PG - Bucks Come Up Short in Game 5

[greekbuck34]

Giannis needs to learn to play off ball as he did when he was younger, ESPECIALLY when teams defend us with "the wall." Coaches need to be creative enough to counter it. You don't answer it with, "Just put your head down brah."

Playing Giannis(the most dominant player in the NBA) off ball, as a screener and what not, without a player able to use him as a roll man you basically admit defeat and hand someone a series with an even worse way than our usual.

[Cythaps]

huh? 50 win taIent needs to be tweaked not dismantIed.

The funny thing is that you have this as a given.

We played against a 50 win team tonight that played one of their worst games and it wasn't even close.

when miami inevitiabIy Ioses the championsiup wouId you suggest they break it up? or if they win it wouId that be the time?

I'm just saying that there is no 50 win team without Giannis.

[Pachinko_]

im not entirely sure we need a roster overhaul or a new coach. but we absolutely need giannis to explore half court scoring options. whether that be a post game, a 3 point shot, a mid range game, or flailing around like james harden and making his free throws, he has to get better in the half court.

I mean that would be great, but what if he just can't? what do we do then? It's not like he's 19 anymore, we have to seriously consider that maybe that's him as a player. He can drive and dunk, he's an average or maybe slightly above average passer, and he attracts double teams. And these 3 things are all you can count on him to do reliably on offense when things tighten up.
What then?

lebron didnt develop a post game until about this time in his career.

I know, I know.
Not what I asked though.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

Giannis needs a playmaker. Bledsoe, Dellavedova, Michael Carter Williams, Brandon Knight...Seven seasons with no decent playmaker.

he needs chris pauI and specificaIIy chris pauI to take his hands off the baII. any other pIayer hed stiII demand it. any other pIayer hed stiII possibIy shoot 15% from the fieId outside the paint on high voIume and miss his fts and the fauIt wouId Iie with others and his teammates not teII him to chiII the **** out

[mattg]

Giannis needs to learn to play off ball as he did when he was younger, ESPECIALLY when teams defend us with "the wall." Coaches need to be creative enough to counter it. You don't answer it with, "Just put your head down brah."

Yeah a lot of our struggles are Giannis playing like a moron. Head down Maggette into multiple guys, not even looking to pass until hes been swallowed completely. Just all his decision making a step slow. I'd like to see him learn to actually set screens properly so we can use him as roll man. He should be devastating there but instead he sorta sucks and has no feel.

Bud also needs to develop half court actions. Can't simply swing the ball around and pull up for 3 or try and throw it inside to someone posting up. We never screen on or off ball, have virtually no PnR presence, and just overall are super stagnant/lack player movement. That won't cut it.

[blazza18]

as contructed this team wins 50 without giannis. anybody taIking about a rebuiId needs to start with that premise

Still doing this regular season thing huh?

huh? 50 win taIent needs to be tweaked not dismantIed. biggest issue with this team remains the coach and the fIawed superstar.... not the cast.... of course we can taIk about the cast if youre Iike me and you want to tweak the cast to take the baII OUT of the stars hands this time year. we wiII Iose year after year after year if our haIf court initiaitor in the Piayoffs is NOT a shot maker, can NOT hit a 3< and doesnt hit his fts. im not even sIightIy confused what our probIem is. we sucked at pIayoff basketbaII and the coach that went with it untiI Iiteraiiy the moment giannis went down. its a concern and it needs to be addressed

I just don't care about any supporting cast players if they can't help you win playoff games.

[Antinomy]

Been calling for the CP3 move since July 2019.

[Perishable517]

I'm fairly certain both Bam and Dragic played the best basketball of their lives. The rest of the Heat were very good. Credit Spoelstra for getting it all clicking at the right time.

dont forget crowder.. my god

Fred Van Crowder

Sent from my HTC U11 using RealGM mobile app

[Matches Malone]

Read on Twitter

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

The funny thing is that you have this as a given.

We played against a 50 win team tonight that played one of their worst games and it wasn't even close.

when miami inevitiabIy Ioses the championsiup wouId you suggest they break it up? or if they win it wouId that be the time?

I'm just saying that there is no 50 win team without Giannis.

disagree.... strongIy

[Bucksfan28]

The achilles heel is clear two postseasons in a row. Need some quick twitch offensive players who can shoot. The most glaring spot being PG. I'm not necessarily in the Bud has to go camp, but if you target a PG in this mold it is ultimately useless if you don't instill an offense with ball screens for that PG. So if he stays he has to understand this tweak needs to be made to the O.

Any discussions on this skill that come to, "yea but he sucks at D" should generally be overruled by the massive need for this skill on O. It's killed them twice in a row.

Also, Midds generally showed up in all 5 games. Shot didn't hit tonight as the focal point of the D and being dogged by some good guys. But the effort, energy, attitude were all there. Did all he could in a tough spot, he's just not thaaaat good on that top tier. Please next year when he has one or two bad game can we not have to hear about how he's garbage in the playoffs, mentally weak and scared.

Austin. Rivers.

[skones]

Giannis needs to learn to play off ball as he did when he was younger, ESPECIALLY when teams defend us with "the wall." Coaches need to be creative enough to counter it. You don't answer it with, "Just put your head down brah."

Playing Giannis(the most dominant player in the NBA) off ball, as a screener and what not, without a player able to use him as a roll man you basically admit defeat and hand someone a series with an even worse way than our usual.

You're not playing him in that role all game long. You're giving the defense different looks on a consistent basis, not the same one they're prepared for over and over and over again. The problem is that when Giannis was off ball, he was absolutely clueless and he doesn't have the jumper to make anyone pay. If he doesn't have the jumper to make them pay, you scheme to make him useful, ie. a pindown to free him at the free throw line and let him pass over the defense to cutters.

[DingleJerry]

Read on Twitter

I mean he might be gone. but 'family raising' I'm not sure I see the logic. Places like MIA/LA are beacons of family or something?

[TD75]

The Bucks need:

- Someone from the coaching staff to actually micromanage offensive/defensive schemes. Playing on principles is not good enough. You need certain plays to close games and to help the team get out of a scoring drought. That can't be Bud (he is not good enough for this). Whether this is someone from his staff or a new HC it is up to the Bucks organization to figure out.

- Giannis to pick up some fundamentals. Enough with the "bully ball". Enough with the 55-60% shooting from the FT line. If he wants to lead the team to a championship he needs to be better. He is not good enough to go all the way right now. Also someone from the coaches need to hold him accountable; he wastes a lot of offensive possessions and his understanding of the flow of a game is that of a rookie.

- An actual POINT GUARD/playmaker. Enough with the Hill/Bledsoe combo. It does not work in the playoffs. They both waste possessions (especially Bledsoe). You need playmaking from that position, shooting is also important. Hill was supposed to be the answer, but he was not (and might very well not be from now on); he is a good sub though.

- Khris is nice to have when he hs in one of those games he can't miss. Naturally, he is not going to win you a series against a very good team (not sure if the Bucks expected him to be this kind of a player; if yes, they were delusional).

- A shooting guard at least at Wes' level, so you have no dropp-off when Wes is not playing. They need to shoot extremely well; like seriously extremely good shooters not "look at all those shooters Bucks surrounded Giannis" type of shooters that forget how to shoot for a whole series.

-Build a main rotation of 8-9 players at most that are actually playoff ready. Use the regular season to actually try things (not like this season where the Bucks tried very little and people were trying to imply they were simply trying to hide their aces from the opposition as if a scheme is easy to run without actual game practice in an important game in the playoffs without looking like a joke out there). Try zone, heavy switching, Giannis at the 5 (after you actually teach him the position because he is bad at it) in defense, different side PnRs, cutting to the basket, cutting to the 3 point line, etc. You know, use the regular season to actually TRAIN/COACH the team, regardless of the Win/Loss Record.

- During the playoffs, to stick to their 8-9 players rotation. The wall against Giannis will come. Actually have a plan this time (to avoid another embarrassment) and try to implement it. Study the opponent and stop being stubborn about "following the year long plan" when it has aspects that do not work. You are playing against a certain team, try to exploit their weaknesses. Use Giannis to attack certain players and charge them with fouls (one very easy way to "soften the wall"). Move Giannis in offense, so that the wall is not easy to build by the same people every single time. Use Khris' midrange game to go to the FT line and get answers when you can't score.

- to realize that whoever fills the 10-15 positions in the roster does not matter, as long as they can play 5 minutes without dribbling the ball off their feet 10 times.

Basically the Bucks need to be smart. Good luck.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

Still doing this regular season thing huh?

huh? 50 win taIent needs to be tweaked not dismantIed. biggest issue with this team remains the coach and the fIawed superstar.... not the cast.... of course we can taIk about the cast if youre Iike me and you want to tweak the cast to take the baII OUT of the stars hands this time year. we wiII Iose year after year after year if our haIf court initiaitor in the Piayoffs is NOT a shot maker, can NOT hit a 3< and doesnt hit his fts. im not even sIightIy confused what our probIem is. we sucked at pIayoff basketbaII and the coach that went with it untiI Iiteraiiy the moment giannis went down. its a concern and it needs to be addressed

I just don't care about any supporting cast players if they can't help you win playoff games.

what happened the Iast two games our spuoorting cast basicaIy pIayed the buzzsaw known as the miami heat to a standstiII once the baII got moving. one smaII tweak up top and a coach with the stones to demand proper payoff basketbaII and i think were there

[ackypoo]

I mean that would be great, but what if he just can't? what do we do then? It's not like he's 19 anymore, we have to seriously consider that maybe that's him as a player. He can drive and dunk, he's an average or maybe slightly above average passer, and he attracts double teams. And these 3 things are all you can count on him to do reliably on offense when things tighten up.
What then?

lebron didnt develop a post game until about this time in his career.

I know, I know.
Not what I asked though.

any of the following:
get better shooters
get a better coach
trade him

im not sure how easy any of those options are.

[Pachinko_]

Read on Twitter

Wtf is wrong with those people

[Pachinko_]

I've said it before (not sure if it was here sorry) that our regular season wins are extremely misleading. I get it that they usually aren't historically, but in our case they are because of Bud's countless rotations and low minutes that kept us fresh compared to everybody else, and also Giannis's intensity regardless if it's play offs or not

TLDR: forget our record, we're not that good.

[Antinomy]

We literally were playing Marvin who was a game away from retirement major minutes & Hill who never wanted to be there in the first place.

[Badgerlander]

Sad to see Marvin retire, thought maybe he would come back for one more season. Have to think Korver hangs em up too