2023-24 Bucks Season Thread

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I've been wrong many times but I don't think they'll trade Giannis, at least not soon. 

From a business standpoint I don't see how it's a positive. It will piss off so many people and let's be honest, once he leaves town we are likely back to the doldrums. The best possible outcome would be getting enough back to be a perennial middling playoff team. The only path to the championship in Milwaukee is striking gold with a pick like him again. 

Giannis is butts in the seats even if their ceiling is the 2nd round of the playoffs.

I think it's more likely he asks out to chase more rings once he sees the window here is shut.

[MrTPlush]

Giannis isn't leaving unless he asks to be traded. Maybe Milwaukee will still support them pretty loyally...but something tells me that fanbase takes a huge beating if they tear it down. I doubt the front office wants to meet that day in time any sooner than they have to. 

I have a hard time seeing them actually getting value to offset that. Trading a NBA star always seems to bring a pretty underwhelming return.

[GAME05]

Giannis isn't going anywhere unless he demands it. You hope he stays forever and you get to retire his jersey as a forever-Buck. Considering Kareem hated Milwaukee and left, Giannis would be the Robin Yount and Hank Aaron of Bucks Basketball, which really needs a player like that.

We could probably get by fine with Giannis and Lillard as the only big scorers, but I find it hard to imagine Middleton and Lopez have any real trade value, and it's their two positions which need replacing more than anything. Middleton makes way too much for his production and Lopez is too slow to catch the cutter anymore. But good luck adding speed and defense basically without the draft.

[nate82]

18 hours ago, GAME05 said:

We could probably get by fine with Giannis and Lillard as the only big scorers, but I find it hard to imagine Middleton and Lopez have any real trade value, and it's their two positions which need replacing more than anything. Middleton makes way too much for his production and Lopez is too slow to catch the cutter anymore. But good luck adding speed and defense basically without the draft.

I agree.  I have been talking about Lopez being a bad fit for awhile now.  Middleton looks like he is at the end of his career at least defensively he looks that way.  He is just not sticking to players like he used to. 

[owbc]

It feels like the championship window might be already closed but there's still at least some hope of them making it to the finals this year and having the opponent catch an injury bug or something. It has certainly happened to us. Nobody in NBA fan circles seems to think that Doc is capable of coaching a championship team, but they said that about Bud as well until he actually did it.

Next year??? Pray that they find some diamonds in the rough to be the supporting cast? Get Wemby to teach Giannis how to shoot? I don't know...

[GAME05]

Middleton won't be going anywhere, but maybe there will be some room to trade Brook Lopez's expiring contract with a couple second-rounders to pick up one or two Patrick Beverly types. Marjon is just another player, but maybe Bobby would have to go mostly as Milwaukee's only real tradeable asset. Fans sure wouldn't love that, though.

[nate82]

2 hours ago, owbc said:

Next year??? Pray that they find some diamonds in the rough to be the supporting cast? Get Wemby to teach Giannis how to shoot? I don't know...

I thought Giannis could turn into someone like Garnett but I don't think he will ever shoot as good to get there.  I think as Giannis ages the best we could hope for is a more athletic version of Duncan.  Yes I know another HOF player but if Giannis can continue to improve on his game around the rim I think he could be as good as Duncan was. 

[patrickgpe]

It appears that any win or Knicks loss will seal the #2. That would mean their first round opponent is whomever wins the play in tournament, Seeds 5-8 are so bunched up, its hard to guess whom that will be. I really hope they avoid Philly in round 1 though. 

[BrewerFan]

On 4/10/2024 at 4:35 PM, GAME05 said:

Giannis isn't going anywhere unless he demands it. You hope he stays forever and you get to retire his jersey as a forever-Buck. Considering Kareem hated Milwaukee and left, Giannis would be the Robin Yount and Hank Aaron of Bucks Basketball, which really needs a player like that.

We could probably get by fine with Giannis and Lillard as the only big scorers, but I find it hard to imagine Middleton and Lopez have any real trade value, and it's their two positions which need replacing more than anything. Middleton makes way too much for his production and Lopez is too slow to catch the cutter anymore. But good luck adding speed and defense basically without the draft.

When you say value, what do you mean? Obviously, they're nowhere near Giannis/Dame, but I think you could very easily trade either, get back pretty valuable assets. The players are likely going to be roster filler and I'd expect a couple of 1sts from a good team, one from a middling team(Houston for example). 

We do have our 1st this year and a mid 2nd. So we've got another shot at drafting young talent. 

We're going to have to get a little lucky and hit on someone like a Desmond Bane type if we're going to extend this window. Ironically, he was drafted with what was originally our pick.

The Bucks were also trying to move up for Jalen Williams a couple of years ago. I think they know they need to utilize this draft and that time is running out. 

[adambr2]

If I'm Giannis I'm asking out of this hot mess after this season.

[RedStickBrew]

Something to feel good about I guess

 

[adambr2]

Kind of forgot the NBA even had divisions. 

[nate82]

With the Knicks win and the Bucks loss today the Bucks are the #3 seed.

The Bucks will play the Pacers in the first round.

[adambr2]

Turns out at some point you do need some actual young talent and building a team of old fossils and role players around Giannis every year may not have been the best approach. 

[HarryDoyle]

15 minutes ago, RedStickBrew said:

Something to feel good about I guess

 

Big deal. In no other sport are division championships more meaningless.

[patrickgpe]

Losing today was a good thing. Would so rather play the pacers over the (most likely) 76ers in the first round 

[adambr2]

7 minutes ago, patrickgpe said:

Losing today was a good thing. Would so rather play the pacers over the (most likely) 76ers in the first round 

Sure miss the days when we had no concern whatsoever over who we were playing in the 1st round. 

[HarryDoyle]

9 minutes ago, patrickgpe said:

Losing today was a good thing. Would so rather play the pacers over the (most likely) 76ers in the first round 

The team we lost 4 of 5 to?

[adambr2]

There's no way to spin the current direction of the Bucks as any sort of positive. They finished 15 games behind 1st and 2 games ahead of the play-in tournament. This is a team that we all had championship aspirations for after they added Lillard and they have massively underperformed expectations. 

Let's not rewrite history like we are just happy to be here as the 3 seed.

Sure, there's a chance that they start clicking in the playoffs and somehow go on some kind of a run, but it seems pretty unlikely. 

[patrickgpe]

16 hours ago, adambr2 said:

There's no way to spin the current direction of the Bucks as any sort of positive. They finished 15 games behind 1st and 2 games ahead of the play-in tournament. This is a team that we all had championship aspirations for after they added Lillard and they have massively underperformed expectations. 

Let's not rewrite history like we are just happy to be here as the 3 seed.

Sure, there's a chance that they start clicking in the playoffs and somehow go on some kind of a run, but it seems pretty unlikely. 

Switching coaches midseason was clearly a mistake. The team has regressed under Doc. That being said, the bucks have been all in and have done all they can to appease Giannis, which has turned into a team that is old and has little depth. 

[nate82]

This is an absolutely worse case scenario matchup for the Bucks.  I expect them to get swept especially if Giannis is not able to go in game 1.

[Brewin]

1 hour ago, nate82 said:

This is an absolutely worse case scenario matchup for the Bucks.  I expect them to get swept especially if Giannis is not able to go in game 1.

I disagree. The worst case scenario would have been PHI/MIA as the #2 seed. I don't put that much stock in regular season H2H matchups that haven't occurred since January. I much preferred the #3 seed vs Indy, versus the #2 seed vs MIA/PHI. If the seeds hold not having homecourt against the Knicks doesn't concern me either, especially without Randle

[Samurai Bucky]

5 hours ago, nate82 said:

This is an absolutely worse case scenario matchup for the Bucks.  I expect them to get swept especially if Giannis is not able to go in game 1.

1 out of 1 Tyrese Haliburtons agree.

[BrewerFan]

On 4/14/2024 at 3:31 PM, adambr2 said:

There's no way to spin the current direction of the Bucks as any sort of positive. They finished 15 games behind 1st and 2 games ahead of the play-in tournament. This is a team that we all had championship aspirations for after they added Lillard and they have massively underperformed expectations. 

Let's not rewrite history like we are just happy to be here as the 3 seed.

Sure, there's a chance that they start clicking in the playoffs and somehow go on some kind of a run, but it seems pretty unlikely. 

Ok...and is anyone acting like we're just happy to be here as the 3 seed and that a 1st round loss would be anything less than an unmitigated disaster?

I don't see anyone re-writing history. I'm not quite as despondent as some are, but...I have yet to see one person call or refer to this season thus far as any type of success. 

[nate82]

It doesn’t sound like Giannis will be available for game one and is probably out for game two also.