Round 1 - Donte DiVincenzo

[MiltownHawkeye]

Donte could start at SG in the future or he could be the 6th man with the most bench minutes. All about fit of who's available to start otherwise. As long as he's featured I doubt he'd mind it.

DDV is an interesting archetype of player to bring off the bench. He reminds me a lot of Marcus Smart already (much easier to root for and even more destructive in the passing lanes, but not as versatile as a man defenser), that would really further the comparisons.

But I think by this time next year he'll have straight-up snatched the starting spot.

[tedbrogen]

DDV still flying under the radar with guys who dont watch us regularly it seems. Just saw this

https://pippenainteasy.com/2020/01/28/chicago-bulls-3-trade-packages-with-the-milwaukee-bucks/amp/1/

Where this guy thinks its plausible wed trade DDV, ersan, and DJ for thad young, Denzel Valentine and a future 2nd.

Meanwhile I'm thinking we probably hang up the phone and laugh at that offer just for DDV.

Our supporting cast is criminally underrated in general honestly, I've seen our guys in a lot of very weird trade proposals like people think this team is like the early lebron Cavs.

It's because Giannis is so good and no one outside of us is really watching the Bucks, except the LA games and the Philly Xmas game. The LAC game was immediately spun to be the Clippers played awful so ignore everything else. The LAL game was immediately, Giannis hit all those threes and nothing else. The Philly game was "see, if you stop Giannis, they can't do anything", which should have been "Philly is never shooting like that again."

People are sleeping on the entire roster outside of Giannis. The league thinks Midds is Tobias level, Bledsoe is playoff Bledsoe, DDV is some guy on a rookie contract that is a trade sweetener, Brook and Robin are dinosaurs who are a defensive liabilities, Korver/Wes/Ersan are corpses, and Brogdon is Harden 2.0 waiting to happen because the Bucks didn't want to pay him. Teams are finding out on a nightly basis that none of that is even remotely true.

[Ayt]

It has been a nice month for Donte. He needs to keep expanding his game offensively so he can continue to figure out how to effectively attack NBA defenses in a variety of ways.

[emunney]

October smdh

[buckboy]

October smdh

It's fair to say we might be 43-4 if that hadn't happened.

[buckboy]

It has been a nice month for Donte. He needs to keep expanding his game offensively so he can continue to figure out how to effectively attack NBA defenses in a variety of ways.

Hard to imagine a guy with that stat line having a bigger effect than Donte does.

[higharc]

Just to point out, I have noticed how Donte has had really cold blood in clutch 3s the past few games.

Also does not suck in mid court pull up shots when coming off a screen. May be a nice set play to run when second team in on court and offence clogs up a little

[buckboy]

Season splits of 46/34/77. Get those up to 50/38/80 and yowza what a valuable player.

[Shaffty]

Whose the best player you wouldn't trade Donte for?

[HaroldinGMinor]

Whose the best player you wouldn't trade Donte for?

Thon

[emunney]

Whose the best player you wouldn't trade Donte for?

Kyrie?

[MrPerfect1]

Whose the best player you wouldn't trade Donte for?

Kyrie?

Has to be a good player, so Kyrie and Westbrook don't fit the criteria.

I'd say Ben Simmons. He is a good player but is an awful fit with Giannis

[KendallMarshall]

Ankle injury for donte, questionable for tomorrow night

[M-C-G]

Ankle injury for donte, questionable for tomorrow night

I noticed he was hobbling, in maybe the third quarter, but looks like he was playing through it, so hopefully nothing serious

[coolhandluke121]

Whose the best player you wouldn't trade Donte for?

Kyrie?

Has to be a good player, so Kyrie and Westbrook don't fit the criteria.

I'd say Ben Simmons. He is a good player but is an awful fit with Giannis

I'd trade him for Simmons in and then trade Simmons as soon as it's legal, but I get your point.

I think DDV is a star, but by a different definition than most people use. Basically people have about 100 different tiers of offensive ability to rank guys like Curry, Harden, Lillard, and Kyrie (in that order) differently, but they don't have nearly as many classifications for defenders. Therefore they act like you have to be Gobert or Ben Wallace to be a star if most of your impact is mostly on defense, whereas I think they are plenty of defenders who are not that, but who are just as much "stars" as the guys whose relative offensive ranking is analogous to DDV's defensive ranking.

Tl;dr: effect on net rating should be what matters, and DDV's is better than all sorts of guys who will get all-star consideration but who I wouldn't trade DDV for.

Is the question just "best player" or "best asset"? Because it's really hard to separate the two.

[mattg]

I remember a discussion on here years ago about the rarest type of players and their impact on the game as well as currently unconventional thinking that may become conventional thought in the future with regards to basketball strategy/theory.

One thing I mentioned was defenders who absolutely dominate the game with perimeter defense being literally the rarest player to exist by far and having drastically more impact than any rim protector could realistically hope to have. And I still stand by that. It’s just really cool now seeing us have one of those rare rare breeds (maybe 3-4 guys total in the nba are near that caliber) and he leads the nba in net rating and is an insane on/off guy. And yet there are minimal ways to truly statistically encapsulate what a guy like Donte is doing out there.

[emunney]

I remember a discussion on here years ago about the rarest type of players and their impact on the game as well as currently unconventional thinking that may become conventional thought in the future with regards to basketball strategy/theory.

One thing I mentioned was defenders who absolutely dominate the game with perimeter defense being literally the rarest player to exist by far and having drastically more impact than any rim protector could realistically hope to have. And I still stand by that. It’s just really cool now seeing us have one of those rare rare breeds (maybe 3-4 guys total in the nba are near that caliber) and he leads the nba in net rating and is an insane on/off guy. And yet there are minimal ways to truly statistically encapsulate what a guy like Donte is doing out there.

On top of his defense, Donte is an average offensive player, separating him from guys like Thybulle.

I liked Donte's offensive potential coming out and thought he'd hold serve defensively but he's already a way better defender than I thought he had the potential to eventually be. The offense is about where I optimistically thought it'd be at this stage.

[Shaffty]

Donte yesterday in the 3rd

subs in 74-83 3:50 in the 3rd
Donte pick 6 steal and Dunk
Donte create on the drive hockey assist 3.
Donte create on drive, relocate, catch and shoot 3
Donte pull up 3

11-0 run Bucks up 74-94 with 2:05 left

[buckboy]

Donte yesterday in the 3rd

subs in 74-83 3:50 in the 3rd
Donte pick 6 steal and Dunk
Donte create on the drive hockey assist 3.
Donte create on drive, relocate, catch and shoot 3
Donte pull up 3

11-0 run Bucks up 74-94 with 2:05 left

I went outside to smoke at exactly that time. Missed it all. Wondered how the hell we were up 20 all of a sudden. Re-watching on DVR tonight and looking very forward to this sequence.

[emunney]

Donte yesterday in the 3rd

subs in 74-83 3:50 in the 3rd
Donte pick 6 steal and Dunk
Donte create on the drive hockey assist 3.
Donte create on drive, relocate, catch and shoot 3
Donte pull up 3

11-0 run Bucks up 74-94 with 2:05 left

This was great. Also got the other side of the spectrum with that play at midcourt where he lost the dribble and then gave up the score to Carter, illustrating why his handle is not [yet] where you'd want it for a lead guard. Granted Carter is a stellar on-ball defender.

Can't wait to see where he ends up as his skills progress.