Originally Posted by
Pelicanidae
Coming off a loss last game to one of the league's worst teams in the Atlanta Hawks, we encounter one of the league's best teams, in the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks currently have the best record in the NBA: an awesome 50-17. Giannis is my MVP, at the moment, because he is leading this team to this success and averaging 27/12/6. What astounds me about this is the fact that Giannis, despite having a fantastic year, is still not being as statistically dominant as AD was when he was getting full minutes (averaging 29.5/13.3/4.5).
It's interesting, then, to think as to why Giannis' numbers are translating to much more regular wins than AD's were. At first, poisoned by the media, my brain wondered if it was a case of AD not getting the help Giannis does. To an extent, that's true: Giannis doesn't have another 20 point scorer on his team, while we have two in Jrue and Julius. But then, after a brief moment, it hit me.
There are two reasons the Bucks are better than us this season, and two reasons only.
1) Coaching - The Bucks are coached by Mike Budenholzer, and he is good. He has his flaws, as every coach does, but unlike Gentry, Budenholzer is able to construct schemes and approaches to the game that his players are consistently able to execute to a high standard, and his rotations largely make sense. It's even debatable whether Gentry's ability to construct an offense is currently better than Budenholzer's, as the Bucks hold the 3rd best ORTG in the league: better than ours, which is 5th.
2) Effort - The Bucks play hard. This effort is largely led by Giannis, who does not have nearly as many as the dull spots that AD has in his game. I am of the opinion that when AD is playing, fully engaged, he is the best player in the league with no exceptions. Unfortunately, that happens only maybe 60% of the time. The rest of the time, AD can be disengaged, or listless, or disinterested. Giannis doesn't do this: he plays fully engaged maybe 90% of the time, and it shows. Particularly on defense. Is the Bucks roster more defensively gifted than ours? Maybe, but not by much: AD, again when engaged, is a DPOY candidate, and Jrue is the best defensive guard in the league. Moore is a decent defender the majority of the time. So why do the Bucks click and we don't? Effort. They play hard on both ends, and thats why they have 50 wins and are looking at a finals trip, and we have 30 and are hoping for the lottery.
So let's go into this game, show off the young guys as much as possible, hope for a 3rd 20 pointgame from Frank, and just enjoy the show. No expectations of winning.
Let's go and #DoItBig!
March 12th - New Orleans Pelicans VS Milwaukee Bucks - 30-39
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