Wow... OK So Portland gets: Ayton Camara (who was pick 52...) Holiday 1 pick 2 swaps I guess they can look to flip Holiday for further assets? Even if they only got another pick and 2 swaps they have managed to get out of Lillards deal. Not sure what this does for Milwaukee? Holiday was a proven playoff performer and 2 way guy. Offence only Dame instead... yuck.
Portland was never going to keep Lillard past the deadline and they were just load managing him. They were at 12th or 13th with Lillard so might just be 2-3 places lower.
Dame does clutch shoot better than Holiday. They will be worse in the regular season, playoffs remains to be seen, it is still Freak's team. Outside of a big name, it does seem so.
I completely disagree that the Bucks will somehow be worse with a top 75 all time player. Giannis, Dame, Middleton, Lopez? That’s a terrifying team. Clearly the favorites in the East IMO.
Well, there is not much to improve within the 2nd apron, they were already a 58/60 W team before. East was pretty stacked in their Top 5 team.
Dame makes them better. They are getting a motivated Dame who wants to win a title. Dame can take over games when needed. Giannis will give him the space to do that. Playing through Giannis in late games cost them games. That should be Dame's job now, he is much better at it than Giannis.
They've been a top defense for years but have had major problems with half court offense especially late in games. Sure they lose a lot of that defense without Jrue but they were so elite that they're hoping adding Dame can keep them in the top 10 in both defense and offense. All their creators except Middleton were only good going downhill. The Dame Giannis PnR is gonna be nasty.
It'll be tough for them to remain competitive without going the Warriors' route and paying out the nose in taxes. Here's the Bucks' payroll for the next 3 years for ONLY Dame and Giannis: 23-24 $91.2M 24-25 $97.6M 25-26 $110.5M That's for two players. They'll have to get another 13 players with their remaining cap money, and league allowances. 23–24 cap is $136M 24-25 cap is projected at $142M 25-26 cap... who knows? For 2026-2027, Lillard cap opt in to $63M. If they re-sign Giannis after 25-26, he'll likely get even more. That's a massive commitment to two guys, one who's only a one-way players.
I agree. Having Giannis and Lopez as help defenders will also help Lillard out a ton. All has has to do is defend the perimeter and he can gamble on steals as well. I believe this fixes the Bucks biggest weakness (getting points when it matters) while reducing their biggest strength (defense). But I do believe this setup is way more likely to win them another title!
I agree and if the team can stay healthy this should be a fun team to watch. This is the kind of talent I want to see our guys play and see how they compete.
