PG: Awful gameplan, not prepared, not 1 good performance

[rajajackal]

if you have 4 guys who are gonna be making max or near max deals (mikal has to get paid after all) you can't afford a bench in this cba. another reason to believe there might have to be changes.

i'd start by moving mikal. biggest mistake leon rose has made by a country mile

[HEZI]

Yep. But that could be a good thing because getting a better bench might be one of the more realistic fixes we can hope to achieve more than the Giannis pipe dreams. So there is some room for upside with what we have. But our bench is ass. Not to say they have played badly in their minutes but there’s a large talent gap there

I’m not sure how though. Main reason they didn’t improve the bench was because they were worried about that 2nd apron and laying luxury tax. We still haven’t even given Mikal his extension. We have no cap space. Do we even have any draft picks after the Bridges deal? How do we improve the depth with no cap space, picks and worrying about paying luxury taxes? Seems like the only way is to get rid of a higher salary player

Vet ring chasers

Any good ones aren’t coming on vet min deals. We would be looking at PJ Tucker, Taj Gibson types.

[Chanel Bomber]

can't see that happening. brunson is the guy here. his people run the team. you'll have to fire leon for that to happen. i don't think giannis is a realistic option anyway. the bucks need to rebuild. they have an old team and not many picks of their own. they'll want young players/picks back.

I know.

I'm just saying, if you want to solve the team's issues and aspire to improve towards a championship (while leveraging whatever trade value you have), then that's the move to ponder. It's a strong offer for Milwaukee, especially if they're ready to accommodate Giannis's wishes.

You can try to move KAT, OG, Mikal - you're not getting a talent upgrade in return, because they're overpaid or due for an extension.

But again, I'm just saying this is the move to explore if winning a championship is the organizational priority. The political reality probably prevents it from happening.

as a thought exercise.....you would still need some kind of dynamic guard afterwards. a mcbride/mikal backcourt ? that aint gonna cut it. maybe it would if mikal wasn't this bad on offense this often. but he is.

Yeah another move would be needed, though I do think McBride is ready to step into a bigger role.

[robillionaire]

as a thought exercise ? you would still need some kind of dynamic guard afterwards. a mcbride/mikal backcourt ? that aint gonna cut it. maybe it would if mikal wasn't this bad on offense this often. but he is.

Mikal played better when Brunson was out iirc

i don't know if that's true. i would have to see the stats on that.

Idk here’s an athletic article about it Chanel is the stats guy I’m not getting out of bed today I’m bed rotting and dont want to face the world because we lost sorry

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6214454/2025/03/19/knicks-mikal-bridges-efficiency-jalen-brunson-injury/

[Iron Mantis]

Need a better bench? Send Mikal and Josh to the bench with Deuce....

The starting lineup is so talent heavy that if you put a few generic players in there who can hit a three and defend like Shamet and Wright, it wouldn't affect the scoring much. KAT and Brunson are still dropping 20-30 pts each and OG 18+.

[MrDollarBills]

Brunson isn't getting traded. The coach will be fired before that ever happens.

Maybe KAT gets traded if Giannis forces his way here. I don't see it happening though. But who knows.

It's unfortunate but I think either Leon gives this group another shot with some new blood in charge or he might have to pivot from KAT and Mikal to try and balance out the roster to make up for how bad Jalen's defense is. Maybe both needs to happen. But coming back with Tom and this isolation heavy garbage and his abject stubbornness is just not sensible. We need to get modern in terms of literally everything.

[Guano]

if you have 4 guys who are gonna be making max or near max deals (mikal has to get paid after all) you can't afford a bench in this cba. another reason to believe there might have to be changes.

i'd start by moving mikal. biggest mistake leon rose has made by a country mile

We owe an unprotected 2031 for him

Mind blown how inexcusable that is.

[Worst_to_First]

D. Wright - K. Towns - O. Anunoby - J. Hart - L. Shamet
2 G
12 mins
108.3 ORTG
79.2 DRTG
29.2 NRTG

This should be the lineup that faces the Haliburton minutes at the bottom portions of the 1st and 3rd quarters.

[MrDollarBills]

if you have 4 guys who are gonna be making max or near max deals (mikal has to get paid after all) you can't afford a bench in this cba. another reason to believe there might have to be changes.

Yeah agreed.

Can't be afraid to pivot if something isn't working.

[rajajackal]

if you have 4 guys who are gonna be making max or near max deals (mikal has to get paid after all) you can't afford a bench in this cba. another reason to believe there might have to be changes.

i'd start by moving mikal. biggest mistake leon rose has made by a country mile

We owe an unprotected 2031 for him

Mind blown how inexcusable that is.

i view it as part of brunson's salary. but godfather mode brunson might be an issue for this organization

[Guano]

Chanel and Nesmith treating Brunson poorly

Read on Twitter

[R-DAWG]

I know.

I'm just saying, if you want to solve the team's issues and aspire to improve towards a championship (while leveraging whatever trade value you have), then that's the move to ponder. It's a strong offer for Milwaukee, especially if they're ready to accommodate Giannis's wishes.

You can try to move KAT, OG, Mikal - you're not getting a talent upgrade in return, because they're overpaid or due for an extension.

But again, I'm just saying this is the move to explore if winning a championship is the organizational priority. The political reality probably prevents it from happening.

In a way this statement feels like the Isiah days. Bloated cap sheet with overpaid players and no picks.

Well our overpaid players are at least pretty good and taking us to the ECF so there’s that. But now we want a chip

This is true - but in the Isiah days we weren’t in an apron era and we actually had picks.

We need to get off at least one of these wings to balance out the roster this summer. Frankly, I’d be fine if all 3 were off the roster.

This team was built to win regular season games, not compete for a championship. They are closer to losing to Detroit than beating Indiana.

[robillionaire]

Brunson isn't getting traded. The coach will be fired before that ever happens.

Maybe KAT gets traded if Giannis forces his way here. I don't see it happening though. But who knows.

It's unfortunate but I think either Leon gives this group another shot with some new blood in charge or he might have to pivot from KAT and Mikal to try and balance out the roster to make up for how bad Jalen's defense is. Maybe both needs to happen. But coming back with Tom and this isolation heavy garbage and his abject stubbornness is just not sensible. We need to get modern in terms of literally everything.

We are living in the pain of the moment but when you zoom out and consider they surpassed expectations and just made the conference finals for the first time in decades they probably aren’t going to blow this things up all that badly. New coach, sure. Some tweaks, sure. Not sure that makes us a championship team but we keep a team that we know can at least get this far.

the pacers got swept in the conference finals last year and changed absolutely nothing

[NoStatsGuy]

if you have 4 guys who are gonna be making max or near max deals (mikal has to get paid after all) you can't afford a bench in this cba. another reason to believe there might have to be changes.

That mikal trade was terrible even if he is a nice role player.

We need cheap role players that and he was about as expensive as they come. Used all our pick resources and real soon the rest of our cap

half the guys on the pacers individually are not better than deuce. i dont believe that our players are that much worse. the pacers run on an all time high in confidence and they are so well coached and in tune. that has so much impact that these players perform right now. we cant put people in the doghouse fo 60 games and expect them to deliver in the ecf. and this has transpired through the whole playoffs with other teams aswell.

i get your point and i also think changes have to be made. we cant have a legit defense with kat and brunson in the lineup and we are very badly coached on offense. both things need change in some way or another. embrace double big and get mitch and kat going or get a coach that can actually coach offense and hope we hit strides like okc or the pacers or whatever leon needs to do i hope he does it. ideally you want to fix both the offense and the defense of course but we are in a big mess. and im not a GM or Coach, i dont have all the answers. but i know what i see. i see 2 cones on defense that you just cant cover for and i dont see any offensive identity, creativity or execution of simple plays.

maybe they just need a year to truly click, maybe KAT and Brunson will never work and maybe we will not find a coach that fixes the offenses. theres a lot of questions that need to be answered and dierctions we could go. i dont know whats best. but right now, i dont see much upside and im not sure if "just running it back" makes a lot of sense.

[MrDollarBills]

Chanel and Nesmith treating Brunson poorly

Read on Twitter

[MrDollarBills]

Brunson isn't getting traded. The coach will be fired before that ever happens.

Maybe KAT gets traded if Giannis forces his way here. I don't see it happening though. But who knows.

It's unfortunate but I think either Leon gives this group another shot with some new blood in charge or he might have to pivot from KAT and Mikal to try and balance out the roster to make up for how bad Jalen's defense is. Maybe both needs to happen. But coming back with Tom and this isolation heavy garbage and his abject stubbornness is just not sensible. We need to get modern in terms of literally everything.

We are living in the pain of the moment but when you zoom out and consider they surpassed expectations and just made the conference finals for the first time in decades they probably aren’t going to blow this things up all that badly. New coach, sure. Some tweaks, sure. Not sure that makes us a championship team but we keep a team that we know can at least get this far.

the pacers got swept in the conference finals last year and changed absolutely nothing

I don't expect a complete blow up either. I do think someone might need to be moved to balance things out.

[rajajackal]

They are closer to losing to Detroit than beating Indiana.

jesus

[Fat Kat]

Brunson isn't getting traded. The coach will be fired before that ever happens.

Maybe KAT gets traded if Giannis forces his way here. I don't see it happening though. But who knows.

It's unfortunate but I think either Leon gives this group another shot with some new blood in charge or he might have to pivot from KAT and Mikal to try and balance out the roster to make up for how bad Jalen's defense is. Maybe both needs to happen. But coming back with Tom and this isolation heavy garbage and his abject stubbornness is just not sensible. We need to get modern in terms of literally everything.

We are living in the pain of the moment but when you zoom out and consider they surpassed expectations and just made the conference finals for the first time in decades they probably aren’t going to blow this things up all that badly. New coach, sure. Some tweaks, sure. Not sure that makes us a championship team but we keep a team that we know can at least get this far.

the pacers got swept in the conference finals last year and changed absolutely nothing

Correct. We’ve gone farther than anyone’s reasonable expectation. Top 4 team. I think Thibs gets a top assistant and we get a wing that pushes Josh to the bench. That’ll be the offseason and the fire Thibs thread gets to live on.

[rajajackal]

has anyone noticed that the pacers almost never missed an open shot? they move the ball and hit open shots. they won this fair and square

meanwhile we lazily throw the ball away a handful of times per quarter. i guess that's the downside of not having a real point guard like haliburton

[robillionaire]

What grinds my gears is that we were up 2-0 on these guys last year and it went to 7 and that was with Brunson, Donte, 2 games of OG, Hart with his guts falling out, Precious, IHart, Deuce, and Alec Burks.