Modern defenses are built around containing dribble penetration. The best defenses utilize specific schemes combined with elite ball defenders to block off ball handlers from reaching the paint.
The Bucks ran a lineup with Dame, Cam Payne, and Malik Beasley. They had Beasley guarding Trae. Brook and Giannis will not be enough to cover so many defensive liabilities.
Bucks walk away from this game with a lot to figure out regarding their rosters defensive limitations. They didn’t just lose two great ball defenders in Jrue and Carter, they also added two real liabilities in Dame and Payne. Middleton and Beauchamp give them size on the wing but I don’t see a single guy on this roster that’s frustrating opposing ball handlers.
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Dame is (and has been) one of the worst defenders in the league and his reputation somehow was nowhere near as bad as it should’ve been in that end. Now that he is on a team with huge expectations, casuals should catch on and media should be more fair in calling him out. He deserves as much criticism as someone like Trae. He simply does not try on many possessions.
Fully agreed. He got away with it because people generally like him, but he’s always been a massive defensive liability.
No one took POR seriously so it wasn’t as obvious, didn’t need to hunt Dame down when the whole team wasn’t great. Different story in MIL
The foul baiting has made it 10X worse too because he doesn’t get back on defense, just stands in front of the refs with his arms up.
Simmons called this when the trade happened. It made sense then and it still does now.
I think this sorts itself out somewhat but I don’t think long term they can entirely just say “fuck it we’ll just out score them”. Dame won’t eat shit every game and as long as they have him and Giannis on the court the offense will be dangerous. As a result I think they need to go a little more in on defense and undercut their strength, which maybe seems counterproductive, but I think they’ll need to relieve the pressure on their offense to score 130 a night. Just don’t be playing 3 guard lineups where the guards aren’t even good defenders. I’d still hope for their sake they look for perimeter defense at the deadline. They don’t have really have many options to go for defense anyway, and perhaps that’s why they’re just going for shooting/offense.
That said I also do think all of this is way too early to say, even worrying about it could end up pointless, and Lopez/Giannis could very well still cover for this enough, at least in the regular seasons
I knew losing Jrue would Fuck with the bucks defense.
When the Suns brought back Payne in the bubble, he actually played great defense. He was extremely active and annoying, it looks like he regressed then.
You wanna tell me a back court of Beasley and Dame is worse defensively than Jrue and Middleton…who would have thought!!!
Middleton being injured hurts the bucks bad.
Saving this post for 79 games from now when this team has 50+ wins lol y’all are idiots have some self awareness.