Cam Thomas…Kuz…MPJ…Jericho…Bobby… is there a payoff to this Moneyball-like roster around Giannis, or is this just the Island of Misfit Toys of the NBA?
If nothing else, I have to agree that since the season after the championship and subsequent Dame signing, there's been zero continuity and seemingly zero effort to create an actual team here. Plenty of pieces, and sometimes they work together with Giannis is on the floor, but the difference between the last few years of Bucks teams and the era of WWE-style pregame rituals is stark.
To me, Horst hasn't built a team as much as he's built a collection of players that individually have their merits but together have no shot at being worth more than the sum of their parts. He's either grasping at straws or this is all strategic, and I'm not sure what's worse.
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Yeah if you remove Giannis this is the worst roster in the NBA. With Giannis they’re a play-in team. It’s not good. Horst manages the team like an 11 year old would in 2k
Explain to me a single move that Horst has made that was a mistake in the last two years. What do you expect a GM to do with no money, no assets, and a superstar who won’t commit to anything? We’re also in Milwaukee, WI. I don’t get you people
military grade copium right here. gimme a hit
I’ve honestly liked almost all of the moves Horst has made in/around this season. I do still think it’s fair to assign him solid a share of the fault to him for the team’s current state.
However, a lot of that is born out of a hyper aggressive mindset driven by the window we have had with a top 20 player of all time on the roster. We’re definitely in a hole, but I’d always prefer we commit to our franchise goat and swing with everything we’ve got until we’ve got nothing left to swing. Feel like that’s basically what we’ve done.
And Horst is timely to move on from things that don’t work (aside from Doc), and always gets creative on the margins, maybe the worst drafting gm in the league, but Sims, KPJ, Rollins, Kuzma, Green are all guys that have played above prior expectations since they got here.
Has it been reported what contract we gave CT? I’m curious as to what it is.
I simply imagine the team’s ownership as a small group of people who want to come in and have underlings talk to them about how they are so smart and bold and wonderful and [insert more adjectives] … while Jon Horst has one good skill – making bosses feel smart and [insert adjectives] for believing whatever he tells them.
It explains why there have been so many coaches under one GM, even though the only laudable move he made was to trade for Jrue Holiday.
Money ball is about market efficiencies and finding value. Cam Thomas is the opposite lol
Are bucks tanking or gunning for the playin?
Matt Arnold and the Brewers front office deserve the praise of being compared to Billy Beane as other major league teams are actively trying to replicate the system the Brewers have.
Jon Horst’s poor drafting record and lack of capital to trade with feels like comparing apples to oranges.
I’d feel a lot better about Horst if he hit on the 2022 or 2024 1st round picks or – in the case he picked guys that turned into competent role players i.e. Merill & Mamu – actually had patience or a better infrastructure for development
I’m mainly a Bulls fan who likes going to Bucks games. Yeah the Bucks aren’t great this year, but why so many doomers ? It’s pretty clear this year is kinda a shitty cap reset year right ?
I see you, OP. I guess you liked my ‘Island of Misfit Toys’ reference from my Cam Thomas reply.
I meant it more Horst collecting once thought of as ‘broken toys’ as in ‘broken’ or some kind of handicap or negative attribute player that the organization could help and give them a true second chance. Be it from either on-the-court and their play styles, their age and development, or because of legal issues.
More on the court play style issues/fit/skill/develop players like Kyle Kuzma, Taurean Prince, and Jericho Simms. Those guys were all seen as having skill, fit, or some kind of certain skill they were lacking. Even keeping Ajax in the hopes he develops into something more. Like the 2025 signing of Bobo as a super raw 19 yr old draft stash again development which the verdict is still out. Then one of the better but older signings of the 24 yr old AJ Green UDFA to a 2-way(is now 26) a shining bright spot.
More legal second chance guys were Rollins and KPJ after court cases and public image issues.
The Bucks have TRIED to give on-the-court play style issue players like in Amir Coffey, and Cole Anthony was given a shot, but it did not work out. While Pete Nance is more developmental but he and Gary Harris Jr. more age/fit have seemed with regards to those two to be working out, for what’s asked of them.
A big question mark hangs ovet GTJ, and I guess we’ll ultimately see how that experient will end. Could by the very go either way.
Osumune Dieng and Cam Thomas are both players that fit that kind of mold. Guys who are seen around the league with some sort of problem or issue, but maybe could turn things around type. Which for the Bucks is exactly their certain archetype of player, they’ve been collecting.