Do the Milwaukee Bucks have a doppleganger and other takeaways from the NBA s final four
coming up on today’s locked on bucks do the Bucks have a doppelganger in terms of teams out there in the NBA there are some comparisons being made between the Bucks and one recently eliminated team plus we take a look at those four remaining teams in the NBA Playoffs how do the Bucks stack up against them what can they learn from them in terms of their roster evaluation and building we take a look at all of that and a highlevel view at at the improbable Eastern Conference Finals after this unlocked 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’m Justin Garcia joined by Camille Davis we thank you for making locked on bucks your first listen every day today we’re free and available wherever you get your podcast you can find us on YouTube as well part of the locked on podcast Network you can also find Camille on the technical file podcast uh on the carry the gnmk podcast and the paday podcast you can hear me on the Bucks radio network and today’s episode of Locked on bucks is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more is right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $ five bet that is right 150 bucks with any winning $ five bet visit fanduel.com lockon to get started uh we briefly touched on the four teams that remain in the playoffs on yesterday’s show Camille one of those four is the Denver Nuggets and uh this was ripped directly from bucks Reddit from MK bucks Reddit as I saw this post late Sunday evening after that game early Monday morning and thought huh you know I kind of wonder the same thing and there’s some things there um I forget who the author of this post was but uh if you listen to lockdown bucks you know it’s you so thank you for the inspiration behind this segment of the show but that is are the Bucks actually the Denver Nuggets but two years in advance so there are some parallels there I think we can primarily agree the nuggets are in a better spot uh in terms of the age of their roster and especially their best players and some of the roster construction as a whole some of the young guys that they saw featured much more in the playoffs than the Bucks did with their young players but when you go line by line there are some things that are a little hard to ignore here Yannis yeah there are yeah go ahead I mean I was going to say Giannis entering the league two years prior to Nicole yic winning back-to-back MVPs two years prior to nicoa yic doing that the Bucs winning a title two years prior to the Denver Nuggets doing that so by those numbers unfortunately for nuggets fans you are due for back-to-back first round exits the next two years yeah if they really are the bugs that is what is coming the next two years for the Denver Nuggets which honestly when you look at the Western Conference landscape and I mean the fact that the Nuggets did lose in the second round here ensuring that we’ll have our six different NBA champion in six years like parody is here parody is here in the NBA so like it’s quite possible for that to happen but no that’s honestly part of why last year when the Bucks were put out I was like you know what I’m gonna go for Denver in these playoffs like I’m just going to have a general rooting interest in what happens with the Denver Nuggets because I felt a lot of the same conversations that happened around yic happened around Giannis as well of just kind not quite understanding how he’s the best player for different reasons of course I mean the Yannis narrative was filled in part uh by the comments of a certain player calling him you know running dunk man so many years ago and letting that kind of marinate with how people uh perceived Giannis as a player and then come the finals with him having a 50 ball and a closeout Game knocking down his free throws just really showing his dominance in all around game it’s one of those moments where you felt like the questions have been answered like Giannis finally did this and with yic last year finally getting to the top of the mountain it was a similar conversation especially with the MVPs where it’s like how is this guy in the running what is he doing is Denver really that good so on and so forth so I could definitely see why somebody would see Denver and see Milwaukee and say there are some similarities here especially at the timeline of the MVPs and the Championships between the two franchises and given the fact that neither one had won championships in ages yeah yeah I mean never for the Denver Nuggets and it had been 50 years for the bucks and I think that’s the interesting part of these final four teams you you hinted at it in that parody is here you know like for years I I think one of the big deterence to becoming an NBA fan especially if you were in Milwaukee was well my team doesn’t have a chance you know you go into the season knowing there’s two to three teams that have a realistic chance to win the championship when I was growing up that was the bulls with Michael Jordan you pretty much knew they were going to come out of the Eastern Conference and then you had maybe two teams in the west you say well they can reach the finals and who knows you know who who knows what happens there then you advance where you had the two-year dynasty of the Houston Rockets before you knew it was Kobe and sha and the Lakers and the Spurs that it it’s really been five teams up until these last what six years that you looked at and said these are the teams that are running the league it’s going to be the six straight season we’ve had a different champion and it’s what the fifth straight year where the reigning champ is knocked out in the second round of the playoffs is that good for the league I think so I think so there’s there’s there’s Arguments for both sides of it so one part of it like I think back to when the finals were ran by the Cavs and the Warriors where it was like everybody knew for like a four or five year stretch where it was like it’s going to be the Warriors and it’s going to be the Cavaliers I mean they met in four straight NBA Finals as it is and everybody kind of felt those were predetermined outcomes and people watch they got massive ratings because you were seeing the same two teams against each other uh building that rivalry between the two especially in 2017 after the Warriors had one the Cavs had one it’s like who’s going to get that tiebreaker uh between the two franchises so that does draw some attention especially during playoff time to see if these two you know favorites can make it there but the other side of that is there were some people turned off because they’re like what am I even watching the playoffs for when I know how this is going to end and over the last six years now including this year um it’s been a crapshoot where you’re like I don’t quite know like I mean 2019 the warrior still got there uh but the injuries of course and the Raptors won with kawhai there and then after that you got Lakers Bucks Warriors who you know bounce back again they they made sure that their name was was brought back up again and then the Nuggets so it’s like now this year it’s going to to be either the Mavericks the Wolves the Pacers or the Celtics getting in there and it’s like that’s another new team into the mix here and I think that not knowing how the outcome is going to be actually adds to the product because I mean when you’re even thinking about this playoff run that we’ve had here a lot of people haven’t talked about the Boston Celtics series too much because they felt the outcome is predetermined like we know the Celtics are going to beat the Miami Heat without Jimmy Butler we know the Celtics are going to beat the Cavs ESP especially now that Donovan Mitchell is hurt so on and so forth so having the best possible matchups I think makes it more interesting because you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen so uh first of all I agree in that I think we saw less and less interest it’s still an issue that needs to be addressed and the league has has started to take some steps to do so but when we were talking about really the ner of interest in the regular season being there for for basketball fans it was within the last five years and that was coming out of four straight years of Cavs versus Warriors The Warriors in the finals year after year you would tune in because you wanted to see somebody beat the Warriors after they won their first championship but I think there was just a lot of malays and boredom with the regular season and it it’s going to be a process to come out of that things like the inseason tournament are going to help you out there and I think we’ve seen some boosts there but yeah I mean for the longest time we all opined for why can’t it be like the NFL where you you start to get teams that come up out of nowhere and we’re here when we talk about a different Champion six years in a row and I think this year especially now granted I think you you probably would have said the same thing in 2021 when you look back at that final four and you saw the Phoenix Suns the Atlanta Hawks the Milwaukee Bucks as three teams in there this year with the Mavs who’ve been in the finals two times in the last 20 or so years um the cels six were obviously a staple in terms of league history but then you have the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Indiana Pacers so we’re starting to move closer and closer to that NFL model where it really could be any team but the Jaguars and the Cleveland Browns and and the Detroit Lions for the most part but that’s where we’re at and and I do think it’s good and I think there can be a Tipping Point though where look football is King and they’re never going to run into this issue but for people like me I’ve talked about this before I really miss the days of the NFL where you had these traditional dynasties because it meant something to beat that team um it’s not quite the same conversation in basketball because it’s a seven game series and if you win that series it is earned um but that’s going to be interesting if what if we get to the point that it’s 10 or 11 consecutive years where it is a different Champion every single year and with I mean you got to look at what’s happening this year and what we see generally every year as well because if it is that much parody it’s like teams are an injury or two away from really shifting how the season unfolds at that point um I mean we saw it with the with the Knicks and it’s kind of like they were giving all they had giving all they had and they just finally eventually ran out of steam uh just legs aren’t fresh anymore injuries catching up and if things are really all that close where there is true parity it’s like you’re a sprain ankle or whatever it is away from really having a different outcome than what you thought was going into that Series so um there is something to having a per a perennial favorite and I think that’s what you see a bit with this year with the framing kind of being like the old guard and the new guard of the NBA coming up and it’s like which is going to really get that battle done um so there’s something to it but I do think that with the NBA and the fact that they have series like you mentioned which takes that like Any Given Sunday or Thursday Monday Tuesday whatever days NFL are playing on now um it takes that out of but I think there’s going to be an interest going forward right now with the The Changing of the Guard in the NBA uh because that’s what you’re really seeing in these playoffs as well we’ve we’ve seen it in every sport right um what in the last 20 years and you saw it in baseball where it was no longer just the Yankees that were winning every World Series we touched on football the NHL is has been all the way over there in The Other Extreme where it’s it’s always different teams other than Vegas it seems like representing in the Stanley Cup Final each year and college basketball too when you think of the NCAA tournament and the uphe we’ve seen there with um with 16 seeds beating one seeds in the teams that have reached the final four in the last few years and and now it’s here in basketball and that last point you made I think is the most important one when it comes to some of these comps that we’ll get back to and how you evaluate your roster and that is luck how important it is to be lucky and healthy that one injury can seemingly tip the scales of the entire postseason as we’ve seen for the bucks three straight years now that we’re talking about so we’ll get into that conversation coming up after the break here un locked on bucks well right now it’s winter take all time in the NBA and NHL and FanDuel is giving you a shot to bring home the winnings of your own right now new C customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet it’s 150 bucks to bet on spreads money lines player prompts and more visit fanduel.com lockon and make every playoff shot count FanDuel America’s number one sports book and Camille as we mentioned you can find the locked on sports today Channel out there for free 247 get it on YouTube Amazon Fire TV channels app uh we touched yesterday on the coverage that existed in the Eastern Conference Finals for a very Pro Nix broadcast you don’t have to worry about any of that type of stuff with the locked on sports today Channel again it’s free it’s 247 you can find it on YouTube or the Amazon Fire TV channels app you get in sites analysis the expert opinions that you’ve come to expect from all the local experts here on locked on your team every day uh speaking of those comps so as I mentioned there are some similarities and it was government doing stuff was the poster of that on the MK bucks subreddit so shouts to that poster but there are certainly some some comps that line up there I think the big things that we mentioned were and and look even to I suppose a smaller extent to Michael Malone in his career as a head coach and finally breaking through and experiencing that success Mike buen holes are had regular season success but that was always the knock on him was the postseason um but again as as mentioned before the spot where the Nuggets hold a clear Advantage is I think the age of their roster and their roster construction they’re in a somewhat similar spot to the Bucks as of this moment they’re about $6 million under that second apron level that’s with 10 guys that are guaranteed to be under contract next season so you got to add three more and you would assume you’re gonna go over right because of the veterans minimums at most so pretty similar spot to where the Bucks are are at granted the Bucks are going to be deeper into that second apron um but it’s really Nicole yic and Jamal Murray that run the show there Aaron Gordon has basically taken that role as the number three guy and for the bucks one two and three is a lot more clear where it’s it’s Giannis and Dame and Chris Middleton is H number three but again nicolea yic 29 Jamal Murray’s 27 uh Aaron Gordon is somehow only 28 right now and about to turn 29 and then you have Michael Porter Jr who’s one of those young guys that had a relatively disappointing postseason so there’s some similarities there’s a lot of different is however but when looking at this nuggets team and this Bucks team and all teams that are left standing I think the big piece was that last point that you made about you know a rolled ankle anything can really swing a couple of weeks of the postseason and in the past with the way the teams were structured that might not matter right you you probably still have enough to get past teams in the first and second round but especially as we’ve seen this Eastern Conference shift to to basically what the West had been for the last 20 years where there is no easy out and you’re going to get tough opponents every single round that’s really added to it where you see teams like the Bucks being sent home early the 76ers once again have yet to reach a Conference Final I think you know I was listening to the low post earlier today when Zack low was talking about who is the second best team in the Eastern Conference and I I I suppose there’s a number ways you can take that you can take it as the good of hey there’s a lot of parity and balance in the conference or the bad of what happened to those days when you had two or three very clear dominant teams and you knew okay one of these is it’s going to be like musical chairs and one of these teams is GNA be left without a spot to sit in the Conference Finals that’s gone away and I I really think the story of this postseason so far has been injuries and that’s not to take away from what teams like Minnesota and Indiana have done but there’s just no avoiding that subplot to this postseason yeah I mean that that is what it is like sometimes the truth is one of those things where you’re like I don’t really want to talk about this because it makes it look kind of ugly but I mean that is what it is and it doesn’t negate or lessen the accomplishments that any team’s necessarily making because it is still an accomplishment to win playoff series like this is what you’ve been playing for all year you cannot control when injuries happen so on and so forth you can only continue to roll and to your point about par I guess one could look at it and say the parody in the East is a little different than the parody in the west where people argue like the West parodies because they’re good and the East parod because there’s a lot more bad mixed in there but uh the way I look at is just actually like a larger League uh view of it because Adam Silver’s been talking about trying to you know expand the league he wants to add more teams into the league and you think about when that normally happens it normally Waters down the talent and you see so many more bad teams pop up because you’re spreading a a thinner player pool over more teams but given the the rise of basketball internationally how much International interest there is in the game how many different Pathways there are into the NBA right now as well with college basketball being a thing for sure but you can go gie you can go uh take a year off you can go overseas there’s so many different routes to take now to get to the NBA where you know 30 years ago it was either you’re going straight from high school to the league or you’re going college and then you’re going into the NBA so I think having more Pathways more development Avenues and just more Talent especially with the game growing internationally uh is is a benefit not just for the par that we’re talking about now but thinking down the line when the leite looks to expand and add more teams I I wouldn’t expect as watered down of a product there just because there are so many talented players in the league right now now the question is how long will that be sustainable you know some draft classes are going to be weaker than others so on and so forth but um that’s part of what’s fun about the league now and I also mentioned just on that note just the young guys coming in and really making their stamp and trying to do like their legacy build their legacies right now in the playoffs because this is when you build it and to the point about injuries and the young guys this is also when guys can step up because like who would have thought like Duce McBride for the Knicks would become somebody where you’re like wow like that kid like he can really really hoop he got an opportunity uh for this Knicks team and really made the most of it I mean you saw PJ Washington coming on for the Mavericks throughout their Series where at first it was like the Thunder like go ahead PJ and just shoot do whatever you’re going to do and eventually that coverage had to change uh on him as well so it’s always fun seeing Stars grow to see young guys taking you know taking leaps seeing legacies get defined so on and so forth so yeah I think the parody is a good thing yeah I mean look I I think it’s better than where we were uh I don’t know if I would say that that the right spot is somewhere in the middle it’s probably closer to this parody thing because it’s just going to increase the interest in investment and amount of fans that are going to follow the product all season long because it’s easy to tune out in the regular season when you know these games don’t really matter for my team we’re not going to make the playoffs and we’re certainly not going to beat the Warriors or the Cavs in the playoffs so I do think it’s it’s headed in the right direction here for the league um my big question going into next season is something you and and I have talked about a couple of times already on this show and I do want to get into that and one other theory that was floated out there about this Bucks team and what it could mean for next year as again we look at the four teams that are left not a whole lot of great comps for the bucks when you think about how their rosters are constructed but are there some things that you can take away from those teams so we’ll get into all of that as we start to wrap things up after this un locked on bucks well prize picks is America’s number one fantasy sports app with more than three million members it is the easiest and most exciting way to get in on the action while you watch your favorite sports and players you pick just more than or less than on only two or more player stats and from there watch the winnings roll in you can now win up to 100 times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks you can turn $10 into $1,000 with basketball hockey and more on prize picks America’s number one fantasy sports app and get in on the playoff action while you still can up to 100 times your money you can win on prize picks as you and the world’s best players take the game to a new level during basketball’s postseason download the app and use the code locked on NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 that code again locked on NBA l c k d o n NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 pick more pick less it’s that easy all right so as we uh start to wrap things up on today’s show here Camille again the when you look at these the Bucks and their current construction again as as we’ve touched on a couple of times here I think the the only given that we know are Giannis uh Chris Middleton and Damen Lillard are going to be on this roster next season you get the feeling maybe it’s only two of the three between Maran Bo champ AJ Green and Andre Jackson Jr that are GNA be on this team maybe one of them is moved in in some other deal um I know we’re going to touch on this with Tai coming up on tomorrow’s show but wonder what that means for that draft pick as we touched on as well with with Brian of bucks film room there’s only so many ways you can get young you’re not going to go half of your roster young or everybody but Giannis Dame and Chris so um there are going to be some changes coming to this roster and the Bucks have a little bit of avenues a few Avenues I should say that they can explore for that but if we comp them to the remaining teams really the only one that stands out the most or stands up the most is probably the Celtics when you look at how they’re constructed that they have more of a mix of vets and young guys Timberwolves by and large are still a younger team that is it feels like are on the rise certainly older pieces and Mike Conley to a lesser extent Rudy goar as well but Anthony Edwards isn’t going anywhere anytime soon Dallas Mavericks are pretty similar story is they’ve kind of retooled that roster it seems like three straight years y and here they are in another Conference Finals under Luca donic and then you have the Indiana Pacers who are a very young team and uh seemingly fitting that role of 2021 Atlanta Hawks that somehow crashed the party here uh so in terms of the comps it’s not great for the bucks I just keep going back to that point that you made and we’ve touched on a couple of times injuries and how much they can swing this there are some things you can do to put yourself in a better spot a part of that is developing young Talent again easier said than done and that’s more of a discussion we’ll get into with Tai but the big thing I come back to is you know I wonder as much as Bucks fans I just talked about interest in the regular season you may not want to hear it I wonder if the big takeaway from this postseason is look we need to play these guys Less in the regular season regular season is for Andre Jackson Jr it’s for AJ Green it’s for Marjan Bo champ if you have if you keep your first round pick it’s for that player uh we can feed you guys the wolves in the regular season but we pick our spots with the rest of them and maybe we work in more rest because we’ve seen for three straight postseasons now and really two of them more than the other one Health is of the utmost importance for this team it truly is and that’s one of the things about being attending team like normally you’re an older more vet Le team so normally like Player Development and vet team doesn’t go together but to your point if that’s an Avenue they look to explore where they’re lessening the minutes of some of those bets that we’re you know counting on with Giannis with Dame with Chris uh then it opens up some playing time for the young guys and honestly the best experience for young NBA players to get better is playing in the game um that’s something that Maran mentioned in his first year where he was like he was scared to make mistakes because he knew he was getting pulled right away under Mike buen hoser where he just didn’t have a Long Leash to figure it out because that was a team on the clock like hey we know what we’re trying to accomplish we don’t really have that time for this right now last year this past season that we just saw wrap up um you saw some young guys sprinkling in there too but once things started really getting going we saw them leave the lineup for large churches at the time until we saw some injuries also kind of Sparks him like okay let’s get a couple of minutes in here for some of these guys and on top of that with Doc Rivers he mentioned just not being familiar with a lot of those young guys so he didn’t really even know what they could do to throw him in the game so uh that whole aspect I like we want our young guys to play normally comes like in contradiction of we’re also a championship team so it’s trying to find that right balance uh for the development of the young guys and we talked about it yesterday with the rumors of Sam Cassell coming to Milwaukee if he doesn’t get the Lakers job like Player Development something else that he is known to be pretty good at um and one other thing that to say that you made me think of when you were talking about comps of teams that are left in the playoffs it reminded me of what Pat Riley actually said after the heat were put out the playoffs and he mentioned the fact that you know there were eight teams that PID luxury tax this season and only two of them made it out of the first round of the playoffs like that’s the company the Bucks are in because the Bucks were one of those six teams that did not make it um out of the first round despite paying luxury tax along with the Clippers Warriors Suns Heat and the Lakers um a lot of teams that have some similarities with how the roster is constructed with the buck so that’s a question too of like how do you pivot uh from being in this particular spot where you’re a luxury team with the salary caps on and so forth uh but you weren’t even able to make it out the first round what do you need to retool and tweak to try to get over to that next level um and if you can find some young role players to hit on your team that would be a boom for the bucks because as we discussed you know your core is Giannis and Chris and Dame if you can find some defense around them some athleticism around them it’s going to go a long way for the Milwaukee bugs and look this certainly isn’t um anything that’s a unique take or um perspective on on things but when we talk about that parody and going back to that that comment and the point made by Pat Riley that you referenced um the way things are set up in this collective bargaining agreement it’s going to be in in not impossible but it’s going to be very tough to sustain that level of success for what probably more than two years like you’re probably looking at best case scenario for any team is back-to-back championships because uh within that structure you know you’re going to hit the two or excuse me the the three or foure Mark where you’re having to resign and pay your guys that your roster is just going to get expensive especially if you’re at that level think about Oklahoma City right they have a very bright future it’s a good team you can keep that group together but you’re going to end up in that second apron eventually because you’re gonna have to max out Shay gilis Alexander you’re gonna have to pay uh Jaylen Williams you’re going to have to find somebody else maybe it’s Chad holgren that you’re paying but you you you very quickly go from this spot where man this team is good and on the rise to before you know it you’re in that first apron and you’re really starting to approach the second apron which the older you get you’re gonna get there and that’s those teams like we referenced the Bucks the Phoenix Suns the Celtics are there the Denver Nuggets as we mentioned earli in the show they are going to to be there so that’s really the biggest change in in what has really helped Usher this in or is going to I should say because I think this next season this upcoming season is going to be the first year where teams really feel the effects of that it went into place last year but it was still new and that was the year where we saw the Suns just say screw it we’re we’re taking on all the money that we can and and it wasn’t just Phoenix we saw other teams say we don’t care we’ll figure it out later it’s it’s like a credit card I’m buying this stuff now I think I’ll have the money to pay it off and it hasn’t worked out for those teams so I do wonder if we see any reevaluation there not necessarily from the bucks from any team that just says you know maybe just these two guys are important and if we can turn this one piece into two or three that that we feel like are at least rotational players that’s the biggest part because I think that’s the other piece of what we’ve seen in the postseason here is depth and the import of depth it’s it’s got to be good depth right and we’re not talking about playing 10 Deep but you have to have at the very least seven guys on your roster that you say if push comes to shove I don’t care the scenario or situation we feel comfortable putting them on the floor in the playoffs and if we’re being honest with ourselves I don’t think that number is at seven for the bucks right now yeah probably not like seven is the least but like if you can have eight then you really are like we have really good at this point especially when the the eight seven eight guys that you are playing um you can mix and match to be able to throw out different looks for the opposing team as well necessarily not saying your identity changes every time that you you know you’re having different lineups but when the situation calls for it can you go from as the bugs have done like can you go from playing drop to a switch heavy defense can you trap what can what all can you throw at the opposing team here uh to try to win that chess game in the playoffs because that’s another aspect of playoff basketball where you’re seeing the same team over and over and over again I mean this Pacers series for the bucks this year was unique in that sense that they saw each other a lot 11 times this season um including the five regular season games here and that’s a lot of times to see the same team um so after a while you know what they’re trying to do The Scouting Report you know it like the back of your hand at that point so it’s like what can we tweak here what can we throw out that might change it up or what can we do differently here we saw this wasn’t working so let’s pivot to this guy on the bench or let’s make this adjustment here so having the death to be able to play in a few different ways in particular is also really important that’s what I see when I look at Minnesota where you’re like they they had to throw a lot of different looks at Denver throughout that seven game series um and that’s part of what helped them get over the finish line here because there were some games where they were doubling joic every single time he caught that ball in the post did not matter here comes the double no hesit here it comes in other games they were like you know what cat got them we’re just going to show a little help maybe late or we’re going to rotate and it’s all about that game that cat and mouse game within the game for uh NBA team so uh with the bugs being in the category that they’re in now with those luxury teams that didn’t happen to make it out the first round I do Wonder In addition to like what we see next season how will things start unfolding in the next two to three years are there going to be some teams like you know what actually this is too expensive let me get out of here and let’s try a different out or I feel too handicapped to like actually build a team that’s going to be able to compete it’s going to be fascinating to see the ramifications of this new CBA throughout the league over the next couple of years with as you said this year was kind of like that filling out we’re not really imposing things yet we’re we’re just starting to see what it’s going to be like this year was like your your first credit card where exactly the credit card in college oh this is yeah right you signed up for it outside of a Bucks game and you got a free Koozie or something and yeah that’s what this year was I have two quick things for you as we start to wrap this up um A or B you choose which one let’s go with B all right so B taking a look we mentioned the the six uh straight times now or six straight Seasons we have a different Champion another one of those parallels and similarities between the Bucks and Nuggets is granted small sample size here but I think it’s really the Bucks and Nuggets that you would look at as the teams that did not repeat and say well those were the teams best positioned and had the the best chance and probably are kicking themselves saying man that was it that was our chance and and for the bucks certainly you point to that injury for Chris midleton um but again it’s it’s one of the bigger wh ifs that we’re going to experience in Bucks franchise history that what happens if Chris Middleton doesn’t get injured still firmly believe the Bucks are at least in the finals and maybe back-to-back Champions here Denver too it it I don’t want to get it in front of ourselves here but it really feels like um at the very least that was the Western Conference Finals that we witnessed between the Timberwolves and the Nuggets I hesitate to say NBA Finals because the Celtics granted against some inferior competition but they have been mopping the floor with the opposition and they’re a very good team um but it feels like Denver was really poised and they were going for that one seed this year too so I think those are the two teams you think that to Toronto can’t really put him in the same class kawh Leonard left and they kind of holding it together as best they could the Warriors Championship we’ve talked about this before it really found felt like found money for the Warriors so that was a different one as well these two are are the big ones for me that you would really point to and say man what if with those two teams H the last one is another one of those theories that I mentioned so have you seen this it’s it’s been all over Tik Tok the burnt toast Theory are you familiar with this Camille isn’t that like a a glass half full type of basically it’s something bad happened but you know what big picture something good actually came from that something bad happening you burnt your toast so you you spent some time to to make a second piece and oh I didn’t get in a car accident on the way to work and and things like that um so that’s been floated out there as well is you know is this season just a burnt toast Theory um look I think for the bucks if we were to combine last season and this season into one then sure you can say well if this doesn’t happen this doesn’t happen if you don’t lose in the first round you don’t go out and trade for Damen Lillard we’ve talked about it um I’m sure it’ll come up again during the course of the off season we still firmly believe it was the right move to make as much as we both love Drew holiday it was the same results over and over and look even if the Bucks hadn’t made that trade and they were healthy you’re still going to run into the same issue if you don’t have Giannis you’re you’re gonna be able to slow down the Pacers more but where’s the scoring going to come from so um that’s that’s something that yeah yeah maybe you had to lose in the first round to experience that um the coaching change is a different conversation but maybe there’s a burnt toast Theory with that change that prompted another change sure I think the other big piece that you see kicked around there and we should give credit credit on this one because this was another one that I was combing through uh bucks Reddit it’s the off season we got to find something here and this was from Sabertooth 753 who put this out there halfway there right that again one of the big things that we looked at or it just came out of of discussion is maybe you re-evaluate and I think this is the biggest piece to take from this is maybe this forces you to re-evaluate and for guys like Giannis too to say you know what maybe I do need to play in x amount of games maybe it means I miss all NBA honors because I’m playing in 64 games or 65 games um or or 63 games I should say maybe it means that but we’ve seen two years in a row injuries three years in a row injuries but especially two of those three years really derailed our season so maybe that is the good that comes out of this from the Bucs the other theory that was kicked around was hey you got to get more athletic and you got to get younger you learn that with this loss I mean it’s another thing that you and I have harped on I think you learned that for three straight years yeah it’s just the challenge of look what the Bucks need every team needs and that’s going to make it all the more difficult to round out this roster this off season yeah especially when you don’t have a lot of money to go out there and get it um so yeah those are all really interesting theories and I think a good way to end the show on like a positive uh spiritual note somewhat of like the burnt toaster like you know things work out for a reason you know like it fits into what Yannis was saying about that last season was a failure like you know it’s not a failure like we’re we’re continuing to grow from it like the journey is important as well so that’s definitely one way uh to look at it I mean ultimately we wanted another championship here in Milwaukee so it’s trying to figure out the best way to get to that and everything that we talked about is something they consider along that path along that Journey for the next season because there are some questions the Bucs are going to have to answer in an NBA landscape that is getting better all around them so uh listen I’m I’m here for the con ccept of the burnt toast Theory I that’s something I subscribe to in my personal life you can probably tell from the Mellow Vibes that I’m giving out uh but thinking of him like that also just fits like kind of giannis’s mind frame but at the same time like they want to win it’s not like a just a flowy like hey you know hey we tried our best it is what it is like oh we’ll get them tomorrow yeah like they’re trying to get to that championship and I think sometimes that the losses and that bitter taste in your mouth of not getting there um can be additional motivation I mean we saw it in that bubble year which preceded the championship year of how the that team approached things next year so it’d be really interesting to see how this team approaches next season given how this season ended for him uh it it it will certainly be one of the more interesting I feel like we’ve said this a couple of times one of the more interesting off seasons in franchise history here for the bucks and they’re not alone there’s there’s a handful of teams that it’s going to be very interesting to see how they go about doing business this summer later tonight speaking of those teams and those comps we get our first Glimpse at the East finals in Boston the Pacers and the uh Celtics Uh something’s got to give in this series the Celtics have have uh have struggled at home the Pacers have yet to lose at home in the playoffs Celtics have been very good I think the best team in the league in the road on in on the road in the playoffs here so that’ll be interesting to see and man I mean if we get an NBA Finals that is Minnesota Timberwolves Indiana Pacers it is fullon NFL uh method that has infected the NBA here so that is certainly going to be interesting and then on Wednesday the West final start which I think will carry much more interest from Bucks fans to uh seemingly throw their rooting interest behind the Minnesota Timberwolves speaking of Wednesday Tai of the eurostep is going to be joining us in taking a look at some of those young players that he had a chance specifically to cover covering the Wisconsin herd this season so we’ll get his thoughts on those guys uh on the Bucks their Direction where they’re headed and some of the things that we’ve discussed in the past few shows here and one last reminder as well um you got a little more than a day left to cast your vote for what we should kick off Flashback Friday with and it’s starting to tighten now Camille your four choices the trade that sent Brandon Jennings to the Pistons and brought Brandon Knights oh by the way some throwing named Chris Middleton uh taking a look back at herb Cole’s decision to sell the team and everything that came from that the return to the mecca for that one game against Kyrie Irving and the Celtics with some interesting comments from Kyrie in 2017 yeah or very appropo the hiring of Mike boser who we just touched on yesterday’s show going to the Phoenix Sun so again you have until Wednesday afternoon tomorrow afternoon to cast your vote for that right now hiring of Bud is narrowly edging out the Brandon Jennings Brandon Knights and some guy named Chris Middleton trade so uh little over a day left to get your vote out there and whichever one finishes with the most votes by Wednesday afternoon that’s what we’re going to kick off our Flashback Friday series with on this UPC coming Friday it’ll be the first in a series that we plan on doing throughout the course of the offseason here every single Friday in the offseason we are going to take a look back we put together a list of boy 20 or so different topics players whatever it was a number of things it’s not just a player or year of the team it could be an event or a game and we’re g to continue to add to it we’re gonna bring back some of the losers in the poll question too so especially with these close votes may not signal the end of that Brandon Jennings Brandon Knight trade um but we’re going to have that vote out there every single week for you to determine what we talk about on each Friday’s show so again Tai is going to join us tomorrow from the eurostep to take a look at some of the youngsters on this team and a little over a day left to cast your vote for what we cover in the first episode of flash back Friday for Camille I am Justin thanks for tuning in and listening watching us on YouTube as well you’ve been listening and watching locked on bucks we’ll talk to you once again tomorrow
Justin and Camille take a look at some comps between the Bucks and the Denver Nuggets, an improbable Pacers run and the importance of luck in the playoffs. Plus we take a look at the remaining four teams in the playoffs and what the Bucks can learn from each in their roster construction and evaluation
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