Why The Bucks Finally Look Like a Real Championship Contender | JJ Redick

Why The Bucks Finally Look Like a Real Championship Contender | JJ Redick

Look on Monday’s episode I talked a lot about the Boston Celtics again we only get to talk about three things we talked about the Celtics the nuggets and what was our third thing oh the Toronto Raptors uh I want to talk about the Eastern Conference right now I said this

On Monday it feels like the Boston Celtics have separated themselves not just in the standings but with how they’re playing right now I do think there’s a number of teams that we can make an argument for uh or speculate could still win the Eastern Conference

Um so I want to get into all this I want to actually start with the Milwaukee Bucks they are five and seven since Doc Rivers took over but the defense is trending in the right direction uh they are 10th in defense uh since doc took over and they their offense has gone the

Other way they’re 21st in offense but here’s what I’m excited about they’re pick and roll defense they were a bottom 10 team in pick and roll under Adrien Griffin they are a top five team in pick and roll on defense and you know what it comes down to they are switching almost

25% more actually more than 25% more they’re switching on defense more in pick and roll which I find fascinating is it more the switching because I was going to ask about this just the half court D in general is it more the switching and less where they’re putting

Brooke well here’s what’s interesting so Brooke primarily still in a drop and all that stuff but here’s what’s interesting if you think about the philosophy around trying to create tourn overs right the ball and the numbers back this up the ball is going to get by the defender

More if you’re not creating those turnovers right their blowby percentage went up what happens on a blowby what happens in a pick and roll where there’s not pressure on the ball you end up in rotation and so if you’re switching and you’re staying on the ball and you’re playing a flatter defense there’s

There’s not as many opportunities to put two on the ball and then be in rotation think about all the time especially early on like I don’t want to blabber this point but they would they were they were 40 feet away from the basket putting two on the ball and pick and

Roll and that led to four on threes so it’s a simpler defense they’re switching with the right Personnel at a much higher rate I’m a firm believer I’m a firm believer that if this team defensively is good enough they don’t have to be great and they’ve been pretty

Damn good since doc took over if they’re good enough offensively Doc’s going to Doc’s going to figure out how to maximize this offense he’s he did that with the Clippers team he did that with James and Joelle he’s going to figure out how to maximize this offense at some

Point and you’re betting on you’re betting on two Hall of Famers of course Chris Middleton I mean these These are guys that are going to be able to to get there the numbers I wanted to shout out Nathan marzion who covers the bucks he did a big breakdown on on Brooke in

Particular today uh Milwaukee has a 102 defensive rating uh when Brook is playing since the firing um Lopez uh has a 43.7 field goal percentage against him in this window know it was 48% before he’s third for the season in opponent field goal percentage in the restricted

Area third in the entire NBA he’s having a great defensive year yeah it’s not reflected overall in the team numbers but Brooke by and large has been Brooke so I I want to ask about the Knicks as well because the Knicks are 23 and2 versus teams below 500 and they’re 12

And 21 against teams that are above 500 and I’m not saying the Knicks don’t have a shot to you know make a run in Eastern Conference or whatever it is but with a team like Milwaukee whenever they play a top team you see it they go and they

Smack Denver they smack Minnesota the other night whenever they play top team you see what they can be and so is there is there something with this team a little bit of like they’ve been there before and they’re taking too many games off because they know that they are uh

They know that they have the ability to turn it on once it gets to early May miday well here’s how I would look at it I think when they were 30 and 13 under Griffin it didn’t feel visually ually like they were a really good basketball

Team so despite the fact that they were winning it didn’t feel and look like a really good basketball team they win their first game uh uh with an interim coach then doc comes in their five and seven cents and like I’ll say this like Doc did take over in the middle of

Season he did take over in the middle of a road trip that’s hard to do it’s obviously hard to do um I think there was a little bit of an overreaction to the Bucks as title contenders you think back to uh opening week of the Season them and the Boston Celtics had

The best odds plus 180 both uh to win the Eastern Conference Celtics sit at plus 115 right now and the Bucks are at plus 700 which is the third best odds um I’m looking at the Bucks and I’m thinking to myself this is easily a team that can

Not only win the Eastern Conference but win an NBA championship like they have Giannis and they have Dame they have a guy who’s won aamp Championship as a coach Brooke has been great Chris Middleton has been great Malik B has shot the share of the ball they’re

Starting lineup for the season not under dock not under Griffin not under prty for the season has like a net rating of like 15 they’re a good team let me ask you about the Boston match particular we don’t want to get too much into it because you just covered it on

Monday but we’ve talked ad naazim about porzingis in the impact that he’s had with porzingis in particular and this defense this defense humming this defense humming at bud lels how do you think they would approach a matchup like porzingis in the playoffs because that’s obviously something they haven’t had to

Face before and it’s the we haven’t seen them play them since the new regime so it’s like where they’re going to where they’re going to sort of approach this differently with him did Cross Match um they put Giannis on porzingis switch across the board there and they’d put

Brook Lopez on Drew which a number of teams have done this season um you know the only thing the only thing with that um you know uh we talked about this other Drew R has had sort of a different experience game to game when he played for Milwaukee he was the primary ball

Handler uh he was a shot Creator he was a distributor but he had the ball in his hands this has been a different thing for him depending on matchups you know he’s he’s been a spacer and he shot the out of the ball this year but he’s

Been a spacer at times he’s over in the corner sometimes he’s a screener he’s not the primary guy right Joe Missoula and the Boston Celtics know this he’s the guy that a lot of teams are crossmatching the big on yeah uh so that they can switch with porzingis now the

Only thing with that I’ll say uh again is that when Chris dos porzingis gets a mismatch he’s having the most efficient post-up season in NBA history well in the tracking era of the NBA uh going back to 2013 2014 so you still run into some issues it’s it’s not like oh we’re

Going to switch across the board and all our issues against the Boston Celtics are solved there’s still a lot to be done but I think to to answer your question that’s how they would uh start that series I would assume is just crossmatching the net rating stuff with

Pringus is crazy the the three the the the porzingis Tatum white 15.2 porzingis brown white 14.9 like they’re good you know I doing the game the other day it’s like they they they can always have like two or three guys that are just all stars on

The floor like that’s how deep they are you know what I mean it’s like oh we’re gonna we’re going to take Brown and Tatum out okay we can still put alhor for Derek white porzingis Sam Hower Drew holiday it’s like it’s crazy it’s probably too early to have this

Conversation as it’s you know February but when you look back at the porzingis trade and you look at the fact that they got the only two first- round picks in that trade plus him is that gonna are we going to look back at that and be like

This is one of the more lopsided trades in recent NBA history there’s a good chance there’s a good chance I I don’t know the specifics of the Memphis pick situation and which year they are and how they’re protected I do know that Memphis was holding on to a lot of picks

And it was a three team deal right so there’s a lot of moving parts to that um so again uh I said this on the broadcast the other night I think Brad Stevens knows what he’s doing it’s maybe don’t TR Brad St he knows what he’s doing

In this clip, JJ Redick talks about Doc Rivers, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and the improved play of the Milwaukee Bucks since the All Star Break.

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