Why Bucks HAD TO CUT Damian Lillard: Reaction to Myles Turner & Giannis Antetokounmpo pairing

Why Bucks HAD TO CUT Damian Lillard: Reaction to Myles Turner & Giannis Antetokounmpo pairing

What’s up, guys? Thanks as always for supporting the show. It would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss any more of our videos. Also, make sure you follow us all over social media so you don’t miss any of our content or show announcements. So, the Milwaukee Bucks actually managed to pull off an emergency pivot to give Giannis one last shot. I was kind of over the course of the summer when I heard the reporting that Giannis was not going to consider requesting a trade. As I was looking at the situation, it was impossible to even conceptualize a way for them to bring in the talent that they needed to actually compete in the Eastern Conference. And we’re going to talk about whether or not this is enough talent because I still have my question marks. But even under those circumstances, this is better than I could have expected them to do. Now, they’ll pay a price. They broke out. The way they did this, they dug way deep into the CBA to find a provision that hasn’t been used in many years in the NBA. They waved and stretched Damen Lillard. What that means is his $113 million remaining on the on his contract, instead of paying it this season and next season, they’re going to spread that out over five seasons and wave Damen Lillard. This then creates the cap space that they needed to poach Miles Turner from the Indiana Pacers at four years in $107 million. So like the thing that we didn’t consider, the thing that I didn’t consider, the thing that again we haven’t even seen because there’s a price to pay there. Five years from now, that’s a long time. You can imagine when you look at I mean I see Lakers fans complaining looking at the payroll because Jared Vanderbilt is on the books for 11 million or whatever and he’s playing for them actually in the rotation. Imagine paying you know 20 something million for Damen Lillard four years from now five years from now and how that can handicap you. So they paid a price in order to do this but for what it’s worth under the circumstances you have Giannis. Giannis has committed to stay with you instead of requesting a trade. you had to do something. This ended up opening up the cap space for them to make that sort of move. Now, before we get into some of the specifics, they also retained Gary Trent Jr., Torian Prince, Kevin Porter Jr., Bobby Portoris, and Jericho Sims all on team friendly deals. So, that’s good. They got some discounts on on some specific guys. I think Gary Trent at that number is a really good deal considering how he shot the ball at stretches in the postseason. Bobby Portoris, I think you could talk yourself into being worth a little bit more on the open market. You got some team friendly deals and you do use the wave and stretch position. All of a sudden, you have the ability to bring in some more talent. So, we’ll talk about uh uh Miles Turner here in a second, but they also get Gary Harris on a two-year deal. He’s a minor upgrade in perimeter athleticism. I wouldn’t call him a needle mover anymore at this point in his career, but he’s a good player at that position. They’ve been really weak on the ball handling front. So they end up making another move today. They trade Pat Coneton for Vzilla J Meic. Meich is theoretically a guy who brings in some ball handling. I haven’t seen that come to fruition in any real way in the NBA yet, but he’ll have another opportunity to do so here in uh in Milwaukee. My feelings are complicated. First of all, the number for Miles Turner, I’m not super worried about it. 27 million per year is basically the running rate for the middle tier of starting centers in the NBA. Look at what Isaiah Hartinstein got. Look at what Nick Claxton got. Hell, you got Turner for less than what the Wolves resigned Rudy Gobear for. And I just think Miles Turner is a better player than Rudy Gobear. So, he’s definitely an upgrade over Brook Lopez, but he did struggle with foot speed at various points in the playoffs. You guys remember he struggled a little bit coming up to the level against Oklahoma City. Now, I will say he did better up at the level when there was less ball pressure than he did when he had to go cover up at the level against a ball screen 40, 50, sometimes 60 feet away from the basket. So, there are some scheme things that Milwaukee can do to make life easier for Miles, but Miles is not exactly what I would consider a quickfooted center. And so, there will be some of the similar transition issues, but you also have to look at what’s available. Miles Turner was the best available center in the free agent market at this point. So at this point, you didn’t have an option to be able to just go like freely sign a rim running the floor athletic big like a Nick Claxton. He’s not a free agent right now, right? So you only have access to what’s available on the market. And Miles is flawed. He has his issues, but he’s definitely an upgrade. It’s a fair price for what his position typically demands at his skill level. It’s it’s far from perfect, but it’s what you can do in this situation. Then you look at how open the Eastern Conference is. You can talk yourself into in this East where you have a flawed Knicks team at the top and you have a flawed Cavs team at the top and the Pacers are down and the Celtics are down. You you basically look at it as an open conference with a chance for you to make a deeper run. But ultimately, even though they found a way to add some talent, I just don’t think this team is good enough yet to get the job done, I still think they have a severe ball handling deficiency. You’re going to have a lot of Kevin Porter Jr. on the ball. I like Kevin Porter Jr. uh in the fit with Giannis and Tennako. He had moments there last year where his change of pace and his size and his ability to put uh defenders in jail on his backside unlocked some things for Giannis on the role and in general that were just different than what we saw with Dame because Damon can be kind of one speed and super fast as and less of that change of pace. There was some stuff with Kevin Porter Jr. that worked with Giannis. Kevin Porter Jr. is going to be one of the worst lead guards in the conference. Like that’s that that’s just a fact, right? you go to Vasil Jamich there theoretically, you know, a a slow pull-up shooting passing um a perimeter ball handler, that’s just not going to be much to compete in an Eastern Conference that has some high level ball handling towards the top. So, like I admire the effort. Hell, you went deep into the rule book to add some talent to this team. But I think this story probably ends with a mediocre Bucks team and Giannis eventually requesting a trade. I again, this is going to be fascinating. I’m looking forward to watching them, seeing what they’ve got. But are they as good as the Cavs? I don’t think so. Are they as good as the Knicks? I don’t think so. What about Orlando now having brought in Desmond Bane and another year of internal improvement and maybe a healthy Jaylen Suggs. We’re about to talk about some Atlanta Hawks when we get into our rapid fire segment. The Atlanta Hawks have brought in some more firepower. They are now a dangerous team in the Eastern Conference. I just don’t see it as being enough. But I will applaud the Bucks for bringing in more talent than I actually thought they were going to be capable of bringing in in this off seasonason under the circumstances.

Jason reacts to the Milwaukee Bucks’ shocking move to waive and stretch Damian Lillard’s contract to open up cap space to sign Myles Turner from the Indiana Pacers to pair with Giannis Antetokounmpo. He discusses why it’s such an odd move but why the Bucks may have had no choice in order to keep Giannis from requesting a trade.

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