ATL - Embiid Out for the Season

[German Athens]

I’m surprised Emunney hasn’t posted the wizards record with Middleton playing, yet.

They’re .500 now right?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bernman]

I’m surprised Emunney hasn’t posted the wizards record with Middleton playing, yet.

They’re .500 now right?

6-4 actually, and he's been a +/- monster, though not tonight.

I thought they'd be a 30-something win pace team after the trades, & they're looking like it, at least.

[drew881]

AJ Johnson had a good stat line tonight.

We are better without Middleton, even if he is hitting his groove. Just can’t have him in the starting lineup with Dame and Brook. Maybe it would have worked out if we didn’t do the Kuzma trade and staggered all the Middleton minutes to play with Giannis, Sims, and Porter.

[BUCKnation]

Last 4 min of that game were fun

[ShootingtheJ]

AJ Johnson had a good stat line tonight.

We are better without Middleton, even if he is hitting his groove. Just can’t have him in the starting lineup with Dame and Brook. Maybe it would have worked out if we didn’t do the Kuzma trade and staggered all the Middleton minutes to play with Giannis, Sims, and Porter.

He was terrific with the starters, but if we're slow with him and Brook, you bench Brook. Middleton makes everyone else better. He's the opposite of Dame.

Good thing we at least got KPJ and Sims in other deals, or this season would be over.

[German Athens]

I’m surprised Emunney hasn’t posted the wizards record with Middleton playing, yet.

They’re .500 now right?

6-4 actually, and he's been a +/- monster, though not tonight.

I thought they'd be a 30-something win pace team after the trades, & they're looking like it, at least.

It’s kinda fun watching him outside the pressure cooker of contention expectations. It’s easier to appreciate the brilliant basketball player he is while not constantly stressing about his availability, whether he’ll be able to keep it together for four playoff rounds, or whether his defense will hold up against the best, etc.

He’s one of my all-time favorites.

[MickeyDavis]

Cavs streak ended by Orlando

[pifhluk23]

Our next 5 games:

@Warriors
@Lakers
@Kings
@Suns
@Nuggets

Pacers next 5

@Wolves
Mavs
Nets
Nets
Wolves

This is their shot to steal the 4 seed.

[BigO]

Prediction:

1) Bucks squeak out a tough playoff series against the Pacers. Lose to the Cavs.

2) Some posters exclaim that if we only had Atkinson, we'd be champs.

3) Some posters exclaim that if we only we played a,b, c more, things would be different.

Horst is fired (not a problem for me). Without major personnel moves, nothing much changes.

[CharityStripe34]

Thunder/Celtics - great.
Doris doing the game - not great

Mark Jones is one of my least favourite pbp guys too. Has the worst catch phrases in the biz.

I find them amusing. SAYIN IT WITH MY CHEST

[pifhluk23]

Prediction:

1) Bucks squeak out a tough playoff series against the Pacers. Lose to the Cavs.

2) Some posters exclaim that if we only had Atkinson, we'd be champs.

3) Some posters exclaim that if we only we played a,b, c more, things would be different.

Horst is fired (not a problem for me). Without major personnel moves, nothing much changes.

Id honestly rather drop to 6 and play the Knicks/Celtics over Pacers/Cavs. I don't think there is any way we hang onto the 4 seed given schedules so might as well drop to 6.

[Ron Swanson]

If we get a gimpy Brunson in Round 1, then there's certainly some merit to the idea that dropping to 6 is actually the better outcome. Ultimately don't think it matters much as you're still gonna have to go through Cleveland eventually, but crazier things have happened. Could always get a crazy amount of injury and matchup luck like Boston last playoffs.

[rilamann]

It is highly unlikely that the Bucks are beating anyone in a 7 game series with Doc coaching the team.

But if we pretend that somehow in the playoffs the Bucks play to the level they are capable of on paper, despite Doc. Knicks/Celtics would actually be a more favorable road to the ECF than Pacers/Cavs IMO.

The Knicks are an injury prone team that will probably run out of gas in another month. Pacers seem to have our number, Pacers just aren't a great match-up for us.

I will say the same thing about Boston that I have been saying all season. Bucks are a match-up nightmare for the Celtics on paper, but for Boston it's ok because the Bucks are coached by Doc Rivers.

But if we pretend that the Bucks are playing to their full capability despite Doc, the Celtics can be beaten by the Bucks. The Celtics are still better than the Cavs, but the Celtics are a more favorable match-up for us than the Cavs are.

[MickeyDavis]

We beat the Pacers 3 out of 4 and it took a miracle shot for them to win that one game. Don't be afraid of them, bring them on.

[Gant]

Seeds 1-2 are pretty even. 3-4-5-6 are pretty even. 7-8 are pretty even. Bracket-wise here's not much to choose from for any team in the East playoffs.

[emunney]

After going 4-3 in the 7 games Jimmy didn't play before he was traded, the Heat have been 4-14 since the trade, yet are still somehow the 9th seed.

[emunney]

Prediction:

1) Bucks squeak out a tough playoff series against the Pacers. Lose to the Cavs.

2) Some posters exclaim that if we only had Atkinson, we'd be champs.

3) Some posters exclaim that if we only we played a,b, c more, things would be different.

Horst is fired (not a problem for me). Without major personnel moves, nothing much changes.

The only excuse I'll accept for losing a playoff series is an injury to Giannis or Dame causing them to miss the majority of a series, and even with Dame, that's still going to be an indictment of the choices made in building this roster. It is inherently vulnerable because we're so over-leveraged on two guys. But anything else is just normal stuff you should be able to weather, and along the lines of which the team who wins the championship will almost certainly have to overcome.

[BigO]

Prediction:

1) Bucks squeak out a tough playoff series against the Pacers. Lose to the Cavs.

2) Some posters exclaim that if we only had Atkinson, we'd be champs.

3) Some posters exclaim that if we only we played a,b, c more, things would be different.

Horst is fired (not a problem for me). Without major personnel moves, nothing much changes.

The only excuse I'll accept for losing a playoff series is an injury to Giannis or Dame causing them to miss the majority of a series, and even with Dame, that's still going to be an indictment of the choices made in building this roster. It is inherently vulnerable because we're so over-leveraged on two guys. But anything else is just normal stuff you should be able to weather, and along the lines of which the team who wins the championship will almost certainly have to overcome.

So does this mean you think the Bucks, if healthy, have enough to defeat the Cavs, Celtics, and OKC (or whoever in the finals)?

I need some cheering up on this team, so I'm all ears.

[pifhluk23]

We beat the Pacers 3 out of 4 and it took a miracle shot for them to win that one game. Don't be afraid of them, bring them on.

Its not that it's that I think the Knicks and Pacers are about even in terms of matchups for us. But the Knicks gets us Boston 2nd round who I think is a much better matchup for us than Cleveland. The Knicks honestly might be better for us, the 2 guys they need the most suck at defense and have to guard our 2 best players either straight up or on switches.

Especially if they don't have Robinson or he's injured, they have 0 answers for Giannis in that scenario and Kat could be in foul trouble every game. And Brunson is a dream scenario for Dame if he gets switched onto him.

[Ron Swanson]

We're going to have to go through at least 3 playoff rounds of teams that are objectively better than us either way. Really the only silver lining any of us have is the idea that "parity" is now very real (debatable to what extent) and we could just go on a heater with us having the best player in every series. It's been done before (Rockets in '95), but we're all just grasping at straws for reasons to be optimistic at this point.

I think I read a stat somewhere that every champion for the last 14-straight years had at least a Top-5 net-rating and 50+ wins. We're not reaching either of those marks, so it should really be sinking in just how much of a historic upset it would be for this team to flip a switch and win it all. We're not dropping past the 6-seed (6.5 games up on the Hawks), so my priority right now would be to load manage the rest of the way and get Giannis/Dame as healthy as you can.