PG Indy: Bucks on the brink

Bucksmaniac · Post #121 » by **Bucksmaniac** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 12:07 pm

ShootingtheJ wrote:
BroncoBuck wrote:
ShootingtheJ wrote:
Who cares if he had an MRI? If showed a bruise. You said last year he was done, then he dominated in the playoffs. All he needed to do was better than Kuzma. 2 dozen guys from the G League could do that.

It’s the same knee soreness that caused him to have surgery in 2023. He’s done. Khris wouldn’t have played a single game this series. He can’t move. It’s gotten to the point where it’s so bad he can’t even shoot well anymore.

You can keep lying to yourself all you want, but Khris Middleton is done. His legs are toast. Prepare yourself for the inevitable “Khris Middleton had offseason surgery” articles that are going to drop.

Middleton literally played through needing surgery year after year. He didn't need to be great to be better than Kuzma. His basketball IQ alone saves the team.

His numbers on Washington were looking like Kuzma’s efficiency wise.

ShootingtheJ · Post #122 » by **ShootingtheJ** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 12:08 pm

KPJ is now shooting 46% from 3 in the playoffs. He's our PG moving forward.

Jez2983 · Post #123 » by **Jez2983** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 12:24 pm

AussieBuck wrote:Hats off to the Pacers, they kept making the shots to stop us gaining any ground.

We're a dumpster fire, I dunno.

Whatever happens, we'll all still be here. Life is busy, this stuff is really hard to emotionally commit to year after year.

Dame having a significant injury maybe wasn't predictable, but it's pretty unsurprising. I'm so devastated for him. Winning in the NBA is hard. Also Kuzma sucks.

JimmyTheKid · Post #124 » by **JimmyTheKid** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 12:53 pm

Its unfathomable and unforgivable to continue to trot Brook out there. Its making me hate Brook and I love Brook. But its not his fault. Yes, Indiana hit everything they threw at the rim. But when they are gifted what amounts to warmup, layup line jumpers due to Brook's inability to move, the hoop looks as big as the ocean. Now everyone on the team has seen the ball go in, and confidence is sky high. Its honestly disgusting to allow it to happen in four consecutive playoff games. Utter malpractice. I'm curious if any of the assistants with functioning eyeballs have suggested to Doc that Brook is unplayable. Most likely Doc's "tweak" for game 5 will be to insert TP back in the starting 5 for Dame. And now he has an injury excuse...

Ron Swanson · Post #125 » by **Ron Swanson** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 12:57 pm

I don't know whether to feel more angry or sad. Sadness that the Dame/Giannis era lasted all of 2 playoff games and that we could have done everything right these last 4-years, and it still wouldn't have mattered because the basketball gods apparently hate us to no end. Anger at the amount of coaching incompetence this franchise has been thrust with during that same time frame. Doc Rivers **** killed basketball in Milwaukee. I'll never forgive him for this. Banish him from this city and franchise forever, please.

CharityStripe34 · Post #126 » by **CharityStripe34** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 1:05 pm

Can't help but feel sad for Dame. He gets healthy just in time for the playoffs to play alongside Giannis and this happens. Just awful luck.

Watching Giannis score 20 in the third and the team unable to get past the 9-11 pt deficit at best just crystallized their superiority as a team. Rivers switching up lineups for no reason and the team forgetting their consistent ball-pressure they exhibited in Game 3. I'm not even angry, just resigned to this season. I said they were a second-round team (with a strong showing and outside shot at ECF) and it turns out I was wrong.

I want to believe that Giannis rallies the troops to play balls out and with pride in Game 5 and maybe steal it, but other than Game 3's great two-way effort they've not proven to be consistent enough, whereas the Pacers have.

MikeIsGood · Post #127 » by **MikeIsGood** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 1:06 pm

JimmyTheKid wrote:Its unfathomable and unforgivable to continue to trot Brook out there. Its making me hate Brook and I love Brook. But its not his fault. Yes, Indiana hit everything they threw at the rim. But when they are gifted what amounts to warmup, layup line jumpers due to Brook's inability to move, the hoop looks as big as the ocean. Now everyone on the team has seen the ball go in, and confidence is sky high. Its honestly disgusting to allow it to happen in four consecutive playoff games. Utter malpractice. I'm curious if any of the assistants with functioning eyeballs have suggested to Doc that Brook is unplayable. Most likely Doc's "tweak" for game 5 will be to insert TP back in the starting 5 for Dame. And now he has an injury excuse...

We've known this for years, too. We can blame Doc for the utilization, but it remains unfathomable to me that we haven't solved this problem sometime in, oh I don't know, the past three years? I know people love Brook - I do, too - but a pretty sizeable number of people here have been jumping up and down about this since the year after our championship. Way too much handwaving it away as 'just a small number of matchup issues' or whatever. No, it's absolutely **** critical in the playoffs.

bucksfansince88 · Post #128 » by **bucksfansince88** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 1:15 pm

For the Love of God please Fire Doc, dont even give him a chance to make piss poor excuses after we lose this series! we havent been prepared for the pacers at all, even the game that we won took Giannis and Trent going Nuclear. Haslam and Edens we've been here before, please dont further ruin this franchise by meddling and over ruling the basketball people that you all employ! empower Horst to fire Doc and GTFO of his way or please hire a legit POBO that can work with him to put the most competitive team around Giannis

chonestown · Post #129 » by **chonestown** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 1:18 pm

Sims has proved himself a switchable big. Ever since Brooke has been here, it's been a need. PJ filled it, but these guys exist and can be found cheaply. It's these sort of solvable problems that weren't addressed and led to the erosion of the team. Now, it's not enough to fill out the margins. Hard times, daddy. Hard times.

bucksfansince88 · Post #130 » by **bucksfansince88** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 1:20 pm

I had no clue Kuzma was this soft and this bad. He might have the worst case of the yips I've ever seen

CharityStripe34 · Post #131 » by **CharityStripe34** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 1:24 pm

MikeIsGood wrote:
JimmyTheKid wrote:Its unfathomable and unforgivable to continue to trot Brook out there. Its making me hate Brook and I love Brook. But its not his fault. Yes, Indiana hit everything they threw at the rim. But when they are gifted what amounts to warmup, layup line jumpers due to Brook's inability to move, the hoop looks as big as the ocean. Now everyone on the team has seen the ball go in, and confidence is sky high. Its honestly disgusting to allow it to happen in four consecutive playoff games. Utter malpractice. I'm curious if any of the assistants with functioning eyeballs have suggested to Doc that Brook is unplayable. Most likely Doc's "tweak" for game 5 will be to insert TP back in the starting 5 for Dame. And now he has an injury excuse...

We've known this for years, too. We can blame Doc for the utilization, but it remains unfathomable to me that we haven't solved this problem sometime in, oh I don't know, the past three years? I know people love Brook - I do, too - but a pretty sizeable number of people here have been jumping up and down about this since the year after our championship. Way too much handwaving it away as 'just a small number of matchup issues' or whatever. No, it's absolutely **** critical in the playoffs.

I always said he should've been dealt the second the ECSF series against Boston ended in Game 7 in 2022. And I like Brook. He's been a model of consistency and durability even after his back-surgery, which I thought was a death nail for a 7'1' center. But for most of the teams in the playoffs he would get picked on incessantly. I get that the Bucks figured against the Sixers and Embiid (or Nuggets and Jokic) he was great to have around, though there are way more bigs now who can shoot the three and are very mobile. Makes the drop susceptible.

Ron Swanson · Post #132 » by **Ron Swanson** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 1:28 pm

We played our 34-year old All-Star PG the 9th most minutes of anyone in the league, then proceeded to play him 37 minutes in a playoff game after not playing since mid-March and being nowhere near game shape/conditioning. I'm stunned that injuries have cut short his season the past two years.

Doc Rivers is a basketball terrorist and he's killed any hope we had of contending for another championship these last couple years, and most likely the next couple as well. He's worse than George Karl. He's worse than Jason Kidd. I've never hated a coach in my lifetime as much as this clown. **** him, and banish him from this city forever.

midranger · Post #133 » by **midranger** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 1:30 pm

It really sucks when your favorite team starts looking like the SuperSonics.

Frank Nova · Post #134 » by **Frank Nova** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 1:38 pm

Ron Swanson wrote:I don't know whether to feel more angry or sad. Sadness that the Dame/Giannis era lasted all of 2 playoff games and that we could have done everything right these last 4-years, and it still wouldn't have mattered because the basketball gods apparently hate us to no end. Anger at the amount of coaching incompetence this franchise has been thrust with during that same time frame. Doc Rivers **** killed basketball in Milwaukee. I'll never forgive him for this. Banish him from this city and franchise forever, please.

100% this. What a blow it’s been these last 4 seasons now since the championship run. Everything has worked against the Bucks to this point and the front office just continuously has made destructive move after destructive move. Fly Doc Rivers into the sun the second this season ends. When we were looking for Bud replacements, Doc Rivers was 1 coach I never even wanted to see mentioned as a possibility and here we are 2 years later and 1.5 seasons of Doc Rivers. He’s truly a joke. I wanted Kenny Atkinson for the record, I’ll beat that drum for a while still. He was clearly the right guy for the job and we dropped the ball inexcusably. And now look.. it really is just a sadness more than anything else, but you’re spot on.

Bucksmaniac · Post #135 » by **Bucksmaniac** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 1:39 pm

Ron Swanson wrote:We played our 34-year old All-Star PG the 9th most minutes of anyone in the league, then proceeded to play him 37 minutes in a playoff game after not playing since mid-March and being nowhere near game shape/conditioning. I'm stunned that injuries have cut short his season the past two years.

Doc Rivers is a basketball terrorist and he's killed any hope we had of contending for another championship these last couple years, and most likely the next couple as well. He's worse than George Karl. He's worse than Jason Kidd. I've never hated a coach in my lifetime as much as this clown. **** him, and banish him from this city forever.

Yep, he played a significant part in the conditions that likely contributed to Dame’s injury. If we had a better coach he would not have felt the need to rush back this soon.

German Athens · Post #136 » by **German Athens** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 1:40 pm

Ron Swanson wrote:I don't know whether to feel more angry or sad. Sadness that the Dame/Giannis era lasted all of 2 playoff games and that we could have done everything right these last 4-years, and it still wouldn't have mattered because the basketball gods apparently hate us to no end. Anger at the amount of coaching incompetence this franchise has been thrust with during that same time frame. Doc Rivers **** killed basketball in Milwaukee. I'll never forgive him for this. Banish him from this city and franchise forever, please.

I keep vacillating between sadness and anger, too. I’m gutted.

The Dame trade was never bad value when we did the deal, but the moment that deal went down we needed to drastically change the roster to fit our new nucleus, even if that meant swinging on the thybulle’s of the world. We sat on our hands for too long with no idea what the new team should look like. It took a courageous vision, and we had no vision.

And then we hired Doc and drove this bus right off the cliff.

German Athens · Post #137 » by **German Athens** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 1:49 pm

Remember late in the second half when we set screens for Brook to get an open 3, and he caught it on the move and jacked it?

We used Brook as a movement shooter. :lol:

I laughed out loud at that point.

CharityStripe34 · Post #138 » by **CharityStripe34** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 1:52 pm

The amusing thing about Griffin was that, despite the bizarre and aggressive defensive issues given the roster, the offense was absolutely electric, and the starting lineup was somewhere in the +11 range. Doc managed to absolutely start one of the worst lineups in the NBA out of any playoff team. Between playing AJax too long, yanking Trent too early, and going with the atrocious Jumbo lineup it has to go down as coaching malpractice.

GoldenAntlers · Post #139 » by **GoldenAntlers** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 2:10 pm

Fire Doc and let Prunty coach game 5.

bucksfansince88 · Post #140 » by **bucksfansince88** » Mon Apr 28, 2025 2:34 pm

will be interesting to see how we come out for game 5, my gut tells me these guys have given up on Doc and are ready for the off season (GA) included but wouldnt be surprised if we show some pride and poise and go steal one on a historic performance from Giannis