Great game for Herd two-way player Cormac Ryan last night against the Windy City Bulls: 29 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 0 turnovers, and 2 steals on 53/60/100 shooting splits. Herd was +12 in his 33 minutes but lost by 1 still.

Jericho Sims missed 2 shots today which is a ton for him. You have to go all the way back to February 25 to find two Sims misses. Not two misses in the same game — two total misses. Jericho was 23/25 in his last nine games coming into this one.

Bucks are getting paint touches consistently and it’s opening up tons of shooters. 19 threes and all or very nearly all are assisted. Giannis (8), Rollins (6), Kuzma (5) all racking up assists. Great to see a healthier offensive product.

Bucks throwing in the towel? Giannis is sitting the last H2H game the Bucks have left against any play-in team. Technically, this is the most important game remaining on the schedule. Maybe Giannis just happened to be hurt but this could signal a mindset shift.

Forget best player or best scorer or MVP. Shai has become my number 1 Guy I’d Love to Build a Franchise Around. Zero drama, plays both ways, very available, just entering prime and still improving, super focused on winning and getting better. He’s exactly what you want.

Trying to keep track of the Bucks coaching staff philosophy. I thought we were going big to defend but I see KPJ Rollins and Cam Thomas playing late fourth quarter minutes in a close game.

Good to see Taurean Prince looking healthy. With that player option he’s probably back next season. I worried his whole career was in jeopardy but he’s moved well and just knocked down a three.

Doc instituted a 3 pass before a shot rule for the Bucks on offense per the broadcast. So now we’re trying the grade school stuff because nothing else worked. Things are going great.

PACKED new pod with Bucks_Breakdown out now! -WTF was going on with Giannis vs Suns? -Rollins deep dive: the struggles, the upside, the Giannis relationship -Is Dieng next up? Discussed his shooting, rim pressure, defense, and passing -Plus Kuzma/Green/Sims/more Check it out here: GSPN.info

Very funny that the “why can’t you enjoy basketball” shtick is being used to defend Bam drawing 43 free throws against Anthony Gill & Tristan Vukcevic as the Heat foul Wiz guys late in a 150-129 win. Don’t blame Bam or Miami but we don’t have to pretend that was beautiful hoops.

If Giannis can’t move on defense due to a tweaked ankle he shouldn’t be in the game. It’s a lost season and he’s recovering from a calf strain. What are we doing? Doc is going to say he wanted to sit him down but didn’t or couldn’t do it which is of course nonsense.

Kuzma and Dieng have been great tonight and the game of basketball just looks radically different when you have wings playing at a high level on both ends. Also hat tip to Myles Turner splashing threes and making circus shots through contact as well.

Giannis seemed to tweak something on his pair of dunk attempts from a sweet full court feed from Ousmane Dieng. The Bucks are somehow letting him go right back in the game. This seems like a bad idea

Genuinely happy on a human level that Taurean Prince is back healthy from neck surgery. Hope he’s able to put some good minutes together down the stretch. That’s a lot of rust to knock off. Think Green’s mins are most at risk if he continues to struggle.

Doc’s Hall of Fame accolades just keep piling up

Fair to expect the Bucks to lose tonight with all of the guys out but there is no suitable excuse for the way Orlando is embarrassing them. Doc and company haven’t built systems that sustainably work on offense or defense. Teams with identities have a huge advantage vs Bucks.

Bobby Portis shotmaking and Jericho Sims dunks were the only thing keeping the Bucks offense alive most of that half. Credit to those guys but they’ll need some help, and at some point Milwaukee needs to figure out how to stop giving up all these damn wide open threes.

Just give Ousmane Dieng as much responsibility as possible to see what he can do. He’s playing with extreme confidence and has been a rare bright spot tonight for the Bucks

Expected Rollins/Kuzma/Dieng/Portis/Turner, wanted Rollins/Kuzma/Dieng/Nance/Turner, got whatever this is. Don’t think it’ll work.

Soberingly realistic approach from the Bucks this weekend: use Giannis vs Utah to make sure you don’t lose that one and sit him vs Orlando. Magic 7 ahead in loss column and up to sixth seed, makes sense to not care as much about the H2H with them.

Bucks have a lead but it’s honestly a failure to even be in this game at home against a team who has been fined because they’re trying to lose games so obviously. Doesn’t bode well for tomorrow night against Orlando.

Trent looked off Giannis in transition to brick a pull up 3. Banish him again. It’s been so refreshing to see the players who started tonight seek out Giannis early and often. It should not be hard to pass that guy the ball.

Herd hold a slim 53-52 lead over the Mexico City Capitanes at half. Game got chippy in the second quarter after a flagrant foul by Wisconsin’s Justyn Hamilton. John Butler Jr leads the Herd with 10 points on perfect 4/4 shooting so far.

When Portis starts like this just play Nance over him and see what happens. Just to see. I have a hypothesis I’d like proven out

Always funny to compare NBA to any other league in terms of start time — even a league ran by the NBA. At Herd v Capitanes tonight and we’re already at the 6:50 mark in the first quarter ahead of Bucks tip. Herd up 13-10 by the way.

Hate to say it but I’m actually super into this lineup. Objectively funny though for Kuzma to go from starting to DNP to key bench role to starting again in the span of four games

Couple thoughts on this: 1) Giannis not listed. I wouldn’t let him play back to backs this early after returning from a calf injury. Is he sitting out vs Orlando? 2) KPJ immediately ruled out is bad. Could be B2B related, will be interested to see his status for Sunday,

Doc now has more fireable losses this season than Adrian Griffin had total losses when he got canned. There used to be expectations and a standard. Not anymore

Hawks are 18th in offensive rating and ran up 130 points before Doc pulled the Bucks regulars. Milwaukee’s defensive coaching is atrocious and this coaching staff is clearly incapable of getting the most out of the roster. Beyond a doubt. Wasted season that didn’t have to be.

I wish I believed enough in the Buck org to make the case that this is a shadow tank but there’s just no way. They’re just this bad

AJ Green has been a problem (derogatory) tonight

Bucks should have a strong lead at half but Doc ran out a joke of a lineup with four bigs and no point guard for 6+ consecutive minutes and the Hawks are right back in it. If the org really wants this play-in push this isn’t the coach to get them there.

Really glad Giannis took the full time needed to get back out there. He looks awesome physically especially after knocking some rust off against Boston.

Crazy Bucks lineup alert: Cam Thomas/Kyle Kuzma/Pete Nance/Bobby Portis/Jericho Sims

Whatever the DNP was about Kyle Kuzma is responding like the pro he’s been all season. Hard nose drives including an awesome dunk since checking in. Let’s go Big Kuz

Ryan Rollins is a good enough passer to start at point guard with Giannis active. Being able to hit Giannis on the move is literally the most important pass needed and Rollins has fed him every time. Dieng guarding McCollum intrigues me big time. Great screen navigation so far.

Anything less than completely new leadership in the front office and coaching staff is an underreaction to what we’ve seen from the Bucks since 2023. It’s just not working on any level.

Doc Rivers: Coach’s decision to bench Kyle Kuzma. Sounds like Ousmane Dieng will be playing a lot more here on out.

Kuzma going from starter to DNP-CD (for the first time in his career!) makes no sense but that’s par for the course this season. Conspiracy Ti wonders if it’s not a coincidence that Kuzma was the most vocal about Myles Turner not having enough of a role before Doc benched him.

KPJ/Rollins/Giannis/Portis/Sims?? No idea what’s going on right now. Giannis shouldn’t be in the game anyway but THIS is the group you’re using his precious minutes on?

Been saying Pete Nance should play every game for weeks, not sure how much more obvious it could be that he’s a huge net positive to the Bucks as one of their smartest and most selfless players who’s also a red hot shooter.

KPJ is shooting 24% on catch-and-shoot threes and 17.9% on pull-up threes since Jan 1. Basically is refusing to shoot them this quarter and has taken one three (a make lol) tonight. That’s not exactly the pg profile you’re looking to pair with Giannis to say the least.

Giannis looked dominant to start the third quarter and … Boston extended its lead. Team doesn’t look cohesive on either end. Trending toward another loss and a 26-34 record. Remember when 30-13 was fireable?

Between Doc noting the chemistry between Ousmane Dieng and Giannis in the runs they played and how diligently Giannis has looked for Dieng today it sure feels like Giannis is a huge proponent of Dieng. He’s certainly comfortable with shot creating small forwards historically.

Celtics run the same flare screen every other possession and it’s an open 3 every time. Book on this Boston team has been out all season (tons of jumpers and movement) and the Bucks have no idea how to navigate those actions, or just don’t care to. Not sure what’s worse.

Boston plays both harder and smarter than the Bucks which so far has been a bigger advantage than minutes limit Giannis

Rivers was really irritated at Kevin Porter Jr. and Ryan Rollins last night in Chicago and threatened a starting lineup change ... with Antetokounmpo back, it will be interesting to see if Rivers fiddles with the on/offs. Honestly, it would make some sense to see one + Green, inserting Dieng.

Jericho Sims hanging with Pritchard on a drive is legitimately super impressive

Don’t necessarily think this is going to work but it’s more fun than the groups we’d been getting even outside of the Giannis factor

Digging into Bucks numbers for lineup thoughts with Giannis back and this surprised me: Kyle Kuzma is shooting 37.5% from 3 on solid volume (4.3 attempts per game, 5th on Bucks) since Jan 1. Kuzma's season-long percentage is 34.2, lower but best he's had since the Lakers days.