Jrue Holiday makes his return to Milwaukee in another big game for the Bucks

Jrue Holiday makes his return to Milwaukee in another big game for the Bucks

Coming up on today’s locked on bucks we are moving closer and closer to the second matchup with the Boston Celtics and more importantly the return of Drew holiday to Milwaukee so we’ll talk about the reception we expect for Drew what we’re looking at most intently and and

Figure to be watching most closely in this game and uh also an interesting conversation that I see keeps popping up on social media you’re in one of two camps so we’ll we’ll try to figure out which side makes the most sense or if we can find of find a common ground in the

Middle we’ll get into all that discussion coming up next on locked on bucks you are locked on bucks your daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome into locked on bucks I am Justin Garcia you can hear me on the

Bucks Radio Network joined Again by Camille Davis you can hear her on the technical foul podcast and the Carri the G in MK podcast as well and we both thank you for making lock on bucks your first listen every day we’re free and available wherever you get your podcasts

And you can view it on YouTube as well all part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day today’s episode of lockdown Buck is brought to you by prize piic it’s the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports just go to prize.com lockon NBA

And use code all lowercase locked on NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 Camille it is uh depending on when you listen to this it may be tonight it may be 20 hours from now but the Bucks and the Celtics for the second time this

Season Thursday night at ferve forum and we’re going to spend a little more time talking about the matchup but um the fact that said this is the return of Drew holiday it figures to be a very very I think you can say special moment in evening at ferf Forum that I I hope

And I think he’ll get this I hope it is a unanimous Standing Ovation for Drew holiday when he takes the floor it’s welld deserved for what he did on the court and off the court and just focusing first on the court we know that Championship run we don’t get that

Without Drew holiday and we know how much Drew holiday loved Milwaukee loved the Bucks loved being here and it’s not as if he made a big fuss on his way out the door we were all caught off guard with the Dame trade that got Drew out of

Here so I truly do hope like you said that the crowd response to Drew is positive and then you look it was an article that came out today in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel highlighting the work that him and Lauren have continued to do in Milwaukee with their

Foundation so even though he is no longer a resident of the city of Milwaukee he is still opening his pockets and showing love to the city of Milwaukee so so for what he’s done on court helping us get that ring to what they continue to do to support the

Community I absolutely hope that he does get some cheers which I know he’s wearing the Celtics Jersey but that man is is intrical to what we were able to accomplish here in the city yeah and um we might as well just get into the Celtics matchup now because I think the

Other part of the show and that conversation I referenced is going to take a decent amount of time here um but look the Celtics have been the best team in the Eastern Conference start to finish so far not unexpected and I I know there was a

Lot of upset Bucks fans when they did get Drew holiday not only like man this this guy that we like now he’s going to a team that you may hate the most or second most behind the Miami Heat uh so that was a difficult part but there was

Also the the Bucks had the spotlight for what a week and they were the favorites and holy cow I can’t believe Giannis and Daman Lillard are playing together not to mention the Euphoria of getting Damen Lillard and the shock of how did John hor pull this off again and then the

Celtics get Drew holiday and with that they get a lot of that attention and are tabed the favorites by a lot of media members and so far they have shown you why that this is as of this moment the most complete team in the league on both

Ends of the floor it’s a very deep team uh maybe not so much with how deep they go on the bench but the talent that they have on the bench and the ways that they can play so it’s easy to see why a lot of of people have picked the Celtics

Coming into the season and they’ve lived up to that I do think it’s it’s worth having the conversation maybe not necessarily now but just in general of you know we continue to point to the Bucks are figuring things out and it’s going to take some time and I know

People are frustrated to hear that and I get it because with that you need to see some progress along the way and that has certainly been curbed recently here um but it is interesting in that when you watch the Celtics granted we’re not watching watchingg them as closely as Celtics

Fans or as the analysis you’ll hear from John and the crew unlocked on Celtics but it does seem like that team is I wouldn’t say peing but they’re already performing at one of their highest levels whereas maybe it’s just hey we got to point to something but it is

Something for the bucks well we got a lot of room to go up here absolutely and I was listening to locked on Celtics because I do enjoy listening to the locked on podcast for teams that we getting ready to play and John said something that was really

Strong he just came out and said like this is a championship team this is the best rendition that we have seen of the Jaylen Brown Jason Tatum Boston Celtics thus far this team is different and you pointed to the fact that they’ve been dominating the league they’re the only

Team in the NBA that still hasn’t reached double digit losses they’re first in net rating they’re top five in both offense and defense honestly top three offensively and defensively if you’re looking at just points per possession offensively they ranked second where 122.4 defensively their second 11.4 like Boston is that team where it’s

Like offensively they are giving you buckets they are deep we already knew about what Tatum can do what brown can do they got rid of Marcus Smart and for a while there we were like oh well you know that was some of their offense but here comes kristofh porzingis who is

Still playing very well offensively and then they add in Drew holiday who in Milwaukee at times he was a number two offensive option depending on what else was going on now he’s regulated to just being the number four maybe five offensive option at times with this Boston Celtics team which in the

Offseason I thought hey if he doesn’t have to carry as big of an offensive load what is that going to do for him defensively this upcoming season and I already pointed to the numbers there’s not even just drew holiday of course we know that back court is dynamic with

Derek white and Drew holiday you have Al Horford coming off the bench and I know Al’s been getting older but the game has not aged uh too poorly for for him at this point so the Boston Celtics present just a a big riddle it’s going to be another measuring stick game for the

Bucks which is what you get excited for it right during the December stretch there people were like the bugs aren’t really playing anybody and with the NBA schedule it’s all G to come back around at some point you’re going to end up playing everybody and maybe with this n

Season tournament you’re seeing people too many times but it it it comes around and now we’re at a stretch where we have the Celtics then we have the Warriors and the Kings so this is first game of a three- game stretch that I think is

Going to tell us a lot about this Bucks team it is and um I had mentioned before or after that first matchup in Boston that the interesting part about these four games that these two teams play is that they come at kind of checkpoints in the season that the first one was very

Early and the Bucks were starting to get better offensively defensively the same conversation we’ve had it was it came after putting Brook Lopez in the drop and you were seeing some growth there but it was nowhere near what we were seeing in the month of December here

You’re coming into it off of a very very rough stretch of basketball but you’re at about halfway through the season the next matchups are towards the end of the season where I think it’s a little more than a month from now I think it’s in March that you’ll play the third game

And then it’s a week or two after that that’s the fourth so they set up some nice progress checkpoints for the bucks to not only see how have we come along and grown since then but like how are we doing it against this Boston Celtics team because look I I get there are

Other landmines out there and especially with all the issues we’ve talked about this Bucks team having to sort out but ultimately the Celtics and the 76ers are the two teams and I guess at some point we’re gonna have to put Miami in there as well but especially Boston and Philly

Those are the two teams that you know these are maybe the two best teams clearly in the conference depending on your feeling of the bugs um so it’s important to see not only where are we at for our overall progress but how are we performing against this team because

The reality is you’re gonna have to get through at least one of those two teams on a path to the NBA finals at the very least that’s the the part we didn’t even mention the Pacers at this point which there are some people who believe like hey it’s regular season that’s not going

To stand in the postseason but that’s the thing with these regular season matchups right it gives teams an idea of where they stack up against one another and at this point the Pacers don’t have any fear of the bucks so if that was a playup matchup like that team is going

Into the game thinking like we can do whatever we want against the Bucks and the Celtics over the last few seasons here have done a pretty good job in the regular season of asserting their dominance over the Bucks especially thinking about last season how the game earlier this season began where the

Bucks just got off to a really slow start we saw that a lot to start the season with the Bucks where they get off to just that really slow start then they have to kind of worked their way back into it I mean we saw that against the

Jazz as recently as Monday as well where they get down big and now they have to exert so much energy trying to get back into the game and that was the case in Boston as well I believe they were down by like 21 20 plus points in that

Celtics game were’re able to get the lead down to three by the time they the the final whistle blew but it’s a measuring stick game you want to see how you’re doing you don’t want to see the Bucs making some of the same mistakes that they were making in that first

Matchup against Boston because as you said they’re top of the East right now between them and and Philly those are the two teams who were like hey Championship contenders I brought up the Pacers just because we lost a regular season matchup no one’s putting the Pacers into that Championship tier but

The point goes about what regular season matchups can do for the psyche of a team and what it can do about how you feel how you might match up against other teams going forward so Thursday’s going to be a big game for the bucks as big as

It can be regular season wise and with your holiday coming back to Milwaukee there’s that added narrative piece to it in addition to just seeing the two top teams in the east go at it yeah the return of Drew holiday and the reception we expect him to get speaking of Drew

Some interesting numbers for Drew I don’t know what it actually means uh but I do want to get into that coming up after the break well time to talk to you about our friends at prize picks they are the largest daily fantasy sports platform in North America they’re also the easiest

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National Sports 247 streaming Channel on YouTube locked on sports today it’s here for you 247 covering the top sports stories of the day with all the local experts you would expect from lock on in addition to our national shows covering every single league go to locked on

Sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel and as Jim Ross would say business certainly picking up as we’re a month less than a month out from the trade deadline you got the NFL playoffs here uh everything starting to converge here so no better place than

Lockon sports today to keep you covered I mentioned some numbers and again we’re not the Celtics experts but what really struck me was I think early in the season there was this conversation and maybe not even conversation murmur might be the best way to put it

And maybe it was it was Bucks fans just trying to to make themselves feel better about not having Drew holiday and having to go against him but there was this chatter of yeah you know I think Drew holiday is not gonna age too well and maybe he’s already on the decline we

Know offense isn’t his strength not to say he can’t score but it’s a little different from Damen Lillard he can get off his shot from the logo and he can knock down threes and he can score in the half court and I I think there’s certainly some games that had popped up

There was one what a week or so ago when uh the Oklahoma City Thunder torched the Boston Celtics and Shay gilgas Alexander was attacking Drew now In fairness Shay gilgas Alexander has done that to everyone so far this season um but I was struck by and again these aren’t massive

Sample sizes you usually want to look to at least a hundred lineups uh a 100 possessions being played with a lineup and in the minute where Drew holiday has been off the floor the Celtics defense and offense have both been better than with him on the floor and the most

Interesting one to me and I think it really points to what you mentioned about Jaylen Brown uh saying we want everybody to be considered for a defensive player of the year or all defense with the way that we’re going to get after it this season Derek white is

The guy that has taken a massive leap obviously he’s always been a very skilled and good Defender but what he’s doing everywhere Steals and blocks and the way he’s defending the perimeter that is what stands out the most and in those minutes where Derek white is on

The floor and Drew holiday is off the floor the Celtics it’s almost 800 possessions so it’s a pretty sizable sample size here the Celtics have a defensive rating of just over 104 and you mentioned they’re at 110 111 for their season average so seven points per possession better when they’re playing

Derek white versus Drew holiday and offensively the number is better as well at a 126 it’s a luxury to say that hey our defense doesn’t suffer when we sit Drew holiday while there are Bucks fans here who are lamenting the fact still that we don’t have a Drew holiday to be the

Biggest point of attack defender on a team to help uh where they’re seeing leaks within the buck system in itself and I’m not sure if we mentioned the the Jaylen Brown thing on air off air it’s all merging together with as much of Bucks basketball as we talk but going

Into the SE jayen Brown mentioned the fact that hey I want every starter on this team to get all defensive votes everybody and Jaylen Brown is somebody who definitely has taken that to heart in the way that he’s been playing and you pointed out what Derek white is

Doing and again just thinking about the fact that you can sit Drew holiday and you’re not suffering that’s the piece of it that stands out to me the most I don’t think of it as a knock to Drew holiday or saying that he’s he’s aging

And he can’t do what he used to do because I think that even as Drew ages you can use him in some some really interesting situations we saw when he was here in Milwaukee we used him on bigs from time to time as well because he has the strength where if he gets

Switched onto a big you’re not like quickly we need to figure out how to get him off of him you’re like he can hold his own long enough here um until either The Possession ends or we can get another switch to get him back onto that

Guard so Drew holidays game I think is going to age pretty well and the fact that he again we know he’s a fourth fifth offensive option for the Celtics and when you have a backcourt mate who can also lock up like white it changes the equation it changes the equation a

Lot and I didn’t expect for you that those numbers to be the case with you saying that they’re better defensively with him off of the court but I think it’s just u a compliment to the the guys who are playing in the game because when

You do take Drew off uh who are you bring you can bring Al Horford on you can go really big you can have Al Horford with porzingis with brown with Tatum with white so there’s so many different things that this Boston Celtics team can do lineup wise that can

Pose a lot of interesting dilemmas for opposing offenses yeah and you know I think the interesting part too is the Celtics have that luxury of I guess you would say save but you could basically save Drew for the postseason because of the offense that’s around him and because of Derek white in

The back court as well that you’ll have your nights where hey we’re going to need you to take this Challenge and he’s going to be up for it too but you can really try to save those minutes in and reduce the miles that you’re putting on

Him um this season they have that luxury that I don’t think any other team in the league has in terms of the Personnel that they have out there and all the numbers really back that up except for one so he’s he’s attempting just over 10 field goal attempts per game uh which

Would be his lowest total since his rookie season in 2009 2010 three-point attempts he’s shooting 42% on threes this year and again I think that speaks to who they have have on the perimeter when you have Derek white and Jaylen Brown and and Jason Tatum and Chris STS

Porzingis even Al Horford all those guys can shoot so Drew holiday in a lot of these instances is going to be sagged off of the most that we’ve seen that in highlights and clips of games and that’s going to benefit him but again four and a half three point attempts per game

That is his lowest since the 201617 season when he was in New Orleans so you see all these numbers his effective field goal shooting right around where it was his seasons in Milwaukee with how he’s performing on twos a little bit lower there that may be the one thing

That you look at and say whoa what’s what’s what’s going on here if he’s not scoring in the mid-range and around the rim quite as much but the one area that that does strike me is his minutes granted it’s not massive but his minutes per game right now and he’s played about

Half as many games as he did last season with the Bucks it’s the highest it’s been since he played for the Pelicans that he’s just under 35 minutes per game granted we have seen players playing more this season I I talked about how Giannis has missed what one game Damen

Lillard has missed three games that you’ve seen everywhere except Philadelphia and Miami that stars are playing every single game it seems like so I’m sure that’s a part of it but I do wonder and especially if Boston right now what four games that they have in Separation on the Bucks in the loss

Column if they keep that number right around where it is I do wonder if we start to see those minutes start to decline for Drew in the second half just to keep him fresh for the playoffs just might to your point about the minutes uh that he’s been putting on

His body this he’s the second leading uh player on the Celtics when it comes to minutes per game he’s right behind Jason Tatum and he’s about a half a minute or so uh in front of Jaylen Brown which is interesting to me I don’t think I would have initially thought that Drew holiday

Is getting more minutes on a per game basis than Jaylen Brown is but that situation that he’s currently playing in when I think about just the way that the Celtics are constructed like and coming into the season we were like hey a strong starting five a strong six-man

Rotation when you think about Al Horford coming off the bench as well but there were questions around the depth of this team and what that might look like for them you seen guys stepping up from Sam Hower to Payton Pritcher like guys are stepping up in their limited minutes um

But this is still going to be a more topheavy team and one of the things that we’ve had some interesting debates about here in Milwaukee under Bud was hey our guys is going to be ready for the playoffs with their current minute load once that goes up because once it gets

To the playoffs like the Celtics already employ a pretty short rotation for the most part against us the last time they only went three deep in their bench or on their bench so we know that’s going to be the case come playoff time and it’s a season where Drew is going to be

More regularly getting those minutes in so it’ll be interesting to watch but I do think that it’s not if they can make it there healthy that’s the the thing you have to make it to the playoffs healthy but I do think it’ll be beneficial for for him to have already

Been racking up these minutes being used to that a minute Lo so when you do add on another four or five per game whatever the case may be for them how they’re going to do the rotations um you’re able to ease into that a little bit better now you always have to get

Used to that playoff intensity again but with Drew being the second uh most minutes played per game on the Celtics I think that just shows how valuable he is to that team although the numbers might be down across certain areas we talked about how even their defensive rating is

Better with him on the bench we know what does to this team what he brings to this team and the fact that Drew holiday is also an unselfish player where he doesn’t care about the minut he doesn’t care about what the stats say he just

Wants to get that win I think that also helps out for the Celtics as well it’ll be interesting to watch and um I don’t think the injury report has been updated for the bucks it’s clearly not for the Celtics they play tonight in Minnesota but we’ll take a look at that

In the last segment of the show and get to that conversation that I mentioned at the top as well as we wrap things up after this unlocked on books well before we do get to that I I know we come to sports to escape from some of the crazy realities of real life

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Conversation that we were carving out some time for and I’ve seen quite a bit of this on um on all social channels and it’s it’s something that we’ve gotten into un locked on bucks throughout the season I know people have not been pleased when they hear me preach hey

It’s gonna take time and I get that and look I understand the push back that you expect to see more progress with with the time you’re willing to give time and understand this is going to be a process to develop that chemistry to learn a new system to learn new teammates you get

All that and we’ve seen that as recently as three years ago when Drew holiday arrived here but the tradeoff is we’ll give you that time we need to see steady growth and we need to see signs that things are moving in the right direction up until January first maybe even December 25th

We really saw that for about a month and now it’s it’s really halted but I was just struck by a lot of the chatter that that you’ll see everywhere about you’re either on the side of look it’s gonna take time this this this wasn’t the case

Or this was the case I should say in 2021 and I know I pointed to the same thing that in 2021 when the Bucks did win an NBA championship and that was the offseason they traded for Drew holiday that was when they brought in Bobby poris 50% of their roster was new it

Took them until until really that final game before the All-Star break which ironically enough was against the Memphis Grizzlies that was the game where Drew holiday hit the game winner and you go into the All-Star break I think you exited the All-Star break then with in addition to that win I think it

Was seven more wins it was it was a seven or eight game win streak right around the All-Star break where it really felt like okay this is the group I expected to see it was an eight-game win streak which started with that game against the Grizzlies capped with a win

Over the Boston Celtics at home um and I’ve seen people point to well in 20121 we had a five-game losing streak we had this there was all this up and down play you can’t make too much out of one game and I do agree with all that but I don’t

Think it’s it’s this take is right or they know we gotta be panicked about everything is right I think it’s somewhere in the middle so as as frustrated as people get if they view me as too positive or too much of a let’s let’s just wait and see I I don’t think

The rush to judgment and the this team is screwed is is any more sound I think there are clearly some alarming things we’ve seen and some warning signs and red flags that need to be addressed but again it is going to take time and I mentioned ironically enough that final

Game in the All-Star break before the All-Star break against the Memphis Grizzlies because wouldn’t you know what Camille the Bucks last game before they depart for a weekl long Allstar break this season is against the Memphis Grizzlies W that the script writers got that one that was that was interesting

That that’s a nice uh twist there but no speaking of script writers it it makes me think of the NFL in the sense that the NFL is only 16 games right over a course of a few months so every game feels so big and after each NFL game

There there is so much dialogue so much discourse about hey who was this team is this this is this true is this true I think this is actually the case and a lot of it tends to be overreaction and sometimes you’re like hey I’ve identified an early Trend and I’m

Looking at this now for the rest of the season like just again that parallel Packers were two and five at one point in the season and the conversation was around the draft and as we sit here this weekend we’re getting ready for them to head to Dallas and take on the Cowboys

In the playoffs so it’s it’s one of those things where you try to have perspective and when you put that on to the NBA where it’s 82 games over the course of a few months there where you’re seeing your team a couple nights uh week and you can go up and down

Really quickly if you live on a game- to game basis and I’ve been told myself that I can be too optimistic uh but I actually prefer to look at it as just I’m trying to be as logical as possible right because I’m a fan of the Milwaukee

Bucks and fandom can take you to some extreme emotional places because you have a connection to this team so what I always try to do is be as logical as I possibly can and when the season started you’re seeing things get off to a rocky start and you’re like okay this doesn’t

Look exactly how I thought it would look when we acquired Dame and we were pairing him with you know Yiannis like hey I thought I’d see more pick and roll or I thought it would look like this and as time goes on what I kept saying is I

Just need to start getting some larger sample sizes and we’re at a point now in the season where we are having those larger sample sizes I like to break the season up into T into quarters before allar after Allstar and with this Buck team there’s going to be some really

Interesting checkpoints right from the first four games to they switch to a drop to when they lost Jay Crowder and then it’s going to be interesting seeing the numbers with Dr Crowder back in the lineup as well so for me I think it’s a situation where a lot of things are true

And there are people who are just Clinging On to one aspect of it without acknowledging the other thing so like it’s all complimentary can coaching be better absolutely we talked about that on yesterday’s show of lock on bucks in ways that we think that that can improve

The offense has to be better part of the reason that they’re having this January slump so far is the shoot shooting performances like this is a top heavy team and if Damen Lillard is only going to be shooting 16% from three it’s going to be hard for you to win games because

You’re depending on Giannis you’re depending on Dame you’re depending on Chris to be consistent offensive options and we thought the Bucks bench might be something better because you think of a guy like Bobby Portis coming off the bench and being able hey you just go and get Buckets it hasn’t been working so

It’s time to be like hey are there other ways we can tweak around here and make this better for the roster that we currently have like hey maybe if we’re not getting bench production maybe we move Malik Beasley to the bench insert someone else who doesn’t need you know

And I understand exactly why you want Malik in the starting lineup you see it when he gets over four five threes the game the ball’s moving well he’s a 47% three-point shooter so far this season on a very decent volume so you want to have him out there and he’s valuable but

Like I get all the conversations around this team because there are so many different pieces that you can point to and say this doesn’t look right but I think it’s a mistake to only focus on one piece without looking at everything that is contributing to that particular

Piece not working as well I mean it it really is the epitome of team and that the way this team is constructed too it all has to come together right like Malik Beasley and you mentioned what he does in terms of the spacing and and opening things up for Giannis that you

Think about when Giannis was at his peak of efficiency not to say he’s been inefficient recently here but it’s taken a dip from what we were seeing early in December really up until Christmas uh Malik Beasley was knocking down shots that’s when Damen Lillard had really started to look like the Damen Lillard

From years past in Portland and that opens up everything fannis where it makes life much easier for him same with all of you know the concerns that we’ve all gone over with Malik Beasley and the rest of the defense if your offense is there and if you’re hitting the shots

Like that can offset some of it so it all has to come together at the same time we’ve seen brief flashes of that and we’ve seen a lot more of where one piece is there the other piece is not or one piece is getting there and the other

Is clearly not so that’s part of the look we do have to give this some more time and you know this but um to the listeners that don’t outside of this outside of the Bucks radio network outside of TMJ I work in analytics and look that’s why you’ll hear me site all

This stuff of we need sample size you need larger sample size and not only that you take the numbers and you figure out not only is this good or bad but why did this happen and how do we correct what it is that’s causing this to happen

And I think we’ve all done that with the defense and we pointed to all of our strategies and theories of what’s going to get there but as you and Frank have have talked about on social media on the the post game as well the other night there isn’t one Magic Bullet there isn’t

One fix that’s out there that if we do this this will change it and I think that’s probably the most frustrating thing for a lot of fans to hear because that means that dreaded word of this is going to take time but it’s not as simple as if we fire the coach this

Changes everything or if we make a trade this changes everything there are some things you need to implement and strategies I think it’s pretty clear at this point you need to adjust and move on from or say how can we do this a little differently or continue to throw

Some different looks I’m sure there are Personnel decisions that are going to be made as well but it’s not just one thing that’s going to fix this so I I do need to see and I’m not saying approaching 40 games is not a large sample size but I

Do need to see more of a sample of one once this team has kind of moved there and and it’s it’s the old you know bleep or get off the pot that we’re getting to that point and once you do get there I need that sample size just to see is

There just nothing that can be done here and we we move on or we have to move on to something else or is there something here that’s working and we we just have to be patient with with it absolutely I think you you summed that up beautifully

And the sample siiz piece of it is really interesting because like for some people they might say like hey I only needed 15 games to know what this team is going to be meanwhile I’m sitting here like I I need to see like you mentioned like half the season is a very

Large sample size and it’s coming up right before the trade deadline where it’s like now we have to make decisions on if we’re not where we want to be now what do we need to do in order to be there is IT personnel as you mentioned is an additional adjustment so there’s a

Lot of things to look at and I know that the answer is frustrating of hearing like it’s not just one thing if it was one thing you could fix it easily but this bugs team is going through a slump they’re going through a down period and it’s a long season that happens which

You hope to see is the team stays together you hope to see this team doesn’t fall apart and you hope to see Improvement and if we don’t start seeing that well then we have to have some some harder conversations I think long story short for both of us is is what we’re saying

Is I’m not telling you that everything’s going to be fine right I’m not telling you well it’s over right I I’m saying we don’t know yet I understand there are a lot of signs that are pointing to the ladder of maybe it’s not before there were a lot of signs that were pointing

To the former too of maybe they figured it out I get the schedule is a part of that but that’s why I say we need more time because no matter what you’ve seen in in recently recently and it’s it’s prisoner of the moment syndrome like I’m

Not going to base an assumption off of that just as we said you can’t say well why is nobody mentioning the bucks when they were blowing through teams early in December and they weren’t playing a challenging schedule right you can’t make that the opposite assertion right

Now when it’s a losing skid in what four the last five and nothing looks right just on that sample size so again it’s it’s not to say don’t be concerned or don’t raise these questions and don’t question is this going to work or should we consider this but my point is it is

Still as much as you may not want to hear it it is too early to definitively say one way or another this is gonna work or this is not gonna work yeah and again as we’ve already mentioned throughout this show Thursday is going to be a a key checkpoint for this team

As I would say like if you played Mario Kart or whatever the case may be you’re going through your checkpoints this is another one for this Bucks team especially with the way that they started off 2024 I hope that whatever personal reasons we’re keeping Dame out

That he’s been able to resolve or at least get some time to slow the world down and and refocus and take care of himself uh because the Bucks are going to need him uh against the Celtics they’re going to need him throughout the rest of the season if they want to

Achieve the chance Championship aspiration so Thursday big checkpoint for the bucks and real quick there as we wrap up uh Damen Lillard is expected to play again no injury report out yet for the bucks but Griff did say he anticipates Damen Lillard would be back with the

Team for that game against the Celtics it does not sound like Jake Crowder will though he’s very close we saw him assigned to the Wisconsin herd um I would assume that’s Saturday or Sunday that we see uh Jay Crowder but Daman Lillard should be good to go we’ll be

Back Thursday night with the postgame show and the recap of the second matchup with the Boston Celtics I will’ll do the live show again over the weekend and then a recap of two more home games after that the Golden State Warrior Saturday night and the Sacramento Kings

On sun I I feel like something else is happening Sunday too but I’m not sure what it is but we’ll find time for it uh we’ll talk to you with the postgame recap of the Bucks and Celtics tomorrow on lock on bucks

Justin and Camille take a look at the year so far for Jrue Holiday. How has he fit in with the Celtics? Where has he improved and how has he helped the team defense in Boston and most importantly, how will Bucks fans receive Holiday when he returns to Fiserv Forum on Thursday. Plus they get into the progress discussion. How much data is needed to form an opinion, what if anything can we declare about this team so far and one more common point between 2021 and 2024

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