BrewerFan

Rasheed Walker(who's convinced people he's good instead of just...NOT a terrible backup), Josh Myers...who nobody is convinced is good, Zach Tom who's probably best suited to start at C playing RT and getting bull rushed into Love's lap. The Hamstrings on the Packers are apparently as tightly wound as a vegan Karen, so they're just snapping left and right. Uh...we don't allow anyone to take toradol which makes your knee, shoulder, whatever...feel good for about 3-4 hours and we're apparently the only team that doesn't do these(probably in the NFL or College). Jordan Love MIGHT suck...I don't know because he makes these absurd throws at times and then he misses Musgraves by 8 yards despite dude being 6'6 and then he throws a ball like he's in that movie where they "Bend the bullet" around pass rushing DL. I still don't know if he's good. I know he won't be really good as long as these WRer/TEs keep getting hurt AND he has no OL, but even in his good games, he has struggled to show up until the 2nd half. Oh, and.....Barry, Joe(I don't need to expand here, do I?)

I think looking at the dead cap is looking at it the wrong way. You look at the cap savings. Kenny Clark is a guy you could move off and save ~2M but you'd have a big dead cap. Preston Smith is a savings of ~2.3 They could fit these all in. Preston Smith for instance, his dead cap is already part of what his actual cap hit is. So of course you can fit in a trade in which you're only paying part of his total cap hit. Dead Cap=Sunk Costs The only time you don't make a trade due to dead cap is when it's prohibitive...like if the Cards actually play Kyler Murray this year and he gets hurt. Then his contract would be way too expensive for them to cut this year(not trade though). So it's not about dead cap(most of the time) it's about cap savings vs player value. You're also going to be taking on dead money in '24 with these guys. So Kenny Clark for example, you each about 10M dead cap this year and next and you save ~2M this year and ~17M next year. I don't think that's worth it for a 6th round pick...for a 2nd...that may be worth it. He's playing better. It's effectively do you want to pay Clark 19M the next two years or trade him and save close to the same and get a pick? It'd depend on the trade. The only player it'd cost us significant cap space are guys like Jenkins who we just gave a decent size signing bonus to. Pretty much everyone who's got the 3-4 void years would probably cost more vs the cap to trade(Savage, Nixon, Douglas) but it's minimal in those cases. Jordan Love. I don't think there's a lot of options though. We spent ~90M more on players contracts the last two years each than the cap allowed and this year we're paying players ~80M less than what the cap allows. It's the price. But next year there's quite a bit of daylight and the year after it's fine again. If there's a player it makes sense to trade...do it. Winning games at this point is only a real positive if it's because Love and the young skill players are getting in sync, but THIS is the year we suck it up and deal with our past spending. Get a top 10 maybe a top 5 pick, give Love another year with an fixed OL and spend wisely moving forward. Should have ~40M in cap space next year in a worst case scenario(before Gary and expensive rookies).

I don't think there have been a lot of training wheels. We can't run block so we're usually starting behind the sticks, Love is strangely more erratic on shorter throws than longer throws(relatively speaking) and we also can't pass block...but he's made some incredible throws. I just want to see more consistency. It was so obvious early on he was an NFL QB when he had time and he was doing a good job going through his progression and then coming back and finding the 3rd/4th option...but he's got less time, Jones hasn't really been there. They could trade Clark and get value for him. I don't know how much. Jaire...ya know, if you can get a 1st+, maybe you pull the trigger? Maybe he just can't hold up. Gary you might wanna figure out what he's going to take to re-sign(I suspect they know). You could a haul for him as well, but now you're really resetting.

Dude...we play the Bears again. Winnable games are TB, NYG, Carolina, Chicago...Minnesota is not good, so that's two more. We had an extremely weak schedule. It's getting a bit tougher, but the we play 3 teams who are picking ahead of us in the draft as of now. But it's fine. I didn't care about Wins or Losses this year. I cared about Love's development. That took a hit with Bakh, but hey, there are two great OTs in this class and we can get one of them. Or hell, get 2 of them, move Tom to Tackle.

Agreed. Payamps I think you could get a solid return for(not that solid, but solid). I don't think Wilson has much value going into a season. He has more for us based on the questions around our SPing. Williams, he should have more. Not AS much as I think has been suggested with multiple top 100, but I could see the Rangers being a good team to target. Their payroll jumped 100M this past year and is already in the ~230 range for next year. That's a team I'd look at IF they come up short. Hell, I'd love to expand it to Burnes+Williams for Porter, Lieter and...Dustin Harris or whoever. I still think if adding Williams with Burnes gets you a premier young pitching talent, you do it. Porter may not be ranked as high, but I could see him being a top 20-25 prospect next ASB.

It's REALLY nice to have young pitching, relievers or starters, but Bryce Wilson? Payamps for a guy like Jack Leiter? He's nearly 30, on his 6th team and he was very good last year...but the #2 pick in the draft a year ago? I can't imagine the Rangers giving up on Lieter for just about any reliever at this point(Uribe maybe). He's in a very pitcher friendly league(s) and he's struggled with his command, but his stuff is still elite. Tidwell isn't as highly touted, but he's roughly comparable to a Carlos Rodriguez. The Mets can go out and buy a BP(Diaz is coming back for one). I don't think they'd trade a MRP for a really good prospect. And I really don't think the Rangers are trading a player they've not long ago picked 2nd and who's reached AAA and has TOR talent. Unless you're talking about an elite young arm like Uribe, I don't see the Rangers dealing Lieter for a reliever...even after a really good season...

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! 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!

It's not just you, but again, we should remember they keep time on the field and the TV isn't always right. For instance, there was a play that...according to the TV ended with 27 seconds left. I don't recall which, but the next play ran and there was still 27 seconds left. If you listen closely, you hear the Head Umpire telling them to put the clock at 35 seconds(I believe, it was hard to hear). So maybe. That was the most egregious to the people I watched it with, but it SEEMS like there was an explanation there.

I think pretty much everyone was/would. Newton is a guy who's a top 10 pick in most drafts(IMO). We'll see how he tests and all that, but if he has a good RAS, he could be the first defender off the board. You LOVE when you have a big guy who gives that type of effort and cares that much. When he was ejected, THAT is what changed the game. I don't see them coming back with him on the field. All the sudden Locke had cleean pokets to operate from. That was an obvious targeting...I don't think it was cheap or dirty, I think he knew right away. I just think he got close, he exploded...because how often do you get there a split second late...and you could see the pain in his eyes. That's the type of dude I want on our DL. I don't think he's got the first step Carter has or the speed, but I think he's a 10+ sack IDL in a one gap scheme. Imagine this guy the last couple years with Trevon Walker, Wyatt, Jordan Davis, Nolan Smith...and everyone else? I love watching this guy play and I hope he ends up in the AFC or at least not the NFCN.

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. 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.

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.

That 3rd best team by far...Philly has added Harper and Trea Turner recently...along with Schwarber. The Mets can and will do the same. I have no doubt the Mets will be there with the Braves in the near future.

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.

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!

There's 2 issues. 1-Sorta the same with Aaron Rodgers. We were going to move on, so we tried to convince ourselves...he wasn't that good anyway, we can compensate by improving our defense and...Love just needs to be as good as bad Rodgers(a lot more goes into it, but it was a coping mechanism). 2-Rercency bias. Counsell made the...just really bad decisions of hitting Turang vs a lefty with Wiemer on the bench and then pinch hit Winker and...had him on the PO roster instead. Those two PH ABs went about as expected. And as a result, EVERYTHING else one of the great Brewers ever has done is being diminished a bit. I think it's also notable that even with Woody's shoulder(and Ashby's) our pitching stayed remarkably healthy by in large over CCs tenure. Nelson was a fluke, wouldn't have happened today. To my mind though, you gave Counsel very flawed teems and he wrang just about everything possible out of them.

Mims as well. I'd be absolutely fine with them using a 1st to go up and get Fashanu...IF by some miracle he were on the board at ~7. If not, Alt has looked so completely dominant. Watching him go up against OSU's edges was impressive and he's always getting up to the 2nd level. And in the 2nd round...I don't think it's crazy to suggest they double down on OT. Maybe they get someone who's more of a RT. As of now that'd be a Mims type(IMO, though he's looked really good at LT and I think he'll move way up the board). Fuaga from OSU could be there in the 40s when he normally wouldn't be. THEN you can use Tom at Center where I think he's best suited and Walker at RG and you don't need to sign Runyan. I'm sure some think that'd be overkill, but we all know what a great OL does for a team. The one guy who's in or ahead of pretty much everyone you listed in these mocks or rankings is JC Latham from Oak Creek(he went to IMG academy). I've watched him and I don't see him as a 1st rd pick. He looks like a RT...MAYBE Guard to me. I suspect their actual draft will focus on a LT and I think moving up is entirely possible. After that I think a guy like Barton from Duke or Morgan from AZ are very Packer -like players in the 2nd-3rd rd.

In 2 years(I thought he was like 28 years and 353 days...or something...29 early in the year). Or maybe I just misspoke because I originally(for some reason) read this as three years down the road...and then had to adjust some of them. So I'm not sure why I put 31. It is kinda wild how young Giannis is though. He's still just 28. Almost 29...but 28.

I think it's really just an issue of a bad OL and a young/inexperienced QB. I'd also guess this is pretty common. Breaking all this down is helpful, but my concern with Love at this point, we have played 1 defense that I think is a good defense(Det) and even that is hardly elite and so I think we should weigh that vs what has been a solid start( a really good start before the 3 INT LV game). I think he's shown enough to get another year if the season ended today. I guess if we're really struggling the rest of the year maybe we find ourselves in a position to move up for a Drake Maye, but...that seems unlikely. There are too many other teams that are far, far worse than us. Denver, Chi(Car), AZ, NYG, NE. And we've still got a pretty easy schedule. This Denver game may actually be a big one for draft position(not that I'm rooting for that at this point, just an observation.

I haven't seen any Jones trade rumors. Everytime we speculate about him leaving(FA) or being traded or cut he takes less money to play in GB. I don't think the savings is enough to want to try and trade him. You save minimal money with his cut in base salary this year and next year you save ~5.3 if you cut him or trade him. Again, obviously the cap hit isn't the important number as more of that is already built in, it's the dead cap. What is the value of losing your best offensive player AND a dude who's entering Donald Driver type territory as a loyal and believed player? What do you think we're getting for him at this point? He's 29...the Bills would be one of the teams in most need of a back, maybe Miami, Baltimore. And what is the harm to Love if we do this? It'd better be at least a 3rd and I don't really think that's what we're getting. James Robinson was a good back in 2020 and nothing much sense. Give me Emanuel Wilson over Robinson or Dillon at this point. There must be a problem with his pass pro or something. His running is just better than Taylor or Dillon.

He's not gonna be Jrue, but he is pretty good at playing the passing lanes and he's got quick hands. He's gonna get bullied and he's not capable of defending a Luka or whoever, but I think he'll play better when we need him to. Sorta like how Durant could play D for stretches(not that good) or how Harden...SOMEHOW turned it on again, for stretches in the playoffs. The one thing I don't think is a great idea...particularly in the pre-season, having Dame set picks for Giannis. I get you want to give that look and maybe go to it in games on occasion, but he doesn't need to be out there taking on the Aaron Gordon's running through the picks or Grant Williams(whoever's guarding Giannis). We've seen that...lets put that away for...May, June...I'd like to see the big4 getting through the season missing fewer than 82 games combined. Feels like a good measure.

That is wildly mischaracterizing your comments about Dame. You literally started out with "Not a fan of Dame's game," and then...again, just to reiterate, you described Jrue Holiday almost to a T with what you want Dame to become. Again, not argued...BUT scoring 32 PPG as an efficient scorer is impressive. Yes. Making it all the most impressive he went for 32/7.5 last year with so little talent around him. https://theathletic.com/4908015/2023/09/28/damian-lillard-bucks-offense-changes-expectations-analysis/ Yes, but your inference that he doesn't create for ever...should be disproven that much more given he was still among the best in the league in that regard(top 20) and he played for a team with so few offensive threats. It's much more than that. Read the Athletic's article. It may be enlightening. Even just a 30 foot 3 is...huge to be able to take. If you can hit shots 7 feet behind the line, you're putting ridiculous strain on the defense and that's before you even bring Giannis, Middleton...Brook AND then Pat, Beasley, Marjon, Crowder...whoever. That's 3 guys who've been really good shooters and a 4th who's got a nice looking shot and is a slasher and this is opening up lanes like the 90s Cowboys for him. Yes...I'm sure that'll be something they work on. ADDING some facets to his game or better team defense is an ENTIRELY different thing than saying, "that thing that's made Dame one of the greatest players of all time? No more of that, we want him to turn into John Stockton."

I get that, but as we're not privy to that information and just guessing what the best starting 5 would be...you'd think Essegian would actually be the priority. He could easily be looking at leaving for the NBA after this year with his quick shot and how good of a shooter he is. He was just smothered last year. Kinda reminded me of old school BB(which...I guess is obvious with UW) but the back screens and multiple screens, the off-ball movement just so he could catch and shoot on a tough shot where he was doing that JJ Reddick, leaving the floor before he actually got the ball thing curling around that screen. If he's given any space this year, I expect him to be a 40+% 3 point shooter. And he was a Freshmen. So I could see why you'd want to promise a starting spot, but I think he'd be one of the guys you'd want to ensure doesn't transfer out upon losing his starting spot. Yeah, I get that, but Essegian in particular is such a good shooter and given their struggles last year, he was forced to take so many bad shots(or maybe tough shots would be a better way to put it) because he was clearly the guy they were trying to get it to, you're just putting yourself in a similar situation again. Klesmit can be the guy who comes in and scores. He was an efficient shooter. The Elite 8 team and the team '14-15 team was a little different. They were full of guys with a lot of starting experience. In the year they lost in the Finals, they had I think 5 or 6 Srs on that team who'd gotten a lot of PT. IDK, feels like Klesmit is a better fit coming off the bench and then staggering Storr and Essegian's minutes...but we'll see.

I don't follow Badgers BB like other sports, but it seems to me like Essegian HAS to be one of the 5 best players, right? Storr looks like a big get, a great shooter as well, but ideally you'd go with Chuckie and those. That seems like a nice starting 5 to me and a lot of energy coming off the bench.

Exactly. Ideally, you'll just play with good ball movement. Lopez at the FT line, some ball movement, or one of the three penetrating and kicking it out. But this isn't gonna be John Stockton and Malone(it may be in the efficiency in which they score or work the Pick and Roll, but that's about it). Yeah, and you still haven't accounted for Brook or...Connaughton or whoever else is on the floor. If we're not the #1 offense in the league by a...fairly large margin, it's a problem. Now what happens come playoff time, if that offense is enough to overcome the drop off in defense, we'll see. But the idea you turn Dame into a version of Jrue is like trading in your F150, getting a Bugatti Chiron and then trying to use that to pull your point or...whatever. It kinda makes it pointless. They'll mesh just fine.

Well...first of all, I said nothing about him scoring 30 either way. I said if you wanted a guy to score 20 PPG, DEFEND and facilitate, you had that in Jrue. You got Dame because he's one of the best shooters ever. And sure, it's not the same on a bad team. He's also done it on a good team. He had a .564 Efg% last year. Giannis was .572 Efg%. So despite everyone knowing who was going to take the shot. That was the point behind Jrue's shooting % the 3 years with Giannis vs without him. And no, absolutely do NOT get rid of those long 3's. That is a HUGE part of the reason we got him. 35% from 35 feet last year(significantly better than Steph). That forces the defense to come ALL the way out and guard him past the line and...is literally one of the main things that makes him so effective. The whole point of Dame and Giannis is they're the best(*or close to) at each ends of the offensive spectrum and they compliment each other so well. I can't imagine why you'd trade for a top 75 all time player(still playing at his prime...though toward the end of it) and then ask him to do exactly what the last guy we had did. And if he could do the things Jrue did on top of his offensive game then he'd be...hell, I can't think of who he'd be. I don't think there's ever been a player who could shooter like Dame and defend like Jrue.