouch for Ham. This roster's hungry and who doesn't want a Ham Slamwich.

[theFireBlanket]

Watch on YouTube

Ooooo, i'm ready.

[drone3]

Any Umude updates?... Give me anything

[buckboy]

Camp bodies.

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Robbins was really dominant down the stretch of his super senior season, broke his leg against Kentucky before the conference tournament, and then had a stress fracture last Fall while fighting for a spot with the Pelicans. Decent get for the Herd if that's behind him.

I've followed Robbins a little bit, he was a Wisconsin recruit. He was mildly intriguing before the injuries.

[Matches Malone]

[emunney]

I'm sure a lot of it is camera distance but Marj looks big.

[blazza18]

That angle makes it looks like Marjon's head has shrunk

[Reddeye]

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