Bucks 2022-2023 Season Thread

[adambr2]

Miami had 3 starters foul out, they've been without Herro this entire series and Oladipo for much of it and still won. 🤣 In 5 games. On our homecourt. 

[wOOgiE22]

3 FG’s in the 4th and blow a 16 point lead. Giannis trying to play hero ball and failed.  That was one of the biggest choke jobs I have seen. 

[BruisedCrew]

22 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

They're taking a 3 either way, and that entire sequence doesn't happen in a tenth of a second, if they even get the rebound. They're probably inbounding with 1 second at best.

Except it does take place in a fraction of a second and they weren’t taking a 3 either way. 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Won't lie, with how that went, I'm glad it's over. I had zero faith in them winning 3 about halfway through the 4th. And I was tracking it on my phone without watching. 

[adambr2]

1 minute ago, BruisedCrew said:

Except it does take place in a fraction of a second and they weren’t taking a 3 either way. 

Who freaking cares, they still lost. You have no idea how long the rebound sequence would have taken, there is no way to know. 

I would have much rather rolled the dice that a sequence on the other end resulted in a 2 second jostle before Miami could gain possession and call timeout, but we'll never know now. 

[adambr2]

If they won today the only thing I was really going to take out of it is that they had demonstrated no superiority to Miami and I would have had no confidence in them winning Game 6. Fine with it being over. 

[adambr2]

Has a play-in team ever won a series before? Enjoy being part of history, Bucks. 

 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

6 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

Who freaking cares, they still lost. You have no idea how long the rebound sequence would have taken, there is no way to know. 

I would have much rather rolled the dice that a sequence on the other end resulted in a 2 second jostle before Miami could gain possession and call timeout, but we'll never know now. 

We suck and were going to lose this series anyway, but missing the 2nd free throw on purpose, up by 1 when the opponent has a timeout, is a real head scratcher to me. At the absolute least, making it is not this super dumb bonehead call. 

[adambr2]

3 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

We suck and were going to lose this series anyway, but missing the 2nd free throw on purpose, up by 1 when the opponent has a timeout, is a real head scratcher to me. At the absolute least, making it is not this super dumb bonehead call. 

Because to me the time is more important than the margin and if you can shave 1 -1.5 off the time in the sequence it's well worth the point. If you're thinking just a few ticks come off that's assuming the ball goes directly to a Miami player and they immediately signal for timeout. 

It doesn't matter. We'll never know. Jrue doesn't miss his first free throw and it's a moot point. Giannis doesn't shoot a pathetic 10 for 23 from the line and it's a moot point. But they both did and here we are.

[adambr2]

Thanks for winning a title, I guess, Bud. You'll never coach for the Bucks again. Good luck. 

[adambr2]

As an aside.....the Heat played a really good series. 

A lot of this was self-inflicted but yeah. Let's be honest, they kicked our asses. We were already getting spanked in Game 1 and then when Giannis returned we were 0-2 in those games. So I have no excuses. We got embarrassed.

[HarryDoyle]

No I didn't want to see the Heat, but never in my wildest dreams did I think we'd be on the losing end of a gentleman's sweep, let alone lose the series. As the #1 overall seed. In the first round. There was absolutely nothing fluky about this series. The Heat dominated all series long, and a healthy Giannis wouldn't have made a difference. This will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest chokes in sports history. I can't see how Bud survives this. He should be put out of his misery by the end of the week. The window is officially shut and we should be happy we even got one championship out of this version of the team. They need to get younger, and soon.

[adambr2]

Budenholzer survived after 2021 because they won it all, and survived after 2022 because they won it all in 2021.

 

He has a 0% chance of surviving this. It's not if but when. I'd be surprised if it's more than a week. 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Don't think I agree. I think he'll be retained because of past goodwill, unfortunately the same team running it back again, and Giannis.

I think next season is his job-saving tour, but I can't see this core winning it again. 

I doubt anyone in the office saw this coming so they are not equipped for a coaching search and I don't know of any hot candidates available. Not saying there aren't any, I legitimately don't know.  

Just by gut feeling they give him a pass though. I don't think he really got a "pass" last year. They went 7 games with a really good Boston team.

[adambr2]

1 minute ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

Don't think I agree. I think he'll be retained because of past goodwill, unfortunately the same team running it back again, and Giannis.

I think next season is his job-saving tour, but I can't see this core winning it again. 

I doubt anyone in the office saw this coming so they are not equipped for a coaching search and I don't know of any hot candidates available. Not saying there aren't any, I legitimately don't know.  

Just by gut feeling they give him a pass though. I don't think he really got a "pass" last year. They went 7 games with a really good Boston team.

Ok, I'll say 1% instead of 0%.

I still think he gets canned. This was really bad. 

[HarryDoyle]

7 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

Budenholzer survived after 2021 because they won it all, and survived after 2022 because they won it all in 2021.

 

He has a 0% chance of surviving this. It's not if but when. I'd be surprised if it's more than a week. 

And Bud came within a toenail of being fired in 2021.

[HarryDoyle]

3 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

Don't think I agree. I think he'll be retained because of past goodwill, unfortunately the same team running it back again, and Giannis.

I think next season is his job-saving tour, but I can't see this core winning it again. 

I doubt anyone in the office saw this coming so they are not equipped for a coaching search and I don't know of any hot candidates available. Not saying there aren't any, I legitimately don't know.  

Just by gut feeling they give him a pass though. I don't think he really got a "pass" last year. They went 7 games with a really good Boston team.

If this series had gone seven then maybe Bud survives. This was five games.  Retaining him would be inexcusable.

[HarryDoyle]

Anyway, the Jimmy Haslam curse has officially begun. Everything this guy touches turns to aluminum.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I hope they fire him, though I don't think it'll ultimately do a whole lot. 

If you go back far enough I dared suggest he was on the hot seat the season after losing to Toronto. I think Covid bubble circus bailed him out. Then there was a title which buys you at least 2 seasons. 

Is what it is. I never, never thought I'd see the Bucks win a championship in my life, so there's that. We did get that. 

[adambr2]

Guys seriously though, the Heat looked good. Decent chance they beat the Knicks.

[Joseph Zarr]

If they are indeed moving on from Bud, Nick Nurse is the obvious replacement candidate. The Bucks are too old and too slow with a marvelous but very flawed superstar. It will be an interesting off-season that is for certain.

All the signs of the potential for this type of collapse have been there the entire season. The Bucks rarely performed well against the better teams. Way too many absolute wallopings. No real PG play to speak of. Anyhow, I'm entirely unsurprised and stand firmly in my own truth: I never expected the Bucks to win a Chip in my lifetime. I lived through the Kohl years. Everything is gravy post-Chip. This was reminiscent of every Packers heartbreak but I just don't invest myself too deeply in either team any longer. I feel for the fans who are crushed, however. I've been there many times as a younger person and it was painful.

[SomewhereInTime]

There have been a lot of choke jobs by Wisconsin sports teams who finished higher than their opponent in the regular season but lost in the playoffs.  I think this has to be the worst one ever.  I mean maybe one of the worst in American sports history given the lack of talent of the opponent and the amount of injured players they had while the Bucks in the last two games were at full strength.  Then you factor in that it was two straight massive 4th quarter blown leads.  I can't think of anything that compares to this, like for any team.

It's amazing to think that a team needs to fire it's coach two seasons after winning a title, but yeah, there's no coming back from this, Bud needs to be fired tomorrow.

Thank god it's just the Bucks and not a Packer or Brewers loss.

[yourout]

Hopefully getting eliminated in The embarrassing way they did Will be the trigger for some needed changes that might not have happened had the series went to seven games and then been eliminated.

[adambr2]

Any silver linings? Hope for getting back to '21? The way I'm seeing it, Lopez and/or Middleton might both be gone and we don't have much cap or capital to build a solid group around Giannis.  But I don't know much about roster salary limitations work in the NBA.

Am I wrong in saying that Horst has been under the radar awful, especially at the deadline, and criminally overrated as a GM?

Crowder, terrible. Ibaka, terrible. Mirotic, terrible. 

PJ Tucker is the only move that remotely brought what we expected to the table. 

[Matt Breen]

Let's be frank - this team bombed huge. So the question is what can they do about it next year?

Well, they could do a massive rebuild and trade Giannis and so forth. But I don't see that. This is still a good team.

With the salary cap issues, I don't see the club being able to add significant talent. I can see some roster tweaking - but not major stuff. So if the roster doesn't change much, the likely 'change' on the table is Bud. 

I'm guessing we resign Lopez, extend Middleton (dropping his 2023-24 cap to something more manageable), and then bring back the band with a new coach. It's not a bad plan - considering the talent and success in the regular season. 

Tough, tough time for the club.