Anonymous NBA Scouts Dish Dirt On Eastern Conference Teams
http://www.si.com/nba/2016/10/20/nba...ern-conference
"It is very unfortunate for them that Middleton got hurt. I don't know if he's as good as some of the advance metrics rate him, but he's very good and was trending toward being a borderline All-Star. And what is clear from all the advance metrics, is that the Bucks play terrible when he's not on the floor. Like they are nowhere near a competent NBA team when Khris Middleton is on the bench. ... I liked adding Delly and Teletovic because those are two guys who can make shots and stay out of Giannis' way ... In a lot of ways he’s just a very poor man's Giannis. And when Giannis is your franchise player, uh, that's not a very useful guy to have ... They've got three centers, none of whom is all that good, that they're paying a ton of money to. ... Secretly their best lineup might be something like Giannis, Jabari, and Teletovic at the three, four, and the five. And I don't know exactly who guards the center there, it depends on who they're playing. But Jabari can't shoot threes, and neither can Giannis, and it's really really hard to play in the NBA with more than two guys who can't shoot threes. So, if you're gonna play Giannis and Jabari -- and Jabari's getting pretty good on offense, despite not shooting threes and being a terrible defender, he's getting pretty good on offense—they should probably just play Teletovic as a defacto center. Then mix and match defensively with Giannis, Jabari, and Teletovic. At least have a competent offensive lineup ... They don't really have a two guard for that lineup. Rashad Vaughn's not very good. Jason Terry's a great dude, who can shoot, but he's 40 years old. ... And it's going to be hard for them to play that lineup with Giannis / Jabari / Teletovic because they have, literally, I think $40 million per season, tied up in Greg Monroe, Miles Plumlee, and John Henson. Are you really just going to sit all three of those guys and play your best lineups? ... Thon Maker will be interesting. He plays really hard, he's tall. But he has very little feel for the game, and very poor strength in his core, his glutes and legs. He can kinda shoot if he has time and space, but he can't really make shots at game speed yet. I hope they're not expecting him to play. ... It's hard to figure out how that team makes sense as currently constructed. Jason Kidd's had a lot of influence on their personnel moves, and I don't think that's been a good thing for them ... If you do a good job pushing the ball and getting out and running, you can score in transition. Maybe Giannis will do that, and make up for some of their issues. ... They could be pretty good defensively. Giannis is a monster. ... No, no playoffs. Hard no. … Giannis Anetokuonmpo makes the All-Star game this year. He's going to average like 19 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists. He'll make the All-Star game, and their team's gonna stink."
