Milwaukee Bucks Thread

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Really impressed by the Bucks last night, especially Jabari Parker. He is a lot more athletic and a lot better shooter now that he's completely healthy. He has a VERY bright future in this league. The way he's built reminds me of Francisco Garcia but with a much, much better offensive game.

OJ looked like the OJ of old and is in REALLY good shape compared to last year. Perfect sixth man for them. I knew he'd earn his contract eventually but I didn't think it'd be with the Bucks.

If the Bucks can get one of those game-changing bigs in the draft to pair with Larry Sanders they'll be a contender real soon. Imagine Jahlil Okafor or Karl Towns Jr or some of the other bigs in this upcoming draft on that team.

I knew this team would be better than everybody's expecting them to be but I didn't think they'd be this good or that the parts would fit well. Last year a lot of guys were taking a lot of shots who shouldn't have been, and it was surprising to see them actually sharing the ball tonight. They could make the playoffs this year.

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The Parker/Wiggins thing reminds me a lot of the Sidney Crosby/Alex Ovechkin situation back in 2004. Ovechkin was clearly the better player first while Sidney was the one who was hyped up and labeled the "Next Great One". Parker's clearly the better player right now but Wiggins is the player who has been hyped up and labeled the "next LeBron".

It was the same situation with LeBron and Melo, too, actually. Melo was clearly the more polished player when they were drafted but LeBron clearly had the most potential and the brightest future. I wonder why it seems like it's only once a decade that we get two game-changing small forwards from the US/Canada in the same draft? Actually, it's the exact same situation as LeBron and Melo since Jabari is in reality a year ahead of Wiggins since Wiggins dropped out of the class of 2014.

I know they labeled OJ Mayo the "next LeBron" but nobody with a brain took that seriously given that OJ is 6'4 with a small wingspan and if anything is the next Kobe. Not anymore though. Either way, it's an interesting occurrence.

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Many more exciting meetings in the future in store for these two budding stars.

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Milwaukee is taking it to the Cavs tonight. Jabari Parker against LeBron: 10-13 FG.

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Torn ACL in the left knee and Jabari Parker is said to be done for the season. His knee bent awkward last night.

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Torn ACL in the left knee and Jabari Parker is said to be done for the season. His knee bent awkward last night.

Didn't he have a knee injury in high school? Oh wait, no, that was his right foot. I bet he put a ton of stress on that left knee. He clearly isn't in shape enough and puts too much weight on his knees and now it's cost him.

Damn, when was the last time two draft picks with such high profile names went out with leg injuries in the same rookie season? I don't think it's a coincidence that both had foot injuries in high school, either.

If he doesn't come back fully, Milwaukee is fucked. Luckily they have Giannis, but that takes a large part of their future team from them if Jabari doesn't bounce back.

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Didn't he have a knee injury in high school? Oh wait, no, that was his right foot. I bet he put a ton of stress on that left knee. He clearly isn't in shape enough and puts too much weight on his knees and now it's cost him.

Damn, when was the last time two draft picks with such high profile names went out with leg injuries in the same rookie season? I don't think it's a coincidence that both had foot injuries in high school, either.

If he doesn't come back fully, Milwaukee is fucked. Luckily they have Giannis, but that takes a large part of their future team from them if Jabari doesn't bounce back.

I feel you. From this class Embiid and Parker are currently out and we can count on Julius Randle joining the sideline.

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I feel you. From this class Embiid and Parker are currently out and we can count on Julius Randle joining the sideline.

Yeah I meant Jabari and Julius. I don't really count Embiid because he was already injured and it's a stress fracture in the foot, plus big men are much more likely to have knee injuries and go down in their careers.

Guys like Jabari and Julius though, those are very high profile forwards who were both supposed to change the fortunes of their teams. If Randle played, the Lakers would be a completely different team right now, and he'd be tearing up Western Conference competition at both forward positions and providing great scoring. Instead now the guys who were supposed to come off the bench are starting and Kobe's burning himself out trying to do too much.

Milwaukee's luckier because they still have a pretty good, young team. Giannis is a future superstar, Middleton is a pretty solid scorer, O'Bryant is a tough young player, and they have vets like Ilyasova, OJ, Larry Sanders, Zaza and Dudley. They could really use a true point guard though.

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Interesting piece by NYT on the Bucks new owners using a "facial expressions expert" to get a feel for the guys they want to bring into their team: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/26/sp...time.html?_r=0

I think there's actually some merit to this to an extent. If you look at guys like Melo, you can tell they're immature, before you even see him play. You look at a guy like Love though, and you see determination and leadership on his face, same with LeBron and other legitimate leaders. Still, it's important to not get carried away here, as many players learn to not display their true emotions when playing as it's a sign of weakness. Also, situations can sometimes make certain players seem worse or better teammates/leaders/players than they are. It's important to keep it in context.

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Milwaukee routs the 21-8 Hawks behind Jared Dudley's insane 10 of 10 (including a perfect 4 of 4 on 3pt shooting) and 4 steals! Johnny O'Bryant III gets the start and scores a career high 12 points as well.

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News all over that Larry Sanders told the management that he no longer wants to play basketball. He is embattled with injuries, violent confrontations and personal problems. Maybe he was just mentally exhausted.

Jason Kidd did confirm that Sanders will be out due to personal reasons for the time being.

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Honestly good for him. I wish more players would consider whether they actually want to play basketball for a living or not. The problem is that the damage is done. Even if he never plays basketball again and can find another profession, he will always be the guy who made 11 million dollars a year and then decided he didn't want to play basketball, which is unfair but that's why you need to consider the question before you put your name into the draft and before you start playing in college even.

Since this is basically unprecedented, I wonder if Milwaukee will be able to receive an exception for this season?

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Honestly good for him. I wish more players would consider whether they actually want to play basketball for a living or not. The problem is that the damage is done. Even if he never plays basketball again and can find another profession, he will always be the guy who made 11 million dollars a year and then decided he didn't want to play basketball, which is unfair but that's why you need to consider the question before you put your name into the draft and before you start playing in college even.

Since this is basically unprecedented, I wonder if Milwaukee will be able to receive an exception for this season?

Great point. I remember the case of Rashad McCants who told the Timberwolves then that his NBA career is just a hobby and his focus was producing beats. That didn't pan out for the journeyman then.

As for the exception, I remember Royce White and the Houston Rockets but White's contract was still counted on the team's active payroll.

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Great point. I remember the case of Rashad McCants who told the Timberwolves then that his NBA career is just a hobby and his focus was producing beats. That didn't pan out for the journeyman then.

As for the exception, I remember Royce White and the Houston Rockets but White's contract was still counted on the team's active payroll.

Haha so that's what happened to him. McCants was great in college.

Apparently now they're denying he said it. We'll see.