PG Thread (OKC) - National TV huh? Welp cya later!

[M-C-G]

Delly and Jabari are similar in the fact that they make our defense terrible. Both can't cover their own people. This resulting in a total collapse.

Jabari could cover his own guy and not the team and Delly can't cover his guy and can cover the team. Subtracting a guy that was often referred to as one of the worst defenders in the league should have improved things, it hasn't. And I would have thought no Beasley and no Henson would help too but it hasn't.

I think I agree with the poster that said we are an average team, not as good as our highs and not as bad as our lows. But the national games have been terrible if memory serves and last night was maybe the worst game of the season.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[msiris]

Pre Jabari injury/Middleton return:
106.4 DRTG, 20th in league
0.7 net rating, 11th in the league

Post:
107.5 DRTG, 18th in league
0.7 net rating, 16th in league

Haha that's an awesome stat. Would've loved jabari tonight watching that horrific offensive display.

You mean Jabari had help in making the bucks defense so horribly awesome? Shocker

Bucks were never as bad as their low and never as good as their high this year. They're a playoff team. Not a homecourt team. Not a lotto team. Comfortably average

Two games above .500 in the 5th seed. We are pretty much the same as the Bulls, Hawks, and Pacers. The only reason we are a 5th seed is that East is once again bad. I see a 1st round lost.

[M-C-G]

I think he needs to take more attempts and try to force it and get hot instead of taking the safe way all the time.
He is our best shooter and our second best player and he is averaging only 12 FGA per game...
He is passing way too many open shots just to pumb fake or drive then and pass the ball.
He has to take more shots or atleast drive and seek a call or shoot the mid-range shot something which will always be open for him.
Especially since he has worse assist ratio than Giannis and our bigs have terrible PNR feel.

What? Force more shots than the ISO hell that he is right now???


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He is passing way too many open 3s or opportunities for a drive and jumpshot from the mid-range for either simple passes or attempts of PNR. He just needs to shoot more of his open shots. It's not like he is locked down the whole time especially with the attention that Giannis gets.

He was averaging near 15 FGA in the previous two seasons and that with Jabari and or Knight in the same lineup.
He is averaging 12 FGA now that he has to be the second best scoring option and atleast 1/3 of these are fadeaway shots from the post without any real reason when he can hit an open mid-range shot with a pumb fake and drive or a simple screen.

I think in general we agree, he is passing up good shots for tough shots, and working too hard to get in a position for those tough shots...When he first got back, he wasn't playing all this ISO crap. His three point shot abandoning him somewhat probably has him forcing that post play which is just an absolute ball stopper.

[emunney]

I don't think this is as much about Brogdon in particular as it is about being below the acceptable threshold of guys who can do anything with the ball. I mean we're replacing him with Gary Payton II, who can't shoot, is an OK dribbler, and based on these two games is the worst passer any team in the NBA has dared to call a point guard. You have to have ball handlers in the NBA. A lot of them. We don't. People are going to be mad, but literally Nate Wolters would have made a million times more sense. Baddy's guy Taylor also, who was teammates with Payton at Rio Grande and a demonstrably better player. But we do the Kidd familiarity thing again.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

[BucksPackers]

Haha that's an awesome stat. Would've loved jabari tonight watching that horrific offensive display.

You mean Jabari had help in making the bucks defense so horribly awesome? Shocker

Bucks were never as bad as their low and never as good as their high this year. They're a playoff team. Not a homecourt team. Not a lotto team. Comfortably average

Two games above .500 in the 5th seed. We are pretty much the same as the Bulls, Hawks, and Pacers. The only reason we are a 5th seed is that East is once again bad. I see a 1st round lost.

The difference is that our stars are young and theirs are in their primes so we have that going for us lol. None of us thought that we were winning it all the next 2 years. But as long as we keep improving in which we are then that is all that we can ask for.

[BucksRule18]

We've definitely been a Jekyll and Hyde team all year. If we lose to the Pacers by double digits tomorrow, my prediction is that we'll limp into the playoffs with only 41 wins and get swept by the 2nd or 3rd seed. A few days ago I was thinking we may make the ECF and lose to the Caves in 6. Right now we're back to playing like Popeye without his spinach.

[M-C-G]

We've definitely been a Jekyll and Hyde team all year. If we lose to the Pacers by double digits tomorrow, my prediction is that we'll limp into the playoffs with only 41 wins and get swept by the 2nd or 3rd seed. A few days ago I was thinking we may make the ECF and lose to the Caves in 6. Right now we're back to playing like Popeye without his spinach.

The highs are high and the lows are low...having any expectation is probably folly at this point.

[Ron Swanson]

I can excuse one terri-bad game like this down the stretch. The losses against Dallas and Chicago were basically only because both teams just couldn't miss in the 2nd half. It happens.

But Middleton needs to stop playing like he's mid-2000s Kobe when his 3-ball isn't falling. He's been garbage and if he doesn't pull himself out of it before the playoffs, we have no shot of winning a series against any of the top-4 seeds.

[BucksRule18]

We've definitely been a Jekyll and Hyde team all year. If we lose to the Pacers by double digits tomorrow, my prediction is that we'll limp into the playoffs with only 41 wins and get swept by the 2nd or 3rd seed. A few days ago I was thinking we may make the ECF and lose to the Caves in 6. Right now we're back to playing like Popeye without his spinach.

The highs are high and the lows are low...having any expectation is probably folly at this point.

It's tough. Look at Miami, after starting the season with an 11-30 record, they proceeded to win 24 of their next 30 games and looked like a top 3 seed in the East. However, now they're in danger of not making the playoffs after losing 4 of 6 (last 2 at home to Denver and NY). I'm just glad we didn't hit that skid until we pretty much clinched a playoff spot. The worst scenario was to finish as the 9th seed, which could still happen if we lose to the Sixers.

[FrieAaron]

If the 2% chance happens and we miss the playoffs, any chance Kidd is fired or has March already saved him? What if we miss by losing every remaining game by 30?

[BucksRule18]

I can excuse one terri-bad game like this down the stretch. The losses against Dallas and Chicago were basically only because both teams just couldn't miss in the 2nd half. It happens.

But Middleton needs to stop playing like he's mid-2000s Kobe when his 3-ball isn't falling. He's been garbage and if he doesn't pull himself out of it before the playoffs, we have no shot of winning a series against any of the top-4 seeds.

When KM came back from injury, his main focus was to help the team compete anyway he could, even if playing second fiddle to some of our other scorers (a la Draymond Green). This approach worked and the team prospered from it. Now it seems as if KM bought too much into his hype and believes he's the alpha male on this squad. Even his defensive prowess has dropped as he's concentrated all his efforts on breaking out of his shooting slump. Last 7 games he's shooting 38% from the floor (30% from 3). Those numbers aren't horrible, but it seems that way, especially of we exclude the Boston and Detroit games where he shot well. In the other 5 matches where we lost 3 times, he's averaging 29%/15% from the floor & 3's.

[M-C-G]

I can excuse one terri-bad game like this down the stretch. The losses against Dallas and Chicago were basically only because both teams just couldn't miss in the 2nd half. It happens.

But Middleton needs to stop playing like he's mid-2000s Kobe when his 3-ball isn't falling. He's been garbage and if he doesn't pull himself out of it before the playoffs, we have no shot of winning a series against any of the top-4 seeds.

When KM came back from injury, his main focus was to help the team compete anyway he could, even if playing second fiddle to some of our other scorers (a la Draymond Green). This approach worked and the team prospered from it. Now it seems as if KM bought too much into his hype and believes he's the alpha male on this squad. Even his defensive prowess has dropped as he's concentrated all his efforts on breaking out of his shooting slump. Last 7 games he's shooting 38% from the floor (30% from 3). Those numbers aren't horrible, but it seems that way, especially of we exclude the Boston and Detroit games where he shot well. In the other 5 matches where we lost 3 times, he's averaging 29%/15% from the floor & 3's.

I don't know if I would take it as far as you did aka "buying into his own hype" but he has certainly tried taking the lead role instead of being "super Snell" and it makes us worse. I feel pretty confident about that, because we have four guys standing around why he spends 10 seconds trying to back down a guy for turn around jumper or half hook in the paint. Basically the opposite of Kidd's "share the ball" philosophy.

It's also saddening to see that Giannis just doesn't really create like we saw toward the end of last year and earlier this year...It is all really basic swing the ball, dribble hand off stuff now which makes me feel like we are grossly under utilizing him when Midds goes into the man mode.

[floeter]

Anyone else stop watching in the 2nd quarter when their bench buried us and feel great about the decision?

[BucksRule18]

Anyone else stop watching in the 2nd quarter when their bench buried us and feel great about the decision?

I did, but made the mistake of tuning back in the 4th quarter to see our bench led by Maker put a dent into the lead.

[FrieAaron]

It's also saddening to see that Giannis just doesn't really create like we saw toward the end of last year and earlier this year...It is all really basic swing the ball, dribble hand off stuff now which makes me feel like we are grossly under utilizing him when Midds goes into the man mode.

Especially in games where we're missing our starting PG.

[BucksRule18]

Whomever gets us in the first round will either have a fight on their hands as they battle a team who's playing like a 3 seed, or have the easiest series ever en route to a blowout sweep. I highly doubt we'll get a middling performance by this team. Please don't make me wish that we should've ended up with the 9th seed!

[M-C-G]

Whomever gets us in the first round will either have a fight on their hands as they battle a team who's playing like a 3 seed, or have the easiest series ever en route to a blowout sweep. I highly doubt we'll get a middling performance by this team. Please don't make me wish that we should've ended up with the 9th seed!

What is our record in national games, that might help me pick a direction?

[msiris]

You mean Jabari had help in making the bucks defense so horribly awesome? Shocker

Bucks were never as bad as their low and never as good as their high this year. They're a playoff team. Not a homecourt team. Not a lotto team. Comfortably average

Two games above .500 in the 5th seed. We are pretty much the same as the Bulls, Hawks, and Pacers. The only reason we are a 5th seed is that East is once again bad. I see a 1st round lost.

The difference is that our stars are young and theirs are in their primes so we have that going for us lol. None of us thought that we were winning it all the next 2 years. But as long as we keep improving in which we are then that is all that we can ask for.

Well one good month is not what I call improvement. Giannis is not enough. Middleton is ok but I do not view him as a number two.

[BucksPackers]

We are a different team without Brogdon. Plain and simple if we were doing this at full strength I would be worried but until then I am just waiting on the playoffs.

Brogdon literally is the glue to our offense. Yes Giannis is our best player but Brogdon makes monroe better and is a great scoring option. The difference between him and delly is very huge and we are realizing this now.

[jute2003]

I feel like Middleton is a fine number 2 when healthy and on his game. He shouldn't be a number 1 option though. He's a safety valve type there to take pressure off Giannis when his game inevitably get grounds to a halt against Stronger D's. Ideally, Giannis isn't a number 1 option either though which is why it's sad that Jabari broke himself again. He wasn't there yet but I thought he had the best shot at being a True lead scorer. Blah blah blah defense blah blah never gonna be anything blah blah eat a dick