2023-24 Bucks Season Thread

[BrewerFan]

1 hour ago, RobertCrawley said:

A lot can be said about Herb Kohl, but I will remember that Steve Ballmer offered him 1 billion dollars for the Bucks with the intention of moving the team to Seattle, and Kohl turned him down. Thanks, Senator.

Craig Counsell would have taken the money and explained he was trying to elevate the well-being of NBA players.

I did not know that...that is incredible.

I knew he'd turned down money and that he was intent on making sure the Bucks stayed in Wisconsin, but I thought it was 650M. That was what the MJS reported way back, but looking at Balmer, it certainly wouldn't be surprising to see him come back and try and up the ante. 

[owbc]

4 hours ago, BrewerFan said:

I did not know that...that is incredible.

I knew he'd turned down money and that he was intent on making sure the Bucks stayed in Wisconsin, but I thought it was 650M. That was what the MJS reported way back, but looking at Balmer, it certainly wouldn't be surprising to see him come back and try and up the ante. 

Balmer bought the Clippers and Seattle is almost certainly getting an expansion team. 

[BrewerFan]

14 minutes ago, owbc said:

Balmer bought the Clippers and Seattle is almost certainly getting an expansion team. 

Right. I'm saying the reports at the time were that he turned down 650M in favor of 550M, not a billion. That's a big difference, but given what Balmer did to get the LAC, it's hardly surprising he'd up the offer like that. It IS surprising even a wealthy man like Kohl wouldn't take him up on it.

That's...pretty special. Milwaukee had two owners whose teams were....not great for a large majority of their tenure, but each did their part to ensure Milwaukee kept their teams. Selig and Kohl. 

[HarryDoyle]

Turns out this new rivalry isn't really a rivalry. Indiana owns the Bucks.

[SeaBass]

13 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

Turns out this new rivalry isn't really a rivalry. Indiana owns the Bucks.

It's a pity they suck against literally everyone else.

[nate82]

13 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

Turns out this new rivalry isn't really a rivalry. Indiana owns the Bucks.

Kind of like the Heat in the past few years where the Bucks just couldn't find a way to win against them especially in the playoffs. 

[RedStickBrew]

Did Middleton get hurt or are they just resting him the second half?

[valpocrewsader]

Sounds like they wouldn't normally have played him on a back-to-back, but needed to do so to avoid a fine from the league (new rule) for a healthy "star" sitting out a nationally televised game (since Khris was an all-star in last three years). It was the plan all along to play him for the first half only.

[Samurai Bucky]

The more active teams like Indiana and San Antonio (gasp) have figured out the Bucks.  I have a feeling it boils down to Brook Lopez.

If Lopez is matched up against an athletic C or PF, he is too slow to recover.  Also, his vertical leaping ability is not good and I can't remember the last time he went up with two hands to grab a rebound.

Lopez's defensive strength, if it still exists, requires him to be closer to the basket.  He gets pulled out and is ineffective.

Hopefully I'm wrong.

[nate82]

Starting to sound like Giannis is getting annoyed with the defensive effort on this team.

[nate82]

I didn’t think it was possible to look this bad on defense but somehow the Bucks are showing how bad they are.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I'm not a knee jerk person. But they need to fire Adrian Griffin. The defense is unbelievably terrible. They don't have the time to throw away seasons. Get him out.  

This mess really makes me wonder what happened with Stotts.

[nate82]

46 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

I'm not a knee jerk person. But they need to fire Adrian Griffin. The defense is unbelievably terrible. They don't have the time to throw away seasons. Get him out.  

This mess really makes me wonder what happened with Stotts.

I don’t think this is a coaching problem.  The team has just been lazy and not doing the little things they were doing last year.  Maybe they are focusing on stopping the three ball too much and need to go back too dominating the paint defensively.

Lopez is a bad defender the further away from the basket he gets.  He just can’t move like he used to.  Middleton also looks like he is no longer above average defensively.

Beasley is probably the biggest problem defensively along with Portis.  Portis just doesn’t look the same defensively or offensively as he did last year.

I think this team is just getting old and are not elite defensively anymore other the Giannis and then Lopez as long as he doesn’t have to move away from the basket.  I just don’t believe this team will get much better defensively.  There just isn’t anywhere to improve or get improvement from a trade.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

They brought on Stotts to work the offense while Griffin was allegedly a defensive minded coach. Any time I look up the score the Bucks are surrendering 125 points. Sometimes even when they win. You'd have to try to be as bad as they've been. 

[thebruce44]

Quote

 The team has just been lazy and not doing the little things they were doing last year.  Maybe they are focusing on stopping the three ball too much and need to go back too dominating the paint defensively.

How is that not a coaching problem?

Quote

Lopez is a bad defender the further away from the basket he gets.  He just can’t move like he used to.

Seems like something a coach could remedy by putting him in a better position to succeed.

 

[BrewerFan]

21 hours ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

I'm not a knee jerk person. But they need to fire Adrian Griffin. The defense is unbelievably terrible. They don't have the time to throw away seasons. Get him out.  

This mess really makes me wonder what happened with Stotts.

They're kinda stuck. They look similar to Boston early on with Udoka...and then they figured it out(though the Bucks seemed to have it figured out and then regressed). 

I don't think we're going to see a coaching change this year, so we just have to hope they can get good minutes from Beauchamp, Jackson...Crowder when he comes back. 

I don't think there's a quick fix, nor do I think a trade does a whole lot for us based on who's likely to be available and I don't want to see Jackson, Beauchamp or Livingston traded. It wouldn't be a firm line in the sand, I just really like those three as future contributors. 

Jackson more than the others could become a big part of the rotation. He's already an outstanding defender, makes the right plays and he's hitting those corner 3s. 

[HarryDoyle]

Yeah, I think it was a mistake to hire a rookie coach with a championship ready team and then went all in with the Lillard trade.

[BrewerFan]

1 hour ago, HarryDoyle said:

Yeah, I think it was a mistake to hire a rookie coach with a championship ready team and then went all in with the Lillard trade.

We could have gotten Haliburton+ for what we gave up for Jrue. But, we're past that now. 

I hope it doesn't prove to be a mistake. I think he'll adjust(maybe hope is more accurate). 

[RedStickBrew]

Bucks hanging one on Boston tonight. They are a fun team to watch when things are clicking

[sveumrules]

Idiotic of the NBA to schedule teams for a National Game on the second half of a B2B, but if that’s what it takes to beat the Celtics…I guess I’ll take it.

[nate82]

Apparently I just needed to call out Portis to get him to play better? 

[nate82]

On 1/9/2024 at 2:36 PM, thebruce44 said:

How is that not a coaching problem?

Seems like something a coach could remedy by putting him in a better position to succeed.

 

It is not a coaching problem because it is the NBA.  The players run the team and the coaches are just there for the ride. 

This has been a problem with Lopez for a few seasons now.  Bud had him basically camp the lane and that worked during the season.  But once the playoffs rolled around it didn't work.  Lopez just doesn't move all that well and can't be playing anywhere near the perimeter on defense.  If he is out there he is a liability and if he isn't out there the Bucks suffer by giving up easy 3's.  Lopez just can't defend out there anymore and there is no coaching that is going to fix that.  Teams take advantage of this all the time and if you do switch and keep Lopez low all the time as it creates really bad mismatches. 

The Bucks really need a young center who can defend out on the perimeter. 

[BrewerFan]

4 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Idiotic of the NBA to schedule teams for a National Game on the second half of a B2B, but if that’s what it takes to beat the Celtics…I guess I’ll take it.

These are professional athletes in their mid 20s for the most part and the "old guys," are in their early 30s.

The back-to-back excuse is lame. The Bucks played well and they shot the lights out. Boston was sloppy. This could have happened to either team on the 2nd of a B2B or coming off a 4 day rest. 

[BrewerFan]

4 hours ago, nate82 said:

It is not a coaching problem because it is the NBA.  The players run the team and the coaches are just there for the ride. 

C'mon...they're playing lazy and not doing the little things, but that's not a coaching issue because coaches don't really matter in the NBA?

4 hours ago, nate82 said:

This has been a problem with Lopez for a few seasons now.

He was runner-up for DPOY last year. 

4 hours ago, nate82 said:

Bud had him basically camp the lane and that worked during the season.  But once the playoffs rolled around it didn't work.

Lopez was the 2nd best defender last year in the Miami series and outstanding vs Boston the year before. 

4 hours ago, nate82 said:

If he is out there he is a liability and if he isn't out there the Bucks suffer by giving up easy 3's.  Lopez just can't defend out there anymore and there is no coaching that is going to fix that.  Teams take advantage of this all the time and if you do switch and keep Lopez low all the time as it creates really bad mismatches. 

The Bucks really need a young center who can defend out on the perimeter. 

The Bucks have Giannis. How many teams have a big man who can defend inside and play perimeter defense at an elite level in the NBA? There are a handful of them. Giannis(and he's really not a great on-ball defender on the perimeter), Bam...maybe Jaren Jackson. It's a very short list. 

 

They completely changed the makeup of their team from a defensive-minded team to an offensive-minded one. They changed their coaching staff and then underwent a significant change right before the season. On top of that, Middleton working his way back...it wasn't going to be a seamless transition, but hanging this on Lopez makes zero sense to me. He's +1.1 DBPM, Defensive rating is 2nd on the team at a solid 115. He's not the problem. 

 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Last night was the second worst outcome. Worst was a blowout the other way. 

Am I hanging too much on a regular season game? Yes probably. But it's a signature win that glosses over how bad some aspects of this team have been, after a game they won because, let's be honest, Boston was just uncharacteristically awful. I would have preferred seeing them win a competitive game or at least one where Boston had things going.

If it's some kind of spark plug I'm all for it. But I can't shake the itch that this team is headed for the same drubbing by Miami or Indiana again. They just seem so soft on the defensive side.