Opinion: The Bucks are in Trouble

[Moranis]

I don't think you should be looking at a one off 2011 champion for how the NBA season will unfold. The league has changed massively since then, look at the pace, the shot distribution, and lineups team play now-a-days. 7 seconds or less would be a SLOW team now.

Especially given how transcendent Dirk had to be as a one man offensive wrecking machine to get them there. Can Giannis do that in the playoffs?

Even then, they still won the Finals because LeBron turned in one of the worst choke jobs I've ever seen from a great player. It was Hardenesque how he let JJ Barea and DeShawn Stevenson make him passive and unsure of how to attack. Dallas earned their title, but like the 2004 Pistons they're the exception to the usual rule for successful title roster building.

Yes he can. I mean is everyone forgetting that the bucks went too overtime in game 3 already up 2-0 in a best of seven series against the eventual champs? A couple bunces here and there its 3-0 and the series is essentially over. So ya, we essentially now that the Bucks model CAN work, we just dont know if it will this season.

He got his but kicked 4 games in a row being rendered an absolute non-factor in the half-court. In that OT game he had 12 points in 44 minutes. George Hill and Brogdon carried the team to that near game 3 win. Context matters!

Its a strange thing to say last year showed he can do what Dirk did and carry a playoff offense against the elite teams. He got his ass kicked 4 games in a row when his team needed him to get buckets in the halfcourt.

Getting your butt kicked is scoring 25 points on 53% shooting while grabbing 10 rebounds and 5 assists adding 3 blocks and a steal, then following that up with 24 points on 50% grabbing 6 rebounds and dishing out 6 assists and adding a block, before finishing with 21 points on 39% shooting (not great) with 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks, and 2 steals.  No question Giannis was awful scoring in game 3 (though did have 23 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 blocks, and a steal), but this notion that he shrunk and disappeared is just strange. 

The Bucks lost the series because their other starters and key bench players stopped hitting shots in games 4, 5, and 6.  And that includes Brogdon who was 4 of 14 from 3 the last 3 games of the series, scoring just 32 points total (he scored 49 points and was 9 of 20 from 3 in the first 3 games).

[Fafnir]

Like maybe he isn't the unstoppable offensive force dirk was, but nobody on the 08 celtics was either and they won once and came really close two years later. So clearly when you have and MVP DPOY candidate there are ways to can work.

Oh it can work, I just don't think the Bucks are at all similar to the 2011 Mavericks.

They remind me of a modern 2008-2009 Magic and I do think they need to move away from some of the veterans to be the best version of themselves. Well that and Giannis needs to keep making improvements, especially in the half court sort of basketball the playoffs comes down to.

[Fafnir]

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-bucks-need-to-solve-their-half-court-offense-and-quickly/

Got his but kicked in the half court, absolutely handled.

http://stats.inpredictable.com/nba/ssnTeamPoss.php?season=2018&po=1&frdt=2019-05-15&todt=2019-05-27&view=off

[Moranis]

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-bucks-need-to-solve-their-half-court-offense-and-quickly/

Got his but kicked in the half court, absolutely handled.

http://stats.inpredictable.com/nba/ssnTeamPoss.php?season=2018&po=1&frdt=2019-05-15&todt=2019-05-27&view=off

Except that isn't what the 5 38 article says.  In fact, its says exactly what I said, that the other starters and key bench players went cold and the Bucks lost as a result. 

[RazzelnoDazzel]

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-bucks-need-to-solve-their-half-court-offense-and-quickly/

Got his but kicked in the half court, absolutely handled.

http://stats.inpredictable.com/nba/ssnTeamPoss.php?season=2018&po=1&frdt=2019-05-15&todt=2019-05-27&view=off

Except that isn't what the 5 38 article says.  In fact, its says exactly what I said, that the other starters and key bench players went cold and the Bucks lost as a result.

Yeah the bucks roster is well constructed in my opinion. I don’t take this loss for them as anything major they will be fine.

[Fafnir]

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-bucks-need-to-solve-their-half-court-offense-and-quickly/

Got his but kicked in the half court, absolutely handled.

http://stats.inpredictable.com/nba/ssnTeamPoss.php?season=2018&po=1&frdt=2019-05-15&todt=2019-05-27&view=off

Except that isn't what the 5 38 article says.  In fact, its says exactly what I said, that the other starters and key bench players went cold and the Bucks lost as a result.

So the article says that Giannis was still getting it done in the half court but didn't get enough help? Lets look at what it says, a key passage.

The Bucks can score in the half-court much of the time, but it has been far more of an uphill climb when Toronto throws down its trump card by deploying neutralizer Kawhi Leonard on Giannis. The Bucks have been almost 29 points less efficient per 100 possessions this series1 when Antetokounmpo is guarded by Kawhi, according to data from Second Spectrum. (There were hints in the regular season that Leonard — a break-in-case-of-emergency defensive option because of all the offensive weight he shoulders for the Raptors — could limit the Greek Freak. According to the NBA’s matchup data, the likely MVP took just three shot attempts in the 31 regular-season possessions Leonard guarded him.)

He got his butt kicked in the half court and the rest of the team wasn't good enough to generate an effective offense because their MVP was handled so they didn't get the same looks or advantage situations with the ball.

If your take away from that article was that Giannis was productive in the half court, I guess Giannis like LeBron and Rondo before him cannot fail, only be failed.

Edit: As an aside the Bucks weren't much more effective against the Celtics in the half court either, the Celtics just couldn't score at all against the Bucks and so they just got free reign to attack off misses. This isn't just a Kawhi is amazing at matching up with Giannis issue.

[Moranis]

So since the loss in Boston, the Bucks have won 5 of 6 including going 3-1 on a West Coast trip and sit at 7-3 and 3rd in the East.  Their next four games are Bulls, Pacers, Bulls, Hawks so they should win at least 3 and if not all 4. 

[bellerephon]

So since the loss in Boston, the Bucks have won 5 of 6 including going 3-1 on a West Coast trip and sit at 7-3 and 3rd in the East.  Their next four games are Bulls, Pacers, Bulls, Hawks so they should win at least 3 and if not all 4.

People often put too much stock in one game. The Bucks are one of the favorites in the East, they can be beaten, as we have seen, but they will likely be one of the teams in the mix at the end.

[Moranis]

6 straight wins, now at 12-3 with the best record in the east, winning the last 5 without Middleton. 

[Somebody]

6 straight wins, now at 12-3 with the best record in the east, winning the last 5 without Middleton.

Not sure why people said they were in trouble. They have a bunch of offensively inclined pieces that fit around Giannis, which at worst will produce a 2004 Timberwolves type of squad (imo they would've won the title if Cassell didn't get hurt).

[gouki88]

Yet again a Boston fan reverse jinxes the Bucks into success!

[SparzWizard]

The Celtics are in trouble, losing 2 of their last 3 games