2023/24 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD "THANKING FOR WEMBANYAMA"

yeah I remember hearing last month that Brook also was getting frustrated with him. imo the big issue is this team can't figure it out on defense, they're giving up 120 a game which I think is 6th worst in the league, and even if going from Jrue -> Dame is a downgrade on that end there's no reason why a team with Giannis & Brook should be that bad. I've heard a lot of smart basketball people claim Griffin's defensive rotations were really bad and I guess we're at the point of the season where that really oughta be cleaned up

― frogbs, Tuesday, January 23, 2024 3:09 PM (two minutes ago)

there has been misalignment from the beginning insofar as the entire point of firing bud was to bring in a coach who would be more of a defensive tactician & then like 3 games into griffin implementing his defensive tactics all the bucks players were publicly like "ok maybe not those ones haha..." i think ultimately the bucks front office just made a calamitous evaluation of griffin but how much did the bucks players *actually* want to move on from bud? there were stepdad vibes to this whole thing & i'm wondering if that was actually a griffin problem

and then after all that ending up w/ doc rivers is a major red flag

word was that giannis wanted him right

lol doc is unkillable hell be bouncing between coaching and broadcasting until the sun envelops the earth

I always thought they moved on from Bud too quickly, I mean yeah I get it if you're the 1 seed and you lose to the 8 then something's gotta change, but that 8 seed wound up destroying the team everyone thought Milwaukee was gonna lose to in the ECF, plus they were missing Giannis for 3 games in that series while Jimmy was playing historically great basketball. not only that but we found out Bud's brother died right as the playoffs were starting which might explain why he seemed so checked out. I mean maybe getting rid of him was the right move but they took no time to think about it, which was odd because he had just won a title with them 2 years prior

was odd because he had just won a title with them 2 years prior

― frogbs, Tuesday, January 23, 2024 3:24 PM (twenty seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

meant to add yeah seems fast

bucks are in a tight spot suspect theyre about to learn that the bad defense is not a coaching issue

maybe they can get a lil better idk

a funny thing that hadn't crystalized for me until now is that when they fired bud it was kinda like "well, we need to do *something*" and changing the coach was the obvious something. but that assumption rests on the notion that you don't want to or can't alter the roster but... then they went and made a huge trade that changed the roster over in a huge way too. so like, did you really want to change the coach? or...?

tbf there was the idea out there dating back to his atlanta days that bud was a bad playoff coach

its good that the bucks squeaked through to that one championship can you imagine what a shitshow this would be otherwise

ESPN Sources: Doc Rivers is a top Milwaukee target to replace Adrian Griffin but the sides have yet to talk. Bucks are expected to reach out and gauge his interest soon.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 23, 2024

it’s hard for me to tell in that woj tweet how much of it is him just trying to out source shams vs how much of it is “real” … bcuz this tweet being like “yeah we might give doc a call soon who knows” seems like it’s both directly refuting shams implication that doc is the guy while also signaling a deep amount of internal chaos

so, when shams fires your coach via xitter, does he stay fired? adrian griffin wants to know.

Wondering how MJax is feeling right now.

well, somebody high up enough to get woj to do their bidding for them really does not want doc to be hired bcuz….

Anyone who thinks Doc Rivers hasn't been talking to the Bucks should read our story. My humble advice. Much more here, at @TheAthletic, with @ShamsCharania and @eric_nehm https://t.co/0OqBb9dN4U

— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) January 23, 2024

good article

This was a great read on the Bucks' problems under Griffin despite their record via @brewhoop / @rcon14 https://t.co/B4g20HyztD

— Ricky O'Donnell (@SBN_Ricky) January 23, 2024

Another big issue with the Bucks defense is the transition defense. The Bucks actually rank a respectable 13th in Cleaning the Glass’ Pts+/Poss, which accounts for both frequency and opponent efficiency. A big reason for this is that the Bucks only allow a 117 ORTG off their misses, which ranks ninth in the league. But you’ll never guess what’s going on under the hood. Opponents are shooting with blindfolds on from three. Opponents are shooting just 27% from three on transition 3PA against the Bucks this year. The league average is around 38%. It appears once again the Bucks are getting lucky, especially considering the vast majority of transition 3PA are wide open.

The biggest issue is how often opponents are able to get into transition against the Bucks. The Bucks allow a staggering 38% of their own misses to turn into transition opportunities for their opponents. This the worst in the league by a sizable margin. The gap between Milwaukee and the 29th-ranked Atlanta Hawks is nearly the same gap as from Atlanta to 19th ranked Cleveland. Sometimes teams will trade allowing more transition opportunities to try and get more bodies on the offensive glass and pick up more points that way. I would argue that allowing a very high number of transition opportunities for your opponents is a bad trade-off to make, but in the Bucks’ case, they’re not even doing that: they rank 27th in ORB%. They’re not getting back adequately on defense and they’re not adding nearly enough to their offense to make this worth it. There are routine miscommunications, confusion, and a lack of effort when defending in transition, and this has been a problem the entire season.

lol wow, well seems like they should be able to clean that part up at least

The Bucks actually have the best net rating in the league against opponents with a top ten net rating. But I bet you can guess what’s going on here. No one has had opponents shoot worse from three in those situations than the Bucks, who have seen under 32% of their opponent threes go in.

League sources say Doc Rivers, who signed on as an ESPN analyst after getting fired by the Philadelphia 76ers in May 2023, began to serve as an informal consultant to Griffin at the behest of the Bucks. One month later, multiple sources briefed on the matter now indicate that Rivers is the serious leader for the now-vacant position and the preferred choice of key stakeholders.

beware the informal consultant, key stakeholders

yeah bucks are in a weird situation extremely backloaded schedule + running way above expectation means their 30 wins is a mirage and they're possibly only a 50 win team unless they step it up

everyone looks really bad here. griffin wasn't a rando, he's been an assistant coach for 15 years--for him to fail this badly suggests that he's just like completely incompetent in the big chair.

apparently he interview for a ton of head coaching jobs over the years and until the bucks no team was that into him

yeah very weird sounds like he lost the players pretty much immediately

his vibe on the sideline just on tv was not appealing

how he got the job in the first place is maybe the weirdest part about this whole thing

As a fan of the #3 team in the Eastern Conference, I endorse the hiring of Doc by the #2 team in the Eastern Conference.

lol

lmao.

also.... would this mean espn would go crawling back to JVG? i kinda miss his voice

The Bucks have reached out to Doc Rivers and are engaging in conversations on the franchise’s coaching job, sources tell ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 24, 2024

i would encourage everyone to prepare for ESPN to have the worst idea ever to replace doc for the season, prob richard jefferson or perk or someone like that. just get ready

a lot has happened today and i don’t want it to get lost that karl anthony towns tried to outscore joel embiid, who was playing in a different game, and in the process helped his team blow an 18 point lead in a loss to the hornets. this is KAT canon.

Jordan post about the Wolves after a victory challenge (impossible)

just kat stuff lol

carlisle just got two techs in five seconds, goodnight!

Magic just coming off vacation w no reception dropping heat

The New York Knicks made a big move ahead of the upcoming trade deadline by acquiring OG Anunoby from the Toronto Raptors! Anunoby's addition to the team will take the pressure off Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson defensively because he’s capable of guarding opponent’s best…

— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) January 24, 2024

lol

I typically don’t like to talk about teams that lose but I have to send some love to the Timberwolves’ Karl Anthony Towns for scoring 62 points, 30 of which were from the 3-point line!

— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) January 24, 2024

got home from work tonight just after halftime and my gf, whose only exposure to basketball is me, already had the nuggets game on the TV and was telling me what I missed — keeper I think

lol, Doc to coach Bucs

tnt breaking news after knicks nets game

didnt take long

congrats to doc rivers and all of us except frogbs and the bucks

As a Bucks fan: lmao

legit weird cool game alert okc and portland btw

im watching it

i saw scoot make a good play

he happens into some cool stuff bc he is "very active" but does not yet "know how to play basketball very well"

this is doc’s masterpiece. we just have to sit back and be awed.