Oct 10, 2015; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Milwaukee Bucks center Greg Monroe (15) talks with forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) during the second quarter against the Detroit Pistons at BMO Harris Bradley Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
The Milwaukee Bucks will contend in the East
Milwaukee, under second-year head coach Jason Kidd, was another surprise team last season. A shock, even. Most teams don’t go from 15 wins to 41 in one year, especially with an inexperienced coach. But Kidd and his young Bucks proved everyone wrong.
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If they didn’t make the Brandon Knight trade at the deadline, Milwaukee could have been on their way to near 50 wins. The Michael Carter-Williams addition, which followed up the loss of Larry Sanders (bought out) and Jabari Parker (injury) early on, stalled the offense and slowed their early season momentum. Their length and defensive prowess kept them in it, and they eventually played a competitive first round series with Chicago. They lost, of course, but just making it there was huge.
Things have changed a little bit over the offseason, for better or for worse. The addition of Greg Monroe – good talent-wise, bad spacing-wise – allowed the Bucks to ship out Zaza Pachulia, who did excellent in replacing Sanders. Jared Dudley was also shipped out, now a Washington Wizard. Both these trades were for future second round picks, and pairing those with the Ersan Ilyasova deal to Detroit (Caron Butler and Shawne Williams, waived) shows the Bucks just wanted to clear some cap space.
I understand the Pachulia (with Monroe) and Ilyasova (with Parker returning) deals, but the Dudley trade I question. Maybe this is from personal bias, because I love everything about Jared Dudley and what he brings to an NBA franchise, and will make Washington that much better. I just think they could have figured something else out to save that cap space.
Another peculiar move was drafting Rashad Vaughn over Bobby Portis. With the way Milwaukee’s depth chart looks, both would be buried in the rotation, but I’d rather have Portis on my team than Vaughn. He’ll initially be buried in the rotation behind Middleton, Mayo and perhaps Jerryd Bayless (the Bucks’ guard rotation is all sorts of crazy). Portis would be behind Parker and Henson.
Reports have it that Kidd didn’t want Portis because he shares some of the same skill sets as Parker. But to me, with all due respect to Kidd, that’s not the way to run a team. “Portis wouldn’t fit in well with Parker,” the report said specifically.
If you can get someone at 17 that may be better than the guy you got at 2 the year before, take him.
With all that said, Vaughn, nonetheless, has looked solid in the preseason.
Milwaukee will be good. They might (MIGHT) be a top four seed if everything falls right. But there is still a major spacing problem here, something that may be necessary to win in the NBA these days. They will be able to score. MCW can score, just not shoot. Same with Giannis and Monroe.
Middleton can do it all, pretty much, and we’ll see what Parker does. I’m sure Kidd will mix starters with bench shooters a lot to get closer to where the rest (or most) of the NBA is currently at.
I’m not going to say the Bucks won’t make the ECF, but they probably won’t. The defense will still be great, and they will be competitive with any and every team they face. Will they beat the Cavs? Nah.
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