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Jason Kidd Was Fired And Then Came Interim Head Coach Joe Prunty.

Now We Head Into A Huge Off Season As The Franchise Prepares To Move Into The New Arena And The Expectations Are Big!

Who Should Be The Next Coach Of The Milwaukee Bucks?

Yes the 0-2 start is depressing, but there are significant reasons for hope…

Seemingly aware of the narrative going into the series, Bucks players said all the right things in regards to respecting their opponents and staying prepared despite the appreciable gap in talent between the teams. While a good showcase in media savvy, this stated attitude hasn’t borne itself out on the court. With the exceptions of Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo, the team (including coaches) should be mostly embarrassed by what they’ve shown.

The Bucks remain totally baffled by a simple big-to-wing hand-off action to get Brown, Tatum, and Morris open threes, and the chessmaster is letting it fly to the tune of 41% on almost 9 three point attempts per game. I wrote in my preview about how this rudimentary action gave the Bucks problems in the final regular season matchup, yet they’ve done little to account for this staple of the Boston offense. Terry Rozier is cooking Bledsoe off the dribble and blowing by Henson in the lane to sport a Morey-tastic shot profile with only two of his fourteen attempts Tuesday coming between the paint and the three-point line. As has been well-documented over the past couple of days, the Celtics’ multi-screen perimeter sets have given Milwaukee fits.

Joe Prunty is putting on a clinic for panic coaching when it comes to rotations, in-game adjustments, and just everything in general. He continues to front post-ups (even when another big is guarding) which will invite one of the following disasters: the wing ball-handler will use the front as a pick and waltz along the baseline for a layup or dump-off for the weak-side big, the wing will throw it over the top and force help which leads to an easy Horford/Monroe pass to the open man, or the same pass will be made but the help will be too late and the big will have an easy layup. Someone should tell him that Boston ranked in the 20th percentile for post-ups during the regular season for a paltry offensive rating of 82.

As far as rotations go, Prunty plays into Stevens’ hands by coordinating his rest with that of the Celtics’ better players and by simply playing the wrong guys at the wrong times. Keep it simple, stupid! Play the good lineups more and the bad lineups less! Our three most played lineups are all big net positives  while the three most frequent Celtics groups have just one positive number. More Brogdon and Brown, even less Parker, and above all MORE STARTERS! I know what you’re thinking, but despite the eye test the Bucks have rated really well when Bledsoe plays in this series. EKG should all be averaging around 40 minutes a game, so it’s time to up Bledsoe’s minutes.

So even with all the negatives, the marginal changes necessary to correct a lot of them give cause for optimism.

One thing I would like to see instead of the early Brogdon-Parker sub for Giannis-Snell is replacing Giannis with Brown, in part because Marcus Morris typically enters the game at this juncture as well. Let me explain. The Bucks would slide Middleton to power forward where he has been very effective defending Morris over the course of the year—he’s held Morris to 2/10 in the regular season and 3/8 in Game 1—and allow the quicker Sterling Brown to defend Jaylen Brown (Jaylen is shooting 13/24 against Middleton in the series). Having Jabari enter instead gives us two proven unfavorable matchups on the wing with Parker-Morris and Middleton-Brown. It’s no wonder that subbing Morris for Baynes yields a lineup that’s decimated the Bucks so far.

Ideally this restricts Parker’s minutes to times when neither Jaylen Brown nor Marcus Morris are on the court so he can avoid being exposed as he has been thus far (if this eliminates his minutes entirely, oh well).

Bad shooting luck has also struck the Bucks hard so far this series. Rozier, Morris, and Brown are shooting an absurd combined 62% on pull-up threes with 6.5 attempts a game versus 36% on 3.3 attempts per game in the regular season. These numbers are ridiculous and (hopefully) unsustainable. Meanwhile, Eric Bledsoe and Tony Snell have thrown up a fat goose egg on a combined 4 catch-and-shoot three point attempts per game so far despite each shooting around 40% on more of those chances during the regular season. Look for some regression to the mean during the Bucks two home games, and remember that shooting more in line with season averages likely means we’d be heading home after a road split.

Bucks Down 0-2 vs Celtics, But Theres Hope!

The early signs have been disastrous, but all is not lost. Although it’s been an ugly start, some small adjustments, a tighter rotation, and a pendulum swing of luck in our favor should even out what’s been about as maddening a two game stretch as you could imagine.

By: Daniel Gaenslen

The easy opinion going into the Milwaukee Bucks first round matchup with the Boston Al Horfords is that superior talent will win the day, perhaps in as few as five games. This has generated some resistance in national NBA circles with many believing that the Bucks’ inconsistency and often ill-advised defensive aggression will open up what would otherwise be a stagnant Boston offense. The 2-2 season split doesn’t amount to much as only the final meeting had the teams resembling what they will be in this series. We have seen Joe Prunty’s team oscillate between a more conservative defense and the pick & roll-trapping, post-doubling scheme of old. So who knows what to expect in the series? Breaking down the final regular-season meeting and some relevant numbers might help.

April 3rd Matchup, Bucks win 106-102

Coming after about as emotionally draining a loss as you can imagine, it was nice to see the Bucks close this game out even as the Celtics made a run towards the end. Rewatching the game for this preview, a few things stuck out.

The Dreaded DHO Pindowns

The Celtics got a lot of production from dribble hand-off pindowns on the sideline (picture the Giannis to Snell hand-off play the Bucks run only extended closer to the backcourt). The one handing it off was usually a big and gave the ball to either Tatum or Brown for a slightly-above-the-break three or a tight curl into the lane. This relatively simple action gave the Bucks a lot of problems as they too often found themselves picking their poison between an open three and an easy pocket pass to a dunk.

The Celtics–typical of Boston–get the most out of this by setting great screens and angling their runs to leave little room for the defender to get over. What seems effective in mitigating these and other Boston screen actions is switching, hedging the would-be ball handler, and tagging the roll man. Trapping or dropping too far back on the initial action led to a no-win situation. 

Giannis, Let Loose (Okay Not Too Loose)

Early turnovers in the April 3rd game seemed to make Antetokounmpo more tentative when driving and resulted in him settling for jumpers. In the first quarter, Boston generated a seemingly endless stream takeaways with strip steals and general sloppiness on the part of the Bucks: this starting success is what allowed them to stay in the game. Giannis made an undue contribution to this in the early going.

He still had a phenomenal game with 29 points on 50% shooting but his indecisiveness led to many empty possessions. With Giannis operating at playoff intensity, look for him to get in the lane and to the line more often, while being more aware of the strong-side help.

Switch Heavily, Help Lightly

It might take unlearning years of defensive instruction but the Bucks best defensive option is to switch liberally on the perimeter. Bledsoe and Brogdon can capably defend much bigger opponents and Giannis has been ridiculously effective against Boston’s wing threats. Additionally, it would be a shame to waste the Bucks perimeter defensive talent at the lead guard on what will be a sub-par Celtics point guard rotation. If Boston can best Milwaukee with isolation post-ups throughout the series then you’ll simply have to tip your hat to their making hay with one of basketball’s worst shots.

Bucks Vs Celtics 1st Round Series Preview

The Bucks have the talent edge by a mile in this series, but even an average team that’s well-coached can exploit mistakes the Bucks often make defensively. Minimizing these errors will be the difference.

By: Daniel Gaenslen

Wednesday’s loss against the Clippers offered a distillation of the Bucks team that has persisted into the Prunty era: largely scoring with ease but not enough, squandering transition chances with poor decision making, and giving up all the wrong shots. The Clippers are a team tailor-made to make the Bucks look bad with how they run their offense paired with personnel. They have quick guards, a monster rebounding and rim-rolling center, and they run a lot of pick-and-rolls. With the exception of Bledsoe’s combination of strength and speed, Bucks guards are wholly incapable of fighting over a screen to stick with ball handlers, especially when they are so visibly outclassed in terms of quickness. The Clippers could instantly collapse the defense by running their meat and potatoes DJ high ball screen, forcing Henson to cover two in the paint and a weak-side defender to leave a shooter to tag DJ or hack at his arms. The Bucks really had no answer and continued to give up threes and paint points. The number of times Austin Rivers shook our guards with isolation dribble moves hurt my feelings.

Grim Snapshot of Bucks’ Issues

I was among those who believed a conservative defensive change was in the air when Prunty took over, and the first dozen games or so bore that out. However, it became clear that when the Bucks were again challenged by superior opponents, they–either by design or by trained instinct–fell into old aggressive ways.

They were gambling on steals or doubling in the post (often from one pass away) which led to predictable disaster, and fans could almost hear the old rationale for this manic set of principles. Jason Kidd’s brain parasite told him that with our length and ranginess, the resulting offensive efficiency of live ball turnovers would cancel out those rare capitalizations on our over-helping and gap-shooting. It might make some sense given our individual transition talent between Bledsoe, Giannis, and Jabari but it would help if anyone besides Jason Terry consistently knew how to make passes in transition. Whether it’s Giannis or Khris throwing passes far over the head of the outlet man, Jabari tossing a hook pass to Henson at midcourt, or one of our transition playmakers getting into the paint to find two teammates within arm’s length, the execution outside of a one-man show is atrocious (that is not mentioning whenever Bledsoe wants to pinball an entire transition defense by himself instead of looking for a pass out).

The Bucks schematic issues on both sides of the ball aside, winning at the margins is how games like this turn from losses to victories. The roster makeup composed of guards with minus speed and a dumpster fire of a center rotation presents some intractable problems in a league where high pick-and-rolls are the default way to break a defense down that tinkering and a coaching change can’t fully fix. But, as is often the case, the Bucks are doing little to help themselves.

By: Daniel Gaenslen

Currently the Bucks are seeded 7th in the East and many might wonder what I’m smoking to suggest the Bucks could make the NBA finals this year. Well check out the not so crazy scenario for yourself…

Like we just said the Milwaukee Bucks are currently seeded 7th in the Eastern Conference. That means as of today the Bucks would draw the 2nd seeded Boston Celtics in the first round. Now 6 weeks ago Boston was looking like the the favorite to come out the East. Now today as it sits the Boston Celtics are completely banged up. Obviously Gordon Hayward is out for the season but thats at the moment the least of the health problems in Boston. Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart are all out with injuries. Note that all should be ready by the playoffs but would have an understandable rust on them. Brad Stevens would have to fit those main pieces back in there spots and hope they can hit the ground running.

The point about Boston is right now the Celtics look vulnerable. A series with the Celtics is winnable for a healthy Bucks team. Especially the way Jabari Parker is looking in limited mins currently. The Bucks have 4 players on the roster good enough to average 20 points per game. If lasts years Rookie Of The Year Malcom Brogdon can return and be in form the Bucks are a problem for Boston and any other team in the Eastern Conference.

So if the Bucks can take down the Celtics in the first round they would then be forced to face the Legend that is King James a.k.a. LeBron James in the second. The Cleveland Cavaliers have had the most roster changes over the course of this season that I can remember for a team in recent years. The Cavs are constently trying to get things together and Tyronn Lue desperately is still seeking a consistent rotation. With the injuries the Cavs have currently, Lebron’s looming free agency and the fact the current roster has still never played with Kevin Love, the Bucks again find themselves in the middle of a perfect storm!

Yes imagine things falling apart for the Cavs by game 5 or 6. LeBron James screaming at his team and coach as the frustration and reality of losing becomes to much. The entire city of Cleveland looks in fear as The King starts to check out mentally and prepare of join his 2 homes in Los Angeles this summer. It could very well happen that the Bucks knock off a spirit broken Cleveland team. Ginnas giving LeBron his final farewell out the Eastern Conference and snatching the torch as the East’s best player!

At that moment the world would be dealing with the reality of what the East is without LeBron James. The 1st seeded Toronto Raptors after knocking off the Miami Heat and Washington Wizards in way to an easy path to the Eastern Conference finals, would now face the Milwaukee Bucks. Many would remember the Raptors knocked out the Bucks in 6 games last year. But this year is different.

How The Milwaukee Bucks Make The NBA Finals

The Milwaukee Bucks come of age and grow up in the playoffs against the Celtics and Cavs lead by one of the best 5 man lineups in the Leauge. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jabari Parker, Khris Middleton, Malcolm Brogdon and Eric Bledsoe. In a thrilling and exciting 7 game series that gives the league a little hope for the Eastern Conference. The Bucks pull off the upset in Toronto and leave a heartbroken Drake crying on the sideline!

This is How The Milwaukee Bucks Make The NBA Finals…

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Former Milwaukee Bucks guard who once put up 57 points in a home game his rookie year vs Steph Curry has returned. The team in need if help with rookie of the year Malcom Brogdon and Matthew Dellavedova sidelined with injuries has brought Jennings up from the Herd!

Bucks Sign Brandon Jennings

Brandon Jennings has put up some nice numbers with the Wisconsin Herd. He’s averaged 20.4 PPG in 5 games with the Bucks G Leauge team. Look for Jennings to provide some needed scoring, outside shooting and veteran leadership to the roster.

Bucks vs Pistons Preview

With 22 games remaining in the 2017-2018 regular season schedule the Milwaukee Bucks sit at 6th in the east. After last nights loss to Washington they now sit one and a half games out of the 4th seed.

Bucks vs Pistons Preview:

Tonight the Bucks face the 9th seeded 28-32 Detroit Pistons. Tonights game will be a test for the interior players on the Bucks roster. John Henson, Thon Maker and Tyler Zeller will have there hands full with the rebounding monster Andre Drummond. The Detroit Piston’s Center leads the league with 15.8 rebounds per game. Next to him is the explosive new Piston Blake Griffin who’s putting up 21.8 points per game.

Tonights game is not one the Bucks should take lightly. The Pistons might be coming off losing a couple games but there size and strength inside is serious. The Bucks need to move the ball and avoid one on one basketball that leaves 4 players watching.