Bucks 2024-25 Season Thread

Heyjoe4

Cheesehead
Joined
Apr 30, 2018
Messages
8,152
Reaction score
2,648
Congrats to Rivers. He's destroyed another solid player. Kyle Kuzma. Rivers and Giannis criticizing him for not being "selfish enough." Stupid! Kuzma was contributing with scoring, solid rebounding, assists, and playing some solid defense and because the Bucks were losing, those two idiots hint that it's Kuzma's fault? Are you serious?

For openers, Giannis thinks it's all about him. Lillard feels the same way about himself. Both think they're above reproach, and here's Rivers on the sideline being totally clueless as to how you build team chemistry. instead, between him and Horst, they're looking for ways to replace the support group around them, blaming them for the misfires that are happening repeatedly.

The "flavor of the month" with Rivers is two guys off the bench. Porter and Trent. It will last until the end of March, and they'll be held responsible for the team failures. It's a story that keeps repeating itself with new people cast into the roles of those who cause the problems. It's ****** in the Bucks culture at this point. It happened with DiVincenzo, Connaughton, Holiday, Bledsoe, and others. They get run through the mill and cast aside. Some end up being solid players after leaving the Bucks and the malignant culture.

I can hardly wait until there's new ownership, firing of Horst and Rivers, and Lillard and Giannis traded so they can start to rebuild the culture like a team has to be built to be competitive in the NBA.
"...firing of Horst and Rivers, and Lillard and Giannis traded so they can start to rebuild the culture like a team has to be built to be competitive in the NBA."

That's it in a nutshell. Giannis should bring some decent offers, but I don't expect much for Lillard. The sad part is that it didn't have to end this way.
 
OP
OP
Voyageur

Voyageur

Cheesehead
Joined
Nov 10, 2021
Messages
3,158
Reaction score
2,636
"...firing of Horst and Rivers, and Lillard and Giannis traded so they can start to rebuild the culture like a team has to be built to be competitive in the NBA."

That's it in a nutshell. Giannis should bring some decent offers, but I don't expect much for Lillard. The sad part is that it didn't have to end this way.
Agreed. It didn't have to end up here. It shouldn't have. Horst decided he'd play God with the team and damaged them on the court and sideline because of it. The cancer spread from him, and now it's everywhere. Lots of players out there who are now just going through the motions and can hardly wait to leave Milwaukee. I don't blame them.

Sitting two rows back behind the bench in Houston, I saw how players were reacting in regard to Rivers, and his "coaching." He'd yell at players for mistakes but not offer one bit of constructive criticism. If you can't use it as a teaching moment you've got no business yelling at the player. You obviously don't have a better plan for handling that situation in the future.
 

Heyjoe4

Cheesehead
Joined
Apr 30, 2018
Messages
8,152
Reaction score
2,648
Agreed. It didn't have to end up here. It shouldn't have. Horst decided he'd play God with the team and damaged them on the court and sideline because of it. The cancer spread from him, and now it's everywhere. Lots of players out there who are now just going through the motions and can hardly wait to leave Milwaukee. I don't blame them.

Sitting two rows back behind the bench in Houston, I saw how players were reacting in regard to Rivers, and his "coaching." He'd yell at players for mistakes but not offer one bit of constructive criticism. If you can't use it as a teaching moment you've got no business yelling at the player. You obviously don't have a better plan for handling that situation in the future.
As I remember, the Sixers fired Rivers a few years ago and he became an analyst for one of the big sports broadcasters (ESPN, TNT, something). I took that to mean he couldn't find a HC job until the Bucks came along.

I like Doc Rivers and I have always been a fan of MU basketball. But that's not enough reason to hire him as a HC. He didn't do anything for the Sixers and he's not doing much for the Bucks.
 
OP
OP
Voyageur

Voyageur

Cheesehead
Joined
Nov 10, 2021
Messages
3,158
Reaction score
2,636
Ouch! Kyle Kuzma finally stated it flat out. The Bucks combo of Giannis and Lillard don't allow anyone else to be part of the team except in an auxiliary role. It's obvious that Rivers is either too cowardly to tell the two of them, or too poor of a coach to see it. But Lillard finally admitted that Kuzma has to be part of the game in a major role, and that they are not exploring and utilizing his ability to play downhill to the hoop, and key in on rebounding. It's like I said. Doc has his standing around watching the game! That's stupid.

Anyhow, Lillard sees that they need to include Kuzma more in their offense. On the other hand, the new Giannis, who is all about "me first" instead of team first, says he's going to have to take on a bigger role and play basketball god out there. All the fawning over Giannis has turned him into a freaking prima donna who thinks the sun rises and sets in his ****. It's time to trade him after this season. After all the failures for so long he should have been the first one to admit that they've failed in utilizing Kuzma just like they stepped away from using Middleton, then traded him.

The truth is now on the table. It's exactly what I've been talking about for quite some time. As much as I've enjoyed watching Giannis play, I've also seen a guy whose push for personal glory with MVP awards seems to be more important to him than team success, and when that happens, you don't need someone like that on your team.
 

Sanguine camper

Cheesehead
Joined
Jan 14, 2014
Messages
2,423
Reaction score
963
Both Lillard and Giannis need to go ASAP to at least get some draft capital. The longer Giannis stays with the Bucks, the less they'll get for him and the longer it will take to rebuild.
 

Heyjoe4

Cheesehead
Joined
Apr 30, 2018
Messages
8,152
Reaction score
2,648
Ouch! Kyle Kuzma finally stated it flat out. The Bucks combo of Giannis and Lillard don't allow anyone else to be part of the team except in an auxiliary role. It's obvious that Rivers is either too cowardly to tell the two of them, or too poor of a coach to see it. But Lillard finally admitted that Kuzma has to be part of the game in a major role, and that they are not exploring and utilizing his ability to play downhill to the hoop, and key in on rebounding. It's like I said. Doc has his standing around watching the game! That's stupid.

Anyhow, Lillard sees that they need to include Kuzma more in their offense. On the other hand, the new Giannis, who is all about "me first" instead of team first, says he's going to have to take on a bigger role and play basketball god out there. All the fawning over Giannis has turned him into a freaking prima donna who thinks the sun rises and sets in his ****. It's time to trade him after this season. After all the failures for so long he should have been the first one to admit that they've failed in utilizing Kuzma just like they stepped away from using Middleton, then traded him.

The truth is now on the table. It's exactly what I've been talking about for quite some time. As much as I've enjoyed watching Giannis play, I've also seen a guy whose push for personal glory with MVP awards seems to be more important to him than team success, and when that happens, you don't need someone like that on your team.
I think Giannis is a team player, and he has a championship to show for it. We've covered this already, but the team became focused totally on offense once Lillard arrived, and championships wrestled won with offense (and mostly defense, imo). Giannis will certainly take over a game if he needs to, and because he can most of the time.

Now there's a budding star in Kuzma who is also being asked to score more - and by Giannis and Lillard no less.

The team needs a makeover. The shame is that it could have been avoided.
 
OP
OP
Voyageur

Voyageur

Cheesehead
Joined
Nov 10, 2021
Messages
3,158
Reaction score
2,636
I think Giannis is a team player, and he has a championship to show for it. We've covered this already, but the team became focused totally on offense once Lillard arrived, and championships wrestled won with offense (and mostly defense, imo). Giannis will certainly take over a game if he needs to, and because he can most of the time.

Now there's a budding star in Kuzma who is also being asked to score more - and by Giannis and Lillard no less.

The team needs a makeover. The shame is that it could have been avoided.
I think Giannis was always a team player too, but he thinks in the back of his mind he has to score more to win because of how Doc's been directing their offense. In a way, he's right, but not by overshadowing other player contributions. His assist totals are enormous for a guy in his position, but he could add 4 to 6 per game. The move, putting him at 5 is a good one on a part time basis, but that means he's not playing facing the basket. His best game is going downhill to the bucket, and if they can do the same with Kuzma by Giannis concentrated a little more on getting Kuz the ball it would help. At this point, he doesn't trust the process enough to do it. Lillard sees it, and that's why he said Kuz needs more downhill looks.

Lillard's game was confined to a two-man game with Giannis, because that's what Doc ordered, based on what we've seen the entire season. Lillard recognized the mistake, and I think Giannis might have seen some of what it means getting the ball in Kuz' hands more last night. It was the perfect timing for Lillard to get a rest.

I've been thinking about the added firepower the Bucks will have when Portis is back on the floor. We're going to have 3 really good players coming off the bench. Those last few games before the playoffs are going to tell us a lot as to how far they could possibly go in the post season. I'm hoping we're pleasantly surprised. Sometimes subtractions, like having Portis out, gives others the opportunity to step up and you can end up incorporating that additional firepower on the floor.
 

Heyjoe4

Cheesehead
Joined
Apr 30, 2018
Messages
8,152
Reaction score
2,648
I think Giannis was always a team player too, but he thinks in the back of his mind he has to score more to win because of how Doc's been directing their offense. In a way, he's right, but not by overshadowing other player contributions. His assist totals are enormous for a guy in his position, but he could add 4 to 6 per game. The move, putting him at 5 is a good one on a part time basis, but that means he's not playing facing the basket. His best game is going downhill to the bucket, and if they can do the same with Kuzma by Giannis concentrated a little more on getting Kuz the ball it would help. At this point, he doesn't trust the process enough to do it. Lillard sees it, and that's why he said Kuz needs more downhill looks.

Lillard's game was confined to a two-man game with Giannis, because that's what Doc ordered, based on what we've seen the entire season. Lillard recognized the mistake, and I think Giannis might have seen some of what it means getting the ball in Kuz' hands more last night. It was the perfect timing for Lillard to get a rest.

I've been thinking about the added firepower the Bucks will have when Portis is back on the floor. We're going to have 3 really good players coming off the bench. Those last few games before the playoffs are going to tell us a lot as to how far they could possibly go in the post season. I'm hoping we're pleasantly surprised. Sometimes subtractions, like having Portis out, gives others the opportunity to step up and you can end up incorporating that additional firepower on the floor.
Well that is certainly an optimistic way to look at Portis's suspension. More minutes for other guys and Portis gets back about two weeks before the playoffs. Sounds good to me.
 
OP
OP
Voyageur

Voyageur

Cheesehead
Joined
Nov 10, 2021
Messages
3,158
Reaction score
2,636
Well that is certainly an optimistic way to look at Portis's suspension. More minutes for other guys and Portis gets back about two weeks before the playoffs. Sounds good to me.
It's all I've got left towards salvaging years of wasted opportunities. Call it my last flicker of hope.
 

Members online

Latest posts

Top