The Milwaukee Bucks had already proven that they are (were?) a championship-caliber team even before Damian Lillard arrived. In 2021, it was Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton who led the charge for the Bucks as they went on an unforgettable title run to claim the franchise’s first championship in 50 years.
With Lillard now in the picture, the Bucks are looking to make some new history.
Is Damian Lillard the Odd Man Out for Milwaukee Bucks?
The answer to that question is a resounding “no.” There’s no denying that Lillard is still trying to find his groove with his new team but at the same time, there is also no doubt that the Bucks are going to do everything they can to make sure that Dame is able to play to the best of his abilities in Milwaukee. That’s why they brought him in in the first place.
In Monday’s win against the Brooklyn Nets, however, the Bucks reverted to their familiar partnership of Giannis and Middleton down the stretch. The pick-and-roll action between the pair was working well, so head coach Adrian Griffin opted to make the most out of it.
This left Lillard on the outside looking in — somewhat, at least — as the seven-time All-NBA guard found himself spotting up on the weak side. For his part, however, Dame doesn’t see a problem with this at all:
“Being able to play through him in live-catch actions, when he’s playing the pick-and-roll, Giannis is setting the screen, I’m on the weak side — you know, a lot of times, if they hug me, it’s more space for them to play,” Lillard said after the game, via Dan Devine of Yahoo Sports. “And if they don’t, I’m gonna get an opportunity to get a clean look. In that action, there’s a lot of things that we can do out of it.”
For what it’s worth, Lillard was still able to finish with 21 points and seven assists against the Nets. It was far from his best performance, but the most important thing is that Milwaukee came home with a victory.
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1 Comment
It’s very clear already that Giannis and Dame can’t stand playing with each other, and the Bucks have begun already to stagger their minutes dramatically so that their time together on the court is already vastly reduced from the first few games. Giannis comes out with about 6 left in the first quarter and Dame remains in the game for another 3 or 4 minutes. Giannis then comes in for the last 3 of the first quarter and plays through the first 6 of the second quarter. Dame then comes back in when Giannis goes out. Giannis then comes back in for the final 2 minutes of the half, and sometimes Dame remains in, but more often lately Cam remains in the game. During the first two games, Giannis and Dame averaged about 18 minutes in the first halves of games and shared the floor for about 14. Now they are sharing the floor for only half of their minutes.
It’s pretty obvious that Giannis is and has always been terrible at offense, lacking the understanding of how to properly execute a pick and role, which frustrates Dame (Giannis two games ago TWICE in a row disengaged from his screen action and went above the arc instead of to the basket and Dame’s distress was evident on his face and in body language; it’s mystifying that KM has been able to adapt to his lack of BBIQ). Similarly, Giannis is equally disturbed by the complete lack of effort on D by Dame that has him sporting a 120 Defensive Rating (bottom 5 among PGs), and has seen him twice now give up over 40 points to good (but not great) players (Herro also went for 35, even if Dame wasn’t guarding him, but anyone can blow by Dame and that does free up other players).
It’s ego and they can’t work together. Dame believes he’s god’s gift to offense and Giannis feels the same way on D. I’d rather have a great defender, and if Dame were correct about himself, maybe he’d be taking advantage of more open looks than he’s ever seen in his entire career (but the fact is he’s missing ALL of the open looks and making the contested ones).
I never liked Dame. I think this was a huge mistake.