GT76: Wizards vs. Giannis and the Giannises

[TGW]

Was that the best game of the season? I almost wanted to be there in person.

[BearlyBallin]

Wow I guess it must have been a team win since no one started a player of the game thread.

I only saw a few minutes in the 4th qt, but they were a fun few minutes for sure.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

If the Wizards win this, does that mean I have to create the next game thread? It might be too much pressure for me.

You will and you must.

[9 and 20]

Not even sure what happened or how, but we'll take it. Brings to mind the Frank the Tank and James Carville debate. You're my boy, Blue.

[Mickey8]

Missed the game, but the box score indicate that Keefe is a literal wizard squeezing these perfomances. A definite 'a lot more than the sum of its parts'.
Also - a win with such horrible 3% - amazing.

Keefe is awesome. loudest voice in the arena, calling out defense all game long. Teaching fundamentals, reminding players to keep their hands up etc.

Deni is a grown man this year, really proud and impressed.

Vuk improved a ton with Partizan, exactly what I hoped and expected by leaving him with the champs. They'd make him work. Better still his body is tuned up, better core, not thick around the middle, quick on his feet. His defensive fundamentals are much better. He hasn't found his range but he's going to dangerous when it starts to fall.

Poole trying to distribute is a much better player.

And Butler, high BBIQ, effort and toughness.

Improved by sitting on the bench for the most of the season ??? Wizards should have signed him right after Summer league, the kid's season was wasted by staying in Europe.

[NatP4]

Missed the game, but the box score indicate that Keefe is a literal wizard squeezing these perfomances. A definite 'a lot more than the sum of its parts'.
Also - a win with such horrible 3% - amazing.

Keefe is awesome. loudest voice in the arena, calling out defense all game long. Teaching fundamentals, reminding players to keep their hands up etc.

Deni is a grown man this year, really proud and impressed.

Vuk improved a ton with Partizan, exactly what I hoped and expected by leaving him with the champs. They'd make him work. Better still his body is tuned up, better core, not thick around the middle, quick on his feet. His defensive fundamentals are much better. He hasn't found his range but he's going to dangerous when it starts to fall.

Poole trying to distribute is a much better player.

And Butler, high BBIQ, effort and toughness.

Improved by sitting on the bench for the most of the season ??? Wizards should have signed him right after Summer league, the kid's season was wasted by staying in Europe.

Yeah, Johnny Davis has played twice as many minutes as Vukcevic has this year.

Hopefully he’s a rotation player with the Wizards next year.

[nate33]

This loss we delivered to Milwaukee may be the loss that knocks them below the Clippers in the standings, making our pick from the Clippers one slot worse.

[closg00]

People are praising Keefe a little too-much for this win, he showed no creativity with the rotations and was forced to finally improvise due to injuries, getting Kuz/Poole under control with the right amount of minutes will be crucial for the development of incoming young players.

[doclinkin]

Keefe is awesome. loudest voice in the arena, calling out defense all game long. Teaching fundamentals, reminding players to keep their hands up etc.

Deni is a grown man this year, really proud and impressed.

Vuk improved a ton with Partizan, exactly what I hoped and expected by leaving him with the champs. They'd make him work. Better still his body is tuned up, better core, not thick around the middle, quick on his feet. His defensive fundamentals are much better. He hasn't found his range but he's going to dangerous when it starts to fall.

Poole trying to distribute is a much better player.

And Butler, high BBIQ, effort and toughness.

Improved by sitting on the bench for the most of the season ??? Wizards should have signed him right after Summer league, the kid's season was wasted by staying in Europe.

Yeah, Johnny Davis has played twice as many minutes as Vukcevic has this year.

Hopefully he’s a rotation player with the Wizards next year.

And look how much better Johnny Davis got...

Yes improved by staying in Europe. They play at most one game a week, spend the rest of the time in practice and drilling fundamentals. Euro players come to the league better prepared and develop quicker than one-and-done candidates who join a losing team. Especially Euros from winning programs. They develop better habits. Draft and stash is a viable development strategy given that the NBA season is limited in the number of minutes devoted towards practice. Limited by the CBA and the 82 game schedule. Travel and distractions. And even limited by the ineptitude of the GLeague, where players gun for stats to try to get noticed but few teams play any defense. Nobody develops cohesion in the G league because the rosters are so fluid and the stakes are so low. The average length of a G League career is 2 years. Tough to build a team culture with that. Vuk came here, doughy and slow footed with poor defensive reactions and habits. This is not the same player we saw then. However it happened, whatever happened, it worked, he's better.

[2Fluffy4U]

People are praising Keefe a little too-much for this win, he showed no creativity with the rotations and was forced to finally improvise due to injuries, getting Kuz/Poole under control with the right amount of minutes will be crucial for the development of incoming young players.

Well.. the fact he does not lack ability to improvise (even if 'forced') is so much more than the previous coach was ever able to do.

And besides rotations (which I think were more than fine) - Look at team effort on defense. Look at Poole dishing 13 assists, look at ball movement, attitude, agression and not buckling down during games last minutes...

I see Keefe as written all over these notions.

[tontoz]

Deni doing his Luka impression.

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

[nate33]

Watched a replay of the game this morning.

- The biggest factor in the game was Milwaukee's absolutely embarrassing transition defense. They've been the worst transition defense in the league all year, and this was even worse than usual for them. It was a layup line for the Wizards. I guess when the worst transition defense faces the fastest paced team in the league, it's a bad matchup. Kudos to the Wizards for relentlessly exposing them.

- Kispert was fantastic in help defense. He was everywhere he needed to be: tagging the roll man, digging on the post player and recovering to the shooter, boxing out the nearest guy when a shot goes up, grabbing 7 boards from the SG position. He was a big reason that our interior defense wasn't overpowered by Milwaukee's size. He really battled out there.

- Poole is a much better PG than I ever expected. Those 13 assists tonight were legit. He was diming guys right in their spots, it wasn't just a bunch of easy kick-outs. He only had 3 turnovers, and one of them was due to him stepping on a wet spot and slipping - not really his fault. Just a very well-played game by him. I gave him POTG.

- I don't even know what to say about Deni. It actually seemed like a pretty average game for him. 23, 8 and 5 is now routine. I thought his biggest impact was his toughness. He was delivering as much punishment as he could on his drives, and he was one of the few guys able to bang with Milwaukee's front line and get a rebound in traffic. He should have had 10 assists but guys kept missing open looks or got fouled on the shot. Even that great full court pass to Gill to seal the game didn't count as an assist because Gill missed the layup and scored on the putback. Defensively, Avdija was actually a little sub-par for his standards. Unlike in the past, he offered no resistance whenever he guarded Giannis. I guess playing 38 minutes and being a primary initiator is going to mean he can't expend quite the same energy on defense. He also couldn't afford foul trouble.

- One other thing I liked about Avdija's performance was his demeanor. There was no bad body language, no holding up the arms to indicate how open he was when a teammate looked him off, no hanging of the head when he missed a shot, and very little whining to the refs. I hope he keeps this up.

- Vukcevic certainly looks like he can play at the NBA level on offense. A bunch of his 3-pointers went in-and-out. If those start to fall, it will unlock a whole new dimension to the team's offense. Avdija will go up another level if he gets to play with a stretch big again. Vukcevic's defense is still pretty bad though. In particular, he has to get a lot stronger. He got virtually no "man rebounds" that were contested. Guys were just shoving him out of the way. No biggie. It's what you expect from a 7-footer who just turned 21. He also has to get better at setting screens. He doesn't set them high enough when the defender has his back turned, allowing the defender to easily negotiate their way around him.

- Why haven't we signed Jared Butler to a 3-year contract yet? That guy is good!

[doclinkin]

People are praising Keefe a little too-much for this win, he showed no creativity with the rotations and was forced to finally improvise due to injuries, getting Kuz/Poole under control with the right amount of minutes will be crucial for the development of incoming young players.

Well.. the fact he does not lack ability to improvise (even if 'forced') is so much more than the previous coach was ever able to do.

And besides rotations (which I think were more than fine) - Look at team effort on defense. Look at Poole dishing 13 assists, look at ball movement, attitude, agression and not buckling down during games last minutes...

I see Keefe as written all over these notions.

You don't have to guess at it. Watch the replay with the volume up. The arena is so quiet with all the disappointed Bucks fans you can hear him calling out assignments and plays at both ends. I counted 3 assists where Keefe pointed out what player to get the ball to when they were open. Literally pointed and shouted. LOL

[doclinkin]

- One other thing I liked about Avdija's performance was his demeanor. There was no bad body language, no holding up the arms to indicate how open he was when a teammate looked him off, no hanging of the head when he missed a shot, and very little whining to the refs. I hope he keeps this up.

- Vukcevic certainly looks like he can play at the NBA level on offense. A bunch of his 3-pointers went in-and-out. If those start to fall, it will unlock a whole new dimension to the team's offense. Avdija will go up another level if he gets to play with a stretch big again. Vukcevic's defense is still pretty bad though. In particular, he has to get a lot stronger. He got virtually no "man rebounds" that were contested. Guys were just shoving him out of the way. No biggie. It's what you expect from a 7-footer who just turned 21. He also has to get better at setting screens. He doesn't set them high enough when the defender has his back turned, allowing the defender to easily negotiate their way around him.

x2 on Deni. With Kuz gone he is the veteran on the team and played like it. No complaints, just work.

Vuk's rotations were so much more crisp than when we last saw him. He was often in the right place at the right time even if he was weak. Okay he didn't actually grab those rebounds, but he was in the area. He moved his feet to cut off penetration a few times. He's not a center despite his height, he's a skinny would be stretch forward, but I appreciated what he did given his limitations. Good to see.

[nate33]

People are praising Keefe a little too-much for this win, he showed no creativity with the rotations and was forced to finally improvise due to injuries, getting Kuz/Poole under control with the right amount of minutes will be crucial for the development of incoming young players.

Well.. the fact he does not lack ability to improvise (even if 'forced') is so much more than the previous coach was ever able to do.

And besides rotations (which I think were more than fine) - Look at team effort on defense. Look at Poole dishing 13 assists, look at ball movement, attitude, agression and not buckling down during games last minutes...

I see Keefe as written all over these notions.

You don't have to guess at it. Watch the replay with the volume up. The arena is so quiet with all the disappointed Bucks fans you can hear him calling out assignments and plays at both ends. I counted 3 assists where Keefe pointed out what player to get the ball to when they were open. Literally pointed and shouted. LOL

Whatever he did, it was working. The Wizards played fairly mistake-free defense. It reminded me of playing a short-handed Miami team with the stars hurt. If guys just execute the game plan, help when necessary without overhelping, and yield the right shots to the right players, you can hold up defensively in this league even without defensive talent.

[Kanyewest]

Bucks are now 1-6 without Dame. Rivers has more losses than Adrian Griffin (14-14 vs 30-313). The Bucks as the 2 seed trail the Celtics more in the standings, than the Warriors as the #10 seed trail the number 1 seed in the West.

[tontoz]

They actually looked like a real team yesterday which was odd.

[doclinkin]

I'm particularly glad Dame wasn't in the game to bait Poole into trying match shot-for-shot. The fact that he played well and the team won should give him more incentive to do it again instead of trying to play superduperstar and gun his way back to relevance. This was a quality win in a losing season, but he can salvage something from this game tape to use for future play.

[closg00]

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

[penbeast0]

Jared Butler!

17-3-3-2 on 10 shots. Should be our starting PG next year.

Have we even tried to sign him to a deal for next year? Haven't heard of our negotiating with him at all.