Where the Milwaukee Bucks stand as the calendar flips to 2024

Where the Milwaukee Bucks stand as the calendar flips to 2024

Coming up on today’s show we are live on New Year’s Eve we’ll take a look back at 2023 and some of the numbers that jumped out uh where this Bucks team is trending as well I think a few of the areas are obvious but what needs the most work and

How can the Bucks get there as the calendar flips to 2024 we’ll examine all of that and to hear from all of you as well it is today’s 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 lock on bucks I’m Justin Garcia here with you today you can also hear me on the Bucks radio network where you can do so on New Year’s Day as the Bucks begin a two game series with the Indiana Pacers thank you for making lockdown bucks your first

Listen every day we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts also on YouTube as many of you viewing us now that’s part of the locked on bucks podcast Network your team every day and today’s lockdown Buck is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more right now new customers get

$50 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 money line bet it’s 150 bucks just if your team wins visit fanduel.com locked on to get started uh it is New Year’s Eve as we wait for the calendar to flip to 2024 and I think growth is a word that you’ll hear kicked around

Quite a bit on New Year’s for everybody where do you want to grow where did you grow in the past what are some opportunities for growth and uh that is a very appropo word to be using on this year-end edition of the show as we take

A look back at a year that was uh filled with a lot of growth opportunities for the Milwaukee Bucks not just the 2023 uh 24 season as we’re about a third of the way through that schedule already but really if you look back to this past year uh starting when that calendar

Flipped to January and um how that Bucks team started to come on stronger and stronger in the second half of the Season eventually securing that number one seed in the playoffs we saw what that resulted in for this team if we go back a year ago today

Um the Bucks entered New Year’s Day with a record of 23 and 12 so little bit more what three more games that they had played a year ago than they had right now but 23 and 12 obviously not where you were hoping to be they actually lost

At home on New Year’s Day same scenario by the way as a year ago where you had a two game series one of those baseball style series with the Washington Wizards New Year’s Day and then two days later on January 3rd however those were both home games this year it’s the two game

Set with the Indiana Pacers New Year’s Day and then January 3rd is on the road but again bucks were 23 and 12 as we headed into the new portion of the calendar year a season ago they finished the year uh just under 60 wins so what

They did in the second half of that season was where all of that growth really started to come from Lost just 12 games in the uh the final uh portion of the uh season 35 and 12 down the stretch so a much much better play that we saw

From the Bucks A lot of that had to do with player availability too that Chris Middleton as we point to that 23 and 12 record you do have to add the caveat of a lot of those games all of those games did not include Chris Middleton a lot of

Those games did not include Joe Engles either so that was an area where the growth started to come from from the Bucks we saw a season ago as they had more pieces out there they became much much better uh and that’s to me one of the bigger

Differences from a season ago to this season not just in the case of the bucks but League wide when you look at the NBA and uh player usage how players have played how many games they’ve appeared in this season let’s just use the bucks for the example because that’s the team

That we all view every single day Giannis has missed one game this season just one I believe that number was eight at this time a season ago Damen Lillard has only missed two games and of course you’ve had your Iron Man as well Brook Lopez it seems like he’s never going to

Miss a game um so you’ve had a lot of that stability and that’s been important this season in a year where there’s been so much change and the Bucks are are learning new teammates learning a new system and schemes and as we’ve cautioned it’s going to take time I

Think patience as as we mentioned growth is one of the bigger words to use for the bucks this past season patience is that other one as well and that patience is starting to pay off as as we’ve continue to monitor those numbers and go through where that growth is coming from

Um for this Milwaukee Bucks team it’s starting to get there I know couple of weeks ago Camille and I used the verbiage of have they turned the corner yet I don’t think they’ve turned the corner I think we may have been a little premature on that is is there’s still

Some growth that needs to happen on the defensive end of the floor and certainly offensively as well it’s it’s been an elite group on that end of the floor but it’s not to say it’s not without warts or not without Sam of improvement and you know as Camille and I touched on in

The last show that’s where I’m very very interested in seeing Trevor gleon and his impact and some of those principles that he hopes to bring to this Bucks team specifically how you really juice that offense I know everybody’s pointed to the defense and man I wish you would

Bring in a defensive specialist as a as that final assistant to round out the uh the bench it’s not to say that Trevor gleon does not bring defensive Acumen with him I think we would associate his strengths more on the offensive end than defensively um but some of those things

We went through of the way that Trevor Gleason the way he envisions offense and you look back at what the Raptors did in his time there and it’s it’s not to say the offense was entirely Trevor Gleason but that was a movement system and that’s where the ball was humming around

You spotted mismatches and you found where do we have the advantage that’s what we’re going to game plan to take advantage now look it’s a little different when you have Giannis and Damen Lillard that it’s it’s nice in theory and in principle to say we want an offense that

Attacks mismatches I don’t disagree with that but I think you have to pick your spots with that because when you have those two guys that are capable of scoring 30 plus On Any Given night you do have to ride those hands but I think the big part is the supplemental offense

As as we’ve seen components we’ve seen Chris Middleton look much much more like the Chris Middleton offensively that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing of late and especially the way he’s moving the ball two straight games where Chris Middleton now has had 10 plus assists he is basically been your de facto backup

Point guard and I know that’s one of the big questions that people are going to have as we move closer to the postseason still a ways away from that by the way as we move closer to that of how many of these guys are going to be playable in

The playoffs and that should be your number one question for anything that you assess for this Bucks team is is this player an 8 two player or is he a 16 player can we play him in the playoffs and can we play him in all scenarios in the playoffs I do think

There is some of those there are some of those questions with Cameron Payne we’ve seen it throughout his career that even this year the way he’s been used and Adrian Griffin talked about this recently as well it’s tough to find those minutes for cam because Dame plays

The duration of the first quarter he plays the duration of the third quarter that leaves about 12 minutes for Cameron Payne to really carve out there and he’s got to make the most of those number one we’ve also seen campaign get into file trouble a lot a lot more frequently

Early on in his tenure here with the Bucks that takes away from it so that was one of the bigger questions coming in when you think back too of should the Bucks pursue campaign Reggie Bak was the other name out there when he was cut loose just before the season started

Seemed to be a lot of a 5050 split almost of of who would you prefer I know I I went on records saying I would have rather chased a wing player in a Reggie B type though the way he’s been used and how he’s looked in Houston it certainly

Appears the Bucs made the right call in chasing uh Cameron Payne and bringing him in but there are going to be those questions because of foul trouble because of his size and because what happens on days when Cameron Payne’s shot isn’t falling what do the Bucks do

In the postseason for that backup point guard and I think we’ve gotten that answer that it’s Chris Middleton and and last week uh on one of our shows too spent some time talking about the importance of Chris to that second unit and why this offense has become Elite

Because you have Chris and and Adrien Griffin loves to use the word connectors Chris has been that connector from the the first unit to the second unit to keep things moving basically serve as your backup point guard he can facilitate the offense we know he can score so you never have those stretches

Where there’s no Giannis Drew uh Drew no Giannis no Dame or Chris Middleton that’s been invaluable to this team and that’s that’s something the file way and no look we have this in our back pocket for the Post season as well that we feel uh if push comes to shove when we have

To really trim down the rotations Chris Middleton can basically run that second unit and we can stagger the minutes uh as such for this team so growth is certainly one of the things that we’re going to examine as we move along here on the show today and where the

Opportunities really lie for this Bucks team because you know it’s been five years now well four years basically that we have examined things with the lens or under under the lens of how does this make the Bucs better in a sense of positioning them to win an NBA championship you’re certainly in that

Window now with Damen Lillard with that acquisition and with Giannis as well so I do want to get to some of these numbers that we’ve seen the trends we’ve seen from this Bucks team offensively and defensively throughout the course of this season and a lot of chats already

Coming off so we’ll get to those uh those chats along the way and and some of the questions that you guys bring up here on the uh show we’ll get to the the numbers and where the growth has come from from the bucks so far this season

And address some of the comments you’re starting to leave coming up next on lockdown bucks it is time to talk to you though about fanuel as the weather gets warmer the NFL season weather not getting warmer it’s getting colder NFL season is wrapping up with that cold weather so

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All season long and I’m going to continue to uh to mention this on any platform whether it’s here the postgame shows any shows on WTMJ anything this is not cherry-picking and I think a lot of times that does exist with Statistics in any sport Advance stats analytics it’s

Great and that it gives you some supplemental information and different ways to analyze what you’re to see it does this match the ey test the bad part is you can find a number to tell any story that you want and you can shift it anyway and I think we’ve certainly seen

That at times especially when you look at smaller sample sizes um I know there’s the efficiency landscape that’s put out there we all love to retweet it and look at it whenever the Bucks are towards the top that’s a 10 game sample size uh 10 games is still not a whole

Lot it’s great to view in segments and I think Billy Donovan especially coach of the bulls will talk about 10 game chunks that we look at those chunks to see how did we get better from this one to this one not so much we were great here and

We were bad here it’s where did our growth come from from point A to a point B so I think that’s the important way to analyze any of those smaller sample sizes that you’ll come across but again we’ve used that magic date of November 3D quite a bit this season because

That’s when you put Brook Lopez back into the drop defense and from that point forward let’s just start with the overall numbers for the buck so as we head into uh 2024 there are still six games being played tonight that includes the Boston Celtics by the way so a chance you could

Gain some ground on them though very unlikely is as they’re taking on the San Antonio Spurs but as we move into 2024 as of this moment the Bucks have the second best offense in the league and after what the Pacers did last night against the Knicks they added a little

Separation Pacers have a a 122.32 second best offense in the league defense for the bucks 11 15.3 that is 17th in the league it is obviously not great but the good news is the Bucks are very very close within Striking Distance for all intents and purpose they’re 15 the Raptors are 15th

At 115.2 Warriors are 16th at 115.2 and the Bucks are sit at 115 .3 so they are currently 17 but there’s not a whole lot separating 20 through 15 so there could be even more movement between now and when we speak again but in net

Rating a lot of this has to do with the offense but in net rating the Bucks have suddenly moved up to Fourth at a 5.7 now that number not what we’ve come to expect from not just the Bucks any great team it started to take a little bit of

A step backward a season ago when the best net rating in the league belonged to the Boston Celtics who were under seven at a 6.7 the year before that it was the Suns at a 7.5 and the year before that it was the Jazz at a nine so we’ve seen that number

Start to drop lower and lower in the 1920 season when the Bucks were at one point on Pace to win what 73 74 games they had a net raate of 9.4 so this number has gone from routinely close to 10 to dropping lower and lower and lower

Every single year but right now the Bucks have the fourth best net rating and early in the season that number was almost flat even after that November 3D day because your offense was just okay it wasn’t quite Elite just yet your defense was bad so that number was much

Much closer to a being flat it’s gone up and and it’s gone up considerably since that November third date it’s gone up considerably in the month of December which we’ll get to but as as we’ve continued to mention and the teams in front of you by the way 76ers who have a

10.3 net rating they have played a very very similar schedule to the Bucks the difference is Joel embiid has missed a lot of games recently now and also Philly is just blowing out bad teams and and I suppose that’s not fair some okay opponents that they’ve blown out as well

But they’re winning a lot of games by blowout that’s adding to that separation Celtics have a 9.7 I think on the it test so far you would say the Boston Celtics year to date they’ve been the best team in the league top to bottom then you have the Oklahoma City Thunder

Who if if you follow the Western Conference are all of a sudden making it very interesting similar to the Bucks in that 201819 season Bud’s first year where it was is this team already ready to make the leap that’s what we’re saying for teams like the Oklahoma City

Thunder specifically and to a lesser extent the Minnesota Timberwolves this season they’re 8.4 are the Oklahoma City Thunder and then the bucks so you do have a rather steep drop off once you get past those first three teams but with that word of growth if we go back

To that November 3rd date bucks offense is a 122.32 per 100 possessions better than where it is for the season as a whole their defense is a 11 14.8 and that 122.32 best in the league just behind the Pacers same margin as as the season Total Defense is a 114 point eight so

Just slightly better than where they currently sit and that is good enough for 14th in the league and again you are less than a point per 100 possessions behind the Clippers and the heat who are 13 and 12 respectively and the net rating for the bucks 5.7 year to date

It’s 7.4 since November 3rd much much closer to what we see traditionally from those top teams still fourth best and still behind the Thunder Sixers and the Boston Celtics but the month the month of November specifically December I knew I would do it month of December specifically the Bucks finished 11- two

And that right now is tied with the Celtics and the clippers for most wins in the league it’s a very high likelihood the Celtics are going to finish December with the most wins as they play the Spurs tonight but that bucks offense 126. one in the month of December best

In the NBA Celtics are next in line at 125.77 point6 but that’s a sizable drop and those three teams have been the best in the month of December top to bottom defensive rating in December for the bucks 11 15.8 that is 12 and you may say well that number is higher than the

Season as a whole and and as that since November 3D date and yet their ranking goes up and again that speaks to where this league is at and that it is a much more off offensive League we see the offenses get better as the season progresses so in December 12th best

Offense uh 12th best defense best offense and second best net rating trailing only the Philadelphia 76ers 10.4 net rating for the bucks in the month of December so that’s where that growth has really started to come is the offense is getting Elite and the defense has basically now for what two months

Been a League average defense maybe slightly better than League average that’s where we saw the Denver Nuggets sit a season ago they had I believe the 15th best defense going into the postseason you had Nicole yic you knew you could score that group was Elite I

Know Denver came up with stops when they needed them I know they had some good Wing Defenders cavius cwell Pope very very good Aaron Gordon very good and very versatile the Bucks have two very good individual Defenders you would point to they’ve gotten more stops as they’ve needed them when games have

Progressed you think back to the most recent game um as well against the Cavaliers where Adrien Griffin said we had two Elite defensive quarters that was the second and third where they held Cleveland under 30 points and we just made enough plays down the stretch that

Has kind of been the most constant thing we have seen from the Bucks defensively so far this season they’re piecing it together at the right time but they have gotten stops for the most part when they’ve needed them so I I think that’s what we’ve started to see this league

Move towards is you need to be elite on one of those two ends and you just have to be a little better than average on the other one where you either got to get the stops when you need them or you got to have a play a bread and butter

That you know we can go to this if your Elite skill set is defensively we can go to this and get a bucket when we absolutely need it I think that’s what the league is shifted towards now much much more than what it was in the past

Of you got to have a top 10 defense it’s not to say you can be bad defensively because you can you cannot be bad defensively or offensive ly you’ve got to be just good enough and great in those two areas it doesn’t matter which one is um is which so again growth that

We’ve continued to see you can point to the schedule and that’s fine that’s fair the Bucks have not played a terribly challenging schedule but you can only play who’s in front of you and they’re winning these games and I think most importantly too think back to the first

Couple of weeks of the season and how many times we mention that word of clutch how many times have we mentioned it since I I know they had a clutch win recently it was against the Cavaliers because it was close towards the end um but we haven’t really had to point to

That of late because the Bucks have started to separate themselves and not rely on those late game situations as much as they did to start the season again a lot of that had to do with being new with learning a new scheme new system new teammates all of that but

They moved away from that and they’re beating the teams that they should beat I think that is something that does need to get recognized we know the schedule’s going to get more difficult in March especially but as long as you’re not putting yourself in a hole and saying

Look when the schedule gets tough we got a lot of work to do because we got to crawl out of this hole that’s the important part and so far that’s what the Bucks have done this season uh I do want to take a look back at what we’ve

Seen for the team and some players as well since the start of that six-game home stand because that came right after that inseason tournament semi-final loss to the Indiana Pacers there’s all the chatter of what may or may not have happened in the locker room and how much

Of a catalyst Bobby poris was for that it it’s it’s noticeable that we’ve seen a lot of differences in this team from that point forward so I do want to take a look at uh at some of those numbers when we come back and again uh a lot of

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Covering every league go to lock on sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever National Sports 247 streaming channel uh going back to some of those numbers if we look back at December 11th that’s the date that the Bucks kicked off a six-game home stand

Then had the four-game road trip to a close out the year from that date forward the Bucks have gone nine- one and offensively second best in the league only to the Boston Celtics defense and I know I just lectured on 10 game sample sizes but defensively 11

14.7 that is 11 in the league and it is less than a point per 100 possessions away from being a top six defense in the league net rating 11.1 that is third best as well so all of these numbers point to things trending in the right

Direction and again I don’t care who it is the Bucs are beating 76ers are doing the same thing same schedule almost identical in terms of opponent win percentage they’re blowing teams out that’s the big difference if the Bucks are winning these games by 20 or more points the conversation is much

Different but winning is all that matters at this point in the season finding new ways to win and winning close games the value that the Bucks have gotten from that early in the season I is very very important uh as well but what stands out is for a while

We were talking about Giannis and his efficiency he’s still been efficient this season um since that date of November I did it again December 11th in those 10 games played just under 32 points a game his efficiency has dropped he’s only shooting 59% from the field um

But he’s a 70% free throw shooter and that’s another area we haven’t really talked about a lot that’s gone way up he’s getting more than 12 rebounds a game six assists a game as well he’s got a triple double eight double doubles in those 10 games Giannis has become much

Much more consistent but the other part and it’s going to continue to be the other part is Damen Lillard we talked about this a couple of weeks ago how you know all of a sudden it snuck up on you where we had the conversation of don’t

Worry Dame gets off to slow starts a lot and then I think a lot of us may have panicked and reached out to people in Portland saying is it usually like this I I anticipated Damen Lillard would look a little bit different here but that has started to change as well

And in this this 10 game sample of Dame about 27 points a game but he’s shooting 45% from the field 40% on his threes those two pretty constant with where he’s been for the last six or so weeks as well he has given you that consistency and that efficiency and that

In turn has opened up everything for Giannis and giannis’s playmaking Chris midleton as well offensively a much much different Chris he’s only missed one of those 10 games 18 points a game in efficiency 50% from the field 36% on his threes uh but six assists a game as well for Chris so you

Look at that six plus assists a game for Giannis six plus assists a game for Dame six assists for Chris Middleton your top three guys are scoring the ball and moving the ball uh as well those have been big big keys for the buck so far um

This season all right in the limited time we have left that promised all your com we have not gotten to any yet so we’ll we’ll get into the biggest things that are on your mind a lot of nervousness over this Pacers series here I swear if we lose to the Pacers

Tomorrow I’m gonna be so mad um we need to win these two games against the Pacers to win the series and that’s correct that you’re right now just one and two against the Indiana Pacers you lose one of these two games you lose the season series and if you need it the

Head-to-head tiebreaker though the Bucs have started to add that separation that early in the season you wondered are the Bucs going to need to win this head-to-head series is this going to be a question of who wins the Central Division um that no longer appear appears to be the case and look the

Pacers have gone through um a decent amount of struggles of late but they’ve appeared to turn the corner another big win last night against the New York Knicks and tyes halberton backto back 20 point 20 assist games and I don’t believe believe uh he has any turnovers in those

Uh those two games actually no he had two against the Knicks so he has uh what 43 assists and two turnovers in his last uh two games does uh does does Tyrese halberton um still a little concerned we’re mostly buying Fool’s Gold here still have to wait to see uh that this

Team can prove and complete compete with good teams Robbie points out and again it’s valid to bring up when we point to the schedule that the Bucs have played it has not been difficult it has by no means been one of the more difficult schedules in the league they have um a

Top five remaining schedule in terms of opponent win percentage and most difficulty from here on out it may even be number one I haven’t checked recently but it does get much more difficult so they valid concerns I think the only thing I would point to is you know this

Isn’t a team that’s new to the scene if if this were the Oklahoma City or the Minnesota Timberwolves that were doing this then it’s it’s fair may not be the right word but you would hear that brought up a little bit more I think we’ve seen this group do it maybe not

This exact group with with Damen Lillard and and and some new players in there and a new coach too um but that to me is the biggest difference is you still have what you know those proven Commodities in Giannis and Dame well Dame overall but not with this team Giannis and Chris

And uh and Brook Lopez the this is the big one to me from Ryan having a good half court offense such a refreshing upgrade it is so hard for opposing teams to get necessary stops in the fourth quarter to come back and um shame on me

For not having this one ready but um I did look this up the other day and again it’s a smaller sample size but this bucks half court offense has been very very good so far uh this season we we kind of kicked around the impact that

Damen Lillard would have on this uh on this group and I think we’ve started to see that now this was before that game against the Cavaliers so this is a couple of days old but with the trio of Giannis and Dame and Chris Middleton on the floor bucks had an offensive rating over

128 122 is their season total so over 12 128 was their defense offensive rating 111.5 is the defensive rating with that Trio on the floor so that would be right around seven or eight for the uh the totals this season and almost a seven net rating but to that point that that

We just touched on from Ryan about the half court offense 113.1 offensive rating in the half court it may not seem good that would be number one in the league in terms of halfcourt offense in the efficiency there so that’s been the biggest change for this Bucks team is it’s not just we

Got to create turnovers and score on the fast break you have Damen Lillard who can open things up I think that has made Chris Middleton even more of an elite offensive player in the half court because you think back to the last few years and it was we’re going to wall off

Giannis and good luck Chris or we’re gonna shift our attention to Chris Middleton and we’re just gonna make jannis shoot from the outside now Chris Middleton becomes that tary score that really changes things um for him and I think is is one of the bigger reasons Damen Lillard’s goingon to get the

Attention but one of the bigger reasons why this offense has looked much much better in the half court do you see Maran and Andre Jackson Jr being in the playoffs rotation I think they could be very impactful and provide energy Off the Bench it’s going to be tough um I

Don’t think you’ll see both of them in there and look a lot of this has to do as well with when you get Jay Crowder back and assuming you get the Jay Crowder back that you had prior to that injury still a couple of weeks away I

Know before the Cavs game Griff said he is progressing very very nicely um but there’s no timetable yet for uh for Adrien Griffin for J Crowder to make his return I I believe the initial prognosis when he first went out it would line up for somewhere around mid January uh

Maybe around the 20th somewhere in in that area for Jay Crowder to make his return to the floor but it’s getting close he’s going to be a big key because you know you think about all the guys that you trust and and that is what It ultimately comes to down to is the

Playoffs are different who do you trust on both ends of the floor I think we’ve seen more and more trust not that you should ever question it but as as we kind of cautioned before the season it’s a different coach and that could mean different things for different players I

Think we’ve seen that trust from Adrien Griffin and Pat conon he definitely has it in um in Jay Crowder as well and look assuming your starters are going to remain unchanged you’re up to seven players there Cameron Payne is going to be used to some extent as as well Bobby

Por is too so there you’re up to nine for a playoff rotation it’s not to say changes can’t come along the way but nine is probably what you’re going to roll with in that playoff uh rotation setting and it’s going to be tough for for a rookie and a second-year player to

To crack that and be consistent contributors as much as we want it you’re G to have to see a lot in this second half of the season and especially in the case of Andre I think Andre is the guy that you’ve been most impressed with and has shown you a lot more this

Season uh that really portend well for him and Adrien Griffin has talked about this quite a bit as well that I don’t know when it is but he’s going to be a very very very big part of of this group going forward um it’s still a lot to ask

Of a rookie to to work through all of that and then do it in the playoffs as well so that’s where I would uh really temper the uh the expectations kind of speaking of what we said um throughout the course of this show we really should look at the Bucs a

Little differently if we agree that this team is still figuring things out and still getting wins I think there is reason for optimism and again it’s not to say there isn’t reason I don’t know if concern is the right word but not to say there’s nothing to be worried about

There’s nothing to fix here but I I do believe there should be a lot more optimism um than maybe where we anticipated there would be uh early in the season when we were really questioning is this defense going to work I’ve been impressed with with growth that we’ve seen and I’m not

Saying impressed in the sense that the Bucks have been one of the best defenses in the league but from where it started to where it got and again a lot of that is a credit to Adrien Griffin for recognizing regardless of what you think the idea was or what you think of the

Idea to play that way with Brook Lopez coming into the season for him to recognize this isn’t working I took input from the players we’re going to this that’s what’s impressed me the most is this defense has just made enough of those plays and they’ve been okay by and

Large they’ve had moments where they have not been okay and they have been bad but I think overall you would say the defense has been okay uh defense is still the key as Nick says watched Lakers and t-wolves last night the amount of effort in athleticism those

Teams have night and day compared to the Bucks and sure there’s a handful of those teams the Celtics too that is going to be the Buck’s biggest issue um with those matchups against the Boston Celtics which we get another one in two weeks by the way um but I think when you

Watch the Bucks and again a group that still isn’t fully there offensively um those are the differences that the Bucks can point to well we have this offense that we don’t think other teams have and can rely on um and then Ryan points out too the Denver thing that we brought up

Earlier in the show is that the exception or is that the new rule is that the outlier of what we saw from the Nuggets last year an elite offense very good in the half court and a defense that was just good enough is that what we’re going to see going forward if

You’re the Bucks you’re hoping and you’re banking on this is in fact what we see going forward because that’s the way the Bucks are going to win as we just took some questions on Maran and and Andre Jackson um those are your best routes or they may be your best routes

For improving defensively this season because again not sure I am G to try to I know we talked about it with Frank I talked about it with Eric name as well um try to get an answer are the Bucks out of that second they’re very close if

They’re in it that’s basically it you got to develop Andre Jackson Jr and Maran and that may be your best route for improving defensively if they’re not then that opens them some things up for H for for some some avenues that you can have for player acquisition and

Improving things on the defensive end we’ll get into all of that in much more detail as we move closer to February and the trade deadline we did have a trade yesterday um by the way and an interesting one that uh sent OG anobi to the New York Knicks so they you know

Interesting about the Knicks in those matchups the Bucs had had with them this season still a little undersized um obviously with know Mitchell Robinson and and having Julius Randall but you think about their wings you know RJ Barrett and Josh Hart were playing a lot a lot of minutes at

The three and now this allows ogan and noi to do that which will be helpful there but they do lose a lot of offense and shooting with Emanuel quickly so it’ll be interesting to see how that works out but we got our first big trade

Of the season and now in the next uh five six weeks we anticipate a lot of that are uh our is going to be um starting to pop up once uh once more uh we will have a postgame show tonight tomorrow night depending on when you

Listen to the show but for that New Year’s Day match up against the Bucks and the Indiana Pacers I believe it’s going to be Camille and Frank uh but we will have a postgame show for you nonetheless I do want to thank everybody that jumped in the chat we had quite a

Few comments today and and again this something that we’re going to do every Sunday morning same time at 10: a.m. we’ll do the live show then field your uh your questions your comments and get into anything that happened over the weekend by the way the Pistons won last

Night so that losing streak is no more um but this will be a Sunday staple for us go forward I do appreciate everybody that jumped in here and interacted with the show and throughout the course of the Season as well Camille and I touched on this a little bit earlier but very

Much appreciate everybody that continues to support the show all the every dayers that are out there and and listen to us every single day uh no one can replace Kane Pitman but you guys have welcomed me and Camille on this show so I I do very much appreciate that I just talked

With Kan last night by the way I believe we’re still trying to to set something up with h Kane but um you know he’s a big shot now with ESPN so there’s more channels that we have to go through but uh thanks very much for your continued

Support of this show of me Camille and certainly a Frank as well all of us appreciate it you guys truly are the best fans out there and to make this job very enjoyable to ad do on a daily basis so uh continue to check back for those

Live shows as Camille and I have done a handful of those recently but we will certainly do one every single Sunday going forward I do wish everybody has a very very happy and safe New Year out there and uh we will reconvene New Year’s Day with some more basketball

Breakdowns on the postgame show for the bucks and the Indiana Pacers we will talk to you uh then until next time so long

We take a look at some year to date numbers and analyze where the biggest growth has come from for the Milwaukee Bucks, what needs the most improvement and how to get there. Plus Justin takes your questions and comments on the upcoming series with the Indiana Pacers and anything else on your mind