Mr Southpaw

Christian Wood has been release by New Orleans. Sign him immediately! Geez, the sign GA's brother, This is a no brainer.

Sam Dekker would be cool. Vince Carter? Jamal Crawford? Both can still shoot and would fit nicely on the bench

I have always thought that Brogdon is an injury waiting to happen. I just kept knocking on wood. I hope he does well, just not against the Bucks.

#1 Priority Trade Ersan, make room for #2 and # 3. #2 Priority Sign Christian Wood to a multi year contract, the man can play, period. (Giannis mini me) #3 Priority Sign Frank Kaminsky as back up center. #4 Priority Extend Pat Connaughton, if possible. (he replaces Malcolm in the lineup) #5 Priority Find an adequate back up point guard

Center Options Dedman Kaminsky RFA Muscala Power Forward Options Portis RFA J Green Dudley Dekker more of a SF Beasley All can spread the court and will fit with Lopez

Daulton Hommes...he can shoot, don't know if it translates. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=daulton+hommes%2c+point+loma&view=detail&mid=044D01A3CADB7EE1F79E044D01A3CADB7EE1F79E&FORM=VIRE https://fox5sandiego.com/2018/11/30/plnus-daulton-hommes-is-on-the-rise-as-an-nba-prospect/ https://basketball.realgm.com/player/Daulton-Hommes/Summary/99515

Durant goes down and then THompson goes down.... It makes Middleton look that much better to teams wanting to win now.

But, do you like Louis King? If you like Khris Middleton, then you will like the game of Louis King. 6'8" 195 7 foot wingspan, good 3 point shooter 39% in college and just 19 years old. Sounds like the kind of guy Bud would like to work with. Obviously more of a risk since he has not played seven years in the NBA like Middleton has. https://www.nbadraft.net/players/louis-king

We've seen a lot of small markets have some of the highest payrolls over the past decade. OKC, Portland, and Cleveland have been near the top on several occasions. I'll grant that there's a limit but I would certainly hope they'll go into the top 5 in payroll. Most contenders do when it's necessary to keep the team together. It is unusual to have so many guys that need to be paid though. There's another argument in favor of Hill, and that is avoiding a long-term luxury tax commitment. The repeater tax is brutal, and it's not just about the rich owners' money. If you waive Hill and keep Khris, Lopez, Mirotic, and Brogdon, you're committed to a high tax bill for years. That means you lose the BAE, which is how you got Lopez in the first place, and you are stuck with the tax MLE every year. Giannis comes due for the super-max and you're in trouble. I think keeping, say, Mirotic, is worth the difference between the full MLE and the tax MLE for one year... but is it worth losing the full MLE every year and losing the BAE? The same thing applies even to Khris or Brogdon considering the wing depth they might have with Brown, DDV, and Pat C. I have nothing against Khris in terms of his value on the court (even though I've talked extensively about how I think he could be better), but if he gets 4/$140m from someone else, I could easily talk myself into being glad they can keep everyone else and get comfortably back under the luxury tax when Hill and Ersan are off the books. Just estimating, but I believe if they let Khris walk, they could probably use the full MLE every year for 3-4 years (plus use the BAE every other year during that time) before they go over the tax apron again, even with a super-max extension for Giannis. That's potentially appealing because there will be ring-chasers like Pau Gasol this year, only better, and because needs change and injuries happen, which the flexibility of the full MLE helps you address. I agree with this. Then draft a player that is similar to Kris (Louis King from Oregon is my choice and should be available). Between Malcolm, Donte, Hill, Connaughton, MLE, and the draft pick not to we should be able to shoot threes at an efficient rate from our twos and threes. I hope they can resign everybody, but I think Kris needs to be reasonable. It is kind of like do you want to play with Giannis and be the number two guy and have a chance for a ring or two or some team like the Knicks, Mavericks or Hawks and be the number one guy and win half your games. I don't look at him as a number one guy, I just hope he wants to be the number two guy and stay put hear in the MKE.

Let's try AAA folks!

Right now the starting pitching is looking pretty stable. As far as performance goes and past history I line them up something like this... 2.73 Nelson (11 innings as starter @SA) 1.54 Davies (52 innings) 1.69 Gonzalez (21 innings) 3.51 Woodruff (56 innings) 2.66 Anderson (1.32 in 10 innings as starter) 4.65 Chacin (50 innings) We are in a really good place now with our starting pitching. Burnes and Peralta need to go to SA and get right. Bring up Taylor Williams in their place. Hauser should stay for now and do all non leverage situations.

Add DJ and Sterling and it starts to get crazy.

The talent you speak of is truly there, along with great depth. Trust in Bud and everything will work out. He has a great feel for the game and.... he has Giannis.

The Bucks can play much better than they did in Game 1. Toronto is about what they are. Bledsoe, Middleton, Niko, and most of the bench not named Malcom can play much better. Leonard, Gasol, and Green can probably play a little better. If I were to bet, I would say Bucks in five with Toronto winning Game 3 or Game 4. Just keep the pressure on them, don't let off the gas.

Nurse will need to go with his bench earlier. Toronto starters need to have more bench time earlier in the game and hope the Bucks have another bad shooting performance. It is the only way they have a shot at pulling out Game 2. Bud just needs to keep putting pressure on them both defensively and offensively. I have no problem seeing Sterling Brown and Dj Wilson, heck even Tony Snell, coming in to ratchet up the defensive intensity. Make everything hard for them while they are on offensive end and get out fast, shooting early in the shot clock after four or five quick passes on our end. This team can be very special! I am in a place I have not been since 1971.

I am glad Bledsoe was signed to such a reasonable contract. I hope the rest of the players are as reasonable. Winning big makes everyone happy. Can Hill be restructure/extended to make something like $18, $8, 8? He is getting older and I do think he wants to stay a Buck and win. This way he doesn't have to be cut to make money for the other players. Middleton could sign for a lower first year ($17) and increase on the second two years ($27, $27). I don't know if that is feasible. Brogdon needs to get paid because he was cheap for so long. I am hoping the last Middleton contract suffices. $13-$15/ year. Between Mirotic and Lopez, if I had to choose, I would go with Mirotic just because of age. My order would be something like Brogdon....Best shooter on the team. Smart, smart and smart. fits Buds system. A $12 million raise looks good? Mirotic….….Best overall big man on the team, fits great with what Bud does. $15 million/year? Middleton..It is about how much he wants to play with GA versus how much money he wants. I think he picks GA like Bledsoe. Lopez...…..Older version of Mirotic. Maybe just a one/two year contract? Hill...……...Maybe the restructure thing works, maybe not. Like Lopez age is also a factor. Could Ish Smith or P Beverly be a BU PG solution? It would help if they could just dump Snell. Our only assets are Brown, DJ, Donte, Patty C, and the first round pick. Of the fiveI would not trade DJ and Patty C. DJ seems to fit with Bud, being a big that can shoot. Maybe GA can buff him up! I also like the glue that Patty C brings to the team. I just don't have a good read on Donte. If he is as good as I thought , Sterling can be traded with the first pick.

He's definitely a glue player, but at what price do you extend him this off-season? At this point in the playoffs, it feels like you'd be paying him at his highest possible value and you still have him for a year. I'm not saying he's Delladova, he's more explosive athlete,(though almost the exact same size) but we paid Delladova for many of the same reasons we'd be paying Connaughton. Because he's been a spark plug and showed up in the post-season. If he will sign on for ~4-5 million per year over a 3-4 year period, that'd be fine. If he wants more than that, if he wants 8-10, I'd let him play out next season and then just see where we are. Absolutely correct Kerr was a completely different type of player. If he played in the NBA today, he'd be a better version of Redick, but he had a bad knee injury early in his career that took away a lot of his athletic ability given it was back in the 80's. He shot 45 pct from 3 including a few seasons in which he hit 50 pct. He'd be a great fit on this team, but I don't think he's very similar to Connaughton. Correct again. what I was saying is he looks like he will be a great coach in the future.

Someone taught him how to rebound at a young age. It is not all about jumping, but he does that really well. Positioning on the other side of the basket from where the ball is shot and boxing out are a couple of things that make good rebounder. Ersan also does a great job rebounding. Plus it is one of those things you just should have pride in doing. Malcom is also a pretty good rebounder and he can hardly elevate. Sidney Moncrief was the best rebounder the Bucks ever had,,,, my favorite Buck ever. Pat Connaughton posted a 44" max vertical at his NBA predraft combine...so while what you say is true about rebounding positioning and desire to just get the ball, Pat also has plenty of athleticism to play much taller than 6'4" in the paint. I said he does that really well, meaning he jumps really well (see bold above), and he positions himself really well, and he boxes out really well and he has the desire to do all the little things it takes to be a great basketball player, and that he was taught well at a young age really well. He reminds me of a better version of Kerr when he was on the Bulls. Meaning one of those players you know will be a great coach. I would extend him immediately after the season.

Someone taught him how to rebound at a young age. It is not all about jumping, but he does that really well. Positioning on the other side of the basket from where the ball is shot and boxing out are a couple of things that make good rebounder. Ersan also does a great job rebounding. Plus it is one of those things you just should have pride in doing. Malcom is also a pretty good rebounder and he can hardly elevate. Sidney Moncrief was the best rebounder the Bucks ever had,,,, my favorite Buck ever.

Ding, ding, ding, ding we have a winner here!

This is about exactly what I was thinking. If Nelson cannot do the starting thing, he will be in the bullpen and Woodruff then takes his place, If Anderson can do 2/3 of what he did two years ago we will be a good starting staff.

Not to be rude or anything, but Lilliquist has thrown exactly zero pitches this year. I have not looked at what the Nats have done pitching wise, but would imagine their pitching coach has done about the same as every other pitching coach in the league. Same thing with Hooks.

The Bucks can play better and the Celtics played pretty good, almost as good as they can. Bledsoe had a terrible game (0-4 free throws), but still managed to make the big drive to seal the victory. We do need to make 75-80% of our free throws.

Rass with another nice (short) start today. Keep up the good work!

Good news on Rasmussen! Three strong innings in a start at Carolina last night. This after two scoreless innings in Wisconsin last wee. Maybe we have got something out of these reclamation projects?