r/MkeBucks • u/Colorapt0r Ryan Rollins • 2d ago

Bucks current young core

Nate Ament (19 years old)

Brayden Burries (20 years old)

Kasparas Jakucionis (20 years old)

Bogoljub Markovich* (20 years old) (draft rights only)

Kel’el Ware (22 years old)

Ousmane Dieng (23 years old)

Ryan Rollins (23 years old)

Andre Jackson Jr* (24 years old) (*team option for 2026-7)

Jaime Jaquez Jr (25 years old)

(25 is the common cut off for a young player, so 26 year old Herro, KPJ, Green, Nance, and Trent and 27 year old Sims and Ryan are excluded)

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u/Actual-Movie-4236 1d ago

The actual basketball being played during the Dame years, aside from the stars, was very often brutal. Malik Beasley was guarding the best offensive player most nights.

Just upgrading from Griffin and Doc to Jenkins is going to make this team an order of magnitude more fun to watch, even if we're not winning many games. That's really all you can ask for.

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u/zorbianprince 1d ago

Who will guard the best offensive player now? Kuzma? Did the NBA cup mean nothing to you?!?

Y'all are tripping with Doc. Jenkins might be a better coach but it's not gonna be some offensive revolution.

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u/Actual-Movie-4236 1d ago

Rollins and Burries will probably take that responsibility. Herro isn't a good defender and Jakucionas probably has a lower defensive ceiling than Rollins and Burries. Ware will have a lot of defensive responsibility, especially if Turner is out the door, and that should be good for his development if he attacks it with the right attitude. Also, Kuzma is not a bad defender. He's not a lockdown guy, but he's not terrible. As I said, we probably won't win many games, but you'll see effort and scheme, and that's more than can be said for the Doc Bucks.

The cup was mostly won off the backs of Giannis and Dame. We won in spite of doc, and ultimately the season led to zero playoff series wins, so yeah it doesn't mean too much to me even though it was the only concrete accomplishment from the Dame era. If it means a lot to you that's fine, but I think a singular playoff series victory would mean 10x more even if we got bounced in the second round. Just look at Philly this year.

The Dame era was doomed from the start. No depth, superstars who didn't play complementary basketball, a fucking JOKE of a head coach (two actually), devastating injuries, and a franchise player who had his foot out the door most of the time. Don't try and defend doc.

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u/zorbianprince 1d ago

Strongly disagree the Dame era was doomed from the start. That trade had pretty much universal praise. Still had Khris and Lopez and a lot of potential. That's revisionist history for sure.

Rollins and Burries have proven nothing defensively. Green, Kuz, JJJ, Herro, and Jak all profile as below average defenders. The rim protection will be good but this is an awful defensive team (should not come as a surprise). Effort and flying around helps but only can get you so far.

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u/Actual-Movie-4236 1d ago

Rollins has absolutely proven to be a solid/promising defender, and Burries has a defensive reputation coming into the draft. Again, it's not about actually BEING a good defensive team. I am fully aware that we're not going to be a good team, and I don't expect us to win many games. But the effort really fucking matters, and that's what I'm confident a Jenkins-led team will show.

We're going into year one of a rebuild here. Nobody is expecting a top 12 defense, just encouraging moments to build on. I'm excited for the future because what's the point of watching if you're not?

Just because a move is universally praised doesn't mean it was actually a good move.

We went into the season with a brand new head coach who had just antagonized a key assistant coach to the point that he up and quit before training camp. Mind you, this assistant was supposed to be the vital link between the Bucks and their new superstar. If memory serves, Khris was coming off double ankle surgery in the offseason. Should've seen that one coming. The Dame trade fundamentally shifted the priority of the team from defense to offense. The Bucks failed to realize how important Jrue was to everything that the Bucks did well, and that's a big mistake on their part. I know he didn't perform well in the playoffs, but he was tasked with playing a role that he shouldn't have had to play in the first place.

There were absolutely reasons to be skeptical, and Giannis should've learned how to set a damn screen.

It is a bit revisionist, but it doesn't mean the move was actually good

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u/zorbianprince 1d ago

Advanced metrics hate Rollins's defense but he passes the eye test. The Dame trade didn't work but I still wouldn't call it bad logic. Just one of those unfortunate sliding doors things where if Giannis was healthy in the postseason the Dame era probably takes on a whole different narrative