Assessing How the Bucks Roster Fit and Talent Compares to Two Longtime East Rivals
Three teams in the Eastern Conference linked for years are going to continue to be linked. At least we think. We’ll explain what we mean coming up after this on Locked 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’m Justin Garcia joined as always by Camille Davis. You can hear me throughout the season on the Bucks Radio Network. You can hear Camir Camille year round on the Locked on NBA show and the Technical File podcast as well. If you’re just joining us, we are the only daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast out there for you. So, please like and subscribe if you’re new. It helps us immensely. Today’s episode brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code locked on&nba atmononey.com for 50% off your first year. For the last um bordering on decade now, Camille, man, time certainly flies. Um we’ve had like the Bucks and any combination of two of three teams have always been circling each other and hovering around there. And to a lesser extent earlier in the run, I think you could push it to five teams, but it has seemingly been the Bucks, the Sixers, the Celtics, and the Miami Heat. And for like a two to threeear stretch, two of those teams are the Bucks top rivals. And it changes a little bit coming into this season. Um, we did not discuss that at all. And that was not really top of mind last year other than talking about, well, you know, the Celtics are really good. Um, we think it’s going to be can the Bucks catch the Celtics and then Philly’s off season makes them interesting, but it wasn’t so much the rivalry between those teams. Um, I get the sense it’s going to be meaningful this year that with all the focus on the Pacers, the Cavaliers, the teams in the Bucks division that are continuing to get better. Sixers and Celtics are two teams that depending on who you ask should be finishing around where the Bucks do this season. So those games are going to carry more meaning uh be more meaningful and they’re going to be more interesting because it does appear these two teams have both branched off into very interesting directions similar to what we’ve seen from the books. Yeah, they really have. I mean, if you uh if you subscribe to what Shams is is selling on ESPN right now, it’s you know, the Bugs might be having some more some more upheaval themselves. But no, uh seriously though, um it’s interesting to think about just how the landscape can change so quickly. Um in the East, even going into last season, those teams were still seen as teams that could really be competitive in the East, seen as threats. Miami is probably the one of those four that was kind of like, “All right, Miami, like, let’s kind of see what you can do here.” But Boston was coming off a championship. So like you give Boston the edge there. Philly, they made the big splash last off seasonason to bring in Paul George in and having this big three and on paper a lot of it made sense. You had the Bucks going in year two with Dame. Um and then you had Miami that was still, you know, Jimmy Butler, Bam, and Tyro Tyro Hero. And then everything happened during the season to kind of break them down. And now you’re in a spot where those four teams, what the future holds for them this upcoming season is up for debate by a lot of people depending on like your your lititness test of like how well you see these teams possibly doing like for a Boston with no Tatum traded Porzingis, traded Drew Holiday. Like you’re losing so many key pieces of your championship team there. So it’s like what do you couple together and what should expectations be in Boston Philly? There are still questions with Joel Embiid’s knee and what’s going to go on with that. Um, the ESPN article that came out that was like a feature on Embiid a few weeks ago that really shone a light into what’s happening raised a lot more questions for me out of that. Um, and then you have the Bucks here who are a team that, you know, just waved and stretched Damen Lillard. They’re now moving into an era for honestly like the first time in the Giannis MVP range where it’s like it’s Giannis and then you can’t really point to anyone else is like a guaranteed second or third option. The pips. Yeah. Like it’s it’s Giannis. So like there are so many different questions and trying to predict how it all like unfolds this upcoming season. I think it’s going to be a really interesting like discussion and conversation and like exercise of really trying to figure out where do all these teams rank because honestly I feel like those four teams are kind of within they could be in the same tier. I would have the Bucks probably a bit higher over those teams personally the fourth team. You said it’s the fourth team. Miami is the fourth team you’re talking about. Yeah. Because they got more foul this off season. Like you could talk yourself into some things. I don’t think they got worse. They certainly did not get worse. So, it’s just how much better did they get? Uh, but it’s it’s interesting with these three teams, specifically the Bucks, the Sixers, and the Celtics. And I said there was even a fifth team early on. I mean, you think back to the first couple of years of this era, it was the Bucks and the Raptors. And especially last year, and the Raptors were a team that felt like, okay, even though they lost Kawaii, they’re loaded with this young talent that they can do something. And it’s it I don’t even know what has happened in Toronto, but it’s led to regime change, front office shifting, and a team that just kind of feels like they’re stuck in mud. So, there’s still a little bit of juice there to Miami, them not being the team they hope to be the past couple years certainly takes away from that, but the playoffs does not. Uh, but those two teams specifically, the Sixers and the Celtics are pretty interesting comps for two different reasons. Now, I wouldn’t even say unassalable. We fall into that trap all the time. And remember a couple of years ago, it was it was always the Bucks and the Sixers and a third team or the Bucks, the Nets, and a third team. And it’s it’s never that third team. Somebody jumped up. Last year, it wasn’t the Celtics and the Sixers, right? So, the year prior it wasn’t the Bucks and the Celtics. Um, so I don’t think it’s easy as saying, well, we know Cavs, Knicks, and Magic in no particular order are going to be one through three. I think there’s a very strong chance at that. And I mean, honestly, if there were any team that dropped out of that group, I would almost say Cleveland, but more kind of by design to tinker with some things during the regular season. I am very curious to see what Mike Brown’s movement offense looks like with a lot of ball stoppers in New York. So maybe it’s them. Um, but the point of it is nobody is going to place the Bucks in that tier. Nobody is going to place the Celtics in that tier, even with the unanswered questions. And maybe you could make a case the Sixers have the highest ceiling because what if it comes together? What if Joel’s healthy? What if Paul George has a bounceback year? Nobody’s going to put them in that tier. And we’ve heard some news around both of those teams in the past couple of days. And I’ve seen a decent amount of people putting both of those teams in front of the Bucks. So, the purpose of this is to look at those two rosters and say, “Okay, nothing changes or if it’s leaning towards what’s the Rumblings are coming out of Philly, if it’s leaning towards the Rumblings coming out of Boston, how do these teams compare to the Bucks as presently constructed?” So, we’ll take a look at what each of these two teams did because there’s one thing that stands out to me, Camille, that no one is talking about that has a lot of hope for one team. We’ll get into that discussion coming up after this on Locked on Bucks. Time to talk to you now about our friends over at Monarch Money, today’s show sponsor. And look, if you’ve ever felt like managing your money and your wealth needs to be easier, Monarch Money is here to tell you it can’t. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch Money puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. 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There’s no concerns over his athletic I should say questions. No concerns or questions over his athleticism and defense. But they bring him in. They kept Eric Gordon. Uh they kept Lonnie Walker the fourth. They still have Adam Dembona coming over from last year and some of the growth that he showed. Paul George is back on uh year number two of that contract. They retained Andre Drummond and Kelly Ubé. You got Jared McCain coming back from his uh injury and they kept Justin Edwards too who was I believe a restricted free agent and showed a lot of flash last year down the stretch. So largely same group as back here in Philly. And I think what they’re going to sell you on is what VJ Edgecom is going to give them with some defensive lineups. Uh chemistry and continuity. The same thing I’d be lying if I said we weren’t preaching that for the Bucks last year. And a healthy Jared McCain who for a down rookie class was trending towards rookie of the year. Um, and then the hope that Paul George, who is by the way going to miss all of camp and it sounds like all the preseason and and miss maybe sometime early in the season, but Paul George bounces back and Joel Embiid stays healthy. Now, there was a report just last week that there is the opposite of growing optimism that there’s starting to be some concern setting in um with the status of Joel Embiid’s knee. I think we’re all kind of there, right? We talked about it whenever we count the Bucks of the Sixers that I think you have to assume go forward he is probably a 45 to 50 games a year type of guy and and just how long can that hold up? So they’re in to me the most interesting spot of any of these teams because while we have the Giannis future debate that keeps getting shoehorned in from outsiders. I mean that’s it. the Bucks have purged their roster of the other play styles you wanted to get away from that you said, “Well, we’re kind of one foot in this door, one foot in the other.” Um, their bad contracts are largely gone. There’s one you can point to that I’m not sure it becomes a bad contract in June. Um, and they’re pretty set of look, as long as Giannis wants to be here, this is what we’re doing. Celtics still have enough of a young core with the questions we’ll get to. But with Philly, this all hinges on Joel Embiid. And it’s almost like you got to make a decision right now. Like what is the team we’re doing? Are we still trying to build around Joel and his timeline? Because that’s where Paul George makes sense or is this Tyrese Maxi and let’s see what develops in Jared McCain and VJ Edge come. And if that’s the case, we’re need we’re going to need to look to selling for what 40 cents on the dollar at this point for these two contracts of Paul George and Joel Embiid. Yeah, it’s to your point like it’s kind of like a two timeline situation there. Like the Paul George signing makes sense with a healthy Joel Embiid to continue to pair him with. And then you have Maxi who has shown like, hey, I can definitely be somebody who makes an impact on the game. and you’re kind of building with them being your three best players going forward. If there was no Joel Embiid, I think that it drastically lowers the ceiling for the Sixers this upcoming season in large part because it’s still a roster constructed to be like, hey, we have some exciting young guards there. And that’s the part of the team for me when looking at their roster where I’m like, okay, this is kind of you have something here. You have something with Maxi. You have something with Jared McCain. BJ Edgecomb looks like an athletic like just crazy athlete. So like you have something there. The defense with him. We have to see it on the NBA floor, but like the potential is right there for him. We still don’t know what’s happening with Quinton Grimes. Um at this point, restricted free agency has been I would assume he’s back because restricted free agency, it’s crazy. All those guys that are still restricted, I would assume they’re back on less than ideal contracts or potentially we’ve heard it with Jonathan Kaminga. you take the one-year qualifying offer. I could see I mean I think Cam Thomas also falls into that boat too of like I’m going to take this one year but we’re not talking about Brooklyn right now. Yeah. Yeah. So with Philly like if there is no Embiid I think the ceiling for this season is drastically lowered but then it’s like well how do you pivot out of that going forward too because you’re dealing with the sevenfooter that has health problems and it’s like you just gave him an extension that you know we’re waiting to kick in still. So, it’s it’s a big number. It’s going to be on their books with some health issues. And if there’s no healthy Joel Embiid, if Paul George doesn’t at least look like um an a serviceable, you know, swinging wing there that can at least give you some defense and play like a little allaround forward. But if Paul George isn’t, so let’s let’s go in with the assumption Joel Embiid is not there. like maybe he plays but it’s it might be like 35 games somewhere around there and he’s because of the knee he’s just nowhere near the same guy that he was go forward. So let’s let’s go with that assumption. How good does Paul George have to be for this team to be not even like whoa this is a team that’s competing in the year or contending in the East but like noticeably I would take this team ahead of the Bucks. I think that Paul George’s ceiling in the situation that we’re discussing here is dependent on how good those guards are. Because if you can have if you can have Jarro McCain come back and he looks as good if not better than what you were seeing from those flashes last year. If Maxi can be somebody who when he is the focal point of opposing defenses, which became the case as the season went on and the usage is high, the the shot attempts are high and it’s all this that’s on his back, like it can be heavy. But like ultimately, I think for Paul George last year, part of the problem was like the first step was slower. He couldn’t get to the rim. the playmaking was it was the podcast Camille that’s why he put it on hold at the end of the season had to realign you know priorities throughout the season couldn’t be podcast P during the season so like if he can just if if Paul George can get to a level where he’s not a liability on defense on offense you can move the ball you can knock down your shots even if the first step is slower and you can’t create at the rim the rim pressure like I think that if the guards are really good Paul George could be a a little worse. But if those guards are still going through some of the growing pains, then like you’re going to need a lot more from Paul George for this team to continue to have some success. I’m not going to throw numbers out there because anybody that’s listening is going to be bored to death and um and there’s a lot of unknown with the guys on the Bucks side. But um I feel like you’re going to see more and more people down on the Bucks um as we move closer to the season and and Philly even with this Embiid I hesitate to even say news but this MB report that came out even if that proves to be accurate. I still think you’re going to see people talking themselves into the young core that they have. Well, it’s going to allow them same things we’ve said. It’s going to allow them to play a different style when you don’t have that anchor and you can play more up and down the floor and more of a movement offense. I think there’s going to be a lot more people talking themselves into that than what the Bucks have constructed. But let me just ask you this. So, we assume Quinton Grimes is back in Philly on some type of deal. Um, what if I told you here’s one team? Uh, Tyrese Maxi, Quinton Grimes, Kelly Ubé, Paul George, and if we’re saying no, Joel Embiid, let’s say Andre Drummond. So, Drummond, George, UB in your front court, Grimes and Maxi in your back court. Is that better than a Kevin Porter Jr., Gary Trent Jr., AJ Green, Giannis Miles Turner team? I would say, and I understand before you answer like, hey, bench play is different, coaching is different. Sure. But if we’re just stacking up these rosters, when you say, boy, the Bucks don’t really have a lot of talent. Like, yeah, there’s young talent in Philly, but is it marketkedly better than what the Bucks are going to be putting out there around two very talented players in Giannis and Miles Turner? Yeah, I don’t I don’t think so. I think I would take that Bucks roster, too. I mean, and part of the sway is like the Bucks still have Giannis and despite what’s going on on the we know who their best player is going to be. Philly is still let’s see figuring that out. Yeah. So like that alone kind of gives you a edge there and it’s a it’s a lineup construction that albeit a smaller sample size we have seen works well with Giannis. So I would go with that over Philly. But I do think that Philly is going to be one of those teams in the East this year where it’s like it’s not an off night. It it’s it’s they’re going to make you have to hoop to beat them because they do have some young guards. They get out there and run. I Yeah, I mean I don’t think it’s going to be in the middle with Philly. Like you you could talk me into any scenario for the Bucks right now. Having seen no camp time, no expanded sample size for this group. I would lean towards more it’s at least going to be in the middle or slightly better. But I could see it in the middle as in like where they were last year. I could see them being a little bit better than they were last year. I could see, hey, the questions that we brought up of what happens on nights where Giannis doesn’t play and who’s that guy that takes over then and maybe, you know, other things occur where they could be a little worse. To me, with Philly, I think they are either much better than we anticipated or it’s another season like last year where it’s just kind of similar to the Bucks. when you talk about Eric Gordon and Andre Drummond and Kelly Ubra and some other guys like not 35 in the case of all of them but still got some age on that side still we’re going to play somewhat this way we’re going to play somewhat that way that’s where you run into problems that’s what we saw with the Bucks of no you just got to go plant your foot and go this way only and I just don’t see Philly there yet and I think that’s what ultimately is going to be one of their bigger challenges yeah I could definitely see it going that way too and I mean like for Philly this upcoming season too. Like last year I feel like the season kind of ended in like January at the point where it was like this is not going the way we planned. If we don’t you know go a certain route we probably won’t have a draft pick. It was it was early January when Daryl my put the call in like hey so what’s the story with that pick again? What do we got to do right? Like what’s the what’s the restrictions on that? What do we need to have happen? So, I could definitely see, as you said, a vast array of possibilities happening in Philly. It’s just the the problem I have with trying to put Philly higher in the East is I think of those other teams where it’s like things would have to go really wrong. For me, in my opinion, looking higher than higher than what, like top four, you’re saying? Yeah. Even top even like home court for Philly, it feels it’s the same conversation with the Bucks, too. like something has to go wrong for one at least one team in front of you to get to that spot. But I I feel more comfortable saying I think the Bucks are prepared for that better than Philly is right now and just putting these uh two rosters up side by side. Maybe Philadelphia has more uh topend talent than the Bucks do. I won’t dispute that with Tyrese Maxi and um the vision of Paul George, right, and and Joel Embiid. But I think the Bucks have pretty evenly distributed talent and in a roster that makes more sense than what Philadelphia has put together that’s kind of been building on the fly for the last two or three years for Philly. So, leave your thoughts on the Sixers. I’m imagining most people watching and listening to the show are going to say, “Of course, the Bucks are better than Philly.” But maybe you’re one of the outliers that doesn’t think so. Leave your thoughts in the comments and we’ll address those on an upcoming show. Well, also take a look at that other team, the pesky Boston Celtics, and some speculation that came out of Boston in the past couple of days. So, how do the Bucks comp to that Celtics team? We’ll take a look coming up next. Time to talk to you about our friends over at FiveHour Energy. It’s time to fuel up and turn it up with Five Hour Energy Transfusion. 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Order transfusionflavored 5hour energy shots today. Thath brings us to the Boston Celtics, Camille. So, um I think we talked about this on a show. It is kind of funny seeing the group of people that are saying, “Well, wait a minute. The Celtics are already having to tear this down.” We had this conversation, I think a year ago when all the dynasty talk would start. Like, well, that tax bill and that that far into the Second Apron, like that’s not going to last. You’re going to have to tear this down. I think if Jason Tatum doesn’t suffer the injury, maybe they go one more year with this and say, “Okay, we’ll we’ll keep Al Horford on a team friendly deal. We’ll keep the other guys. We’re betting Chris Daps Borzingis comes back healthy and this is our go forward here.” Maybe they do that. Um, but at at most this run was ending next year for Boston. that Tatum injury, and I’ve seen a few people suggest this, could have been in some ways a blessing in disguise for Boston to give you that impetus to say, “Let’s just do it now. Rip the band-aid off and let’s pivot to maybe two years down the road.” They’re afforded to do that because Tatum is under contract and young enough, Jaylen Brown is under contract and young enough, and you could still trade him if you wanted to. So, it was a little different from what the Bucks were facing. Um, I still don’t know. I don’t really have a good sense on where the Celtics are checking in with a lot of people. I know all the overunders and win totals we went over had the Bucks and Celtics either the same or separated by a game or two. So, I guess let’s just start there and let me ask you this, Camille. I don’t know how much attention you have paid to the Celtics roster grouped together now, but um look, you brought in Anthony Simons, you still got Derek White in the back court, you got Jaylen Brown, you didn’t trade Sam Hower, but that front court and Pton Pritchard, I suppose we we should mention as the six man of the year. front court. Camille, I don’t think people are talking enough about is this the worst front court in basketball now to we’re assuming uh Al Horford is not going to be back, but you lost Chrisaps Porzingis. Jason Tatum could play anywhere really for you as a one through four basically. He’s not going to be playing next season. He did bring back the Mas Kea, but the bigs right now for the Celtics are Kea, Xavier Tilman, George Niang came over in one of those trades and they signed Josh Minard and Luca Garza from the Minnesota Timberwolves. That’s the rotation of their bigs this upcoming season. Yeah, like you said, arguably might be one of the worst uh front court groupings in the league. Um, so for Boston, it like you said, this is a team that it’s hard for me to kind of peg of like what are you going to be this upcoming season because again without Tatum, that was an impetus of just like we’re going to go ahead and wholesale, get under the the luxury tax. We’re going to save some money here this upcoming season. But they do have enough talent with with Brown still being there with White uh and if how long however long Anthony Simons is there like that is the piece I’m looking at too of like is he on the team probably February. Yeah. Is he on the team February 15th? Like we are going to see at this point but like it’s a Boston team that is not going to have the expectations of years past. It’s certainly not striking fear into the opponent. No, it’s it’s definitely giving like some more like kind of 90s Celtics vibes um a little bit here, but again, you have Celtics, but it’s like you still have some talent there. So, it’s not like you’re looking at them the same way you looked at like a Brooklyn or anything like that. But championship, I don’t see a championship ceiling on this in rendition of the Celtics. But if anyone’s taking like a gap year like we’ve talked about as the Bucks possibly using that strategy this season, it feels like a Boston Celtics gap year this upcoming season of like, hey, okay, we’re going to kind of reconfigure some things here and then we’re going to see how things are going with the deadline and then start making our moves for 26 27. Yeah. I mean, at this point, too, I’m not quite sure where to put George Nang as a big, as a forward or a wing. Um, but those bigs again, Demias Kea, Xavier Tilman, Luca Garza, those are your bigs. The wings, Jaylen Brown and Sam Hower, uh, Baylor Shyman, who a lot of the green beer drinkers are very high on and showed some flashes last year. Jordan Walsh, another young guy. George Nang, we mentioned um there’s not a whole lot of shot creation with that group. I think that’s what stands out the most. Sure, you’re going to get it from Derek White and Anthony Simons and Jaylen Brown and and Pton Pritchard and Pton Pritchard. Pton Pton ready for this moment. Um, but it is a very small and a very guardheavy team that there’s been those rumblings of how good uh Jaylen Jaylen how good Jason Tatum looks in his recovery and like wow you couldn’t have fooled you couldn’t have convinced me this guy just had Achilles surgery maybe he’ll play this year to me when I look at this roster I don’t think no matter if it’s the world’s fastest recovery and and wow I can’t believe Jason is ready to go. I don’t think he plays next year and I think the Celtics are kind of quietly quitting here wisely and just saying this is a group we have for now. Uh there’s a lot of chatter if Jaylen Brown will approve it year. I frankly wonder how much Jaylen Brown plays when I look at this roster and just say let’s conserve his minutes. Oh, you got a hamstring issue. Like let’s fullon punt this season. maybe get some assets if we look to move guys at the deadline too. Like you mentioned Anthony Simons, maybe even Sam Hower too and and the likes of those types of players. Maybe somebody blows you away for an offer for Derek White too who all of a sudden isn’t really lining up with your timeline if you’re looking at a year or two from now. That’s the interesting part. It’s really just the two Jays that are there um at this point. So, I think this this roster looks much different come February 9th or whenever the trade deadline is. And I think it’s crazy to look at that front court to look at the signs that appear to be there on what the Celtics are probably going to do this season and suggest they’re going to be just as good as the Bucks. Yeah, I agree with you there. And as we wrap, one other thing that I’m thinking about when looking at the 2025 26 Boston Celtics, one thing when thinking about how the Bucks would match up with them, it’s always been a question of like, okay, you’re going to need some bigger wing defenders because they have a lot of wings in Boston. They have size in Boston this upcoming year without Tatum, with the loss of Al Horford possibly. Well, it seems probably at this point. um and some of the other roster construction as you mentioned they’re a smaller Celtics team um going into this upcoming season. So like we’ve talked about the Bucks and I’ve said if there’s one area for me where I’m like I could I want to see a little bit more roster tinkering, it’s just getting more size on the wing that you can have bigger wing defenders out there. But and it was a lot of times it’s like we need that for Boston like you need that to match up with Boston and that’s not going to be this case this upcoming season and for a Milwaukee Bucks team that might be a little smaller or you try to play smaller at times. They also have the uh flexibility to play bigger at times as well with their front court and what they can do there. Um the matchups between the Celtics here it’s like I’m I’m not as concerned about how can the Bucks match up with them not having as much wing size this upcoming season. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I know it may come off as as two homers here, but we wanted to start let’s attack the totem pole here and let’s see these teams that are going to be around or in front of the Bucks. How do they size up here? So, I don’t see it with these two teams with Philly and the Celtics. That is going to be a different story with some other teams that we haven’t gotten to uh just yet. We will do that or continue to do that throughout the course of the offseason here. And one other thing to mention in closing, you see the note in there of Giannis adding to his goat status. He um needs just 82 steels this upcoming season to be the franchise leader and join Kevin Garnett as the only players in league history to I mean the long and short of it be their franchise leader in just about every single category. Points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and uh steals for Giannis. So uh 82 steals is what’s needed to get it done there. And uh last year Giannis finished with 58. So he did have 87 the year prior to that. If we see that tick upward, he’s uh joining the leaderboard this upcoming season. But uh yeah, leave your thoughts, anything we may have missed on the comparisons between the Bucks and the Sixers and Celtics. Any closing thoughts from you, Camille? man, just that Giannis is really good at basketball. Uh we are very lucky to uh have been able to watch the growth in his game and to think about that he’s 82 steals away from taking another franchise record by himself. Um I say it maybe not as often as I should, but again y’all like just appreciate watching this man play basketball for your team. Like enjoy this era of Bugs basketball. We know this upcoming era, it’s a lot of the conversation, a lot of noise around his future and what he’s going to do and so on and so forth. But every single time Giannis laces him up, steps on the court, you get a chance to watch it, just appreciate it because like when the career is over, this is going to be a time period in Bug’s history where everyone looks back on just like, man, remember when X, Y, and Z happened? Like just appreciate it in real time while it’s still here. Because like I said before, even like the Chris Middleton days, like when they’re gone, they’re gone. And it happens real real quick. And I mean the Brook Lopez days, all of them. All of them. Uh yeah, think about how fondly we look back at 2001 and like to know that this time period, you far exceeded that one singular year. So how much we’re going to look back on that down the road is uh truly something. That’ll do it for today’s show. We’ve just about compiled all the mailbag questions, too. I I’ll throw that out there. So still time to sneak in a few. We’re going to start knocking those out in the coming days here. Thanks to everybody that has submitted a question. If you have not done it yet, you can tweet them at Camille Frank or myself or send them to the email as well on the YouTube page. That’ll do it for today’s show for Camille. I’m Justin. We’ll talk with you guys once again tomorrow on Locked on Bucks.
Eastern Conference shakeup: Bucks, 76ers, and Celtics face uncertain futures. Can Milwaukee maintain its edge?
Justin Garcia and Camille Davis analyze the evolving landscape of the NBA’s Eastern Conference powerhouses. They compare the Milwaukee Bucks’ roster to their rivals, dissecting the Philadelphia 76ers’ potential without Joel Embiid and the Boston Celtics’ dramatic offseason changes. The hosts explore how Giannis Antetokounmpo’s dominance could lead to another franchise record and debate the impact of new additions like Myles Turner and Paul George on the 76ers’ championship aspirations.
Tune in for expert insights on how these roster shifts could reshape the Eastern Conference hierarchy and the Bucks’ path to success.
0:00 Intro: Bucks, Sixers, Celtics rivalry continues
5:02 Comparing Bucks, Sixers, Celtics rosters
11:19 Analyzing Sixers without Joel Embiid
16:25 Bucks vs Sixers starting lineup comparison
21:47 Boston Celtics roster changes and outlook
27:33 Celtics’ small, guard-heavy roster for upcoming season
33:33 Appreciating Giannis’ historic Bucks career
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19 Comments
bucks have to go .500 in season against Cav's /// Then Doc will know what to do in the playoffs.
this pod cast determining how bucks match up to teams … All teams have to figure out how to match up to Bucks.. Bucks have to figure how to match up to Cav's … and Knicks .. that is it.
Shams is still stating GA is still not confirmed for next season
bucks are ranked 14th overall power ranking
we still need a solid pg
can these people come to the realiation AJ GREEN is a SG and Kumza is the 4 … lmao
If quack Rivers wasn’t the coach the bucks would easily be the second best team with no injuries, with him 5-8
with the bucks its not about stars or shooting, its just about putting guys around Gainnis that dont suck, just run down the court and compete, I think we got the right guys for that though i would like Kuminga
Celtics are the most interesting team this next season. If they want to remain "competitive" that puts a ton of pressure on Jaylen Brown, who sneakily has been dealing with health issues over the past few seasons. I'm not sure after seeing Tatum blow his Achilles that putting pressure on Brown makes sense, God forbid the worst case scenario happens. I think they're gonna try to bottom out.
76ers with injured Embid and George most of the season be lucky to be a play-in team, there in a discussion of being worst team in NBA
Does anyone else miss Woj?!
Celtics will suck, White, Brown, Pritchard have no ball handling skills
Turner will be the Bucks 2, I can see him scoring 24 a game, guy has mid and 3 game
The Bucks are going to surprise a lot of people, this squad last year won 48 games with a slow Lopez,a 25 games suspended Bobby and Dame with Blood clots.This roster fits Giannis.3rd seed in my opinion.
There is no question on the Bucks if you know basketball! You have Giannis and a lot of proven players what are you talking about!?
I wonder how Doc Rivers gonna work play time with all these guards on the roster
You’re gonna list the guard and leave out Cole Anthony? How is everybody down playing the coolant thing? He’s going to be a massive impact. Frankly, if he catches on quick, he should be the starting guard, almost hands-down.
Dats my team we got this
KPJ, Miles, and Gary Trent are all second options. Whoever has the hot hand, give them the ball. Miles will demand a lot of attention. This offense should flow easily.