PG Pacers - Bucks Down 2-0

[CJTURT]

First thing, Porter,Green,Sims need a hell of a lot more minutes. Kuzman is fine long as he's driving , slashing and doing his best Ben Simmons imitation of playing defense and staying away from the three-point ball. They need to set up AJ Green and Damian Lillard for3-point shots. We must get AJ Green involved more often . A shooter can't get hot if he doesn't shoot. This is not a series conducive to Lopez looking good on defense.

I agree. AJ Green could be a key factor and we’re not utilizing him

[emunney]

I'll go to my grave advocating that we left at least one NBA Finals berth on the table from this 2-season stretch simply by not hiring Kenny Atkinson. I doubt you'll find anyone that says this roster is perfect sans the coach, but you guys aren't gonna convince me that Giannis/Dame surrounded by the #1 3PT shooting offense "can't even compete" with other contenders under slightly more ideal coaching circumstances. This amount of self-sabotage is actively dumber than anything Jason Kidd ever did.

Kenny was a guy who seemed like a great candidate for years that teams hadn’t picked up for some reason.

Do you feel even remotely similar with any of the other candidates out there that would now be available?

Chris Quinn is the guy who comes to mind as somebody who feels like they've been a hot candidate for like 5 years.

[MickeyDavis]

We have an ugly combination of bad coaching and un-coachable, low IQ players. We need a coaching change AND many roster changes.

If Horse is canned good luck finding someone competent given our cap and draft pick situation.

[Gant]

We have an ugly combination of bad coaching and un-coachable, low IQ players. We need a coaching change AND many roster changes.

If Horse is canned good luck finding someone competent given our cap and draft pick situation.

It really is a bad situation if the bad coach is making bad decisions about which bad players to play over other bad players.

[Ron Swanson]

Jenkins, Malone, Vogel, James Borrego, Chris Quinn. I'd be fine with any of those dudes but there's no one out there that I feel as strongly about as I did with Atkinson two years ago. Maybe if Ty Lue or Quinn Snyder become available I'd get more excited, but we're pretty much in "it can't get any worse" territory right now with the head coach. And yes, I'm aware we all said the same thing when we canned Griffin...

[German Athens]

I'll go to my grave advocating that we left at least one NBA Finals berth on the table from this 2-season stretch simply by not hiring Kenny Atkinson. I doubt you'll find anyone that says this roster is perfect sans the coach, but you guys aren't gonna convince me that Giannis/Dame surrounded by the #1 3PT shooting offense "can't even compete" with other contenders under slightly more ideal coaching circumstances. This amount of self-sabotage is actively dumber than anything Jason Kidd ever did.

Kenny was a guy who seemed like a great candidate for years that teams hadn’t picked up for some reason.

Do you feel even remotely similar with any of the other candidates out there that would now be available?

Chris Quinn is the guy who comes to mind as somebody who feels like they've been a hot candidate for like 5 years.

It’s surprising that Spo doesn’t have a large coaching tree in the league when considering his reputation.

I think that probably highlights the inattentive nature of owners. Like they all just look at the standings and hire an assistant from the team with the best record, or re-hire a coach who someone else fired.

It’s weird to me.

[Bernman]

We have an ugly combination of bad coaching and un-coachable, low IQ players. We need a coaching change AND many roster changes.

If Horse is canned good luck finding someone competent given our cap and draft pick situation.

It really is a bad situation if the bad coach is making bad decisions about which bad players to play over other bad players.

Yes, and no. It's all relative. We've still managed to have several players w/ a positive net rating in 2 games on the road. And one of them is not the best player in the series, who's not even close. So how much could they buoy each other together? The regular season says a lot.

Enough to contend? I do not know the answer to that, & the outlook is only going to get worse as long as they hold on to Dame. And unfortunately we only have this 1 and a half season w/ Doc that should prompt us to decide what to do this offseason based on what we already know.

[MickeyDavis]

We have an ugly combination of bad coaching and un-coachable, low IQ players. We need a coaching change AND many roster changes.

If Horse is canned good luck finding someone competent given our cap and draft pick situation.

It really is a bad situation if the bad coach is making bad decisions about which bad players to play over other bad players.

Yes, and no. It's all relative. We've still managed to have several players w/ a positive net rating in 2 games on the road. And one of them is not the best player in the series, who's not even close. So how much could they buoy each other together? The regular season says a lot.

The regular season says a lot but Kuz and KPJ joined the team late and when they joined Dame went down.

[emunney]

Kenny was a guy who seemed like a great candidate for years that teams hadn’t picked up for some reason.

Do you feel even remotely similar with any of the other candidates out there that would now be available?

Chris Quinn is the guy who comes to mind as somebody who feels like they've been a hot candidate for like 5 years.

It’s surprising that Spo doesn’t have a large coaching tree in the league when considering his reputation.

I think that probably highlights the inattentive nature of owners. Like they all just look at the standings and hire an assistant from the team with the best record, or re-hire a coach who someone else fired.

It’s weird to me.

Somebody's probably done some sort of coaching tree analysis, but I wonder if it matters who you studied under. Feels like the great coaches typically have their own path. Atkinson has coached under so many different esteemed coaches (D'Antoni, Bud, Lue, Kerr), it's impossible to nail down his lineage. It does feel like great coaches typically hit their signature stop with previous head coaching experience, though frequently not at the NBA level.

[emunney]

Griffin was a worse coach than Doc, but it's going to be harder to hire a good coach now than it would have been when we hired Griffin or Doc.

[Profound23]

All I know is that's two games in a row of the slow old vets digging us in a hole, the younger players come in late and bring the game back closer.

Start with Dame, KPJ, Green, Giannis and Bobby or even Sims and go from there. KPJ was our second best player while Dame was out, best player in games that Giannis also missed....yet we are giving him scrub minutes.

[German Athens]

Griffin was a worse coach than Doc, but it's going to be harder to hire a good coach now than it would have been when we hired Griffin or Doc.

We’re in a worse spot, and I think this is likely true due to how many vacancies exist this year, and us likely not being at the top of that list, but I don’t think any other reason will matter all that much.

There’s been a number of good coaches who’ve rushed into situations that aren’t necessarily ideal, because they probably just wanted to coach again.

Carlisle got ousted in Dallas, waited around for us, and then decided to go back to Indiana.

Snyder, after a great stint in Utah, rushed to go coach Atlanta after consecutive first round exits.

Bud bolted to coach a team in a worse asset situation than us, and a 36 year old top option who’s hard to work with.

[tedbrogen]

My best attempt at assessing the current roster:
Kuz: legit horrible fit next to Giannis and if he can’t guard Siakim, he is unplayable in this series as Pacers guards are roasting him more than anyone

Brook: it’s nice when he hits threes and blocks a shot but he’s only playable if he is hitting threes and the Bucks play zone because he kills the team in man to man. Thomas Bryant has seemed far more impactful than Brook this series. That says a lot.

Prince: awful, unplayable

Dame: I guess they need his offense and it’s fun when he decides to try on D in the 4th but also gives back all of his offense on D during the first three quarters when he doesn’t try

Giannis: top twenty all time player, we are doing him a disservice with this roster and coach. If I were him, I’d demand a trade this offseason.

AJG: one of the few guys that can get his shot off versus playoff closeouts, he does get beat on D sometimes but forces guys to beat him by shooting over him and stays in front of them, the only guard who stays in front of TJ on D, not sure why they don’t run plays to get him more shots

GTJ: not afraid to shoot and plays hard on D but gets beat frequently, but a good fit with Giannis

KPJ: a rollcoaster but fits well with Giannis and can cause havoc on D

Bobby: he will never be great in space on D or at the rim but he gives full effort, is very playable with or without Giannis, and he rebounds

Sims: to me, he’s looked really good in a full switch D, not sure why they don’t try to get him in the dunkers spot on O for easy lobs and Oboards

AJJ: not sure why they don’t use him to play super physical for five minutes on Hali

Pat: I’d easily see if Playoff Pat exists over giving Kuz and Prince minutes. He’s not going to play worse D than them.

Rollins: not ready for prime time but he’s better than Kuz and Prince so not sure why he got benched

Doc: a true basketball terrorist

[emunney]

Probably nobody wants to hear about who did a great job on Siakam last year.

[tedbrogen]

I’d legit love to see one single game where they completely sit all of Prince, Kuz, Brook, and roll with an 8 man rotation. Use AJJ and Pat for emergency spot minutes.

Everyone clowns on Bud, but against the Nets he saw he only had six playable guys, so he rode those six guys. He didn’t instead opt to force touches for Nwora and have him guard KD.

[tedbrogen]

Probably nobody wants to hear about who did a great job on Siakam last year.

Really should have just traded Pat and Johnson to someone to duck the second apron.

We should have known how bad Kuz was based on Nico trying to trade for him last year.

[blazza18]

Horst if you're reading this, put down that Hershey's bar, pick up the phone and call Michael Malone.

Call him to ask what being fired feels like. Cause it’s coming for him soon.

[BUCKnation]

I’d legit love to see one single game where they completely sit all of Prince, Kuz, Brook, and roll with an 8 man rotation. Use AJJ and Pat for emergency spot minutes.

Everyone clowns on Bud, but against the Nets he saw he only had six playable guys, so he rode those six guys. He didn’t instead opt to force touches for Nwora and have him guard KD.

It's annoying that over the last few weeks, Doc seems smart enough to notice that that lineup isn't working in game and locks into to a good lineup to close the game, but he isn't smart enough to just completely stop using the bad lineup.

[stillgotgame]

This guy is awesome!

Watch on YouTube

[Prez]

Griffin was a worse coach than Doc, but it's going to be harder to hire a good coach now than it would have been when we hired Griffin or Doc.

The delusional optimist in me is twisting this into a positive already, thinking that it steers them away from bigger name retread coaches that might avoid our situation and shifts their focus towards a smarter young assistant coach who'd welcome any opportunity, like Jordi Fernandez w/ Brooklyn.

Reality is likely that they **** it up either way, but let me dream.