Revisiting the Damian Lillard trade and checking in on Jrue Holiday
On today’s locked on bucks the allstar game has passed Damen Lillard with a breakout performance over the weekend so what better time than now to revisit that trade that brought Damen Lillard to Milwaukee check in on Drew holiday see the progress of both these teams and
These players and get into a lot of the questions that hang over that deal cille and I get into that after this unlocked on bucks you are locked on bucks your daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome into locked on bucks I am
Justin Garcia you can hear me on the Bucks radio network joined as always by Camille Davis who you can also hear on the technical foul podcast as well as the carry the G in MK podcast and we thank you for making lock on bucks your first listen each and every day still
Free and available wherever you get your podcasts and viewable on YouTube as well part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day today’s lockdown bucks is brought to you by prize picks it’s the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports go to prize
Picks.com lockon NBA and use code all lowercase locked on NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 Camille we mentioned we were going to get into this conversation a couple of days ago and it really helped us out with Dam Lillard putting together the performance that he had over the weekend
But uh just taking a look back at this trade we’ll get into all angles of it but um not as if any Bucks fans need to be reminded but the deal over the almost said summer fall uh that brought Daman Lillard to the Bucks sent Drew holiday a 2029 unprotected first round pick
And two first round pick swaps to the Trailblazers you also lost Grayson Allen and part of that three team deal you get Damen Lillard and you get what could prove to be a very important piece in that 2024 second round draft pick which for all intents and purposes it’s going
To be a fake first round draft pick with where the Blazers are in the standings that’s the particulars of the deal um we’ve heard more and more NBA voices start to get into this in the last couple of weeks so I suppose it’s unfair to start off with the question first
Before we lay out our cases but knowing everything that we know now that you make this trade and you you knew you had no control over what happened with Drew but knowing he ends up in Boston do the Bucks still make this trade knowing that I think that they do because when you
Think about why they took the chance to make this trade like we have to think about what was happening in the fall during that time period right we knew the trade uh demands were made by Damen Lillard he wanted to get out of Portland um just felt like his timeline of
Looking to win a championship did not Al align with the franchises timeline of what they were trying to accomplish based on how they were constructing their roster so he want a different opportunity Portland say okay we’ll try to find it um and all you kept hearing
About was Miami like okay Dame wants to go to Miami that’s probably going to be what happens meanwhile here in Milwaukee uh Mike B holder is fired after the bugs flame out in the first round against Miami Heat um in a playoff series where the franchise and players caught a lot of
Flat just like how do you be the ones you know how are you bounced out by an ATC Miami Heat team now we see this Heat team continue to go further um so people might look back differently on how that matchup looks but I mean it’s still an
Eight seed knocking out the one seed and you see how it was done they could not stop Jimmy Butler it did not matter if Drew holiday was defending him it didn’t matter what the Bucks were throwing at him Jimmy Butler was in his Michael Jordan bag and he could not be stopped
So bugs get out early they have a lot of time to think buds gone now we’re sitting here figuring things out at the time you have to also remember that Giannis was eligible for a contract extension but at the time it was like Hey feels unlikely that that happens
Like it makes more financial sense for him to wait is what you kept hearing you kept hearing this so okay and then all of the information was coming out from jannis saying like hey I want to make sure I’m in a winning situation I want
To win I need everyone around me to show the same dedication to winning that I have some people took that as signs like there’s more smoke than normal around Yannis but uh Bucks fans who have been listening for years were like this is in the lines of what Giannis has always
Said he’s always had a uh a pulse on the franchise in that way of saying like hey as long as winning is number one thing like I don’t mind being here so all that’s on the table next thing you know the Bucks trade for Damen Lillard because an opportunity presented itself
For it to happen and horse was like if you have the opportunity to pair one top 75 NBA player with another one like you have to go and you have to do that I mean when you look at what Dame brings to the team it’s offense right it’s Dame
Time we’ve seen the clutch buckets we know the resume at this point and you think about pairing that type of point guard with a dominant force that is Giannis and it’s easy to say like this should be a very very clean fit want to go forward with this so it all makes
Sense and now that we have a sample size of the season even with Damen Lillard not shooting as well um as one may have hoped at this point or being a little bit uh more inconsistent you still in my opinion would make this trade because of the offensive weight uh that he brings
And the gravity that he creates on the court like jannis is having a career year truly his best arguably his best season of his career playing along long time Damen Lillard now and he sign that extension to stay with the franchise so there’s no more concerns at this point
About is he going to resign is he not going to resign after that Damen lard trade and him talking to his brother and figuring things out he put that ink to the paper signed that extension and I think that the Damen Lillard trade had a part to do
With that because the franchise showed like we are serious about trying to make moves to improve this team so I I guess I I’ll just put it out there first and foremost I agree with you I’m in the the same thought of yes I do think even if the Bucks knew and and
To be clear the Bucks knew Drew holiday was going to a contender right they didn’t know he was going to Boston they certainly knew that was a possibility you hoped it would be somebody like the Clippers or or a team in the Western Conference but you knew it was a
Possibility that he would go to Boston so I I do think you do have to keep that in mind with all of the and I’m sure we’ll hear more of it this week too but every time it comes up of man knowing what they know now do you think the Bucs
Make this trade when you make that type of a deal I think you do have to assume worst case scenario is going to happen but when you look back a at the Bucks offense in the postseason and we touched on this earlier in the year Camille this
Trade sure it was Damen Lillard for uh Drew holiday but it was essentially saying we need to become an offensive team that we’ve had an elite defense it won us a title one year we were a competitive team five years and we feel like we should have more than one
Championship every everybody is going to point to uh That season two years ago where you lost Chris middle when you were defending the title maybe you win the championship if you’re healthy you took the Celtics to as seven games that was the Year by the way the half court
Offense was the most problematic now you didn’t have uh Chris Middleton for most of the playoffs you played the best defense in basketball for one of those Series in seven games but that year the Bucks half court offense was was rated 18th out of 18 teams in the postseason
There were the bucks so um that’s one thing to to examine but Year bye you had a very good offense and we saw those offensive numbers start to to decline a little bit the last couple years your defense remained Elite but when you fast forward to the postseason halfcourt offensive
Efficiency in the five years under Mike buen Hol or the Bucks ranks were seventh eighth 10th 18th as we just went through um and then eighth last year now on the surface it’s well for the most part those are you know top 10 and it’s an average of 10th best halfcourt offense
Every single year and again keep in mind 16 teams make the playoffs and 20 teams make the postseason so it’s not a great spot to be in for the bucks and that was the big gamble of look we’ve seen our offense not good enough our defense has
Been Elites and it worked one year the others we came up with issues through the postseason so we need some half court shot creation Chris Middleton has basically been the guy as the only guy that c that can give us that I don’t necessarily think it was even a gamble
Or a hedge on Chris’s health so much as it was let’s just get more options in the half court you knew what it was going to do to your defense and as we’ll get into a little bit later in this week what you’re seeing now in these last two
Or three weeks is what I think all of us Envision the defense best case scenario what they would look like it’s finally starting to get there the off offense has coincidentally taken a step backward in that so long story short for me I’m in total agreement with you it’s painful
To see Drew holiday end up in the best possible situation but we will examine how Drew has played so far this season but I think knowing what we know what you gave up what it means for your future what it did for the Boston Celtics and even looking at some of the
Statistics for Damen Lillard so far which may not be what you anticipated but we’ll get into that a little bit more in the next segment as well taking all of that into account I do think if you had John H everybody in the front office and injected them with truth
Serum and were able to Corner them and get that conversation with them I do think you would get almost unanimous yes we would absolutely do this trade again because you know patience is the big word we preached throughout this season and that’s what it’s going to take some
More of as we get into this second half schedule the final third of the season to see Dam and Lillard get going and to see this offense really start to uh to click but you can’t really judge us until we see this offense in the postseason because that’s what this deal
Was made for I I mentioned the numbers for Damen Lillard and Drew holiday and a couple of things that stand out uh we will get into that conversation coming up next because there’s some interesting things we saw one game up close with a Drew holiday we’ve played Drew holiday
Twice with the Celtics but you saw that one game or half I should say in Milwaukee a couple couple of things we talked about it after the game at the time but some more things that stand out about Drew holiday’s production would that carry over if he was on the buck
This season and vice versa for Damen Lillard as well we will get into those conversations coming up next unlocked on bucks well time to talk to you now about prize picks they are the easiest and America’s number one fantasy sports app with over 3 million members easy and
Most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports it’s just you against the numbers all you have to do is pick more than or less than on two to six player sta projections and watch the winnings roll in it is demon time on prize picks and
You can now win up to 100 times your money with as little as four correct picks you can turn $10 into 1,000 demons and goblins are the newest and most exciting way to play at prize picks squares marked with Red Demons or Green Goblins get you different payouts and
You can now win up to 100 times your money with as little as four correct picks uh players and Stat types that you can choose from a number of them you can combine Sports as well if you wanted to look at teams Sports you name it you can
Lump in National Hockey League in the NBA with goals scored and three-pointers made you can go all NBA Steph Curry threes and Damen Lillard threes and hedge those together there are a number of options and fun ways you can engage with prize picks just go to prize.com
Lockon NBA and use the code locked on NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 that website again is priz picks.com lockon NBA and the code locked on NBA use that code for a first deposit match up to 100 $100 prize picks pick more pick less it is simply that
Easy and we’ll remind you as well lockdown has launched the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel on YouTube it’s now also available on Amazon Fire TV in the free Fire TV channels app lock on sports today here for you 247 covering the top stories of
The day with the local Experts of lockon plus our shows that cover every single League find locked on sports today now available on the free Fire TV channels app all right Camille taking a look at these numbers here uh Damen Lillard we spent a little bit of time on
Yesterday’s show talking about what we’d seen from Dame you mentioned the number of Threes that he hit this weekend in the Three-Point Shootout and the All-Star game it’s a third of the three-pointers that he has hit for the season as a whole so again you hope that’s what gets uh Damen Lillard really
Going here only played 58 games a season ago he’s been very durable this season and that’s one of the bigger positives is you know you did wonder with the age he and Drew holiday the same age but for Dame especially 58 games played last year only 29 the season before that
Played in 67 in that 72 Game season and 66 when I believe the Blazers played around the same amount of games in the co shortened year um so so the durability wasn’t really a question until the last two years a core injury was a big part of it but still given his
Age given those previous two years you had to carry that question of I wonder how many games you’re gonna have Damen Lillard out there is it going to take him some time to get going the good news is he has been durable and knock on wood that that doesn’t change in these final
Nearly 30 games it’s been very streaky and I think most any Blazers fan would tell you not only the slow start to open the year but he can be incredibly streaky and I think the challenge for the bucks is in Portland it was easy to feed Damen Lillard when he was the hot
Hand and here in Milwaukee you have this guy named Giannis and you have Chris Middleton and even Brook Lopez not to say they are on the same level of scorer as Damen Lillard but there are simply more mouths to feed and I think that’s been one of the challenges for Dame to
Get acclimated absolutely he’s mentioned that himself about like what is it like coming to Milwaukee pros and cons of playing with Giannis and the only con that he mentioned that I heard and he didn’t even want to say it was a con he said it’s more of the challenge it’s
When you have two alpha guys who are used to having the ball in their hands they are both used to being the guy you put them together and there’s going to be a level of sacrifice that’s required now with that being said uh we have seen as I mentioned Giannis is having career
Numbers so far this year it’s a lot easier I think for Giannis to be able to adjust uh to this role because he is able to the ball in his hand he screener roller he’s able to still do Giannis things but Dame as you mentioned uh this might be
The most Talent uh that he has played around on a team and I don’t want to disrespect any of those older Portland team I’ll do it for you I think all right cool all right but you know it’s different it’s different when you’re sharing the court with a Giannis rather
Than a Lamarcus aldrid it’s different when you’re out there next to Chris Middleton at this point as well when he’s a third option um if you put it into a pecking order so Dame’s adjusting to that and in addition I know people don’t want to hear about the off- thec
Court things that are going on in his life and how difficult of an adjustment it has been for him going from Portland to Milwaukee where in Portland he had a whole his whole support system his whole family moved out there pretty much who lived nearby him his mom his kids
Cousins close family members uh to leave that and to come here to Milwaukee start fresh learn a new system and then on top of that you’ve now gone through two coaches uh in the same system in the same year so you’re trying to adjust to that I actually just finished watching
The Giannis uh Prime documentary that he just put out today same story that we’ve heard a lot of times but told by him and his family and jannis pointed to the Knicks game when his parents and his brothers finally came back uh came to the USA for the first time and they
First saw him play and he was like I had a career game that day because I was finally happy like I was really happy and I was able to really focus on the game and really play and hearing him say that then and thinking about like what
Dame is going through now of course very different situations but both of these guys are family guys um so Dame has been honest and vulnerable and open about the fact like hey this has been a big adjustment for me um and I’m I’m struggling a little bit trying to figure
It out but I’m going to get to it and that’s what I think about a lot with Dame and it’s like it’s an adjustment for him coming into this situation but we know the talent that He has and that’s why you bring him here you mentioned like the the ability to create
His own shot and he is the best shot Creator like on this team he can get to it in three different levels so I think it’s just gonna take a little bit more time at this point like we’re getting there like you’re seeing the seeds of it
You you hear doc River saying Hey I want to unlock Dame in this offense and while we’ve seen the offensive numbers take a step back under Dame or under dock so far I do have faith that they can figure that out and get that back up and continue to build that chemistry between
The two of them yeah the the number um for Damen Lillard when when you look at season by season we spent some time talking about the shooting percentages what you saw for the first roughly 30 games of the season when the Bucs were very good a 24- six record in those
Games that DNE played in and his numbers much better than what we’ve seen since January 1 but that last part that you mentioned um you have seen it it’s tough to aggregate all these games and look at the numbers but in games where Damen Lard has returned from a layoff that
Game that we ref Ed as well when he came back from some time away where he was back with his family even right after Portland um that’s where we’ve seen the numbers start to grow for Damen Lillard and that has to do with his mental health and and his happiness on the
Basketball court um again not to say that Damen Lillard’s not happy in Milwaukee and you can you can see the signs with his body language all things considered it’s it’s a tough year everything that Damen Lillard is going through and I think that’s really shown on the court so again you brought Damen
Lillard in for the Post season has he been consistently the impactful player that you envisioned at the time of the trade I suppose that’s a complicated question if you’re basing it just off of his numbers then no um but as as you referenc the efficiency from Giannis and
The way that Giannis is played you cannot discount Damen Lillard or Malik Beasley’s spacing for that matter in what they’ve done to create some room for Giannis so I I do think you have to weigh that somewhat in your analysis of what you’ve seen from Damen Lillard is
Look he’s he’s helping Giannis eat a lot more and and a lot more healthy for Giannis in in the way that his efficiency has been there now in the case of Drew holiday um one of the numbers that really snuck up on me for Drew was his three-point shooting that he’s up to
44% this season on threes but what does stand out about those numbers and and makes it very very interesting is where Drew holiday is getting those threes from and again this speaks to at the time of the trade you and and me and Kane all talked about this Camille of
You know it’s it’s tough because Boston’s a very good fit for Drew holiday and that you’re not going to have to lean on him to be an offensive Creator uh that was always going to be the shortcoming of Drew we saw that in that playoff series I referenced against
The Celtics where the Bucks had an 85.8 halfcourt offensive rating Drew holiday was your secondary option that’s not his strength not not at this point in his career not at any points in his career he is a defensive guy that can give you supplemental scoring and that’s
What stood out is he has not been a primary option you’ve had Jason Tatum an up and down season but you still got Jaylen Brown Chris daps porzingis has been healthy and Incredibly impactful even Derek white he’s had some ups and downs but he gives you another guy right
Around the same level offensively of Drew holiday it’s minimized the ask you’ve seen his shot attempts go down by nearly a thir thir per game he’s only getting up about 10 field goal attempts per game this season is Drew holiday 13 points per game that Drew holiday is
Averaging here would be uh the fewest amount he has averaged at 13.1 since his rookie season with the 76ers and in terms of anything close you’d have to go back to the 16 17 season when he averaged 15 uh points per game since then he’s been very close to
20 points per game annually but I mentioned that 44% three point shooting it’s coming from the corners he is taking 44% of his threes from the corner where it is much easier to hit where we did not see quite as much from Drew holiday a season ago with the Bucks and
Again it has to do with the looks where you’re going to have defenses in the Bucks that load up on Giannis and you’ll live with some Drew holiday shots but in the case of the Celtics you’ll live with Drew holiday shots more than that you’ll give Drew holiday the shots compared to
The other guys that are on the floor and I think that’s what’s really standing out the most what I would caution is you know as we’ve experienced in the past and I’m sure as some Bucks fans and non Buck fans will point to now and say well
Same’s going to apply to Malik Beasley is it works in the regular season it’s a much different look in the postseason when you’re the non-trusted shooter yeah absolutely I mean that there’s a reason that Malik Beasley did not make it into the Lakers playoff rotation last year and they made a Deep
Run and you would have thought that surrounding LeBron James and ad uh with shooting is something that would be beneficial for them in the playoffs but it just wasn’t feasible to get Beasley on the court uh for them because of the defense because of the streakiness of
The shooting at that time so it is something to keep an eye on uh going forward excuse me but um with thinking about that in the postseason like what we the thing with it is that we know the Bucks postseason formula that they did have it met its expiration date it felt like
Like this was not going to be sustainable going forward especially looking at the way that the league has evolved with so much offensive Talent like you’re going to have to keep up and I think when you’re thinking about the math of swapping out Drew with Dame is
You’re thinking like hey well at least behind Dame we’re going to have Giannis and Brooke we’re going to have two like defensive stalwarts behind him to help try to clean that up and as we’ve mentioned under doc the Bucks defense has Rosen up to the 12th best defense um
In the league over that time period so um you see again you see it coming into focus of how this can work defensively for this team and then you think offensively again it’s about the postseason that’s what they’re being built for that’s what they’re here for that’s why they’re paying three coaches
Because it’s all about getting into the postseason and trying to win a championship there’s a level of urgency here so you get D in there and now you’re looking at the regular season you’re trying to see like can you like get hot like can we start to see
How this can mold and together by the postseason like this is an NBA 2K where you make a trade and everything just instantly is good like there’s the chemistry there’s figuring things out and again a coaching change I think that the All-Star break came at a really good
Time for this team um one being able to get some time to rest but also having some time off being able to reflect getting a chance to come in have a practice before you get back on the court um and really get ready and get your mindset ready for the next you know
Third of the season that’s leading into that playoff push so like we’re going to have to see how this Milwaukee Bucks current backc Court looks come postseason um but we’re using the regular season to try to see what trends we can find see what we can look at to
Say hey if this happens come postseason they’re going to be okay so this last third of the season is going to be a really uh good test for them especially because we know they have the toughest schedule in the Eastern Conference so they’re going to be seeing a high level
Of competition leading up into the playoffs as well a couple other numbers to share about Drew holiday and Damian Lillard we will get into that and again just try to take a look at the postseason because that’s what both of these teams made these moves for two of
The three teams involved I should say in the Bucks and the Celtics so we’ll get into that as we wrap up the show after this on lockdown bucks this episode of Locked on bucks is sponsored by better help and uh look sometimes we all need the opportunity to get something off our
Chest big or small certain things can really start to get to you it’s important to let that out especially to someone who’s unbiased on your life so today I want to say how I really feel about something you might even be about thinking about the same thing this week
Better help allows you to identify those topics that allow you to be yourself therapy can be different for everyone most of us have bigger problems than our favorite sports team and it’s important to get those things off your chest every once in a while if you’re thinking of
Starting therapy give better help a try it’s entirely onlineed it is designed to be flexible and most importantly suited to your schedule all you have to do to get started is visit betterhelp.com lockon NBA and you’ll get 10% off your first match it could not possibly be
Easier and more beneficial to you more importantly again they tailor things to your schedule you can find a licensed therapist online within minutes you can cancel and move on at any moment or find a new therapist as well as better help has made it all that easy visit
Betterhelp.com lockon NBA again that is betterhelp hp.com locked on NBA and again you’ll get 10% off your first month at better help so as we start to wrap this up here um Camille we mentioned the the jarring numbers of the 44% three-point shooting for Drew holiday and how his efficiency
Has come from the corners he’s in the 100th percentile in three-point shooting from the corner 62% on his Corner threes and again that’s one of the most efficient shots in the league it is the easiest three-point shot in the league but to be shooting at 62% from the corners is remarkable last
Year he shot 44% on Corner threes with the Bucks the year prior to that 34 36 prior to that 41 his final year in New Orleans he has never had a year where he has shot higher than uh 45% on Corner threes and this year he’s up to
62% from the corners uh so that’s the remarkable part that we’re seeing from Drew holiday again you know what to expect defensively the offense he’s he’s hitting the open shots you do wonder what it’s going to start to look like in the postseason and the other thing is I
Don’t think any of us are the the right judge on this that I’ve seen some Drew holiday I have not seen nowhere near as much as we did for the last three seasons I I caution to even say it it does seem as though and it happens to
All of us that maybe he’s a step behind behind where he was in Seasons past when you think about the age he’s the same age as Damen Lillard the amount of playoff games and the way that he plays defense it doesn’t seem like it’s something that is sustainable for a long
Period of time but again you do also wonder if it’s let’s just save this for the postseason so that’s the caution I would throw out there with Damen Lillard we’ve gone over the numbers we’ve gone over his streakiness by month we’ve gone over the looks that he’s created for
Jannis I think the big thing here and and we’ll get into this much more later on in the week when we talk about big picture for this team but I think we’ve heard enough from Doc Rivers to get the sense that his big Initiative for the second half schedule post All-Star game
Is to get Damen Lillard going in a number of venues where he has said things along the lines of look I told him don’t worry about fitting in we need to fit in around you you need to be more aggressive what we talked about on yesterday’s show too with Shaq having
That message of Dame of look you got to own this it’s on you and Giannis to take this home I do think all these things are going to resonate and especially with Doc and the way this offense has struggled the big operative is how do we
Get Damen Lillard unlocked how do we do that without suffering too much of giannis’s efficiency but you can sense for Doc Rivers it’s important that we need the ball in Dame’s hands more and we just need Dame to start to be more aggressive the last thing I’ll point out
You know it’s not great but when you look at his shot quality and you look at second Spectrum for this it is identical last year versus this year so in other words he’s getting the same type of quality looks and what you would anticipate to go in the shots attempted
Have declined per game Giannis is a big part of that having Chris Middleton is a big part of that so you know when you look at his his frequency of getting to the rim and things like that that we’ve talked about I think the big encouraging piece is he has been streaking in
Shooting the basketball he always is but by and large the quality of shots he’s getting are not that different from what he was seeing in Portland when he was facing even more of the attention so once he starts to find his Hot Zone I think that bodess well for a bigger
Turnaround in the post Allstar break schedule and that’s the Hope because I mean look at Dame again 37% three-point shooter during this time in Portland during his career so far leading up to this year here in Milwaukee he’s shooting on the season about 34% from three so a little bit lower than
What you’ve seen in Portland but the thing at watching as a bugs fan like we broke down the month by month splits like you combine October November I know folks listen yesterday’s show have heard these numbers but maybe there are some new people here just to bring you guys
Up the speed uh here in Milwaukee with Dame October November that was 17 games he shot 32.9% from three on 8.6 attempts the month of December the Bucs went uh 11 and2 who uh with Dame I believe it is over those 13 games he shot 43.1% on 8.9
Attempts he was shooting the ball really well from three in December here it comes 2024 in January he was shooting 27.8% on 8.4 attempts so far in the month of February 32.6% on 7.7 attempts so when you’re looking at all of that you’re like wow
It’s been up and down in that since like you haven’t seen a steady Inc or increase in the numbers you haven’t seen um you know just a consistent like hey he’s getting you 35% from three game in and game out you’re seeing some games where he’s efficient some games where
It’s not falling for him but you want to see him keep shooting it what you want is for him to get comfortable in the system and you mentioned the shot profile and that’s really encouraging to hear that he’s getting some of the same looks and we’ve heard him mention that
He’s still uncomfortable a bit um so you want him to find that Comfort level because again NBA basketball you’re shooting like you can shoot the same theall at the same time and it might go and it might not you can look at shot doctor you can try to figure out the
Science behind what you were doing with your hand this time and why it didn’t go but um comfort is a piece of that like you have to be clear and knowing your role what you’re doing and it seems like more clarity uh is coming Dame’s way
Around that as well so I’m hoping that the allstar break here with him winning Three-Point Contest with him being the MVP of the allstar game hearing the booze from the Indie crowd uh soaking all that in which by the way I loved the fact that they booed him um there I love
That little robbery feeling between the Bucks and the Pacers and their fans so I was here for that but you’re you’re hoping that all of that and him understanding like hey I heard in history that uh the last time a Bucs player won the All-Star MVP that was
Jannis they went on to win a championship I’m hoping we can repeat history like he’s here he understands what he’s here for he wants it um and we’ve heard this team talk about wanting it and now they have to show it because under Griff and under doc we have seen
Some games where the effort doesn’t look like they really want it but now it’s like hey it’s crunch time like you have all been talking about wanting to get to this moment this is the playoff push now we’re getting here the games are getting realer the competition is ramp ramping
Up what are you going to do with it and Damen Lillard is one of those types of guys that when the pressure continues to go up he enjoys to perform so I’m hoping that all of that but we talked about him getting more comfortable looking at the
Shot profile that he’s taking looking at how he’s been playing with Giannis that they continue to grow um and they round into form in the next month or so as the playoffs are getting ready to start yeah and um a couple things to note before we
Do sign off here in in in reasons for optimism um his effective field goal percentage for Dame has gone down by about six points and that again has to do with the three-point percentage that is has dipped and it’s been very inconsistent up and down so far this
Season but where you would have encouraging uh feelings coming from this and especially as we make that comparison of well H how is he going to age versus how Drew holiday is going to age here so Drew holiday is shooting 62% at The Rim this season not bad Daman
Lillard um for that matter is shooting 61% at The Rim the big difference is Drew was a 69% shooter at The Rim um last season with the Bucks and really when you look at where his shots were coming from it was in the mid-60s for most of his
Career his size I know he’s only technically an inch larger than a Dame is but he has that physicality so he gets two-thirds or more of his shots near the rim um or or shoots at 60 plus percent there but it’s D it’s dipped pretty dramatically this season for uh
Drew holiday for Dame the percentage pretty much on par relatively flat to where it was a season ago but we’re also o seen Drew’s attempts at The Rim slowly declining in the mid-range as well whereas Damen Lillard so far this season has remained pretty constant in terms of
The amount of field goal attempts he’s taking at The Rim I think the big thing would be look we got to get those threes to come up and to your point that’s taking those open looks and that’s being more aggressive Doc Rivers made that point as well of I don’t want you to
Pass up a good luck to get your teammates involved I understand getting the ball M here that’s going to be important but when you get a good look you need to take it because that’s the best look that we’re going to get and I think that numbers the numbers bear that
Out he’s he’s taken less threes so far this season about 45% of his attempts have been threes last few years it was 50% um and same with mid-range those have started to creep up as well so just getting him those three-point looks is going to be the big thing for this team
Um moving forward but the consensus for us is uh yes I would still do the trade Camille you would still do the trade I think that’s where most of us are as well and look you just got to wait to see this in the postseason but again it
Has to do with those numbers we gave you at the top of the show we’re the half court offense rated for the bucks ranked for the bucks in those five postseason trips average of 10th out of 16 teams not good enough so you had an elite
Defense you had a so so offense and to your point of you just got to do something different it’s like when you have that that band that group that artist out there that just puts out the same Album Time After Time After Time when it’s yeah this is good but man this
This feels like the same thing we did two albums ago and that was the buck recognition of let’s try something different let’s try a new sound maybe it doesn’t work but we got to try it we can’t just keep doing the uh the same old same old uh coming up on tomorrow’s
Show we’re gonna take a closer look at Doc Rivers the numbers that we’ve seen since this coaching change what’s real what do we expect to drop off what do we expect to take a step step forward and again that tough tough schedule for the
Bucks the uh the rest of the way and I do believe we’re still working on finalizing it but we will have a very very special guest joining us later this week on the show uh for Camille I am Justin we’ll talk to you once again tomorrow with more locked on bucks
Justin and Camille reexamine the trade that brought Damian Lillard to the Bucks and (eventually) sent Jrue Holiday to the Celtics. How would you assess the play of both guys on their new teams, what has been notable about their individual performance and most importantly, would you still make this trade today knowing everything you know. We tackle that and dig into the numbers on the latest Locked On Bucks
Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOBucks?sid=YouTube
Locked On NBA League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, WNBA & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNBA
#MilwaukeeBucks #Bucks #GiannisAntetokounmpo #NBA
15 Comments
Dame is nothing but drama and attention seeker. This dude craves attention 🙆🤷🤣🙄🤔🤦. Jrue Holiday didn't have this kind of drama around him. Yes, the media doesn't call out Dame but want blame Giannis for no reason. But guess what? I like Giannis but he never learns. Fair criticizim or not, i don't care anymore. I hope the media slams him for Jrue. Not gonna defend him on this one. And don't let Jrue Holiday win another ring. I like Giannis but if Jrue wins another ring then for sure I'll celebrate. I'm sorry. Giannis is my favorite player but I want Jrue to beat him period.
Remember Jimmy Butler cooked Jrue in the last playoff. So, the Bucks had a good reason to rebuild their roster.
I think that the trade for Damian Lillard hasn't worked out well for the Milwaukee Bucks and made the Milwaukee Bucks look like a laughingstock. The Milwaukee Bucks made a mistake in trading Jrue Holiday and then hiring Adrian Griffin who had no NBA head coaching experience and that was not a good head coaching hire for a team that is looking to win an NBA championship now. It also doesn't help that the Milwaukee Bucks are stuck paying Khris Middleton, who has shown that he is injury prone of late.
333ee
33
I can't believe you said we got Dame for the post season lol, Dame is at his worst in the playoffs.
It will be determined in the playoffs
justin cooking
Idk I still don’t think this will work
Dame is terrible when playoffs start
Yea I want jrue to beat Giannis as well
If Middleton was not greatly diminished the Dame trade would have been great.Giannis #1 option,Middleton 2nd option and Dame 3rd option.That's how I thought thought things would be.With Middleton diminished there is no realistic chance for a chip.
Celtics won the trade. Then dame has the nerve to come out all star weekend hitting half court shots meanwhile he’s stinking up the joint during the season lol
How can we talk about the trade when we haven’t even hit the playoffs yet? Crazy talk
I've been a locked on fan for a couple of years now. I liked the mariners one because they would call them out when they're flailing.
These two are wayyyy too apologetic. You're not doing your job if you're softballing everything.
Be truly balanced or you'll never grow this channel