Doc Rivers opens up about last season in Milwaukee while others question the Bucks ’23 offseason

Doc Rivers opens up about last season in Milwaukee while others question the Bucks ’23 offseason

on today’s locked on bucks a um I don’t know if it’s a slow news day or what but Doc Rivers speaks he makes it appearance on the most recent episode of The Bill Simmons podcast K and I share some thoughts on what doc had to say what some of the reactions have been from Bucks fans and speaking of reactions we got those from Joel embiid and Draymond Green will get into that conversation coming up after the break here 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 locked on bucks I’m Justin Garcia joined by Camille Davis today’s episode of Locked on bucks is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account and use the code locked on NBA to get 20 off your first purchase terms apply as always we thank you for making locked on your first listen every day we’re free and available wherever you get your podcasts and you can find us on YouTube as well as some of you are in there with us now on the live stream of the show all of that part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day uh Camille we started with um Doc Rivers so you and I to peel back the curtain here we’ll usually connect uh a day or so before we record the show of like hey what are you thinking about talking about for today we kicked around some ideas and uh candidly when we were planning this went out pretty light in terms of the content and then this morning uh saw the post of hey Doc Rivers on the most recent Bill Simmons podcast let’s wait and react to What Doc Rivers had to say um we’ll share our reactions and our takeaways from his appearance because it was basically the duration of the show I know uh most Bucks fans Bill Simmons can be very polarizing especially at this particular moment where his Celtics are on the cusp of an 18th NBA championship but this was essentially bill with Doc cutting it up for about 90 minutes Doc Rivers sharing some thoughts on last season some thoughts on the finals and the Celtics and there’s one thing he mentioned a couple of times that I know I talked about throughout the year I kept going back to we’ll get to all of that but um I guess let’s start here I mentioned when we were uh corresponding this morning I saw some very mixed reactions granted it wasn’t a ton but on social channels on Reddit um about Bucks fans takeaways from this appearance and I gotta say listening to the whole thing it was pretty tame I mean I think the only not even eyebrow raising but notable thing was hey it is still kind of weird that you have a sitting NBA coach appearing on this show I think that’s the thing with it and for years with the Milwaukee Bucks we’ve been kind of like an under the radar team to be a contending team like not in the news that much not of players they just kind of do their job they go home we didn’t see Mike buen holer doing a lot of media appearances you know over the last five years on the uh the on the Bill Simmons podcast or on the low post or anywhere exactly so I think that in itself is a shift and something different for bugs fans to get used to where it’s like oh okay our coach enjoys media hits and it sounds as if him and Bill Simmons are decent friends enough like just based on the chemistry and what they were saying and uh the comments that he was making and even how Bill brought him in on the show like you know my old podcast partner who said they was never going to coach again and then here he is the head coach of Milwaukee Bucks um so like I think that might be part of it just not being used to uh your head coach just being out here doing podcast and whatnot but like you said I thought it was overall um a pretty decent episode I didn’t learn like a lot of new information but he did peel back the layers on some things that he had already broadly touched upon and those were the pieces of it where I found the most interesting most of the podcast was really about the Boston Celtics and the finals so on and so forth so like the first what 15 maybe 20 minutes that doc was on there was like Milwaukee Buck focused and then the rest was what’s going on right now in the finals back and forth right yeah um I like I guess let’s start here the the two most interesting things to me were the first portion where he was talking about the Bucks just to hear the Celtics in the NBA finals and we’re getting bucks discourse on one of the biggest regardless of how you feel about Bill Simmons one probably the biggest basketball podcast or podcast that touches on basketball that’s out there um and the other part I want to sa for a little later but let’s just start with that first portion of it you mentioned it I don’t think we really learned anything I saw some reactions from National people after words of like you know this part was interesting when he talked about Damen Lillard we had heard that towards the end of the season too and and after the season ended uh from Dame himself from Doc Rivers from others to of the the whole off season for Dame and it sounded like it was news to Bill and others of oh wow yeah I guess he didn’t work out because he was afraid to get traded um but just hearing that put out there again I’m curious what that’s going to do um on the national narrative for the bucks going into next season if there’s going to be this buildup of well you got Damen Lillard in shape and it’s going to be a bounceback season for Dame uh but doc mentioning that and and talking about you know he’s even conversed with me in the last couple of weeks and days that here are the workouts that he’s doing he’s doing two a days and the finals are going on right now um look that’s great if if it’s a a full vigorous to a day and Dame is going to be in the uh the the much hallowed best shape of his life life era for the bucks coming into this season but that to me was the interesting part was you know this is something we heard before but again I guess it’s just having a larger platform to put it out there seeing the reactions of oh you know I didn’t think about that Damen Lillard had a pretty weird offseason and to your point Dame I believe he had an Instagram post or some kind of social media post where he was saying like day after the season ended yeah you’ll be surprised at how much this is going to matter going into next year uh that was said that too not to cut you off he said that in his postgame after game six when he talked for about 20 minutes too of you know I think people are going to be shocked when they see what I look like next year yeah and that’s the like I guess to us someone who listening to Buck stuff and being tapped in is like okay we we knew this already but I mean people are listening to you know 20 minute postgame interviews consistently and following exit interviews and that’s what lock on bucks is for to kind of break that back down so those are the Psychopaths that Tony Khan talks about oh yeah the the buck sicko out here that uh tune in every day uh but that stood out to me as well as when he was just talking about who’s bringing the ball up which again wasn’t new information we heard him talk about them trying to find ways to get the ball in Dame’s hands more but just hearing him kind of break it all the way down and saying like eventually we figured out right like after makes yeah that’s for that’s for Dame to go after misses that’s for Giannis to go he’s like we’re still figuring that piece out but like as the year kept going he’s like we started getting better chemistry and better feel on that because we want the ball in Dame’s hands and I was like ah hearing him say it that way again we’ve heard him mention it but just hearing him say like after misses go Giannis after makes go Dame I’m glad you brought that part up because um yeah again another thing that we’ heard doc talk about maybe not in the detail and say hey here was the game plan here’s what we were looking to do uh but we knew yeah I gotta not take the ball out of giannis’s hands but have to figure out a better split between he and Damen Lillard so especially going into next season I think that’s going to be a big point of emphasis for Bucks fans too um is you know not only the eye test of watching those types of possessions but tracking it on your own as well oh here’s you know how they performed in transition here’s the number of times that Giannis was the guy that was bringing the ball up the floor in those matters and here was their halfcourt offense when Damien Lillard is bringing the ball up um so just again hearing Doc Rivers go through that and here’s the reasons why and and here’s what we kind of landed on um was the interesting part I thought another interesting part very timely with the shows that we’ve had this week was him talking about his coaching staff and how I got the sense it’s not done with some of the answers that he gave and again we talked about this after um the yesterday’s Show when he added Greg ER to the staff but we had mentioned you know I’d seen a few people point out I think it’s maybe a lot of Hope but who knows they’re still not willing to shut the door on the Sam casselle thing and hearing doc say yeah I still have these conversations with Sam he’s gone as far as telling me these things that he’s able to but he is one of my best friends that is out there which to me when I heard all that and we knew that Doc and Sam Cassell are close but hearing him outline all that and how close they are you kind of raised an eyebrow and thought well maybe maybe I mean I know look it’s I would still classify it as a long shot but it at least gave you you’re telling me there’s a chance with this yeah absolutely like he was name dropping like same because my best friends and then like the Larry David stuff I’m like okay that’s cool you just you’re just curbing your enthusiasm just just all you’re Larry David that’s cool as well maybe we’ll get Larry David on the bench I mean he ended the show so he’s got free time lot of free time now that that series is done but um yeah that was interesting hearing the best friend part as well as when he started talking about Giannis and the health and everything like that where he was saying I didn’t like I was hopeful that he could come back in the first round but realistically maybe like game three in the second round in the second round right and you juxtapose that with everything which I think we all kind of assumed and we talked about it on the show too like look you’re not gonna come out and say no Yannis is out until you know maybe he’ll be there for the Conference Finals maybe a little before that you’re G to keep keep planting that seat of yeah he’s close we think so but just hearing some of those answers that doc gave and now hearing him removed from the season of yeah it wasn’t close I mean he probably would have missed half of the second round if that were the case yeah and then but hearing him say it was kind of like the feeling that I had which is like if we can get through the first round somehow like find a way to get through the first round then if you can get some healthy guys back because Dame was also kind you know he was banged up he missed two games in the first round we know Chris was bang up he said Chris was 90% 9y felt generous to me right well he’s talking about Dame missing some time and being banged up Giannis was out for the whole series and he’s like yeah we were hurt Chris was 90% I was like 90 when at the beginning like it definitely wasn’t as that series continued on but just hearing that was interesting just now that the season is done there’s no more gamesmanship involved and I understand it as well of you want to give your guy a chance to play you don’t want to rule him out before you know for sure so you want the door open for Hope and uh the opportunity but it just didn’t pan out for him this year so hearing him just come out flatly and say n it wasn’t going to happen in the first round maybe halfway through the second round but we were we were just hoping the whole time um there were two other interesting things one of them we kind of touched on it kind of bled into the um who brings the ball up and in what scenarios um conversation that doc had um but there’s that and the big thing that I talked about I think we both kind of shared this thought throughout the course of the Season you kind of tiptoed it towards the end there as well Rivers um certainly felt that way and shared these thoughts we’ll get into those as we continue to analyze some of the comments from Doc Rivers on that Bill Simmons podcast and then also speaking of comments we mentioned Joel embiid and Draymond Green chiming in on the offseason last year for the bucks we’ll get into that discourse coming up after the break here unlocked on bucks well game time is the best way to get your tickets to the NBA finals if you for some reason want to be there to see the Boston Celtics get their 18th NBA 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one of the things that I have to work on with Giannis and we heard Doc before he took the job uh on that very podcast talking about the Bucks and how yeah it’s going to come together I believe that it’s going to take time for Dame he’s got to figure out how to kind of take control and not try to fit in and all the answers and all of his logic behind that seemed to indicate you know I want Giannis to be Yannis but we got to take away some from Giannis so hearing him frame it that way and then saying you know I thought that was one of the things I’d have to work on it wasn’t he was basically our point guard you could see during the Pacers series we really missed that and it shocked me his court Vision just his ability as a playmaker that I essentially had to do nothing there just kind of okay keep doing what you’re doing and I’m sure a lot of bugs fans who watch jannis night in and night out who have been for years were like well of course like that’s we know he’s a playmaker he’s had so many near triple doubles but they just didn’t the shots didn’t fall on the the uh possible assist but um doc just being honest about that and being like he’s a way better playmaker than what I thought that he was um I think that helps with the national perspective of Giannis because I mean we’ve mentioned it before but I do feel like when James Harden came out and just called him running Dunkman that that changed a lot of people’s perspectives and how they framed what Giannis can do and it actually de like people didn’t start looking at the full picture like it devalued what Giannis can do because he’s so much more than being just a run and dunk man like the passing has been there um he’s not someone like yis necessarily where that’s what everybody knows him for but people who watched the Bucks were very familiar uh with his love of passing the ball like he enjoys getting his teammates involved as well down the line as well but him mentioning how much they miss jiannis for that playmaking as well in the playoffs against the Pacers something that we talked about a lot because we were like okay Drew holidays or not Drew holiday Lord Jesus I’m a season too late that uh Damen L like yeah you have Dame and Chris is gonna bring the ball up as well and we talked about and joked about Pat guard point or point guard Pat C where it’s like okay point guard playoff Pat yeah right like we got Pat bringing the ball because we don’t have any other guys to initiate the offense right now um so jannis is very valuable with that and that actually made me think about what he was mentioning with the two guys bringing the ball up with Dame and Giannis and he mentioned that Chris also does it sometimes so it made me wonder too like next season how often do we see Chris doing that because two-year point about doc saying Giannis has to give something up and he wants him to pass a bit more uh everybody has to sacrifice something when you’re putting all these different stars together so I do going into next season if Chris Middleton initiating the offense isn’t something that we see as often as we have in years past and he becomes more of like that you know just the background playmaker when needed or if he’s running bench units with one of those one or two or both of those guys uh on the bench um I mean it pains me to say as as two very staunch Chris Middleton supporters I think most listeners and Bucks fans would be very pleased possibly over the moon with that but you know I ALS also kind of feel like and maybe it’s just um prisoner of the moment but I do feel like that’s largely what we saw last year we just kind of have it locked in our minds of man there was too much Cris bringing the ball up because the last portions of the Bucks that we saw Dame missed two games Giannis was out for the whole series and it was basically Pat Beverly is the only guy in those games especially that we trust to bring the ball up the floor other than those very brief minutes that Andre Jackson Jr was out there but I am to that point going to be curious to see you know because we would have stretches too we’re we’re Giannis and Dame were on the floor and Chris is still the one that’s bringing the ball up the floor albeit not a majority of the time but it would still happen if it just becomes assuming this roster is somewhat looking like what it looks like now or looked like last season into next year if it’s primarily just reserve for those minutes that it’s it’s Chris Middleton um leading the bench the other part of this that I I was most struck by because it was kind of like when you point something out and this is just opinion it’s not fact but when you point something out and somebody else says it and you’re like see see somebody else Bo Doc Rivers you get the sense with what he said about I felt like if we could just get past the first round and listening to him he knew this is gonna be a massive challenge they knew um clearly Giannis is not going to play in this series doc did say at one point yeah there was this breef brief talk of maybe he could get going for game seven I I just I never believed that I don’t know about you and I found it hard to believe especially hearing probably would have been two to three games in the second round series before he could return um so you got the sense doc knew Giannis is out um he knew Dame was not 100% as we started to learn throughout that series and after the series ended Damen Lillard basically told doc yeah I re-aggravated this and here’s where I’m at so doc knew and you could hear his voice here I don’t know if we’re going to get past the Pacers because of all this but if we can I really feel good about our matchups with everybody else because if we do that theoretically Giannis is gonna be healthy Dame is going to be getting healthier but that match up with the Celtics especially I mean I I said a couple of times and I forget who I was talking to about this once and and basically got laughed at of you know the the the challenge in comping this team to last year and years prior is I truly feel like this version of the team is set up better to play against the Celtics than any other version we’ve seen in recent memory while the Celtics have been at this level so basically the last two plus years the challenge is I think they have a lot of warts that teams below the Celtics could take advantage of so you got to get there first and you know doc gers echoed that almost to a t of you know I really liked our match up with Boston I’m sure part of that is Dame’s ability in the half court I know they have Chris STS porzingis and Al Horford but they haven’t had to go against anybody like Giannis during this run and who is there like Giannis that’s out there to begin with but you have that you have Chris Middleton who has been a Celtics killer throughout his career especially in the postseason there are reasons to say look they’re going to be challenged in terms of their defense on the perimeter and how they can contain some things the Celtics have some bodies that they can throw out there and defend the bucks but just in terms of how are you going to score in the half court against this team I do think we’re set up pretty well for it and that was the case from Doc Rivers yeah matchups matter like matchups really do matter like there have been a lot of people pointing to the fact that the Mavericks don’t necessarily match up well with the Celtics but Denver would have been a great matchup for Boston to make exactly but it’s like uh Dallas was a great matchup for Denver so like it’s just matchups are so important as well along that pathway to trying to get that title and I also feel like the Bucks do match up in the East probably the best of of any other team up against the Boston Celtics it’s just that we weren’t able to get there so like it doesn’t necessarily matter in this moment that because you weren’t able to get there but it does matter when you’re looking at next season and trying to build your team and what you’re trying to do because they’re the top of the East uh it looks like that Championship it’s on its way to Boston first thing smoking if not Friday uh then before we get into next week proper uh that a championship will probably be coming to Boston so you got to keep your eye on what they’re doing how they’re constructed and keep in mind how you match up and I do think the Bucks uh match up pretty well with the Celtics even in the games we had this season outside of the blowout game where there was only two free throws in it um there were times in the games where the Bucks got behind but they did not give up the games got close and I believe the losses were all by like three points three points both of them yeah for the buck so like you can see it in there where it’s like there’s something with these two teams when they match up it’s going to be very competitive very close even Bill Simmons mentioned that the the biggest Celtics you know fan around and he was like I think the Bucks probably match up the best with the Celtics of any other team as well so when you hear a Celtics fan mention that as well when you’re like I’m glad that you see what we see as well because I mean health is a big reason uh for this bugs team that things didn’t work out as well as just the timing and trying to get things together but uh you can’t control that so like the Celtics the path that they had is the path that they had uh and we just hope that next year hopefully if our paths run into one another that the Bucks come out on top of it and I think that they have the tools to do so I mean the the conversation over the Celtics path is for a different time in place but I I think as as you mentioned and look In fairness to Boston they put themselves in the position to have that path so that’s where you give them credit and they’ve improved they improved they put themselves in that position I mean is it the Celtics fault that other teams got hurt or started to fall apart or weren’t quite as good as you envisioned no you you got to play who’s in front of you and that’s what the Celtics did and have won those games at an 80% rate so far um this season but yeah I mean it’s one of those things there is no way of fully knowing but you just got that sense of I don’t know that the Bucks would have beaten Celtics I’m not trying to say that but I think it would have been a good series and I think they matched up with Boston as as crazy as this may be to say I think they match up with Boston better than they did Indiana I mean the challenges for Indiana we pretty clear it’s a younger team it’s athletic Celtics are athletic too but the pace that they play at and what they do with how they stress the defense with three-point shooting again I know the Celtics do that but it’s through paint touches and everything else it was just you know the worst possible matchup for the bucks so yeah hopefully we get a chance to see it next season with a full strength Bucks team but I left that interview um not that I was down about anything going into the off season I mean I I think if you’re down it’s that you know look you don’t have very many shots left you don’t have manys shortening up the chamber right with this team so that’s the one piece of it and and next year may be it but health is important hearing some of the work and conversations Damen liard has already started to have with Doc when we know that Dame and Giannis were going to be spending some time uh together I’d imagine that’s going to be relatively soon with Giannis having a wedding coming up later this summer um and I would imagine all of his teammates are going to be out there as well the work that we’ve seen or hinted at with Marjan Bo champ and Andre Jackson Jr and everybody’s favorite Chris Livingston already over there in Greece that’s another encouraging piece of it um and you know I I suppose we can get into this on some shows next week because one of the shows I listen to a lot is uh the dunk dun show with Nate Duncan and Danny Laro and uh one day earlier than this Doc Rivers appearance their most recent offseason team was focused on the Bucks and they floated some ideas out there as well over what can the Bucks do it’s the same conversation we had of if you’re looking for major changes I don’t necessarily expect it I think there’s probably one name that would make the most sense to be moved as they got into and that being po poris because of the value BRS you right um they did float out the name of Brook Lopez we can get into that conversation next week um but their takeaway was basically look you know what you have with Giannis and Dame you know you’re going to be an expensive team you’re willing to do that with those two guys and with what you got from Chris Middleton it’s just next year is gonna be interesting with the kicked in repeater tax once more and everything else that that could be the year to point to in terms of off seasons of where this team looks drastically different so for that thought of look as long as we got these three guys I I really want to see how we match up with the Celtics you point that to next year and you know maybe we get a chance to see that but again it does appear as though the Celtics are headed to Championship number 18 and you know look every team is different after a championship even though the Celtics are set up to be pretty good for years to come with guys next summer is really their big Focus Point as well with Rec Tatum contracts and Derek white extensions as well um but it’s always different once you get that title your regular season defense uh I don’t want to say effort but intensity isn’t quite the same as it was we’ve seen an impact every single team so who knows the door could be open for a much better regular season for the bucks in that regard um next season speaking of changes and those two teams especially we have now seen two high-profile names in the NBA chime in on Drew holiday in the offseason that the Bucks in the Celtics had last summer we’ll wrap up the show with having that conversation after this un locked on bucks well time to talk to you about our friends over at prize picks where you can turn $10 into $1,000 in a single game watching your favorite sports this summer make a prize picks lineup in as little as 60 seconds and all you have to do is pick two to six player stat projections just choose more than or less than within those projections and you’re locked in if you’re looking for promotions price picks as you covered every week from lowering select player stat projections on Tuesdays which increases your chance of getting a win to giving you your entry fee back if you have a losing lineup on Fridays prize picks is America’s number one fantasy sports app there are more than 5 million members that will vouch for that it’s the most fun and exciting way to get in on the action with your 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interesting part in these last day or so it’s started with Joel embiid during uh what the third quarter late third early fourth last night tweeting out did the Bucks just hand the Celtics a champion after a a Drew Holiday trade um we had that and I I think a lot of people said okay we really gonna do this again you and I talked about it earlier in the week as well and this morning you see Draymond Green on his show essentially echoing that and uh saying look if it’s me I’m just looking for a way to pair Damen Lillard with Drew Holiday from the Bucks of course great yeah I would love that no route with that being possible for season ago no way you could have done that and that’s the whole thing about it like that’s why when I saw the Draymond comments I was like but there was no way to do that like you literally had to use Drew holiday’s contract in order to get Daman and Lillard oh what about trading Chris Middleton couldn’t he just resigned not eligible to be traded nor was Brook Lopez so like what are you going to do even if you cobbled together we talked about this before like Bobby Portis and Pat con like all those other kind like it wouldn’t have happened and also like the value wouldn’t have been there so you you have to give up something good to get something good back uh and for Joel and for jaymond just be like they should have found a way to try to put them together like of who would I would have loved to see them together who wouldn’t have wanted to see a Drew holiday Damian Lillard te back court but like it just literally was not possible to do so as soon as I saw the Draymond comment I like rolled my eyes like this just it wasn’t possible so uh Dame is earning the same money as Giannis at 45 million so I mean there’s that route you could trade Giannis for Damen Lillard uh which by the way I am not advocating uh FYI um or look the only conceivable way to get it done but again this comes back to okay the Blazers have to sign off on this as well is you could have waited that six-month period Then and packaged Chris Middleton or Brook Lopez and then you could have gotten to the $45 million figure with in theory Bobby Portis Pat conon and let’s say Brook Lopez on that contract $45 million great that adds up you can bring in Damen Lillard and then you would have Dame Yan Chris Middleton and Drew holiday I mean I’d take my chances with that team but as we mentioned it takes two to tango the Blazers have to take back that deal so the only way to include Chris Middleton or Burke Lopez would be to wait until that six-month period Midway through the season um and again even then it would have to be a three- team deal because there is almost no value in those players to the Portland Trailblazers just as we saw with Damen Lillard excuse me with through holiday it would have been a three- team deal if it weren’t for the bucks insistence of look no we don’t want this to get out there Frank went over this we talked about it earlier this week you can understand why we don’t want a trade to fall apart and Drew holiday to get back to him that hey by the way they tried to trade you and now we’re going into camp and you’re a member of the team I think it’s easy to again be a prisoner of the moment and call this the worst trade in team history because it did XY and z i still stand by it was a trade the Bucks had to make and you had to operate with the Assumption there is a very good chance that Drew holiday is going to end up in Boston I think we all kind of felt like it’s gonna be one of three teams that he gets traded to by the Blazers it’s G to be the Celtics it’s gonna be the Clippers or it’s gonna be the Miami Heat right and I I guess a dark horse too was potentially the 76ers but in hindsight you know in hindsight it would have been a great trade for the Sixers but they were kind of of the mindset let’s not add any money we want to go into this next off season with just Joel embiid we know we got to pay Tyrese Maxi and then we got money for potentially two slots to add guys um so you knew look worst case scenario there’s a a 33% chance that Drew holiday is gonna be on that team and I think the other part to it is it’s easy to say boy how could you have done this it’s a perfect situation for Drew holiday because he has been incredible and this has always been the tough part of this conversation is it’s not like we are bashing Drew holiday because I think is and we talked about this with Frank too that you hope this remains a special place for drew that down the road when he comes back he will undoubtedly get that reception and honor from the fans I would hope that’s still open between the franchise because he is one of the biggest figures in franchise history even though it was just three years y that he had spent here but this was really the perfect scenario where what he’s asked to lift offensively nowhere near what the ask was with the Bucks and that was unfair to Drew right that’s not his strength to say okay we need you to be the Creator and our second best offensive player for large stretches um that’s not what he was asked to do in Boston he was asked to be a Lockdown Defender and he is a supplemental scorer who gets the benefit from open looks and I don’t want that to sound like we’re bashing Drew holiday we’re not it’s a much different spot that he’s in with the Celtics than he would have been this season and again another one of those things that it’s there’s no way of proving this look let’s say you don’t make the trade if you’re not healthy it’s gonna go no differently and even then if you’re healthy you’re still going to run into the same issues in theory you probably get past the Pacers if you’re healthy if you have Giannis uh Drew and Chris Middleton on the floor I think we both agree you beat the Pacers in that series you probably beat the Knicks right I like my chances there if it’s a Celtics team that um in theory wouldn’t have Marcus mart but they still had those guys I think you’re still gonna run into some challenges scoring against Boston because of your halfcourt offense so I don’t think keeping Drew holiday results in a championship for the bucks this season and especially if they’re not healthy you’re probably a first round exit once more you lose to the Pacers if it’s Drew holiday and Chris Middleton yeah and I’m really glad that you brought up the role because that’s the piece of it that I think a lot people Overlook like what he’s being asked to do in Boston is different than what Drew holiday was being asked to do in Milwaukee in Milwaukee he really was like we always said jannis was one and then people argued over who was two was it was it Chris or was it drew so 2 a 2 B like they were very close in that sense of the pecking order of getting their shots up like Drew holiday was having games where he’s putting up 20 shots 25 shots in the playoffs um and as we saw with the Bucs playoff success is the year that they actually won a championship we even saw during that run where times where the offense would dry up uh we saw it throughout where it’s just like we need more half court offense right now the defense was doing their job but the bugs problem throughout the postseason was their offense um so of course when you have the idea to think of like okay let’s go ahead and let’s bring in somebody who we know is a bucket whose presence on the court stretches the game in a way that only really likes Steph Curry can do because once he crosses half court uh he’s in range so it’s a different math equation when you throw Dame out there as well and I get it like people who are saying this is the worst trade ever already after one year when we don’t know exactly what the next year will bring there’s there’s two trades that are definitely worse than this one Ray Allen and the trade on draft night where you could have had Dirk nitzki yep yep so it’s like we don’t know exactly yet what this is going to be like we know that Dame didn’t have a championship yet but Giannis does Chris does like this team like putting Dame here makes sense the process made sense and also Dame coming here Giannis resigned a few weeks after that so like who knows if Dame did not come here if that extension with Giannis would have happened at that time now you’re doing Butterfly Effect type of things for this past season like give this team another year hopefully they have health but you need the health first and foremost but like I do think that next year is really going to be like the first year we can really see how this all works given the coaching changes given everything that we’ve talked about at length uh on this show so uh I’m not mad about the Dame trade at this point maybe in five years when I look back I’ll like ah it was a misfire the process will still I’ll still understand the process but maybe when you look back you’re like ah in retrospect it did not work out but to say it already like that’s way too soon to try to have any real remarks on it when there’s still time for these guys to play and get better and win a championship um yeah I mean if I think number one it is not going to be the worst trade in Bucks franchise history there’s just no way you can convince me even if things go off the rails next season it will not surpass that Ray Allen trade same thing with as I mentioned and I know you can make the case well they were never really in on him you still traded the guy that you drafted Dirk you traded it to the Dallas Mavericks it’s never going to move past either of those two deals um it’s just unfortunate that because of that trade where you viewed here’s how we get better you put Drew holiday on the number one team that you did not want to see him go to as a competitor not you know because hey we don’t want to see Drew holiday succeed because you knew this one could really really hurt us but you know we didn’t get the chance and I think that’s what makes this even more interesting is we didn’t get a chance to see those two teams match up because we thought that was the arms race in September okay we are clearly shaping up for Bucks versus Celtics in the Conference Finals and I can’t wait to see which way this goes we just never got there for a number of reasons so next year could be the year we see that and it’ll make things interesting but as you know as we mentioned it’s you got to continue to Tinker with the roster if you’re the Bucks uh the Celtics are a more expensive team than the Bucks are and that continues into next season where they have decisions to make on Sam Hower who we saw become a role player for them you got Al Horford who is older than Brook Lopez by the way and getting older and again it’s one year from now next off season is where the Celtics are gonna have to pay and extend Derek whites and Jason Tatum and then that’s going to start to take on a whole different shape of things for that Celtics team so you know look it’s a relatively young team they’re very good so I get we can jump to well here it comes I mean Celtics have been good for basically the last decade they just never got that Championship now they’re getting it and they got this group that’s very very tough they’re set up and primed to be a dynasty we said the exact same thing about the Nuggets last season uh we wondered if okay is this the second swing for the Warriors a couple of years ago we maybe not quite as loudly asked that at times about the bucks after 2021 it just doesn’t work out that way especially with things like the second apron and how expensive that team is going to be even with a rising salary cap so I get it’s easy to jump to that conclusion but what we’re saying is it’s always different the year after you win a championship I mean granted part of it was injuries and not realizing oh Brook Lopez is goingon to miss two3 of the season but it was nothing like that for the bucks when they tried to defend their title yeah absolutely because injuries happen like we talked about that so much but just as we wrap up here we are recording this Live on YouTube as we mentioned so there are some comments uh coming in dran particular is very uh pessimistic about the the the future of the Milwaukee bug saying the Milwaukee window is closed and my last thought just wrapping everything up is that the Milwaukee bugs window will be open as long as jannis a dmbo is suited up uh for this team like as long as jannis is healthy and he’s suiting up the Bucks are going to have a chance and opportunity now this off season as we’ve mentioned there are some things they might have to do to Tinker around the edges to make this team work better around him and Dame and Chris but the window is still open for the Milwaukee Bucks like calm down a little bit Dre like it’s it’s still open it’s still open uh speaking of Windows and budding dynasties we wondered if we would have that in the early part of the 2010s because of one player specifically and then Giannis emerged and he cliped him that was Jabari Parker the number two overall pick we thought he was going to be the next Superstar for the Milwaukee Bucks that was who you guys chose that you want to hear about on this week’s Flashback Friday episode so we’re gonna have that conversation tomorrow and we’re gonna do another live show for it so you can chime in as well follow along as we go through jabari’s career share your comments and memories and thoughts on all of that as well so that’ll be coming your way tomorrow a chance for you to interact with us on the career of Jabari Parker that um should be very interesting and very timely given uh what we saw from Jabari what a week ago playing for Barcelona uh Real Madrid I should say so um that will be tomorrow’s episode of Locked on bucks for Camille I’m Justin we’ll talk to you once again tomorrow on locked on bucks

Justin and Camille dig into Doc Rivers appearance on the most recent Bill Simmons podcast and what – if anything we learned. Plus we share thoughts on Joel Embiid and Draymond Green’s reactions to what appears to be an 18th title for the Celtics and the Bucks role in that.