PG Pacers Game 4 - Loss

[Turk Nowitzki]

Also I'm gonna need the Bobby defenders to remember this series next time they want to try and restart their agendas.

[Baddy Chuck]

Personnel lost us this game and likely the series. It was always the biggest issue for us and it's been magnified when our two best players have been forced to sit out. Jon Horst has a lot to fix.

I'm not saying we don't have issues because we are old and unathletic but go roster to roster and remove everyone's two best players and pretend the best guy left after that is playing hurt. There's no team in the league that survives that without having "personnel" issues.

I'm sure most of them will dismiss it as well, they certainly laughed at it during the end of the season, but it sure as **** seems like a couple of the main guys we needed to step up absolutely did/have been with flying colors so far this postseason.

Our personnel issues seems pretty far removed from the core to me. And when your core isn't playing, it's pretty hard to see the role of the role players.

[Turk Nowitzki]

Personnel lost us this game and likely the series. It was always the biggest issue for us and it's been magnified when our two best players have been forced to sit out. Jon Horst has a lot to fix.

I'm not saying we don't have issues because we are old and unathletic but go roster to roster and remove everyone's two best players and pretend the best guy left after that is playing hurt. There's no team in the league that survives that without having "personnel" issues.

I'm sure most of them will dismiss it as well, they certainly laughed at it during the end of the season, but it sure as **** seems like a couple of the main guys we needed to step up absolutely did/have been with flying colors so far this postseason.

Our personnel issues seems pretty far removed from the core to me.

I mean yeah the guys talking the most **** in the media (Bobby and Beasley) are writing checks they absolutely cannot cash so i agree they're making themselves look pretty stupid. I disagree about personnel, again not that we dont have issues. It's that your core is everything in the playoffs because that's when your **** role players get papered over because you ride your stars 40+ minutes a game to victory every night. There's no work around for not having that for anybody.

[JimmyTheKid]

Read on Twitter

I wish this tweet was like....In February.

Exactly. Doc had no plans of playing this man at all in this series. Hell, Doc might not have had plans to play him next year.

This is all so frustrating. The most important trait for a coach is to be able to identify and play your best players. Should be pretty simple. But no. A lot of these guys are programmed to default to vets because “experience” even if they’re washed or simply just an inferior option.

All of these criticisms of AJJ feel like a big goalpost moving meme. Pretty confident the reason he’s not aggressively taking it to the rim all the time is because of the quick hook he’s endured all season. One mistake, gone and banned from real minutes. Even if that’s not the reason he’s tentative those of us who have aggressively pushed for him to be a consistent member of the rotation didn’t do so because we thought he could be our #1, #2, #3, #4, or even #5 scoring option. It was because it was plainly obvious that his “athletic, high bball IQ, super glue guy” makeup and skill set was something sorely missing and desperately needed with this currently constructed roster.

[blazza18]

I’m not trying to diminish Giannis missing four games and Dame playing hampered because obviously that’s been the main factor in the series going to hell but I will say if Horst drafted/signed guys who had any real ability to play defence we’d be in a much different spot.

[AussieBuck]

Crowder being washed has been an underrated factor. Bucks have wasted a ton of time wishing away his dead legs. If he was serviceable it would have been huge for us at both forward spots, alternatively, if they'd just given up on him straight away, there might have been a better contingency plan.

[tydett]

I’m not trying to diminish Giannis missing four games and Dame playing hampered because obviously that’s been the main factor in the series going to hell but I will say if Horst drafted/signed guys who had any real ability to play defence we’d be in a much different spot.

Definitely true, though Giannis does make a lot of this defense tick (when he's not loafing or ballwatching, that is). Brook is a lot worse without Giannis to play free safety for his backside, our wing defense is notably worse without his length, and our guard defense remains a sieve but is further exacerbated when there is no coverage anywhere else. Team is truly constructed around Giannis with Dame sprinkled in.

I don't have much faith in Horst to fix it because the cupboard is bare and his imagination seems to be thin, but he will get one offseason to retool around a team with Giannis AND Dame instead of one with just the former.

[Siefer]

It's really unpleasant to be on the receiving end of Beasley being who everyone thought he was. Dude just has zero awareness, and it more than cancels out his shooting. Even now, he shouldn't be seeing any burn.

[emunney]

Dre's Not Good: from the people who brought you Donte's Not Good.

[-Jragon-]

Silver linings:

1. Bucks actually have some real youth. Makes it feasible that the window could last a little.

2. No one can ever ever ever ever ever talk down on Khris Middleton ever again. That dude has always came through when it mattered, and sometimes delivering way above his pay grade.

Well not in 2019 where he seriously stunk against Toronto or they probably win the title. But since then hell yeah, man has been awesome and deserves whatever the modern day equivalent of kudos is (still flowers? or did we move on to snake plants now)

2 things we know about KM:

1. To be effective, he needs the ball A LOT; maybe even on 80%+ of possessions
2. If KM has the ball A LOT, he gets A LOT of points but we still lose
3. Adding the first 2 points together, he's best suited as a tank commander for like the Rockets or something

That said, he has some very useful skills that we need. If he ever figures out how to play off-ball, finds the weight room and can keep 4's out of the paint he can help us win playoff games again.

[Ron Swanson]

Bless you guys for trying to evaluate or glean anything from these role guys when our two star players aren't out there, but I just can't. Andre looks like he belongs on an NBA court I guess?

[-Jragon-]

Dre's Not Good: from the people who brought you Donte's Not Good.

I hear you, but bad timing on this. All we or GS needed from him was to take advantage of wide open space off of drive and kicks. (Like Crowder and Pat C couldn't last night) and Donte went 3 for 11 last night - that's the same trash. Dudes saying Donte is on the "Kyle Lowry track" are still on serious watch. Yes, the same Kyle Lowry that finished 10th in MVP voting in 2016.

[SupremeHustle]

I think Donte is an NBA player, just not an ideal starter for the Bucks team he was on. That trade was horrific.

Andre Jackson just needs to slow down, in my opinion. But maybe he needs to be even faster. That could work, too. Is there a super turbo boost?

[SupremeHustle]

Crowder being washed has been an underrated factor. Bucks have wasted a ton of time wishing away his dead legs. If he was serviceable it would have been huge for us at both forward spots, alternatively, if they'd just given up on him straight away, there might have been a better contingency plan.

My first clue that Crowder was done was watching him in PHX. My second clue was when PHX said "Go home, bro. You're done."

[sidney lanier]

If this season ends Tuesday, we won't have learned much about the role players being discussed here except that they might be OK playing roles they're not being asked to play now.

Which we kind of knew already.

Still a chance to salvage this season, but if that salvage job doesn't happen I guess we hope for a less disrupted 2024-25, enjoy Giannis's 30th birthday party, and see what the Dame-Khris-Giannis-Doc organization can do. I"m not tired of being a perennial contender just yet.

[SupremeHustle]

Read on Twitter

Dre is like a 911 Turbo S that thinks it's on a track when sometimes it's on a neighborhood street with kids playing hopscotch.

[JimmyTheKid]

Dre's Not Good: from the people who brought you Donte's Not Good.

Yup. Would love to see the Venn diagram.

[-Jragon-]

I think Donte is an NBA player, just not an ideal starter for the Bucks team he was on. That trade was horrific.

Andre Jackson just needs to slow down, in my opinion. But maybe he needs to be even faster. That could work, too. Is there a super turbo boost?

It really seemed like he got passes in the dunker zone with momentum to the hoop and no one really was even on balance to challenge him. He just stops and passes it back out. Someone in the GT said it's confidence in the paint; I'd lean that way too I think. He shot the 3 pretty confidently

[SupremeHustle]

I think Donte is an NBA player, just not an ideal starter for the Bucks team he was on. That trade was horrific.

Andre Jackson just needs to slow down, in my opinion. But maybe he needs to be even faster. That could work, too. Is there a super turbo boost?

It really seemed like he got passes in the dunker zone with momentum to the hoop and no one really was even on balance to challenge him. He just stops and passes it back out. Someone in the GT said it's confidence in the paint; I'd lean that way too I think. He shot the 3 pretty confidently

Yes. I recall one dunker spot moment for sure.

I also saw with my very own eyes (twice) that he beat his defender off dribble moves then for some reason was like "That's okay, I'll just bail out of this." So the ability is there without a doubt.

[-Jragon-]

With Donte, all his teams have been trying to make him a super 3 and D starter - which is EXACTLY what we need - but his % always have slipped down in the playoffs to the point that teams can double off of him and just run at him with a quick closeout and make him flinch/miss. As far as the trade, yeah it maybe was bad but I'm sure Horst talked to his agent and found out he was going to demand 50 mil and I'd argure that AJG and Bev are both just as good or better.