Middleton/Johnson to Wash for Kuzma/Baldwin

[fansinceforever]

We need to start hearing some rumblings about another trade very soon

[machu46]

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My guess is one of two things going on here:

1. He's just completely making this up because his sources are generally terrible.
2. This is being greatly exaggerated. Front office asked Giannis if he's okay with the move and he said something along the lines of "If you guys think that's the best move for us, sure." and that got leaked out as "GIANNIS SUPPORTS IT!!!"

[pifhluk23]

Only way this is justifiable is Khris gets bought out and retires because he really is that done.

[jakecronus8]

Is Giannis an Arsenal fan? Soccer buddy says they play today.

[randy84]

Still need a starting SG and an athletic center.

[humanrefutation]

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My guess is one of two things going on here:

1. He's just completely making this up because his sources are generally terrible.
2. This is being greatly exaggerated. Front office asked Giannis if he's okay with the move and he said something along the lines of "If you guys think that's the best move for us, sure." and that got leaked out as "GIANNIS SUPPORTS IT!!!"

Giannis could also be as tired of Khris's unavailability as the rest of us and he's all about being win-now.

[Serge28]

I hate this trade

[drew881]

Read on Twitter

Giannis isn’t smart but he’s not stupid. Have a hard time believing this.

He could be enamored by the Slavic/Greek name

[humanrefutation]

Is Giannis an Arsenal fan? Soccer buddy says they play today.

Apparently he is. Unclear why he'd use the "not sure" emoji, though.

[ReasonablySober]

I think we're underrating just how much resentment there may have been when Khris was medically cleared, took a month off after that, then came in looking slow and out of shape.

[-Jragon-]

Play style. We didn't need a dude waddling down, ignoring plays exist and putting his hand up for the ball like he's Jordan. We need someone bopping around screening, slipping and cutting. Hopefully this dude does more of the little things we needed.

[buckboy]

Insanely, nakedly bad move. A crime against the Bucks. The ONE thing that goes really right for the Bucks in tooo long, a draft pick pans out, and Horst just throws it away? For *what* exactly. And HIDES the giveaway of our best asset beneath the why-bother Khris/Kyle shiny sideshow distraction that doesn't address what needs fixing. What is going on. Horst is gonna pay for this for yeeeeeaars.

Huh? How has AJJ panned out so far, and this is coming from someone that thinks he could be special. I think the ‘emergence’ of Ajax, Green and Rollins is the only reason we were willing to send AJJ out. If that is true, I guess we need to give credit to someone for finding those three dudes.

I don’t think any f those 3 have the talent or potential that AJ Johnson has and Washington very smart to include him in this deal. I am most pissed off of this trade because of this.

I would have preferred doing nothing to this deal, but Washington had zero incentive to do this trade without some sort of sweetener. Middleton will make more than Kuzma going forward assuming he opts in (he will).

[Frank Nova]

That’s **** bull and this trade is worse than we traded Ray Allen

Lol come on bro. I’m puzzled myself but comparing this to the Ray Allen trade is just your frustrations getting the best of you right now. It’s not even in the same stratosphere as bad as that was.

If there is no other move after this and Giannis leaves because of it then it will be the worst trade ever!
Now I will wait to see what happens next because this can’t be it.

Yeah I’ll agree with you there 100%. I’m expecting this move was done a day early because there’s more to come now after unfreezing everything. I’ll reserve my overall judgement until then too.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

Only way this is justifiable is Khris gets bought out and retires because he really is that done.

I don't think that is realistic this year. Why would they lose the flexibility to buy him out and he's not giving up the player option. we wouldnt know until next Feb, right?

[nagawicka]

I'm most upset at losing Johnson. I feel sick.

Insanely, nakedly bad move. A crime against the Bucks. The ONE thing that goes really right for the Bucks in tooo long, a draft pick pans out, and Horst just throws it away? For *what* exactly. And HIDES the giveaway of our best asset beneath the why-bother Khris/Kyle shiny sideshow distraction that doesn't address what needs fixing. What is going on. Horst is gonna pay for this for yeeeeeaars.

Huh? How has AJJ panned out so far, and this is coming from someone that thinks he could be special. I think the ‘emergence’ of Ajax, Green and Rollins is the only reason we were willing to send AJJ out. If that is true, I guess we need to give credit to someone for finding those three dudes.

Draft picks panning out don't have to make DPOY or lead LeBron's Lakers to a title. You know what I mean and you know why everybody's reacting this way. At this stage, at his stage of devt, Johnson is easily shows solid promise of recent draft picks. We're lucky we hit on that pick, and throwing away the young dude is as asinine as it is low bbiq.

[MiltownMadness]

I think Khris and Giannis are best friends but I also think Giannis is a complete psycho and bad talent evaluator, could totally see him seeing the end with Khris and wanting to win right now while he is in his prime. Khris & Giannis have a lifelong relationship that goes past basketball, I'm pretty sure Khris was his best-man at his recent wedding

[-Jragon-]

I think we're underrating just how much resentment there may have been when Khris was medically cleared, took a month off after that, then came in looking slow and out of shape.

Year after year

[humanrefutation]

Giannis isn't a good talent evaluator. But he also knows Khris better than anyone on that team, and he probably knows he's cooked and can't play anymore. I'm sure it's less about Kuz than it is about getting someone in who can play.

[LUKE23]

Also will say - don't think we can start AJax and Kuzma with GA. They will need to make an adjustment there because you that isn't enough shooting, especiallly with Brook now just being so so from 3. I'd probably go with GTJ since he can guard 2's and Prince cannot. This is assuming we start Kuzma at 3 which I am expecting.

[CharityStripe34]

There's going to be a point, in the likely not-too-distant future, where we're watching a 25-57 Bucks team get blown out in Orlando and we're reminiscing about the Giannis years and we're debating at what precise moment it all fell apart.

I fear that this trade is that moment.

The real moment was when we wouldn’t give PJ is 2/$20 deal he wanted.

But yes this is the beginning of the end.

I'm sure many will disagree, but the beginning of the end was winning the title. We were a weak title winner, and the trophy tricked us into thinking we were better than we were. We were a KD jumper away from going down 0-3 to the Nets, a Nets without Harden and who lost Kyrie one game later. Lose that series, and the changes would've been wholesale. Then the Hawks were one of, if not the worst conference finals team in the last 25 years. Suns were a legitimately good team but far from a juggernaut.

Losing in 7 to Boston without Khris just tricked us again. I thought Boston was clearly the better team and a healthy Khris would not have made a difference. Then we lose Giannis against the Heat and get tricked again (Boston beat us by about 100 points at home a few weeks before). Then we lose Giannis and Dame against the Pacers to give us another reason to "run it back."

But look at the underlying numbers even when everyone was healthy. We had a 3 year sample of good, and sometimes very good, but not great basketball. We never really recovered our level pre-Covid level of just smashing teams.

Much of what you said I agree with, though I would think had Khris not slipped and messed up his knee in 2022, that was a title-winning team. He could still defend at a solid level and was always (to that point) someone who murdered Boston. This would've meant Holiday wouldn't have to take as many shots and could focus more on what he did well, Grayson would not have nearly the responsibility and could simply run around and make some threes (and move the ball), etc. etc. It would've given Boston another 20ppg scorer at great efficiency to guard at least.

Miami would've played us tougher than in 2021, but I think we beat them in the ECF and could've definitely beaten GS as 2022 Draymond would've been introduced to the gimp from Giannis. Sadly, the chips fell the way they did and Khris never really recovered, coupled with Jrue's offense collapsing every post-season and Giannis missing nearly two playoff seasons getting hurt at the worst time. Sucks.

The first domino that should've fallen was Brook. He was a great rim protector but a very match-up specific player that absolutely KILLED us against Boston and other teams that could go small, hence why Horford turned into prime Dirk on the pick and pop. Horst should've sold on Brook much higher. We won the title against Phoenix (a very good team) with PJ averaging essentially 0 points and playing major crunch time minutes. The move was always to bring in a solid defensive wing/F that could scale up and give us the Giannis-at-C lineups that could crush teams and Horst NEVER MADE IT HAPPEN. Preferring instead to extend Brook right after he came off of back-surgery in his thirties no less (and we see the last two years he can barely move or jump for a rebound).

I do agree that Horst and ownership overvalued the title-winning core group and should've started quietly shopping some guys 1-2 years ago to become more athletic, younger and switchable.