Can the Doc fix it? Bucks seek answers with new coach, trade deadline looms

[00:00:00] On this episode, we're going to talk about the box new head coach Doc Rivers. The bucks are out west on their toughest road trip of the year. And then we're going to talk about the breakdown of the team going individually with the

[00:00:14] players that are getting minutes and seeing what could happen coming up with the trade deadline looming this Thursday. Let's go. Step back free on the way. God be the city, taking time is a ride. You're listening to the Milwaukee Bucks Beat sponsored by Hungry Lion Productions Video

[00:00:43] Production Services Video production from start to finish. Higher them today at hungrylineproductions.com. And now here's your host Michael Edwards. Welcome to the Bucks Beat. I'm your host Michael Edwards. On the Bucks have a new head coach.

[00:00:59] And I know it's been a minute since I've done a podcast, but this is from a fan perspective. So we need time to think about how we feel. Things are moving so quickly in Milwaukee and at first I was happy and I still am when

[00:01:19] I heard that Adrian Griffin was going to be gone. There was a lot of things I was hearing sometimes he had a break it down and think about what you actually want to believe obviously the Bucks are saying one thing and there's

[00:01:32] reports coming out that are a little conflicting with that. But bottom line he just wasn't over his head and he had to go. And he's going to. Doc Rivers is actually named to be the head coach of the NBA All Star Team and that's

[00:01:50] because last year the Celtics coach coaching staff did the All Star Game there in first. The Bucks are in second so they go to their coaching staff. So Doc Rivers said post game last night against the Dallas Maverick said that the ring,

[00:02:05] which I did not know they got the coaches got all star ring, which is so cool and the cat check it's going to go to Adrian Griffin, which is really cool because Doc's like I don't need it.

[00:02:15] And quite frankly he's like I didn't earn it and that's kind of person doc Rivers is good man smart coach commands the room and so okay. So first I was upset that they weren't firing their coach and then they fired the coach. I'm happy about that.

[00:02:31] Then you're start thinking okay well we're going to get and when I heard Doc Rivers name at first I was a little I didn't mix feelings about it. The more time went on, the more I'm like this is a really good coach for the he's the

[00:02:46] right coach for the right time and he knows Twitter is going to Twitter and a bunch of people are talking shit about him and you know it's mainly Clippers fans and Celtics fans. Even though he gave them their own championship in the last 37 years and of course,

[00:03:03] Philly fans are all talking shit and those are all loudmouth fan bases so the noise sounds a little louder than what it really is but you know and NBA standards you know

[00:03:12] by the coaches he was rated one of the top 15 coaches of all time going through his coaching career he started out at Orlando and he had you know he was above 500 you know not with a not a very good team but he was above 500 there.

[00:03:28] Pocies and record there wasn't great but then he went to Boston where he did wonderful he was there for quite a while from 2005 to 2013 then he was with the LA Clippers from 2014 to 2020 and then he recently was with 76ers and the part of the problem with the 76ers

[00:03:46] is there are there divas on their team you know they were going through it with all other player drama issues and then they had injury problems so I think this is the first time

[00:03:58] that Doc Rivers has what he needs you know we need a wing on defense to you know to be that that drew holiday that that that that defender that makes life difficult and we don't really need an necessarily need points from them because everyone else on the floor

[00:04:14] can get that done so that's really the missing piece I think here and the bench which we're going to get into that later but I think I'm really happy with this higher with

[00:04:24] Doc Rivers and I hope you are too out there with three games into the Doc Rivers era and an unmarkering will really go through the games here on this podcast and basically

[00:04:34] talking about where the team is at but they lost a really close one to Denver and that was an offensive loss. I mean if they just played the normal offense and shots fall I think they

[00:04:43] win that game their defense was really good in that game and then they had the game homecoming game which I didn't do a podcast on that because everyone in their mom was doing one and

[00:04:53] you know whatever so Dame goes there goes home and it was obvious in that game that Portland really wanted that game you know internally something was clearly said to those players and it was there you know NBA finals moment for them because the game was moved to national

[00:05:13] television and Portland played out of their mind they deserved a win that game they played really really good and it was a close game though and the box fell a little short but those

[00:05:22] games are good right now we're early in the calendar year and it's all about spring time it's all about with our coach now it's all about just getting ready for the playoffs so hopefully we can

[00:05:34] have a one two or three seed and they're looking a little scary in the east going into the season you thought it was just gonna be the box the Celtics and probably the 76ers and now

[00:05:48] you've got the nicks there you've got the calves I mean the calves are right on the heels with the box there are bucks right now are sitting four games back calves if I have games back they're

[00:05:57] right there we both have 16 losses in the lost column and bucks I have two more wins though and then there's the nicks so right now it's Celtics box calves next sixers pay search

[00:06:10] and then there's the heat magic and bold hawks all fighting for the play in the heat going three and seven and they're last 10 so the heat fans can stay quiet for a little while because they

[00:06:19] like to chirp there's not much for them to chirp about they've lost quite a few games in a row too I mean they're not looking good at all but you know the big thing here kind of want to get into is

[00:06:31] you know and then the clothes out on the other game bucks win a really really good game against a really talented but injured Dallas Maverick's team and they're down by 25 in the first

[00:06:45] first quarter and they come back and win that game by double digits and that's impressive really impressive win you saw the first quarter it was kind of like the old box the Adrian Griffin old

[00:06:56] bucks where there was no leadership and then you saw the bucks locked them down after that and it was this is gonna take time and you know the patient thing like we're losing patients with

[00:07:07] having patients right but you know bucks give up 44 points in the first quarter and then they don't give up over 30 they're off to the game and that is because of defense and the bucks go off I mean

[00:07:19] they'll score 20 points in the first quarter they make an adjustment they go 40 points 33 points 36 points and they walk away with a 13 point win 1 29 117 over the Dallas Mavericks and that is wonderful robber low pass with the start he gets four minutes and two points Brooks wife is having

[00:07:40] their child so he had you know he was the late scratch and yeah I mean it was good game I mean yawns with 48 they mean little with 30 and that's really the offense has to run through those two

[00:07:52] and that was the one thing with our last coach it just why are you not running the pick and roll every play it doesn't matter if teams know you're gonna run it they have to stop it you know when we

[00:08:02] signed Damien Lillard I thought that's we're gonna be seeing so there's there's just a lot of things and then the last thing I have not talked about was the game after our former coach Adrian Griffin was

[00:08:15] fired pregame the bucks did little dance and it made some you know noise in the NBA and then there's on the news quite frankly I've seen them do that a lot so I don't necessarily know

[00:08:27] that that had anything to do with the situation you know that's between that many ways who cares all right so let's get into this okay so NBA trade deadline coming up this Thursday

[00:08:39] bucks don't have much for assets and that's the problem is they have I mean there's some players that are just not tradable right yawns and Damien they're yawns for sure Damed 2% chance they trade him I ain't they're probably not trading him so I don't want to say

[00:08:57] it's a zero but it's pretty damn close to a zero okay so those two are off the list okay then when you start breaking things down I mean obviously there's arguments to be made about

[00:09:10] certain players okay and we're gonna go through our starting five right now and I'm gonna look at their plus minus for the month of January and to kind of describe for you I don't know what

[00:09:21] plus minus is so it's a stat that measures your players impact on the game and that's really it okay so they may not have big numbers it shows are they helping the team or are they hurting the

[00:09:33] team so if you're plus that means you're helping the team if you're minus that means you're hurting the team plus means essentially you're scoring more points than the other team when you're on

[00:09:43] the floor hopefully that makes sense I'm not gonna get into it Google that if you don't understand what it means but basically it's a point differential when the players on the floor compare to when he's

[00:09:52] not that's the main thing okay so it doesn't really measure not just to play your scoring but something like the intangible the things that don't show up in the box course right so Devon for

[00:10:04] loose balls and all that fun stuff right yannas plus 83 for the month of January Dame plus 65 will look measly plus 56 which is always good to have burglop has plus 52 so those four are solid and you go to Chris Middleton he's plus one

[00:10:28] which means he's not really making an impact on the game essentially he's basically breaking even you obviously would rather be plus one the minus one but hey so this is controversial people might throw something at me when I say this I actually think he's

[00:10:45] tradable I love Chris you know the thing between Chris and Yannas obviously you may not want to mess with that but I put him at a 50% I mean if you're getting something really really good for him

[00:10:59] yeah I don't know I think you can deal him too he signed a contract in the office season and I think enough times gone by where we can trade him but not likely though okay so I want to

[00:11:11] really preface that not likely okay so I started five is intact pretty solid okay then you go to the bench and and I'm not including Jake Crowder in this because we don't have a full month sample

[00:11:25] of data for him because he was injured so I'm leaving him out of this conversation he is minus but he also has to get his legs back and you know I'm giving him a pass on this one because he was

[00:11:38] out for was eight weeks okay and we're going to go backwards here so we're gonna start with we're gonna start with three because there's really only three guys that I can really look at that have a good sample because AJ Green's not getting enough minutes

[00:11:52] who by the way played last night and he was a plus 17 I think it was and he the moment he went and then again in that game against the mavericks he made a huge impact he hit a three he hit a

[00:12:04] jump shot he got you know some rebounds in there and I was really happy to see him in there actually really really happy I was doing this sarcastic clap at home when he came in the game and then

[00:12:14] you've got Marjan not getting enough minutes and AJx not getting enough minutes so I'm not including any of those guys but I'm including three other ones okay so we're gonna start with campaign

[00:12:26] he's a minus 33 he's getting an average of we'll say 10 minutes a game he has enough to sample but minus 33 not great okay then the two that I really really have a really big problem with and

[00:12:43] this is not personal because all of these men, all these people they're great people love them what they do for the community all of that has nothing to do with what I'm talking about here but Pat Connington minus 56 looking through his January he had some stinkers in there

[00:13:04] he only has let's say he had a handful of games where he was plus the boss in game he was plus 20 but so is everybody else because we stumped those fools but I mean pretty much every game

[00:13:16] I mean the games against Indiana he was I mean as minus 22 against the Pacers basically what they're doing is they're taking their plus minus for the month and then the net

[00:13:25] rating are you above or you below and that's kind of how that works just so you are understanding that but yeah against Portland he was minus 10 against Denver he was minus 11 against New Orleans again

[00:13:36] we won he was plus 10 but overall for the month it's not good we need to get rid of him good man good guy does good things off the court but wow he's really hurting this team and in some of

[00:13:49] those close games I mean we need a bench I mean we can't have our first unit coming in there and then our second unit coming in and just taking a dump and you know losing all of the

[00:14:00] lead and positive things the first unit accomplished so and then here's the really big one is Bobby Portiff Bobby is obviously a fan favorite for the casual fan he's a fan favorite for the hardcore box fan though I wouldn't say that he is because he's minus 82 last month

[00:14:20] and I'm seeing a lot of negative comments pertaining to his game and he really has fallen off a cliff here don't know what's up with him this is a field goal to send it just terrible

[00:14:34] he had a good game in Portland feel good percentage wise at least 74 but with against Denver he shot 15% he was over nine at one point in that Denver game if Bobby just placed his average normal

[00:14:47] game we win that game in Denver honestly I don't want to tag this on one person but there's an argument to be made that Bobby Portiff is the reason we lost against Denver

[00:14:57] because he came in his minus 14 25 minutes he had nine points but like man two for 13 from the field 15% awful I mean even if he's 40% we win that game there was a really close game

[00:15:14] box lose and that is what concerns me and the playoff so I don't know what's going on in dudes had but uh reports have come out from trusted sources league sources that Bobby Portiff will not

[00:15:27] be traded unless it's a really really really big trade so it looks like they're trying to ship pat and campaign that's from the outside looking in that's what it appears to be for me I wouldn't be

[00:15:44] upset about that but as long as they don't chair trade a j agree that's someone I do not want them to trade a j green is that guy on the bench when you need a three and you know I'm not

[00:15:57] in the NBA coach but the things that I've seen from him on the floor he needs to still be used more and the fact he got you know in with a new coach I mean no one else from that you know third echelon

[00:16:11] got in since doc has been coach so it was nice to see him in there obviously doc saw something maybe in the practice they had on Friday and one of the things they talked about with the

[00:16:23] practice was they changed a lot and they're going to be slowly implementing it I will do a show for the trade deadline if there is a trade made I will do a show for that and we'll talk about that

[00:16:35] and break down if any moves are made but that's kind of what we're sitting at and that's one of things I really wanted to talk about here was the plus minus so to kind of recap from our starting

[00:16:47] five the only one I could really see us trading is Chris and I don't know that they would go over too well at you on us so I don't think it happens I think it's a very low probability and my

[00:16:58] probability estimates you know I said 50 might even be 10 percent but I mean they brought them back he's healthy we really don't have a lot of assets we have a couple second rounders and then we have

[00:17:12] our bench players and it's basically going to have to be kind of a salary matching situation here I think because we don't really have anything that teams want and you know there's some names I

[00:17:23] have and I can go into that but I you know there's a lot of other podcasts that have gone into that too so I'm just being repetitive on that one but from starting five we're looking great

[00:17:34] our second unit needs some love and I think Doc Rivers will get this defense where it needs to be he seems to have gotten their respects you know post game when they beat the mavericks they

[00:17:47] spilled water you know did the whole dousing of water and he embraced it and you know he's just kind of a guy you know you don't mess with him so bucks have a tough road trip that they're on right now

[00:17:59] um it's nice to see them have gotten a win on this trip because certainly they needed it just kind of formal route at this point I mean these these games I don't want to say they're

[00:18:10] meaningless but essentially they've become practices because with the way things are with this team now they're not really gonna have time to practice you know they do shoot around and look at game film but

[00:18:21] the real thing is the real thing so tonight bucks play Utah jazz it's their second night of a back to back and then the game I'm gonna be at in Phoenix bucks play the sun and hoping

[00:18:33] while Brookloat has back for that one assuming the whole thing with his baby is the thing I don't haven't heard any reports yet it's been pretty quiet but I'm assuming that's the case you just do

[00:18:44] the math and you know game you know an hour before game time he's a scratch so seems to be what it is and then I mean bucks have a really really tough one you look at this though they have got

[00:18:55] you know they've got completely had Cleveland they had when they had two against Cleveland is that right yeah that two against Cleveland who's playing a really good right now and they split that one of

[00:19:03] the two and then they stomped the pelicans and then on the road the bucks have the nuggets trailblazers, mavericks, jazz, suns and then they come home to the timberwolves outch

[00:19:15] and that's those are some really really good teams so it's you know kind of nice to see where we are and you know the bucks lose that one in Denver by six points of doing the math right

[00:19:27] and that's a winnable game and I think Yannis outplayed their overrated center there and Denver that everyone thinks is the MVP at least not Yannis' clearly playing better and for whatever reason

[00:19:40] Joker gets all of the love in Denver or whatever it doesn't help that I'm not a fan of him either he just seems like a douche of a person's just not fun persons but that has nothing to do with it

[00:19:52] yeah and the bucks have the nuggets another crack at the nuggets later this month so see if we can take them at home and the heat is coming up on the 13th bucks have the hornets in there

[00:20:02] as well coming out of the the the new year the bucks actually had the toughest schedule and now what's going down to the six toughest schedule but it's still it's it's really challenge because they have you know

[00:20:16] clippers in there the lakers in there a couple times and the sun's twice and the timberwolves twice and the bucks are really going to be tested here but this is a good thing the thing that is

[00:20:27] concerning to me though is the standing you've got a team in Cleveland who's really figuring it out there I mean Cleveland the next right now are the two hottest teams in league nine and one

[00:20:39] other last time nine and one and it's going to be interesting finish the season we'll see the bucks definitely need to improve their roster though and that's kind of what I'm waiting on I'm constantly refreshing Twitter seeing what's breaking and when it does break put a podcast out

[00:20:54] will break down the player and the trade and all of that fun stuff let's it for me on this one I appreciate you we'll see you on the next one thanks for listening