RedDawg#8

I'll take Harry! He is my spirit animal, no pun intended lol

As I stated before the playoffs began, and will continue to reiterate as needed; we have achieved every goal that was agreed upon for this season and overachieved virtually all of them as well. No Moving Goalpasts. Of course we all want to see this thing through and capitalize on the moment and task at hand. As K'Von stated "we didn't come this far just to come this far." But that is all icing on the cake at this point. We have had and exceedingly successful that has gone beyond anyone's expectations. There is no fault, blame, scrutiny, etc... to be had after what these guys have accomplished. No moving goalposts, just enjoy the ride and hope for the best. Let's keep the magic going

We could use one of these games from Bogi tonight

We need one of these games from John tonight!

Sidenote, he is called the Heart and Soul of this team for a reason.

Let's F****** Go!!!!!! We beat this Milwaukee team before with no Trae in the lineup. It's been overdue for the "Others" to have one of "those" nights. Tonight, we punch back. And we do it in game 7 style where we lift Trae on our shoulders and tell him, "We got you bro" Let's do this.

Most definitely. We are on schedule in some ways, way ahead in others, and slightly behind schedule in some ways as a team. For instance: The way they chose to sign free agents last offseason for us to take a leap, the way those contracts are structured at specific position groups. We are very much on time and on schedule the way Schlenk has us built financially. Our performance overall has turned in to way ahead of schedule. The long term goal was to be a contender, but doing so in year 3 is a major surprise. Same thing happened with Trae last year. They had no idea he would be so good and starting in an All Star game as a Sophomore. They had to speed up the rebuild midway through the season by nabbing Clint and then start adding vets before we had a chance to let the 2019 class develop in to their roles. Trae's superstardom has the whole process way ahead of schedule. As far as being behind schedule; due to team success as well as the injury bug, this season has turned in to a lost one for many guys from 2019. Bruno's development has been frozen. Cam essentially lost a season. Dre as well even though his strides were obvious before and after injury. There has to be an asterisk next to the 2019 class as they missed all or most of SL as rookies, they lost a lot of time due to the pandemic, and injuries kept them on the sidelines during some pivotal team growth under Nate. They are probably a full seasons worth behind schedule overall now. And actually I just looked it up and that's factually true. Dre has only played in 86 career games, Cam has only played in 84 games, and Bruno 89. These are players about to be in year 3 with only 1 seasons worth of games under their belt. As far as how this affects the offseason. I don't see major signings being made due to how we structured our cap after last offseason. You have JC to lock up and Trae to offer. After that, any additions or major roster moves will have to be made via Trade. Unless we lose JC, Dunn opts out and we renounce every expiring contract, we wont be major players in free agency. Internally, we have an opportunity for this group to get healthy and gain more development together after what was an abbreviated offseason that featured a ton of new pieces. Roles are a lot more defined than they were coming in to the season. And now we know what it takes to perform in the playoffs. Cam is finally going to SL to get some development. Hopefully OO will too. Dre just needs to get healthy and try to pick up where he left off. The future is bright. The fact that JC and Kev have showcased that they can help us win big, and the fact that we may have 1 or 2 potential star players in waiting when it comes to Dre and Cam to ADD to this team. I couldn't be more excited for this team.

Way way way way too much relying on the refs to bail us out. We have to get tougher just like we did with Philly and play through the contact. Finish plays as if there is no whistle. 2nd quarter we started handed the ball back to the Bucks like we did in game 2. Protect the ball, tighten the dribble. Act like the lane is clogged and there are 1000 hands because there are. I cannot stand how lazy and sloppy we are with the ball. Too soft

Meanwhile I'm watching Reggie Jackson out play Paul George down the stretch. Playoff P has bricked his last 6 or 7 shots when the Clips have been with 1-3 points of tying the game. Reggie comes around and scores their last 4 points. Might be time to put the ball in his hands instead.

Side note, Devin Booker since the injury has been very average. Beverly may not have injured him on purpose but it sure has neutralized the Suns best player. Its almost the same effect as what has happened with Bogi. He just looks off, not the same.

I agree. That's a huge factor. The physicality is everything. Especially when you consider the bigs that we have faced are all physical by nature. We were caught sleepwalking. The Knicks and Sixers literally smacked us in the mouth in several occasions. Game 1 seemed like a softball game compared to what we were used to. The Bucks flipped a switch just like they did at the end of the season and ramped up the pressure. The refs went along for the ride.

Speaking of Kawhi, the dude is watching their games from the luxury box, instead of being on the bench with his teammates. Everyone loves to go in on Kyrie as selfish but Kawhi does the absolute most Me-First team second stuff all the time. Forced the PG13 trade or else he wasnt signing, only uses his personal training staff and they have final say on whether he plays or not, only ever plays 60% of the games, and now this. Not in the huddle, not giving his team advice or encouragement. Nope, in the luxury box like a fan. I can't give him credit when he lacks some basic team sport intangibles.

Booker just ditched the mask.... he has looked very human since breaking his nose. He is over wearing it.

Let's not forget either, that before the playoffs started and seedings were being finalized... most of us would have preferred the Bucks instead of the Knicks based on what we knew at the time. We were willing to slide to 6 just to get a piece of Milwaukee and avoid the Knicks. One bad game shouldn't scare us when we know that we can beat these guys.

Honestly, there is a feeling out process that takes place each series. Teams make adjustments, rotations change due to injuries. There is a punch-counterpunch element to every matchup. We didn't find our footing right away with the Knicks. We started that series focused on Randle and ended up realizing Rose was the biggest threat. Against the Sixers we had a stretch of 12 straight quarters from the 2nd half of game 1 to halftime of game 4 where we had no answers for what they were doing. Curry, Embiid, Harris, they all looked 2 steps ahead of us. It took time to get our footing and realize that Lou and Trae would work together against them, and that Gallo could work alongside Collin and Capela. Not to mention we had to adjust on the fly Dre's injury and then to Bogi's injury. Here we are again. A tough opponent, matchup issues everywhere. What worked last series wont work this series. We just have to find our footing and make adjustments. Stealing game 1 has helped us weather the feeling out process in each series. We may not have it all figured out by tomorrow but we have the benefit of homecourt to aide us while we do. We are still a young team, we have never been here before. It takes us a little longer to process what teams are doing to us. But Nate continues to find out and stick to what works. Maybe that ends up being Cam, maybe that means John gets to eat more this series. Who knows. But it's very very early in the series. Nothing is set in stone

Anyone keeping up with the Suns v Clippers? Ayton is going to be a great center for the Suns. He call ball on both ends like Embiid minus the flops. I got nothing against Capela, that's my dawg, but its a big difference when you have a two way threat at center on the court. So much easier for the perimeter players to play off of that kind of attention in the middle. Also, maybe it's just me but, the intensity doesn't seem the same in their series as it has been in ours so far. I feel like I'm watching a regular season game against two really good teams.

Yeah the more I think of it its pretty accurate. Minus the dunking early in Iverson's career. Trae is Iverson if you swap the athleticism for Nash's passing ability

Giannis and Lopez want to lurk in the paint. We have to hit our outside shots to make them pay. Maybe switch up the play so that Kev and Bogi are the ones popping out to the short corner.

Cant get too high, can't get too low. It's been a long run so far, and if we are to go the distance then we are only slightly past halfway there. That's why you can't celebrate or panic, just enjoy the ride until it's done.

It was humbling to say the least, and I think that was the silver lining. You don't go in to someone else's house and shimmy shake, throw trick passes and ultimately show them up and not expect them to punch you back. This was a must win for Milwaukee. This was also a pride game for them after we basically disrespected them on their floor and had everyone in the media laughing or yelling at them. People were saying Brook Lopez didn't deserve to be on the court. Saying Jrue wasn't living up to his status as an elite defender. Saying coach Bud was foolish for his defensive scheme. All the hype was behind us, what Trae did, and how audacious he was to do that in the Conference Finals. Well guess what folks, Karma is a B*, and that B* is undefeated. Milwaukee did what they were supposed to do to us after game 1. We made them look foolish, they returned the favor in their own way. No antics, just scoreboard. All things are square now. It's a series. We weren't about to just cake walk pass a veteran team with real title aspirations. We can stop listening to the hype, just like we stopped listening to the hate. It's time to get back to work and take these boys seriously because they are not going out without a fight. I don't think they are that superior to us. They had a hot shooting night early and we gave away the ball on a silver platter all night long. Get back to the basics. Protect the ball, box out, rebound, and give all out effort while in the game. Nothing comes easy at this stage in the playoffs. Time to work.

Cam actually wasn't as bad as I expected on offense. He, Dunn and Solo should get a few minutes together as disrupters just to make the Bucks feel uncomfortable every once and a while.

It's best of 7 for a reason. Everyone shits the bed every once and a while. It happens. This was the worst game we played all playoffs. But they did not do anything we havent seen before. Tight defense, physical on the glass, and oh yeah, they got hot from 3. We made mistakes. Some lazy terrible passes. We did not value the ball or compete on the glass. Those are effort issues, not talent or skill. Respect the Bucks for rallying to avoid an 0-2 hole. It's best of 5 now, anyone's series.

I would agree if we didn't already beat them in their house. We showed we could win and we did not play our best either. We have not hit our potential yet but the series is still tied.

Almost? He definitely is. I think Dre is a little more cut, but Cam looks like Adonis out there. His physique is elite. Cam also looks towering over people. I mean he is a TALL 6'8. But likely taller next time measure him. He is a freak.

Who cares. This aint soccer, point differential doesn't matter. If you going to lose, might as well be a blowout instead of a heartbreaker that takes an emotional toll. This was a dud. Gives you nowhere to go but up. We have 3 home games left to play, they only have 2. We still control the series until further notice.