Thoughts on Dame’s start in Milwaukee

[DusterBuster]

I preface this with saying it’s super early… but what’s everyone’s feeling on Dame’s start with the Bucks? Except for maybe one or two games, he’s looked nothing like himself. Are fans here kind of bummed to see him struggle or kind of happy since maybe the Blazers got out of his contract just in time?

[RTG HD]

I think we won't know until playoff time how it went for the Bucks. Either way it was worth the risk for them imo.

[DusterBuster]

I think we won't know until playoff time how it went for the Bucks. Either way it was worth the risk for them imo.

For sure. More just asking in the immediate. Curious which fans are happy to see him struggle and which are bummed he and Giannis aren’t dominating from the jump.

[RTG HD]

I think we won't know until playoff time how it went for the Bucks. Either way it was worth the risk for them imo.

For sure. More just asking in the immediate. Curious which fans are happy to see him struggle and which are bummed he and Giannis aren’t dominating from the jump.

I would rather see him win but think it would be unrealistic to expect them to play well together immediately.

[monopoman]

The team is good enough to win games without Dame and Giannis even playing well together. I keep waiting to see them really work that two man game to perfection.

Right now it really seems to boil down to mostly watching Dame or Giannis go to work, and that can beat a lot of teams but to hit maximum level these two really need to synergize. This is also a heavy transition for Dame being on a team with another very high level player, he has never had that in his career. LMA was the best player he ever had but it was early in his career and peak LMA is nowhere near peak Giannis.

[JasonStern]

Adrian Griffin is in over his head as a coach. That doesn't mean he can't eventually figure it out. But it makes zero sense to go all-in on a Giannis+Dame duo and then have a rookie head coach learning on the fly. They've gotten better as the season progressed. Not what we were expecting before the season began, but better than when the season started. Still, they should have just hired Stotts as head coach rather than as an "I'm too old for this ish" assistant.

[Wizenheimer]

as mentioned, it's way too early to tell yet, but anybody who was expecting a seamless transition for Dame to a new team, system, & coach after 11 seasons in Portland was delusional. And the Dame critics have pointed at his first few games as somehow proof Dame was overrated. That's delusional too

the first thing to note, is that Milwaukee is 5-2. All the lamentations about the Bucks somehow being a bad team appear to be premature crackpotations.

Dame is at a career low in FGA and usage. He has his lowest PER since his 3rd season, but since PER is a cumulative stat and his FGA & usage are so low, that's expected. He's also at a career low, by far, in 3ptFG% at .293. But again...sample size. In his last game he went 2-12 on three's. We've seen that before. We've also seen him go 8-12 on three's several times in his career. In that last game, if he'd gone 8-12 instead of 2-12 his 3ptFG% would be 40% instead of 29%.

Dame is being used poorly by a rookie coach who doesn't know how to use Dame. Dame has the lowest assist rate (21.5%) of his career (30.9%). Per 100-possessions, Dame is averaging 6.6 assists when hs career mark has been 9.1 and his average over the last 4 seasons has been over 10.

speaking of per 100-possessions, Dame is averaging 14.0 FT's when his career mark is 8.9 and last season was 12.9. He's also shooting a career high in FT%.

there is very little synergy between Dame & Giannis right now. Terry Stotts was brought in to help develop that synergy but apparently the head coach had problems with Stotts, and vice-versa. I anticipate that the mesh between those two players will improve. Obviously, it might not, but odds are it will and when it does, the Bucks could be a really good team

[SweaterBae]

I'm bummed. It was really exciting to think of Dame and Giannis killing it, and they aren't.

[DaVoiceMaster]

I'm still rooting for Lillard. They'll figure it out one way or another. I am really surprised they went with a rookie coach though. Can you imagine Stotts with that team?

[PDXKnight]

As others namely Wiz mentioned expecting a seamless transition was unrealistic. Dame is an elite player no question but that transition was bound to happen given he's a fairly high usage player next to another in giannis

Just my personal opinion i do question whether the (lack of) defense of Dame makes that team not as good as many might think. That doesn't detract from Dame as a player who I'd still say is elite. But at the same time their defense is among the worst in the league through 8 games but with Dame's history of bad defensive teams that indeed tracks. No doubt they added substiannly a better scorer than Jrue but dropping from top 5 to bottom 5 is significant and quite realistically enough to knock them out in the second round despite all of the talent on that roster

[JasonStern]

As others namely Wiz mentioned expecting a seamless transition was unrealistic. Dame is an elite player no question but that transition was bound to happen given he's a fairly high usage player next to another in giannis

Just my personal opinion i do question whether the (lack of) defense of Dame makes that team not as good as many might think. That doesn't detract from Dame as a player who I'd still say is elite. But at the same time their defense is among the worst in the league through 8 games but with Dame's history of bad defensive teams that indeed tracks. No doubt they added substiannly a better scorer than Jrue but dropping from top 5 to bottom 5 is significant and quite realistically enough to knock them out in the second round despite all of the talent on that roster

They just gave up 126 to Indiana with Dame out. They really messed up replacing Mike Budenholzer with Adrian Griffin.

[PDXKnight]

As others namely Wiz mentioned expecting a seamless transition was unrealistic. Dame is an elite player no question but that transition was bound to happen given he's a fairly high usage player next to another in giannis

Just my personal opinion i do question whether the (lack of) defense of Dame makes that team not as good as many might think. That doesn't detract from Dame as a player who I'd still say is elite. But at the same time their defense is among the worst in the league through 8 games but with Dame's history of bad defensive teams that indeed tracks. No doubt they added substiannly a better scorer than Jrue but dropping from top 5 to bottom 5 is significant and quite realistically enough to knock them out in the second round despite all of the talent on that roster

They just gave up 126 to Indiana with Dame out. They really messed up replacing Mike Budenholzer with Adrian Griffin.

Yeah that was an odd move. I get maybe giannis and bud didn't get along but to replace him with a rookie coach was very questionable.

[Shem]

Dame sat out last night's game with a calf injury. Dame also had problems with a calf injury last season.

[Moonbeam]

Cheering for a Bucks title this year. It’s been a patchy start for sure. I think others are right that the transition will take time, but also, Adrian Griffin as coach poses a risk to their title chances.

[Pattycakes]

Meh. When LA, Rolo, Nic and Wes left so did my genuine care. Get your money Dame.

[Red Robot]

This just looks like a shooting slump to me. He's had some slow starts before and I think that's all it is.

New teammates and bad coach would be legitimate excuses except I don't even think he's playing that poorly with his team. Dame's not very reliant on others to set up his scoring so if he's not hitting shots it's mostly on him.

He's also gotten some flack for poor defense with Milwaukee but I think that's a function of having more eyes on him. It's not that he's playing worse it's that people weren't paying much attention to his defense in Portland, especially when his offense was so good.

I think Lillard will eventually be fine and the Bucks will be contenders this year. But I also think he's on a slow decline and Portland moved on at the right time.

[monopoman]

He had plenty of detractors on his defense his entire career, sure in Portland less of the more casual NBA fan might not be watching, but I have seen many posters on RealGM give Dame **** for his defense over the past 5 years.

The only difference here is he went from being on what has been at best a pretty good team to potentially a top 3 team overall in Milwaukee. Teaming up with a former MVP in Giannis is going to bring a lot more attention to Dame than any of his previous Blazer teams.

[DC_Melo]

I’d like to see him do well. Will always be one of my favorite players. He’s currently averaging numbers nearly identical to his career averages, so he seems to be finding his groove out there a bit.