Bucks News, Transactions, Trade Ideas: KPJ confirmed ankle sprain after MRI

[GoldenAntlers]

We're not even a full week into the season so I won't get too ahead of myself.

But it looks Giannis and Wemby might be the 2 front runners for MVP this season.

Praying to the Basketball Gods for a Wemby x Giannis Finals

[JayMKE]

I think we can live with Kuzma, he sucks but I’m not attaching value to dump him.

[midranger]

Kings: Bobby Portis
Wizards: Devin Carter
Bucks: Keon Ellis and Cam Whitmore

Or

Kings: Bobby Portis
Rockets: Devin Carter and Keon Ellis
Bucks: Tari Eason

[tsamo]

This is just a reminder that according to most current top 100 players in the NBA articles, podcasts, rankings or what not, we have just 2 top 100 players, in Giannis and Turner.

The only other teams in the whole association with 2 or less top 100 NBA players are: Wizards with 1(McCollum), Jazz with 1(Markkanen), Nets with 2(Porter Jr. and Claxton) and Bulls with 2(Giddey and White). That's it. That's where they ranks us and our roster at this point of time.

Just for comparison's sake with our latest and future opponents, Cavaliers have 5, Knicks 6 and Warriors 4 top 100 players...

[ShootingtheJ]

Kings: Bobby Portis
Wizards: Devin Carter
Bucks: Keon Ellis and Cam Whitmore

Or

Kings: Bobby Portis
Rockets: Devin Carter and Keon Ellis
Bucks: Tari Eason

The 2nd trade puts Houston over the hard cap. Adding Ellis or Eason would be fun, but hard pass on Whitmore. I agree that Eason could be had, but only for a PG ready to start for Houston.

[ShootingtheJ]

I think we can live with Kuzma, he sucks but I’m not attaching value to dump him.

What if we add value to land a good player?

[midranger]

Kings: Bobby Portis
Wizards: Devin Carter
Bucks: Keon Ellis and Cam Whitmore

Or

Kings: Bobby Portis
Rockets: Devin Carter and Keon Ellis
Bucks: Tari Eason

The 2nd trade puts Houston over the hard cap. Adding Ellis or Eason would be fun, but hard pass on Whitmore. I agree that Eason could be had, but only for a PG ready to start for Houston.

Houston would have to add whichever of their 4 or 5 minimum contracts they want least to make it work.

[JayMKE]

I think we can live with Kuzma, he sucks but I’m not attaching value to dump him.

What if we add value to land a good player?

he is not being dumped unless we get less value for the attached asset than we would otherwise

[BroncoBuck]

The league is so short on bigs, I’d rather keep Portis than trade him. He’s always been streaky, give him time to come around.

[midranger]

The league is so short on bigs, I’d rather keep Portis than trade him. He’s always been streaky, give him time to come around.

The issue I see is that even the best version we’ve seen of Portis would be a bit of a clunky fit on this team. Certainly better than what we’re seeing now, but far from ideal.

[raferfenix]

Will we have full bird rights on Rollins after he takes his player option season after next?

[PG Graveyard]

This is just a reminder that according to most current top 100 players in the NBA articles, podcasts, rankings or what not, we have just 2 top 100 players, in Giannis and Turner.

The only other teams in the whole association with 2 or less top 100 NBA players are: Wizards with 1(McCollum), Jazz with 1(Markkanen), Nets with 2(Porter Jr. and Claxton) and Bulls with 2(Giddey and White). That's it. That's where they ranks us and our roster at this point of time.

Just for comparison's sake with our latest and future opponents, Cavaliers have 5, Knicks 6 and Warriors 4 top 100 players...

This season is really going to put those morons in a vice. Either Giannis is head and shoulders the best player in the league or they can’t evaluate talent in the league. I’m sure they will move the goalposts at some point though

[German Athens]

Will we have full bird rights on Rollins after he takes his player option season after next?

I believe we already had early bird rights on him which is what we used to sign him, and since he’s now in his third season with us, we now have full bird rights.

[skbucks1985]

Two macro thoughts:

The 2017-18 Cavs are very different from the Bucks in terms of personnel. That was an old, slow team. But the similarity is that there was some debate about who the 2nd best player in the East was, some might've said a young Giannis, some might've said a young Embiid, Derozan might've gotten a couple votes, Kyrie before he got injured would've probably been the most common answer. But whatever your answer was, what was not up for debate was that there was a massive gap between Lebron and that player. Similarly, if you asked who the 2nd best player in the East is right now I think Donovan Mitchell would be the most common answer, Brunson might get a few votes, Jaylen Brown might get a few votes, because of his start Maxey might get a few votes. But whomever that person is, there's a massive gap between them and Giannis. And even though the East is down, I still think its better than 2018 and I don't think you can count on Giannis being able to carry a team to the finals the way Lebron did that team. But if the young guards for this team continue apace, who the hell knows....

Kuzma has played well in his role thus far this season. It hasn't changed my perspective on how aggressive Horst and co. should be about trying to trade him. He's the 3rd highest paid player on the team and is currently 8th on the team in minutes and he's slightly ahead of Bobby and because of injury ahead of KPJ. There's not many situations when a guy is likely to be 9th or 10th on the team in minutes and the 3rd highest paid player on the team and you shouldn't be aggressively trying to move him and when it happens its usually because that guy provides some intangible leadership for the team. I'll agree that he's played well enough that you don't just move him for the first offer you get, but I do think you should be aggressively trying to move him.

[WiscoKing13]

I really want us to trade Bobby but Doc is really not doing him any favors. For years it was Bobby with one of Brook and Gianni's all staggered. The first 4 games Doc has really only done hockey changes.

Bobby can't can't play defense at any capacity or run the floor with how fat he is. On top of that to pair him with Kuzma and make it open season in the paint for 6 minutes a half.

[Ron Swanson]

I'm actually 100% fine with the hockey line changes with this specific roster, so while I think sometimes we tend to go too hard with the bench units (whoever said that Doc sticks with those lineups for 3-4 possessions too long absolutely nailed it), I'm not gonna knock the overall philosophy behind it. Don't neuter the Giannis lineups by saddling him with Kuzma/Bobby. Just let those guys run the 2nd unit offense and hope that you can break even in the non-Giannis minutes.

[MVP2110]

2 trends I've noticed through 4 games

1) Gary Trent Jr has been the worst Bucks starter in terms of +/- in all 4 games. Just something I'm keeping an eye on

2)The Bucks have played 4 games and Giannis has led them in scoring in all 4, but after that they've had a different 2nd leading scorer in each one

V WAS, Gary Trent Jr 17pts
@ TOR, Cole Anthony 23pts
@ CLE, AJ Green 20pts
V NYK, Ryan Rollins 25pts

[ShootingtheJ]

I'm actually 100% fine with the hockey line changes with this specific roster, so while I think sometimes we tend to go too hard with the bench units (whoever said that Doc sticks with those lineups for 3-4 possessions too long absolutely nailed it), I'm not gonna knock the overall philosophy behind it. Don't neuter the Giannis lineups by saddling him with Kuzma/Bobby. Just let those guys run the 2nd unit offense and hope that you can break even in the non-Giannis minutes.

Bobby/Giannis lineups were outstanding last year, much better than Giannis/Brook lineups or Giannis/Dame lineups. Why would this pairing be neutering anything?

Giannis/Bobby has a +28 net rating this year in a small sample that should get bigger.

[Ron Swanson]

I'm actually 100% fine with the hockey line changes with this specific roster, so while I think sometimes we tend to go too hard with the bench units (whoever said that Doc sticks with those lineups for 3-4 possessions too long absolutely nailed it), I'm not gonna knock the overall philosophy behind it. Don't neuter the Giannis lineups by saddling him with Kuzma/Bobby. Just let those guys run the 2nd unit offense and hope that you can break even in the non-Giannis minutes.

Bobby/Giannis lineups were outstanding last year, much better than Giannis/Brook lineups or Giannis/Dame lineups. Why would this pairing be neutering anything?

Because in recent history (re: 2 of the last 3 seasons) it has been. I get that you love your small sample size lineup data stuff, but it's another season where Bobby has been absolutely brutal on defense right out of the gate. Maybe he just needs to play himself back into proper conditioning or something, but then pair him with Sims as a change of pace big with some of those bench lineups then. Right now Giannis has the highest on-court net-rating (+13.6) since those juggernaut 2019 and 2020 teams all while managing to keep his minutes down (32.8). I'm not over-taxing him defensively (Bobby) or offensively (Kuzma) just so he can be the lineup-deodorant for our non-optimized personnel groupings like he has been in the past. Hopefully Doc's learned his lesson.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

I think we can live with Kuzma, he sucks but I’m not attaching value to dump him.

off the bench hes ok. adds something i like and quite frankly we need. overpaid sure. but in a nonstarting role getting yanked if he goes off the reservation i like having him in the quiver.

the salary slot is nice we can move him for the right deal. but agreed theres no need to "dump him" whatsoever