Bucks stuck in middle between play-in and top lottery pick

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The Bucks won a f***ing NBA championship.

Yeah!

What?

What?

He tries to take a pause fee.

Watching that basketball game

like caused health problems for me.

Will he hate racism and Chris Paul?

And who cannot get on board with that platform?

If I've learned a lot, this, I'm not gonna say it,

that sounds too bad.

I was getting wrong.

God, no, no, no, no, no, no.

The Bucks do win it all.

Pat Conradon's numbers should be in their afters.

Hey there, welcome to the Eurostep of Milwaukee Bucks Podcast,

probably a part of the Blue Wire Podcast network

and GSPN and presented by R-Powels at Prize Picks.

I am Ty Windish joining you for a solo pod this morning

to talk about the Bucks back-to-back with a beat.

Barely, the Utah Gests in Milwaukee on Saturday

and then lost badly to the Orlando Magic on Sunday.

There were some key injuries,

and I guess just the injury report,

one of them was not a new injury,

but that limited the Bucks against Orlando,

which, you know, I think going into that game, frankly,

seeing that Yannis was ruled out immediately

with basically, you know, return to play conditioning,

which I'll get into in a second,

but makes sense.

Certainly, fresh back from his, you know,

second calf injury this year and third,

like the last two years or whatever that Celtics one was,

he should not be playing back-to-backs.

Not for this team, not for any team, though.

Like, you just need to have a long view at some point, right?

Like, if it was a finals game,

maybe they don't play back-to-backs in the finals.

So there's really no situation

or in the playoffs at all.

There's no situation that Yannis should have played

both of those games, so I was a little concerned

when he played against Utah.

But I'll just do it now.

I think this was actually pretty instructive

of the Bucks realizing that they're bad,

because I think if you're the Bucks, the Milwaukee Bucks,

they're brain trust, whatever,

and who knows who reports to who or who has the power,

I don't really, honestly, I don't think it matters,

because clearly it's not working.

That's what does matter.

If you were going into this and you're like,

you may have Yannis back, we're good now.

You know, we're ready to go on a run here.

We will play Yannis against Orlando,

the team who at least was also in the play-in tournament,

Orlando, and maybe this is a factor.

Orlando actually up to sixth now.

They are out of the play-in.

The heat are in seventh.

The sixers have fallen all the way to eighth.

So the sixers and beads have been out.

Max, he's now out.

Although it seems like it's not serious.

It seemed at first like it would be.

He's going to miss a couple games.

The sixers are now down to eighth.

Orlando out of the play-in.

But still, the team that's more relevant to the Bucks

for standing purposes or Orlando,

then, and I think the tiebreaker was still up for grabs.

Maybe Orlando clinched it.

Honestly, it's not going to matter anymore.

Because Orlando's been good.

They're up to 35 and 28 now.

Like I said, in sixth.

The jazz, of course, not relevant

in any sort of tie-breaker scenario for playoffs.

They're way out of it.

So if you were confident in the team, you could say,

all right, we'll get the jazz win

with not yet without Yannis.

You know, they're trying to lose games.

How hard can it be?

Narrators, narrators, voice.

It turned out it was pretty hard, even with the honest.

But, and then we'll just punt Orlando.

And maybe when we beat them, you know,

what is it, last week, two weeks ago,

without Yannis as well, maybe we have a shot.

But that came like, honestly,

we need to just stack the wins we can to have a chance.

That's what they did.

Maybe that was the thinking.

Maybe it wasn't.

And they did beat Utah.

They won, I think it was by seven.

No, it was more than that.

113 to 99.

So it was by 14.

It was a pretty close game.

The bucks built a big lead,

but then the bench unit ended up losing it.

A fascinating starting five in this game

that I'm actually, I hope we see you again soon.

Ryan Rollins, Usman, Jane, Kyle Kuzmer,

Yannis to the Kupo and Miles Turner.

Yannis, by the way, continues to look great.

I know it's the jazz, but he had 27 points,

nine rebounds, eight assists, four steals,

nine of 14 shooting in that game,

nine of 12 from two.

It took two threes and missed them.

He was a plus 23 in 27 minutes.

He had 27 points, nearly a triple double in 27 minutes.

That's pretty good, folks.

The rest of the bucks weren't all that good.

Bobby Portis made some shots.

Ryan Rollins had a really tough weekend.

Kyle Kuzmer actually had a really good game,

a really funny four game progression for Kuzmer,

started with Yannis out,

doesn't play at all.

ZNP coach's decision when Yannis is back,

key bench roll, the next game,

and now starts in a nice win.

It has a really good game, 18 and five assists for Kuz.

And he was three of five from deep.

A pleasant surprise.

Kuzmer was better like 37% in 2026,

the calendar year and not the season from three.

That's probably two games ago,

so maybe it shifted a little bit,

but he shot the ball well.

He's played well.

He had five fouls, which limited his minutes in that game,

but still, I thought a nice game from Kuz.

But then against Orlando,

I already mentioned Yannis was out.

Kyle Kuzmer also out.

Hold on, I've got to look up.

I've got to look up some terms here.

Because I, honestly, I knew, I missed it.

He was out.

I saw that he was on the injury report earlier in that day,

and maybe he was ruled out earlier,

and I just missed it.

I was running around.

But I know Kuzmer was on the report,

and I know Kevin Porter Jr. had continued to be out,

so he has missed a few games now with...

At first, it was just called knee swelling.

It was elaborated that that condition is actually...

It's caused by an injury or by arthritis.

I can't find my notes on the injuries now, so that's my bad.

Regardless, it's not great that we have these injuries.

Okay, here we go, sorry, finally found it.

Kyle Kuzmer was questionable.

He was questionable, I was right.

With a thoracic spine contusion.

That sounds bad.

I don't think you want your spine contused.

He was questionable, so he wasn't immediately ruled out,

but he ended up not playing.

Kevin Porter Jr., it's called Sino-Vitis,

which is, quote, this is from Jim Ozarki of the Milwaukee Journal

several, swelling in the synovial membrane

that lines some of your joints in KPJ's case, the knee,

often caused by arthritis or injuries.

So the bucks, not only without Yannis against Orlando,

but also without KPJ, who had just just been ruled out

for at least like three or four games now.

I think that was either the third or the fourth.

And now Kuzmer with the spine contusion,

which again, like sounds scary.

Nothing with spine is good.

Torian Prince had neck surgery, I think,

around or involving his spine.

I think he is practicing now, by the way,

but still not back, still ruled out

on every injury report right away.

So, and I'm not sure, I'm not mad about Prince Act.

Strike that from the record.

I'm not sure if that's legit or not,

but he's on the bench, he's moving around.

I mean, hopefully he can get back and play

if not this season by next year,

but that's never good to get surgery.

Or have anything in the back and spine,

even if it's not your actual spine,

like back stuff, like discs and everything,

none of it good, none of it good.

So hopefully Kuzmer's gonna be okay.

They sure missed him against Orlando.

So the starters in this game were Ryan Rollins,

AJ Green, who like, I think one of my silver linings

going into this game was like, okay,

Green's got a real runway here.

Like, maybe he can snap his long slump.

Now, he was one of eight with two turnovers

and no assists, a minus 30 and 28 minutes.

It's not great.

Uzman Zheng again, who early in the game,

I was like, oh, let's see what Zheng can do.

Only Zheng is one of seven, not ideal.

Almost all of them jumpers.

I think maybe one was like a runner,

but he does not get to the rim and it would help if he did,

but he did have five assists.

And that was really why I posted it was,

he had a couple of lobs to Jericho Sims.

And his one make was like a pull up to

kind of also going around a screen.

And I would like to feed him

a bunch of ball screens down the stretch.

Like, let's just see what he can do.

He also had four rebounds, one steal, one block,

one turnover, the block was sick.

He was a minus 29 and 24 minutes.

He wasn't like dominating Orlando,

but had some fun moments.

I think that's where the bar is.

And then we're back to the double big set

of Jericho Sims and Miles tournament.

Orlando started off on a big run.

The Bucks offense.

I think outside of the second quarter

was pretty stalled out.

Orlando won 130 to 91,

which pretty much tells you how it went overall.

And I think the quarter by quarter,

yeah, Milwaukee scores 40 in the second quarter,

lost it 42 to 40,

but did score 40 in that quarter.

And they scored 51 in the other three combined.

15 in the first quarter, 15 in the third quarter,

and then 21 in the fourth quarter.

So Doc has talked about,

you know, we need to get big for our defense and everything else.

And the defense is still not good as evidenced

by 130 points to Orlando,

a famously offensively challenged team,

but the offense has been really bad lately too.

It wasn't even great with the honest.

I mean, when I say the jazz score was one,

they got up to 113 to 99 against Utah,

which is just a bad team all around.

I mean, it wasn't exactly like they were blitzin' down the floor

and scoring it will against the jazz either.

And they certainly weren't against Orlando.

Bobby Porter just got really hot in that second quarter.

Sims just dunked a bunch.

Sims had five.

It was five of five.

I think they were all dunks.

Seven boards, two assists.

It's been a legitimately good player.

Credit to Jericho Sims.

It's not enough, obviously, on its own.

He's a role player, but it was good.

Portis was seven of 11 and four of five from DP.

He was talking a bunch of smack with,

I think mostly Desmond Bain,

why didn't realize Desmond Bain talks that much,

but he talks a lot and sucks a bit too.

I think, and then MoVogner, of course,

was doing MoVogner stuff.

Pete Nance played a bit.

He was okay.

Oh, Cam Thomas had a nice game.

Probably could've gotten an upstock,

but I think we were just not in the mood,

frankly, to give anyone one,

but he had 17 points on 12 shots.

Also led the team of six assists,

the only player who had more than Jeng.

Things are pretty bad.

It's nice to get a win against Utah.

I'm glad they got a home win for the small crowds

that are showing up to five serve four on these days.

I don't blame people.

I have not been down in a while myself.

And it looks like it's nice to see a win every so often.

And I'll go through more of the players

on what we've seen and what's coming up and everything.

But I think the important takeaway,

I think this will probably be the title of the pod.

We'll see if I change my mind.

But the Bucks are stuck in the middle right now

and not literally the middle.

Like they're not an average team.

They're clearly below that.

But they are, maybe purgatory.

No, that's that's catchy.

Bucks stuck in purgatory.

No, but it feels like hell.

I'll workshop this either on the pod here or after.

They're 11th in the East still.

They have not moved at all.

They are three games behind now Charlotte,

who so much for, maybe it still happens is what, 20,

just under 20 games left.

Charlotte's played 65.

Wow, it was only 17 games left for Charlotte.

Maybe they still climb out of the play-in.

I thought they were gonna be the team,

not Orlando to get to sixth, but they are now a game under 500.

They've actually lost two in a row, the Hornets.

So maybe a little cool down after that incredibly hot run

they've had for several months now, really.

They are three in the lost column ahead of the Bucks.

Four overall.

Milwaukee is just not played as many games for some reason.

They are 32 and 33.

The Bucks are now 27 and 36.

The Bucks do have the tiebreaker.

So basically, just need to even out record with Charlotte.

You need to have three fewer losses

than the Hornets down the stretch.

That series is done already.

And then the next lowest team in the play-in picture

is Atlanta.

They've been great lately.

I mean, they beat the Bucks by a lot.

There are a six game winning streak.

They're 33 and 31 now.

They've climbed above 500.

So they are five games ahead of the Bucks in the lost column,

but five and a half overall.

So they're 33 and 31, like I said.

Philly is then, now the next team, again,

the Florida teams are climbing up here.

Philly's got Philly's 34 and 29.

It's just not happening.

I'm not gonna entertain.

I think before I was sharing like,

here's the Orlando series and tiebreaker.

Who's the Miami one?

I'm done.

I'm not doing it at the teams that are five games

above 500.

When the Bucks are, what are they?

Nine games below?

I think, yeah, they'd have to win nine in a row.

Yeah, the nine games below 500.

I'm not used to calculating Bucks 500,

so it's that far skewed to the negative.

I don't think there's any shot the Bucks

who are seven games behind Philly.

Catch up to them.

Maybe if Maxi was out for a long time, it'd be possible,

but I honestly think both teams are just gonna lose

a fair bit down the stretch.

So Atlanta and Charlotte are really the two.

Charlotte, I think everyone had agreed

before this past weekend, like ignore Charlotte.

They're actually better than this.

They're gonna climb.

Like the Bucks are not catching Charlotte.

They might have to be the team.

I mean, we'll see Atlanta probably cools down.

I've won six in a row.

I don't think they're gonna win out, right?

But they have looked better.

I think Kaminga has helped them.

They didn't need Kaminga to beat the Bucks,

but Jalen Johnson is definitely a stud.

They have a pretty young team right now.

A lot of players playing well.

Researched to the bench seems to be working

for Atlanta or Congluse played well.

So I honestly don't think the Bucks will catch either.

I know I think coming into the weekend

on the last pod last week, I said, you know,

if they lose the Utah game,

that will make me out on the play-in stuff.

And I'm still kind of out even though they won that game

because they barely won it with Yannis against, again,

I remind you, a team that's literally been fined

hundreds of thousands of dollars

because the league thinks they're trying to lose too hard.

That should have been easier.

And it really felt like they would've lost

if Yannis didn't play that game.

So I guess credit to them if they wanted to make sure

they at least got one win this weekend.

I just don't think it's happening.

Like they're not that far from Charlotte

and they're not super far from Atlanta,

but that's only if you just look at like the records right now.

If you look at how these teams have played this season

and especially the last couple of months,

they're light years away from Charlotte and from Atlanta.

Right, because the Bucks would have to completely flip the script.

I know they had the Aiden to run.

They played OKC with nobody, the Pelicans twice,

like Orlando twice and they split those games

and Orlando probably still looks back at the one they lost.

Like, oh my God, really?

Now it's kind of like the Camp Thomas insane game

which he's had a couple good games since then,

but not many, that's certainly been the best one by far.

And if he doesn't do that, the Bucks probably lose that one too.

A lot of bad teams and they got smoked by the Bulls

who hadn't won it a month.

Like, and then on the other end,

the Bulls, that's a good segue, I actually did here.

The Bulls are only two worse than the Bucks in the Lost Column.

They are the closest tanker on the tankybound standings.

They're the closest one to Milwaukee.

They are 26 and 38, so it's a game and a half back technically

because there are two more losses, but only one fewer win.

But they're two and eight in their last 10.

And I kind of similar deal to like the other part of this picture.

I just think they're going to lose more,

even though the Bucks have been so bad.

I do think Chicago has a worse roster,

especially it's just pretty much all guards now.

I think organizationally wants to lose

and doesn't have a first team all NBA in stone

when he plays 65 games guy and obviously honest,

who's like really wanting to play

and see what the team can do on the stretch.

Now, does the honest acquiesce to being shut down

if we get a couple more games like this?

Maybe, does that change the picture?

Definitely.

I think that would definitely change the picture.

I think if you just sat Yannis down,

things could get competitive with maybe the Bulls

and maybe the Grizzlies who are three and a half games

below the Bucks, three below in the last column,

they have four fewer wins, they're 23 and 39.

The issue with the Grizz is they play in the West

and unless you're drawing Sacramento or Utah,

like the West teams are just so much better.

Like Dallas is now probably out of contention

for the Bucks to catch.

They've lost seven in a row, they're 21 and 43.

Like they have Cooper flag and like some other,

you know, I think PJ Washington's still playing

Naji Marshall, if the Bucks could get him,

that'd be a great wing ad.

Like some good players, like they're bad by West standards,

they're not a complete team.

Kyrie's not gonna play.

They obviously dumped in the Davis,

but like that's a lot better than running into

like some of these teams in the East

that the Bucks still have games against.

So I think Dallas is out.

It would only be Memphis and Chicago.

They both have a lead on the Bucks.

And I think if Yannis plays like even 10 more games this year,

they're gonna win some of them against bad teams.

I think these other teams are going pretty shameless.

So right now, if I, I would give it way more than even odds,

maybe like 65% that they are just exactly

where they are now at the end of the year.

They're not in the play-in,

but they're just outside of it

and they're stuck at probably 10.

The teams above them in the West in the play-in,

picture right now.

So I actually, one of these teams could drop as well.

Cause I think even if you go to the play-in,

if you lose, you come back to the lottery.

So we also have to watch Portland and the Clippers.

Portland right now is,

they have a better record than the Bucks.

So they're worse in the Tankathon standings.

They're 31 and 34.

The Clippers are 31 and 32.

So two and four back respectively in a lost column.

Again, those are teams that play in the West.

The Clippers lost a lot of talent at the deadline.

And now I think Niederhauser just got traded to Zubat.

So I think their only center right now is Brook Lopez.

That's a lot to ask of Brook Lopez at a very advanced age,

although he said a relatively nice season over there.

Shout out to our guy, Brook Lopez.

At least my guy, Brook Lopez.

Portland, I don't know what Portland's doing.

I think Drew's back now.

They're five and five in their last 10.

The Clippers are six and four.

So I don't think either,

look, neither of those teams are tanking.

I don't think like,

I wouldn't expect them to drop on purpose.

But they're not that far from the box.

So the box could actually, I guess,

slide to like 11th or 12th, which would be even worse.

The other bad news about the tank picture right now

is there's one team worse than the box that's been climbing.

And it's the one you don't want to see.

It's the Pelicans who, of course,

don't control their picks.

So they have no incentive to be bad.

They get someone random.

They get Cleveland's picks.

So good luck.

That's a pretty good pick.

They are six and four in their last 10.

So they haven't been great,

but they've been way better than all of these other teams.

The only one,

they're the only one 500 or better

at Milwaukee or below in their last 10.

And they are up to six now in tanking standards.

So I'm sure you probably don't need this reminder,

but just in case,

the bucks get the worst of their own pick and the hawks pick.

So it's not like you're just gonna get the,

or the Pelicans, I messed it up.

The Pelicans pick.

They get the worst of their pick and the Pelicans pick.

The better one goes to the hawks.

That's what it is.

So the better the Pelicans do,

the worse the bucks floor is on their pick,

because we've seen there in 10 right now,

I think that's where Dallas was

when they jumped up to get Cooper.

But if the bucks jumped to 10

and New Orleans pick drops to like eight or nine,

the bucks only move up a couple spots.

It is still a better scenario.

Like it's gonna be weird.

I think it's gonna be emotionally hard for people.

I've kind of settled on this like months ago,

and I've tried to warn everyone.

It's gonna be like cognitive dissonance.

It's gonna be needed here.

The bucks, winning the lottery

and handing the number one pick to Atlanta

is probably a good outcome.

Maybe you'd say it's not worth the emotions of it

and how bad of a look it is or whatever,

that's can be a different argument.

But in terms of just the raw logistics of what pick you get,

it is better to hand away number one,

as long as New Orleans doesn't fall a bunch of spots,

or they don't make up a bunch more spots.

So you'd ideally like them to keep losing.

You should root for New Orleans to lose,

cause it solidifies that floor a little bit.

But obviously the bucks don't jump.

It doesn't matter and you just have your own pick anyway,

which probably around 10th or 11th.

Maybe ninth, maybe ninth, and the odds on that,

it's 13.9% to be top four at their current spot,

3% at the number one pick.

So three out of a hundred, not great,

but obviously could happen,

cause we see it happen all the time.

So that's the standing picture.

I gotta think of a catchier way to say

in the middle but bad, I'll work on that.

But another thing I'm working on is prize picks,

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I've gotta share this, I didn't win this one,

but I sent it to Rohan cause I found it so funny.

Who will be back by the way?

He's just out for a little while.

He's also on the adjure report now

with something we've never heard of.

We've gotta look it up on Google

and try to actually find a result on Google, which is hard.

But I sent this to him and he's like,

why would you do this?

And I'm so mad at the way it didn't work.

For whatever reason, I am drinking the Jason Tatum

return cool later I was.

I think I've been listening to too much Bill Simmons.

But I was like, you know what, he's gonna be great.

I'm gonna take advantage of where prize picks

and others have his projections.

I think he's gonna be good.

I think he's ready to go like everything else.

I don't know, I don't know why.

But I did a power play, five picks.

So I shouldn't have done a different play.

And I actually, this would have been a win, I think,

if I was three or five on a flex play.

But I did the power play.

I was Maverick's Celtics.

I had Cooper flagged more than 17.5 points.

He had 16.

And I had PJ Washington more than 12.5 points.

He had five.

So I lost my plays for that team.

I had Tatum, triple.

We're talking about the stacks.

I did a stack, two of them team in time.

More than 2.5, three is made.

He had three, more than 3.5 assists.

He had seven, more than 14.5 points.

He had 15.

So Tatum came through on the stack,

but the other team let me down.

Oh well, it's still fun to track him and play it.

Honestly, I felt good about it, even though I lost.

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Okay.

A lot's been badly lately.

Kind of talk about Ryan Rollins, who obviously,

I've been a big fan of his.

He in 40 minutes against Utah was five

of 15 from the floor, three of nine from deep,

but did have 11 rebounds,

eight assists, one steal, two blocks, four turnovers.

So it was an inefficient shooting night,

but an okay overall game,

but the turnovers a little high at four.

And then Utah, without the benefit of Yanis,

actually shot it a little better,

five of 12 from the field, three of seven from deep,

but three steals and five turnovers to just one assist.

So nine turnovers in the two games.

And I'm hoping that this is just a little bit

of the first real big minutes wall.

So to speak for Rollins,

because you do obviously, especially in that weekend,

he played a lot of total minutes,

but in his first season, he played 62 minutes,

then in his second season, that was warriors.

Second season, he played 78 minutes,

so that's what, 140 and the first two combined.

And then last season for all the bucks,

he played 820 minutes, so way more, like five, six times more.

And then this year already, he's played 1,937 minutes.

So more than doubled his career total this year and counting.

And I think that could be, you know,

a little bit of maybe the system fatigue.

We also, I actually reported first,

and then it was confirmed by the team.

He was dealing with the heel injury, the planter fascia,

no idea how that's going now,

but at least that wasn't thing.

I also think just like a non-play who's had a ton of reps

on the ball, right?

Like very limited overall minutes as a pro,

since being drafted in the second round.

And didn't really play much in the g-league during that stint,

either, a little bit with the bucks.

I think a little bit in his first two teams,

but not a lot.

So I think what we're seeing with him is,

when he's out there with the honest

or with even Kevin Porter Jr.,

I think the playmaking simplifies for him

and he's good enough at it.

He is one of the good players on the team

in terms of, oh, he's honest.

I'm just going to shovel him the ball,

which sadly, not enough of the players do.

Trent really bothered me against,

you thought it had to be,

because he looked off the honest on a fast break

and break to pull up three.

And it's like, if you ever see honest,

and the defense isn't set, you just get him the ball.

And some guys get it, Ralland gets it, Jeng gets it.

Trent did not get it on that play,

and it caused the Bucks points.

So I think when you simplify it down,

when he's catching against the bent defense,

Ralland I think is much better at making the read,

or either scoring or making the pass.

But I think when you just give him the whole offense,

I think we saw this early in the year,

when it was just him as well.

KPJ was still out in the honest mist sometime.

It just gets a lot tougher.

And that makes sense.

And I think it's fair to criticize him for how he's played,

for sure, like that's happened.

It's also fair to just look at it though

and be like, yeah, when you're the only shot creating guard

on the roster, and you don't really have

that much of an offensive infrastructure,

doxxed it after Orlando game.

Yeah, we tried to do our stuff

and they just pushed us out of it.

So there are big physical defense like,

maybe the stuff wasn't that good then.

It would be my counter, but I mean, surely,

Orlando is a good physical defense.

But all this is said, I'm not super surprised

that Ralland's has struggled a bit

by his standard, but it is still disappointing.

But I think this is just the growth and development

of a silly unplayer.

He is, I believe, 23 still.

He's not 24 until July 3rd,

who is doing way more, not just playing,

but certainly playing on the ball

than he ever has before, and sense whatever, Toledo.

And it's obviously a lot different at the NBA level

than it is at the Mac level.

Is Toledo in the Mac?

Sorry if it's not.

I think it is.

So that's my Ralland's take.

It's a little unfortunate.

He'd have three steals against Orlando,

one of them he gave it right back.

But these are just, I think, lumpsy has to take.

I'm not ruling out that he can be this team's point guard.

I think he will get better.

A lot of it's the cross court.

Like when he's in the half court,

he tries to throw from one side to the other

and those are getting picked.

I do think just having these reps in the film will help.

But I also think, I do think he's not a player

who it's gonna be like.

And obviously no one thought he was gonna be this good.

But it won't be like a Luca or something like that

where it's like, oh, Ralland's and guys

are even Cade cutting him or whoever.

Actually, I think Cade's better than Luca.

That's my hot take.

But obviously he's not gonna be that kind of a guard.

I don't think or a shame or whatever.

Like he's not that good and he's not,

I don't think he reads the floor that well yet.

But I think he'll read the floor better

as he gets more reps.

I do.

But I don't think that he's gonna be a guy

who's like, he's just an offense.

Him and guys is an offense.

He either needs a much better system,

which they need a new coach for

or to be out there with another talented creator

who can open things up a little bit.

I wish I had a better answer for AJ Green.

The shot has been poor lately.

One of eight from three against Orlando

and they sure needed any of them to fall.

The fouls have been bad.

He had three more.

I don't know if this is like, you know,

one thing goes bad and then kind of it's snowballed

from there for Green.

In his last five games, Chicago, that ugly loss.

He was four of 11 from three.

O of three against Boston.

One of six against Atlanta.

Two of eight against Utah.

And one of eight against Orlando.

He has five turnovers to three assists in that span.

So his passing had been a big story.

He also has 12 fouls in those five games.

He had none against Boston.

He only played 18 minutes.

So in the other four games, he had 10 or 12 fouls.

That's not gonna do it.

Three fouls a game.

I mean, more fouls than threes is obviously a bad recipe

for AJ.

The defense seems like it's regressed a little bit.

He's been one of their guys who I think is probably worst

among the worst on the team of like navigating switches

and off ball rotations correctly.

Often he is involved when they have those breakdowns.

I think he has a really bad habit of like he's in good

position defensively and either a lot of the time

just like the chess slash belly with him.

Like he just kind of lurches forward in a way you just can't do.

And I know there's been there had been at least some

frustration of like, oh, he just gets a bad whistle.

Like other players are more physical.

They're not physical in that way.

Like he does do it in a way where watching it live.

If you see it happen, you're like, yeah, that's a foul.

I mean, maybe it's not big contact,

but it's an obvious way about it where there's other players

who are their physical because it's almost more of like a

more of an encroachment into the player's space,

not like this.

Like he covers a foot of space way too fast

and just knocks into the player.

And that's always going to be called.

And that is led to some of my least favorite plays,

which I think I already mentioned this in the last one,

but the end ones where like you do that bump on a player

and the paint and then they're able to unimpeded

shoot a layup like you need to knock that ball down,

knock the arms down like, you know,

it's almost like the not feeling, oh,

is this going to be a foul or not?

And that's that's a dangerous recipe on defense.

Plus, obviously, you know, he's not,

he's not an extremely athletic player.

He doesn't have a lot of bounce like we know what he is.

Those are better players than this in there,

but I mean, the threes have been up for him.

That's the troubling thing is a lot of his worst games

early in the season to be like, okay,

he only shot four threes like he has to shoot 10.

They're not using him well enough.

Again, like he barely played against Boston,

started poor, even if you throw that one out.

He took 11, 6, 8 and 8 in the last four games.

And it's not shot 40% or above.

And also just the overall impact hasn't been there.

So I understood when they benched him

or when Doc benched him.

I actually didn't rail out against that move

because something's just not right with him right now.

You hope he can snap out of it.

I think seeing the threes would kind of help click

some other things in the picture as well.

But overall, not a great season for him.

I think the playmaking at times has been nice.

Again, only three assists in the last five games.

But he's had some nice reads,

but he's also had some tough turnovers

as he explores the playmaking.

And the defense, I think, is actually probably,

I would, I don't know if he's regressed,

but I would rate him lower as a defender

than I would have coming into the season after this year.

Some of it's him playing at the three,

but again, he's played at the two

and some of these games has still hasn't been great.

He clearly needs to play at the two, by the way.

Or I guess if your quote unquote one or two

is gonna discard forwards,

but they have looked too small.

A lot of the time with the two guards plus AJ,

I don't think that's gonna work.

Especially not with Yannis limited

and doing a lot offensively,

and then subsequently, not as much defensively.

It may seem like, oh, we have Yannis,

we have Rollins, we have Turner out there.

They can cover, like, you don't have,

maybe the Yannis in your head defensively out there

most of the time.

He's really entered that kind of LeBron mode.

And maybe if he's healthier next year

and the team's healthier around him, whichever team,

this will change.

But I think this year and for the last couple,

it's been, he picks his spots defensively,

but he's not played a play,

like an excellent defender every play.

Like, there's rotations taken off,

there's things, you know, the box out,

when he threw the ball against the jazz,

I think it was, it was at a different game.

Maybe that was awesome, I don't remember now.

But when he threw the ball, like, he was the one

who missed the box out, like it was on him,

he just didn't do it.

There's moments like that that happen.

I'm not blaming him for this to be clear,

but I'm just saying, like, you can't rely on Yanis

right now as, oh, he'll just make any lineup work defensively

or on the glass, he will help.

I'm not saying he's a negative.

I just don't think he fixes everything

when you're also asking him to fix everything offensively

because they don't have enough that works.

Turner also had a really bad back-to-back,

one of six against Orlando,

was really a complete non-factor,

frankly, in 23 minutes, one of three from three,

O of two from free throw.

They shot six of 13 from free throw

and a game Yanis didn't play.

That's absolutely unacceptable.

Phenosis missed two, so I guess if you want to, you know,

throw out the Atteteku Bros together,

they were four of nine, which is still unacceptable.

Cam Thomas was one of three,

Portus O of one, and then Turner missed both.

Turner had one assist, no rebounds, one block,

two turnovers, three fouls, three points.

That's really bad.

That is really bad.

And against Utah, he was not much better.

Three of seven with three rebounds, two blocks.

They won the game, he had another three fouls,

but just really has not made an impact.

And it honestly, it's getting harder and harder

to say like Doc is crazy for not playing him.

I still think that's true.

And I think it's been a bad infrastructure for Turner.

I mean, this was a guy who started on a team

that went to the finals and was in game seven of the finals

and had a lead in game seven of the finals.

So clearly, you can win with Miles Turner.

He didn't have a great finals, but he did.

He was very important on their playoff run, obviously.

But this is really bad.

The contract looks bad, the wave and stretch

and the trade and the salary don't look bad.

And it just says what it is.

I think, you know, you sure hope there's a new coach.

The Stephen A thing about Doc retiring,

Doc rebuffed it.

We'll see.

I kind of think Doc would love to just get fired

and then get all that money.

But I do think at this point,

it feels very unlikely in any scenario.

Doc is coaching the books next year

because this has just been an absolute slog.

And I don't think he enjoys it either,

but, you know, tough.

You get 10 million a year.

I would, you know, it is what it is.

It's not a bad, not a bad trade off.

But whoever they bring in,

you need to have a plan for Turner, a better plan,

or you move him.

But at this point, it's probably the first one

because you've kind of nuked his trade value here, frankly.

It's not a crazy contract in the new cap at all,

but it just looked like a non-factor in like half the games,

which is not great.

Zhang is the Uzuma Zhang shiny new toy.

He was four of eight, three of six from three

with eight rebounds and nine assists.

He almost had a triple tumble too.

He had 11, eight, nine against Utah,

but just didn't shoot it well against Orlando.

I already went over his line.

I just, like, play him as he played 24 and a half minutes

in this game, like give him 30 minutes.

I think it was just a back-to-back.

So I'm not yelling about this, this one.

Give him 30 minutes and just let him run picking roles,

especially when he honest isn't in.

He has pretty good chemistry with the artist,

so for sure, play him and he honest together a bunch.

Like, I think finishing the point

that I think they're stuck roughly where they are now,

down the stretch, the obvious question,

and I really do get this question a lot.

It's like, okay, what's the point then?

And frankly, and this may not satisfy you,

and you may not want to watch the games,

which I think totally fair.

You can still listen to the pod though.

We'll watch the games.

You can just listen to the pod.

If that's fair, bugs, if you want to sponsor us,

we'll tell people they should watch the games.

And I will keep watching.

I think there's reasons to watch.

But if someone says I don't want to watch them lose

by 20 to 40 to teams anymore,

I'm not arguing, right?

Like, I get it.

I don't particularly want to, but I'm still going to.

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so support is always available.

Because a great trip starts with peace of mind.

But why you should watch, if you do end up watching

or want to watch or just can't stop watching,

which I think is more, more than most of the people

I talk to are like, why am I doing this?

Like, not even the media people, obviously,

we kind of have to.

But like the fans are like, why do I keep?

I can't stop.

Like, I don't know, but I'm with you.

It's stuff like Jagno.

Like, Jag who, I did not rate as a shooter

because of his NBA numbers.

I was talking to someone who covers OKC,

who said like, ah, he just didn't have a ton of minutes.

Like, I wouldn't write him off

from his OKC shooting numbers totally.

Like, I think they improved.

He was up to 36% this year, but he just barely played.

And he didn't shoot a great in the Glee guy there,

but they were like, ah, I think he could be a shooter.

He's still at 38% from three with the bucks,

since joining the team, despite the stinker against Orlando.

His total numbers are 5.

Oh, sorry, with the bucks, I was looking at combined.

39% with the bucks.

That was combined.

9 points, 2.2 assists to 1.2 turnovers.

So almost 2 to 1 plus enough, 3.8 rebounds.

And this is all in only 21.7 minutes per game.

And also 1.1 combined steals and blocks.

0.7 steals 0.4 blocks.

So 1.6 files.

So pretty healthy, like, forcing turnovers

to follow his ratio as well.

I'm a fan.

I like the ad here.

You have a mirrored, restricted free agency,

so you get to keep him if you want him.

I can't imagine there's going to be a massive bidding

war for him that's going on.

But you're in the driver's seat here.

And I think it's becoming a priority.

I do want to wave the flag that he just never gets to the rim.

And that is a clear limitation.

And nights like Orlando, when the jumper isn't falling,

that's what you have to do.

When we talked about this ad nauseam

after that bull's loss, when they blew the big lead,

when the jumper's not falling as a player or as a team,

what you should do is go to the rim.

This is one thing I think Camp Thomas has actually

been pretty good at of, usually it feels like he'll get

a rim touch or two, a paint touch, see one go in,

and then take that insane jumper of his.

Jane needs to get better at that.

I'm not expecting it over the last however many games here,

like to just magically do it.

But if I'm him in addition to the shooting,

I want that as my off season goal of like,

I'm just going to drive through contact a bunch.

Because he is big, he is athletic,

he does have a reasonably good handle for his size.

And I'm not saying he needs to obviously be honest here

and crash through three guys,

but like if you get that little bit of inside corner,

can you just motor to the rim?

I think Rollins is good at this.

He needs to clean up the finishing,

but you know, he gets bumped a lot,

doesn't get called, whatever.

He needs to just finish better.

Because it is bad when you miss those,

it does actually have a higher fast break percentage

than mysteries, because one player is now totally

behind the play, no matter what.

But Jane needs to do that more.

It needs to do that some, which is also do that more.

It would be funny if this never happened with Dame,

but it did with Usman Jane.

I would love if he got in the gym with Yannis

for like a week at some point, like if he's,

and we know Yannis brings the guys to Greece,

we'll see with all the contract stuff,

everything if that changes this year.

I would guess it doesn't.

If we see Usman Jane and Greece, I will be thrilled.

And again, he's never, obviously not gonna finish like Yannis,

but just like, here's how I use like my shoulders,

my elbow on the spin, like, here's how I get to the rim

and like put the shots up.

That's what he's got to do.

That's the big next step.

But the jumper, the passing reads, the defense,

which I've been pretty impressed by,

even if he doesn't get that,

this is an NBA player, the buck should keep.

It was a good find by them.

But they're, you know, he's never gonna be like,

a full dynamic wing if he never goes to the rim.

It is a limitation on him.

Who else?

Pete Nance, three and five from the field.

One of the few players have a good shooting night

against Orlando.

Also had three rebounds, two assists, two steals,

no turnovers.

Pete Nance is just good.

I don't know if he's gonna get a roster spot.

I mean, does not seem like they're gonna be eligible

for postseason at this point.

It's only gonna be a few games.

Maybe, maybe like 10 games.

We'll see how many games I need to look that number up.

I think it might be like around 10 games

that he would have to miss if he doesn't have a spot

down the stretch.

But, and that would be a bummer

because he's one of those younger players too

that I mean, not, not super young,

but just develop mentally young.

I would like to see them invest some more time into.

But continues to be good.

They could not backfill his spot now

if they did sign him to an NBA deal.

His two way contract, but that's a lesser concern,

I would say.

Yeah, I don't know.

We saw Andre Jackson Jr. play the whole fourth quarter.

One of five, one of four from three,

three rebounds, one assists, one turnover.

Place hard, I just don't know why he's here.

Frankly, like, why don't we guarantee this contract?

The guy's just never gonna play.

But when he does play, he's not covering himself in glory,

but again, this is like a front office and coaching thing

of like, are you not on the same page?

Because like, you could have just cut him,

basically you moved back his guarantee date,

but then you let it hit.

You could have just cut him that

and had this roster spot where for an answer

for anyone else, you could have added another two way,

like, for, they messed up.

It seems like a lot of the big moves

that can't draft at all, but these two ways,

they've added a couple hits now,

having to be able to add another play out of flyer

in addition to Cormac Ryan,

who was not active for either team this weekend,

not really sure what's going on there with Cormac Ryan,

but again, he's 27,

would love to take a flyer on someone in their young 20s,

like Rollins, Green, and as Nance,

Nance probably mid 20s now,

but I'll still take it as a win

given some of their other history.

He's 26, so, not young 20s for Nancy there.

So yeah, that's the, that's the Bucks right now.

That's where they're at.

I don't begrudge anyone who is not going to watch anymore,

but I ask that you continue to listen to the podcast, please.

They're upcoming schedule.

They've got the Phoenix Suns in town,

the last game of this long homestand,

we said how important it would be,

the Bucks have not fully maximized it,

although they did get some wins, obviously, in February,

which now I've seen people bemoaning,

kind of like, yeah, maybe it would've been better

if we just didn't.

They host the Suns, the Suns have a lot of players out,

let me look at their last game.

I think Booker's out.

I know Dylan Brooks, I think, was out,

and then also had an, I'll say this to be careful,

I think it was a suspicion.

I'm gonna Google it before I even say anything.

He was arrested, I know that.

He was arrested on suspicion of DUI,

so not good for Dylan Brooks,

but also the Suns just have a ton of players out anyway.

So again, like I hate to say it,

they did just beat Charlotte by 12,

but this is a win-able game.

Oh, Booker's back, okay, never mind.

So Booker's back, Brooks is out,

Jalen Greene is back, which has not been great for them.

I think Grayson Allen's out.

They have quite an injury report right now.

Hey, would Highsmith play for them?

Not doing a whole lot, but is playing.

Oh, so Agadaro's starting a center for them.

Oh, their centers must be here too, or their center.

So yeah, the Suns have not been great,

they did just beat the Hornets,

so obviously they're not totally incompetent.

I do think they have a really good coach.

I would not pick the bucks to win that game,

but I guess a win-able game for them,

maybe not actually.

Then they have a mini road trip

to round out the week, or in the middle of the week,

at Heat, who the heat had been playing really well.

Tyler Hero has been great since he kind of got going again

and kind of reminding people, like,

hey, I'm a reigning all-star,

which is, I think was lost doing a lot of the trade combo,

not saying the bucks should have traded the others for him,

but just he is still a good player.

I think he's gotten healthy,

gotten some more touches there.

So that will be hard, always playing in Miami's hard,

and then we have another weekend,

two more weekend day games,

bucks at Hawks,

Pi Day, Saturday, March 14th at 2 p.m.

Again, if you're just tired of even looking at this kind of stuff,

or I think it's a waste of time, I get it.

A huge game, this will decide the tiebreaker,

and obviously, I think if the bucks lose this one,

it becomes basically only Charlotte they could catch,

barring a huge catastrophe from Atlanta,

because the Hawks, you know, ignoring other results,

would then knock the bucks to six behind them in the lost column,

and have the tiebreaker,

so basically seven behind them,

with only a few weeks left.

So if you are still pining for a play and shot,

that's a pretty big, probably the biggest game left for the bucks,

because I don't think they have Charlotte again.

They do not.

And then finally, it's a four week, four game week,

we have Pacers at Buck, Sunday at 2.30 p.m.

So another weekend back-to-back from Milwaukee,

a lot of games on the stretch here,

and then obviously another winnable one.

So I already think it's over,

but if there's gonna be a shot to make play in,

probably need like three wins this week.

I don't like the chances, but probably do.

Yada should be playing, I'd guess,

two to three of the four games.

I don't think we'll see him in both Hawks and the Pacers.

It'll be interesting to see like,

if the Hawks keep winning between now and then,

they sit in for Hawks and play him versus Pacers

to do what they did last week,

and just give up on the Hawks tiebreaker.

Probably depends how Charlotte's playing, too.

Maybe it'll just all be over by then.

Maybe this will be the consideration, too.

The Hawks game is on the road,

the Pacers game is at home,

try and play on us here and there down the stretch,

a lot of home games to let the fans see him.

There's not a ton left.

They actually have another difficulty.

They have a road, a heavy schedule down the stretch.

So the home games are sons, Pacers, calves,

and then they go on the road for four to a West Coast trip.

Then they host the Spurs.

Please play on us in that game.

And the Clippers, I think on another weekend,

they game back to back.

I guess this is just a thing for the NBA now,

outside of football season.

And then Mav's at home.

So three good home games in a row,

but back to back.

So probably only two Yannis games at most there.

And then Celtics at home, April 3rd, Grizzlies, April 5th.

And then the only one left after that is Nets on April 10th.

So we are down to,

well, what is this like 19 games, I believe,

left for the bucks?

Yes.

And only a handful of them are at home.

So the road games are going to make this really hard

for Milwaukee to sneak in just with how far back they are already.

We are looking at, I already mentioned Hawks and Heat.

Then the week after at Jazz,

that's the easiest one you'll get at sons,

at Clippers, at Blazers.

That's not the hardest, but not easy.

Those seems to have been better than Milwaukee.

At Rockets, Tuff, at Nets, Winnable,

but the Nets like beating the bucks.

At Piston, second end of a back-to-back.

And then at Sixers, the last game of the season, April 12th.

So barely a month from now, we'll see what happens.

I think we're going to be looking for moral victories

and we're going to be diving into the late lottery

of the 2026 NBA draft,

which, if you're used to optimistic tie and you miss him,

that's the big upside right now.

So let's be a load of draft.

The top three is where you really want to be,

maybe top four, but the middle late lottery looks really good too.

The bucks are kind of outside of where it looks really good.

When I've understood by reading Sam Dacinian others,

it's kind of top nine.

It's like kind of the next fall-off.

So the bucks are just outside of there.

So even if they just jumped a little bit,

their pick jumps and New Orleans falls,

like seven would love to be at seven in this draft.

But we'll see, a lot of basketball to be played.

Every time I think I had the bucks figured out

one way or another, they tend to go the opposite way.

So we will check back in after super encouraging

bucks wins against Phoenix and Miami and Atlanta.

Probably before then.

Probably not that probably won't really happen.

But we'll see.

Thank you for listening to this solo pod.

I believe I will be joined by someone later this week,

TBD on who, but let me know if you enjoyed the solo pod.

It won't be a regular thing,

but I like to sneak one in every now and again

when schedules allow.

Thank you for listening.

Please make sure to subscribe whether on YouTube.

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We will be back later this week for the second pod,

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