I tend to compare this team (2024’s Bucks) with 2021 (I.e. the championship grade Bucks team).
Basketball is a team sport and all that. And obvious the system as well as secondary pieces enter possible calculations *but* I still think that it is the most star led among all team sports and your top 3-4 is like 90% of a team’s success chances.
So with thr above out of the way I tend to think this team to be of similar level as the 2021. I.e. it *is* championship grade material, but they will need to fight for it.
I base it on the following:
First Lillard is an obvious upgrade over Holiday (even if you are to account Jrue’s D fully, too).
However Middleton is very possibly a downgrade over 2021’s Middleton in equal measure (knee “cleanups” to people that are already over 30 and were not able to play fully due to knee issues, do lead to an actual downgrade in performance that persists)
On the other end, Lopez seems to have got a few extra years out of his back with the successful surgery he had last year. So despite him entering the last half of 30s, it is possible that he produces as much as in 2021.
Lastly there is the question mark of Giannis Antetokounmpo. He did have a knee clean up too. However it was his first and I don’t expect it (yet) to remove a lot from his athleticism. However it *should* impact him to a point.
At the same point he is -otherwise- a better player than 2021 in most things. So the above two end up balancing each other out.
The reason that I call him a questionmark is that -as always- a lot seems to rest on his ability to knock down middies. And for better or worse it seems to be (a lot) down to random variance. And that’s the one thing (for which) we have to wait for the season and especially the playoffs to see.
So do I think that the upgraded to last year? Absolutely. Do I think they are better than 2021? On paper yes, in practice maybe no/ we’d see…
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I tend to compare this team (2024’s Bucks) with 2021 (I.e. the championship grade Bucks team).
Basketball is a team sport and all that. And obvious the system as well as secondary pieces enter possible calculations *but* I still think that it is the most star led among all team sports and your top 3-4 is like 90% of a team’s success chances.
So with thr above out of the way I tend to think this team to be of similar level as the 2021. I.e. it *is* championship grade material, but they will need to fight for it.
I base it on the following:
First Lillard is an obvious upgrade over Holiday (even if you are to account Jrue’s D fully, too).
However Middleton is very possibly a downgrade over 2021’s Middleton in equal measure (knee “cleanups” to people that are already over 30 and were not able to play fully due to knee issues, do lead to an actual downgrade in performance that persists)
On the other end, Lopez seems to have got a few extra years out of his back with the successful surgery he had last year. So despite him entering the last half of 30s, it is possible that he produces as much as in 2021.
Lastly there is the question mark of Giannis Antetokounmpo. He did have a knee clean up too. However it was his first and I don’t expect it (yet) to remove a lot from his athleticism. However it *should* impact him to a point.
At the same point he is -otherwise- a better player than 2021 in most things. So the above two end up balancing each other out.
The reason that I call him a questionmark is that -as always- a lot seems to rest on his ability to knock down middies. And for better or worse it seems to be (a lot) down to random variance. And that’s the one thing (for which) we have to wait for the season and especially the playoffs to see.
So do I think that the upgraded to last year? Absolutely. Do I think they are better than 2021? On paper yes, in practice maybe no/ we’d see…