Piece by: Nick Lombardi
What the hell was that? Are we being punked? A little over a week ago, I praised the Bucks for reinventing themselves. I praised Budenholzer for learning from his mistakes and I thought the Bucks had a legitimate chance to beat the Nets. For the 3rd straight year, I have been hoodwinked into believing this team could be something.
The Bucks are total frauds. They are led by the king of frauds who coaches his teams to incredible regular seasons only to come crashing down in the playoffs. Bud is the best checkers player in the NBA. He utilizes his bench and role players in unique ways to pile up wins in the regular season. However, when it's playoff time, coaching becomes chess and he sucks at chess. Giannis is the queen of Bud's chessboard and he uses him like a pawn, sitting him for long stretches and having him dump it off to teammates or jack up bad threes instead of using his Godly athleticism and size to punish Brooklyn down low.
The Harden-less Nets now have a 2-0 lead against Milwaukee as the series shifts to Milwaukee and at this rate, Brooklyn can sit Harden again if he isn't 100%. After all, why play him when KD can get a bucket whenever he wants? It also doesn't help that 2014 Blake Griffin has re-surfaced on Long Island and Bruce fucking Brown has decided that he's the new member of the Brooklyn Big Three. The Nets reserves came in and just inflated the lead even more at the end.
Khris Middleton has given Tingus Pingus a run for his money as the most overpaid man in the 2021 NBA playoffs. He shot 7/20 for the field, and 5 turnovers finishing with a +/- of -30. He's always been the Buck that shows up in the playoffs. He hit that insane buzzer beater against Boston, he carried the team to a win in Game 4 against the Heat last year while Giannis nursed an injury. He has joined the rest of this team in playoff ineptitude.
It's time for Budenholzer to go. Maybe they can bring in Mike D'Antoni for one last go round as a HC. Hell, maybe it's time to elevate Darvin Ham to the head coach as he's been one of the top assistants under Bud for awhile. The Bucks may have their "big three" locked up for the next 4 years, but this team needs a coach that will make the adjustments necessary come playoff time. If I sound upset it's because I thought this team was better than this, yet once again, they have proven to be a paper tiger fueled by nothing more than Mike Dunleavy hatred. On to game 3.