2023-24 Bucks Season Thread

[CheezWizHed]

Just from the timing... I suspect something more team related (Dame, coaching differences, etc..). Hope all is well with the family. 

[SomewhereInTime]

Same old Bucks

[True Blue Brew Crew]

6 hours ago, SomewhereInTime said:

Same old Bucks

The team that won the NBA title just over 2 years ago? Those Bucks?

[SomewhereInTime]

16 hours ago, True Blue Brew Crew said:

The team that won the NBA title just over 2 years ago? Those Bucks?

No this is the '23-'24 thread

[BrewerFan]

3 hours ago, SomewhereInTime said:

No this is the '23-'24 thread

 

On 10/19/2023 at 11:21 PM, SomewhereInTime said:

Same old Bucks

Yeah, LOL...again, this dude HAS to be trolling! Even AFTER Uribe was absolutely dealing out of the pen, Chourio, Quero, Lara, numerous other Latin American players are flying up the prospect rankings, he's still saying he'd rather scrap the entire Latin American signing and development process to sign an "extra reliever or 4th OFer every year."

 

You can see in this statement alone how he's not even TRYING to be taken seriously. 

"Same old Bucks."

Oh...like the ones that won a Title and then just had the most regular season wins last year?

"No this is the '23-'24 thread."

 

Umm...so same NEW Bucks? Or...um...yeah, lets just not even try to unpack this one!

[BrewerFan]

On 10/19/2023 at 9:35 AM, sveumrules said:

Terry Stotts has resigned from his role on the Bucks coaching staff.

Haven’t seen an official reason given, but has to be either health/family related, didn’t want to re-commit to the daily grind at age 65 after two years off, or some kind of butting of heads with coach Griff slash maybe lingering bad blood with Dame from their Portland days?

Whatever the cause, it leaves a pretty big hole in the coaching staff on the precipice of the regular season.

Guessing Prunty just gets promoted to lead assistant? Also saw D’Antoni currently has an advisor role with the Pelicans, maybe a lead assistant gig with a Championship contender could entice him away?

I saw rumors that he and Griffith just butted heads on a number of occasions. He was arguing for Dame to be a bigger part of the offense, but the final straw-I'VE SEEN, take it for what it's worth, but the Coaches were all talking during a practice and Stotts pulled Giannis and Dame aside, Griffith snapped at him and Stotts felt like he wasn't being given the appropriate amount of respect.

 

Just for the record, I watched this team play tonight...and I saw more in a PRESEASON game vs Memphis in terms of off-ball movement and just crisp, quick passes, unselfish basketball, wide open shots...ALL mixed in with lots of sloppy play, don't get me wrong, but more of that type of offense than I've ever seen.

It didn't matter. It was just such minor, basic ****, it was Middleton kinda picking up his dribble, Dame in the corner(so you already have Beasley's guy sagging toward the corner a little and Dame's guy NOT sagging off Dame at all). But Middleton gives it to Lopez, comes around a screen, Lopez hands it back off, Middleton without taking a dribble finds Beasley wide open...

 

Such a very small thing, but if they play like this and if Dame is really not going to be selfish, and I've got no reason to believe he is other than the nature of superstar athletes with supreme confidence, this team is going to just make life hell for the other team.

 

On the defensive side, Dame's defense is to Jrue's is a massive drop off, BUT he plays the passing lanes, he was playing with effort, trying to deny and he wasn't a complete sieve. Beasley played hard. That's the big part of the defensive end. Effort. As I've previously said, I've seen Harden defend Giannis in the post competently...in big moments. We've also seen him LITERALLY step out of the way when a guy was driving and not even bother trying to make a play on the ball. 

 

And Marjon hitting 4 of 5 3's? If he's a 35% 3 point shooter, he could be a MASSIVE role player this year. 

[SomewhereInTime]

3 hours ago, BrewerFan said:

 

Yeah, LOL...again, this dude HAS to be trolling! Even AFTER Uribe was absolutely dealing out of the pen, Chourio, Quero, Lara, numerous other Latin American players are flying up the prospect rankings, he's still saying he'd rather scrap the entire Latin American signing and development process to sign an "extra reliever or 4th OFer every year."

 

You can see in this statement alone how he's not even TRYING to be taken seriously. 

"Same old Bucks."

Oh...like the ones that won a Title and then just had the most regular season wins last year?

"No this is the '23-'24 thread."

 

Umm...so same NEW Bucks? Or...um...yeah, lets just not even try to unpack this one!

Somebody's a little sensitive about the Bucks lol.  I'm sure they'll be just fine and not choke in the playoffs against a worse team like in '19, '20, and '23.

[LouisEly]

3 hours ago, SomewhereInTime said:

Somebody's a little sensitive about the Bucks lol.  I'm sure they'll be just fine and not choke in the playoffs against a worse team like in '19, '20, and '23.

Right, those teams were worse because they made (and won) the NBA finals.

[Joseph Zarr]

Watched the last two pre-season games. With the addendum, it's the pre-season and means zilch, here were my observations:

1) AJJ is definitely a player. He 'should' get PT and enter the rotation this season. The earlier the better. He pops and impacts the entire game every time he's been on the floor.

2) Beauchamp lacks consistency and consistency of confidence but when he is playing confident he is very good to the rack; can shoot from distance; has an improved handle; and has length for defensive impact. It's all about the mental side of the game here it would appear. Hopefully, he solidifies that.

3) AJ Green is arguably the best pure distance shooter on the team. His stroke is straight butter. Hard to fathom he won't get minutes and it's hard to fathom his stroke from distance is purer than Lillard but it just may be. His release point is extremely hard to block as well. He looks like a completely transformed player after one year (physically ripped and speed of play) and this after an unexpectedly decent rookie year.

4) RoLo is, sadly, absolutely washed. He shouldn't see the floor. He likely shouldn't hold a roster spot but there may be some form of agreement with the Bucks and BroLo (as we know they clearly do those things for their core players). He was awful in these meaningless games. It was fairly shocking how far he's fallen off the playable cliff.

5) Giannis was #1 in usage in the NBA last season. Dame was #4. In this equation, Giannis absolutely needs to let go of his own ball dominant fetish. Get the ball in Dame's hands. It's the pre-season, yes, but I did not like how the half court was initiated 90% of the time with the starters and this was largely due to Giannis absolutely hogging primary ball handling duties. This can not remain the trend. There was a reason Giannis was like a -19 yesterday: he played a lot of boneheaded basketball with Dame on the court. He is still in love with his undisciplined distant shooting - man, I sincerely hope he realizes anything more than 2 3's a game from him is egregious with the shooters they have. It's a stubborn refusal to dominate the void within the offense and it actually muddles the offensive flow. Dame relegated to standing in the corner?! This had way too many shades of J Kidd's time with the Bucks. I found this, perhaps, the most disturbing possible trend of the pre-season. I can only hope they were keeping things in the bag for the regular season. It was ugly. Giannis has to understand his role has changed. I fear he may not. If you claim you will set 50 picks if need be, can you please be willing to set 10? My gods. His trend of play offensively is pretty concerning if you're not wearing rose colored glasses. And, the FT's continue to just plummet toward Shaq levels of inefficiency. Yikes.

6) Jae Crowder looks completely reinvigorated. This is a very good thing.

7) This is the most exciting lotto ticket compilation of youth the Bucks have had since...? TyTy looked very good yesterday. Green and AJJ have been discussed. As has Marjon. Livingston could continue to develop as well and has flashed. Obviously Griffin had a conflict with Stotts and that led to a departure. He certainly seems to be the guy to help develop these young guys, however. Given the Bucks Salary Cap implications this will be key moving ahead.

8) I think it's going to take longer than people think for this team to really gel. And, that's just fine. The defensive philosophy is entirely different and more aggressive. The offense will be a work in progress. To me, it's entirely up to how Giannis learns to fit himself into this type of talent. If he continues his #1 usage ways and ball dominance, this team will likely see repeat disappointments. If he truly is the unselfish superstar he claims he is, this team will flourish. 

---

That's how I see it entering Game 1.

[sveumrules]

Agree on pretty much all counts, @Joseph Zarr.

Outside of the obvious health caveats, this season is primarily going to boil down to how much ball dominance Giannis is willing to cede over to Dame.

Point Giannis needs to be relegated to after grabbing a defensive board or when he is leading the 2nd unit while Dame isn’t on the floor.

[Joseph Zarr]

1 hour ago, sveumrules said:

Agree on pretty much all counts, @Joseph Zarr.

Outside of the obvious health caveats, this season is primarily going to boil down to how much ball dominance Giannis is willing to cede over to Dame.

Point Giannis needs to be relegated to after grabbing a defensive board or when he is leading the 2nd unit while Dame isn’t on the floor.

100% agreed. And I do fear Giannis may not see that or understand that. It's a legit concern. At this juncture of his HOF career it really is about evolving the mental side of his game. His limits to being even more impactful and evolving further have little to nothing to do with his desire to win by my eyes. I personally 'believe' it had everything to do with how he can advance the basics: seeing the floor; knowing what your team needs to be successful; and getting back to fundamentals (ie Box out for crying out loud, make the simple pass because you know where your shooters are, and for crying out loud get back to 70% FT). I can only hope he will see this as the season advances. I remain skeptical.

[BrewerFan]

13 hours ago, SomewhereInTime said:

Somebody's a little sensitive about the Bucks lol.  I'm sure they'll be just fine and not choke in the playoffs against a worse team like in '19, '20, and '23.

LOL...no, not even a little. It's the golden era of Bucks Basketball!

 

It's just the pure stupidity of saying "same old Bucks," based off a PRESEASON game and then when someone points out that they won a title in recent history you say, 'we're only talking about this year!'

 

You HAVE to be just supremely talented at trolling. Nobody can accidentally get as many things AS wrong as you so regularly do.

[BrewerFan]

7 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

Watched the last two pre-season games. With the addendum, it's the pre-season and means zilch, here were my observations:

1) AJJ is definitely a player. He 'should' get PT and enter the rotation this season. The earlier the better. He pops and impacts the entire game every time he's been on the floor.

2) Beauchamp lacks consistency and consistency of confidence but when he is playing confident he is very good to the rack; can shoot from distance; has an improved handle; and has length for defensive impact. It's all about the mental side of the game here it would appear. Hopefully, he solidifies that.

3) AJ Green is arguably the best pure distance shooter on the team. His stroke is straight butter. Hard to fathom he won't get minutes and it's hard to fathom his stroke from distance is purer than Lillard but it just may be. His release point is extremely hard to block as well. He looks like a completely transformed player after one year (physically ripped and speed of play) and this after an unexpectedly decent rookie year.

4) RoLo is, sadly, absolutely washed. He shouldn't see the floor. He likely shouldn't hold a roster spot but there may be some form of agreement with the Bucks and BroLo (as we know they clearly do those things for their core players). He was awful in these meaningless games. It was fairly shocking how far he's fallen off the playable cliff.

5) Giannis was #1 in usage in the NBA last season. Dame was #4. In this equation, Giannis absolutely needs to let go of his own ball dominant fetish. Get the ball in Dame's hands. It's the pre-season, yes, but I did not like how the half court was initiated 90% of the time with the starters and this was largely due to Giannis absolutely hogging primary ball handling duties. This can not remain the trend. There was a reason Giannis was like a -19 yesterday: he played a lot of boneheaded basketball with Dame on the court. He is still in love with his undisciplined distant shooting - man, I sincerely hope he realizes anything more than 2 3's a game from him is egregious with the shooters they have. It's a stubborn refusal to dominate the void within the offense and it actually muddles the offensive flow. Dame relegated to standing in the corner?! This had way too many shades of J Kidd's time with the Bucks. I found this, perhaps, the most disturbing possible trend of the pre-season. I can only hope they were keeping things in the bag for the regular season. It was ugly. Giannis has to understand his role has changed. I fear he may not. If you claim you will set 50 picks if need be, can you please be willing to set 10? My gods. His trend of play offensively is pretty concerning if you're not wearing rose colored glasses. And, the FT's continue to just plummet toward Shaq levels of inefficiency. Yikes.

6) Jae Crowder looks completely reinvigorated. This is a very good thing.

7) This is the most exciting lotto ticket compilation of youth the Bucks have had since...? TyTy looked very good yesterday. Green and AJJ have been discussed. As has Marjon. Livingston could continue to develop as well and has flashed. Obviously Griffin had a conflict with Stotts and that led to a departure. He certainly seems to be the guy to help develop these young guys, however. Given the Bucks Salary Cap implications this will be key moving ahead.

8) I think it's going to take longer than people think for this team to really gel. And, that's just fine. The defensive philosophy is entirely different and more aggressive. The offense will be a work in progress. To me, it's entirely up to how Giannis learns to fit himself into this type of talent. If he continues his #1 usage ways and ball dominance, this team will likely see repeat disappointments. If he truly is the unselfish superstar he claims he is, this team will flourish. 

---

That's how I see it entering Game 1.

I only watched parts of the preseason, but I was extremely encouraged by the offensive flow. I didn't see Giannis being as ball dominant or Dame just standing in the corner too much. I did see it, but on the plays I saw it, it kinda seemed by design.

You're sucking one defender who's on Dame...who can smell what he ate for breakfast a week ago, another one cheating his way and it came after a couple of plays that Dame gave really good effort on defense...and the result was Giannis dumping to Middleton, Middleton getting a pick by Lopez, turning the corner, Beasley's guy collapsing on him and Middleton threw it back to Beasley for a easy wide open 3. 

 

But again, I only watched parts of the game...the first half of last game and parts of other games. I think we're going to see possessions where Dame is just camped out in the corner pulling defenders and to open up the court, but I feel like it's been pretty clear Dame i s going to be the lead guard. 

 

I'm with you on...most of the rest. I don't know that Robin Lopez is washed(insofar as his usefulness to us or what we've expected of him). He's basically just insurance defensively. He's a veteran big body. I don't think he's here because we made some promise to Brook(I think the 50 over 2 years was sufficient). I think he chose the Bucks because of Brook. In fact, it almost feels like he was brought in to potentially be a big body to throw at Jokic(remember, no buyouts for the Bucks this year, so our roster is our roster and I think they're just playing it VERY safe with their depth). It also may seem premature to worry about Jokic and from the players view point it should be, but for management, you've gotta build to beat the best teams. That's obviously Boston and Denver. Crowder, Portiz, Brook, Robin and even Thanasis. The later has frustrated me as he actually has the physicality to be a good defender, he just plays so stupid. But he's a pretty athletic and THICK 6'8 PF. 

Anyway, I like this team. I'm a consistent Marjon, a productive Jackson, a reinvigorated Crowder and a healthy Middleton away from loving this team(Along with Beasley returning to his 3 point shooting sans Lakers era). I'm also skeptical of Green, but if he can actually play well enough defensively and handle the ball, he could be a 45% 3 point shooter. I also expect Dame to be over 40% on the year playing with Giannis. 

 

Quote

 

@sveumrulesAgree on pretty much all counts, @Joseph Zarr.

Outside of the obvious health caveats, this season is primarily going to boil down to how much ball dominance Giannis is willing to cede over to Dame.

Point Giannis needs to be relegated to after grabbing a defensive board or when he is leading the 2nd unit while Dame isn’t on the floor.

 

I think there's a little bit too much...kinda skepticism over Giannis and his ability to defer. Everything I've seen from our offense has been more off ball movement(and a lot of it from Dame). 

I don't think this is the issue or the determining factor you guys are inferring. Yeah, if Giannis usage rate is 40% and he's shooting 5 3's a game and Dame is at 20% and he's only getting off 12 or so shots, that's a problem, but we've seen Giannis MORE than happy to defer to the hot hand...be it Middleton, it's been Lopez, Allen, even Portis or Connaughton. 

 

This dude wants to win more than anything, but I think him with the ball in the half court is not a good or a bad thing. It is entirely dependent upon what the other 4 players are doing. It's been maddening in the past couple years as they've been standing and waiting, but from what I'm seeing now, they're moving, screening and cutting off ball.

If the biggest issue is how willing Giannis is to give up some of the ball handling and give Dame room to do his thing...I don't think we've got anything to worry about.

I think the biggest issue will be defense and I think the biggest issue will be to see how Beasley, Dame and other historically poor defenders buy in and how much effort they give on that end of the floor. It's looked good...for spurts...in the preseason. 82 games is very different.

[SomewhereInTime]

3 hours ago, BrewerFan said:

LOL...no, not even a little. It's the golden era of Bucks Basketball!

 

It's just the pure stupidity of saying "same old Bucks," based off a PRESEASON game and then when someone points out that they won a title in recent history you say, 'we're only talking about this year!'

 

You HAVE to be just supremely talented at trolling. Nobody can accidentally get as many things AS wrong as you so regularly do.

I haven't watched a second of preseason.  I find it a little concerning the rookie head coach has already had an experienced assistant walk out of the job.  I also find it hard to believe they hired the best guy for the head coaching job.  I also don't care about what you agree with or don't agree with.  This will be the last post I read or reply to of yours.

[BrewerFan]

On 10/21/2023 at 10:10 PM, SomewhereInTime said:

I haven't watched a second of preseason.  I find it a little concerning the rookie head coach has already had an experienced assistant walk out of the job.  I also find it hard to believe they hired the best guy for the head coaching job.  I also don't care about what you agree with or don't agree with.  This will be the last post I read or reply to of yours.

Oh...so it's the same old Bucks(but not the good old Bucks that were in the ECFs or won NBA Titles, just the same OLD Bucks from specifically 2023-24) because Stotts left for some reason that we don't know about...

Gotcha! So no more responding to(or reading) my posts. So I guess we'll just have to wait for you to be proven right on EVERY Latin American player we signed and then you'll be in touch with me? Just kills me to think we paid 85K for Abner Uribe and we could give 10M to Matt Moore!

On 10/21/2023 at 5:18 AM, SomewhereInTime said:

Somebody's a little sensitive about the Bucks lol.

Eh...you really sure I'm the one who's overly sensitive here? You're funny! It's a compliment! 

I love the Onion as well!

 

 

[homer]

 

 

[SomewhereInTime]

Thoughts and prayers to all the ESPN NBA analysts

[LouisEly]

Would it be illegal for Giannis to pay other player's salaries to help skirt the salary cap?

[nate82]

14 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

Would it be illegal for Giannis to pay other player's salaries to help skirt the salary cap?

Very much so.  Maybe he can up the Brewers payroll?

[homer]

22 minutes ago, nate82 said:

Very much so.  Maybe he can up the Brewers payroll?

Ha! No kidding. He'll have more money than Mark A pretty soon.

[HarryDoyle]

 

[CheezWizHed]

14 hours ago, SomewhereInTime said:

Thoughts and prayers to all the ESPN NBA analysts

Do you mean because Giannis extended and isn't moving to the Knicks, Boston, or other preferred East Coast sports location?  Or something else?

[BrewerFan]

On 10/23/2023 at 6:14 PM, LouisEly said:

Would it be illegal for Giannis to pay other player's salaries to help skirt the salary cap?

He can do things to entire them like...give them a place to stay or let them stay at one of his houses(he's got a couple now I believe). 

But literally pay them? I'm guessing @LouisElysaid that a little tongue in cheek. That's a pretty obvious violation.

 

I don't wanna say Giannis HAD to do this because...he's obviously free to do what he likes, but he did kinda owe it to the Bucks who have completely sacrificed their future to upgrade this team right now with Dame and trading Jrue away, PLUS what could VERY easily be 3 premium top 10 picks. 

 

[BrewerFan]

On 10/23/2023 at 8:42 PM, HarryDoyle said:

 

These are SOO stupid...I get it's a team account trolling another, but I remember that play. Giannis was coming over late and not really in a position to block it and everyone acts like Collins just "posterized" him. And I guess he did, but I'd rather have a guy who gets dunked on regularly and actually contests shots at the rim!

14 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

Do you mean because Giannis extended and isn't moving to the Knicks, Boston, or other preferred East Coast sports location?  Or something else?

One of the few joys on Twitter...watching other teams talk about how they're getting Giannis in 2022, 2024 when he asks out, 2025 when he's FA! 

I mean, it's already been a lock, he's going to Miami, Chicago, SA, Dallas, obviously the Lakers are just entitled to him and the Clippers were going to somehow swing it, Atlanta because...Milwaukee is too cold. I think the only fan base not talking about getting him are the other small market teams and Boston. 

And NOW...well, they don't really want him because he can't shoot and all he does is run and dunk and he's getting old anyway...at 28! 

The coping is funny!

 

[nate82]

The Bucks offense looks bad without Dame in the game.  With just Giannis on the court the offense looks exactly like it was last year.  Everyone standing around waiting for Giannis to do something.