There is no common English phrase that is more easily misunderstood than “rock bottom.”
This is a historical phrase, not intended to be used in the present tense, but applied retroactively to the lowest moment of a timeline that has already reached its conclusion. However, when we are suffering from the lows of life, we may naively believe that the situation is so bad. right nowthey can only get better. We may think that we are at “rock bottom” and cannot imagine being any lower, so we need to make things better. But we are wrong.
can everytime It gets worse.
example: milwaukee bucks You might be tempted to believe they're hitting rock bottom because the season started so poorly. But they are not, even though they are only 4-8 years old. They are nowhere near the jagged gravel that awaits them at the end of this incredibly deep hole. They fall free. To mix metaphors, this is not an earthquake. This is a foreshock, and the ensuing disaster may be very disastrous. I'm going to suggest to the Bucks what I did once. I literally swore I never claim that:
They need to trade their best player, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Before delving further into the gruesome details of Milwaukee's ongoing sinkhole, it's important to be aware of some potential conflicts of interest. I'm from Boston. It may seem to my advantage to pray for Boston's relocation; celticsBeing my own worst enemy actually makes me uniquely qualified to comment. Please listen.
I know what urban legends are like, not just “Most Valuable Player.” Mookie Betts was beloved in Boston. he is an icon and he dodgers what happened Literally just Connor Wong (No offense to Mr. Wong, but come on.) That was a traumatic moment in sports for me. I don't support teams lightly trading away local legends.
It doesn't matter what I want anyway, because the Bucks seem to think things aren't bad enough to trade their best player since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. ESPN's Brian Windhorst, the crown prince who wants to join the league, said the same thing on Wednesday's show. Hoop Collective episode.
“The Bucks have made it clear at this point that they haven't done anything with Giannis, and Giannis hasn't said anything,” Windhorst said. “So I think it's all speculation and conjecture at this point.”
Maybe it's because the Bucks think they're at rock bottom and can only get better. patience and timethey have to think. But there's a reason Windhorst said it's just speculation “at this point.” He may have been trying to say that the Bucks aren't going to drastically overhaul the direction of their roster midseason, but he's well aware that once the wheels of something like this start moving, they move fast. Maybe it's just that. Faster than the Bucks are ready.
Some advanced indicators indicate the Bucks may not this Bad — They are middle of the pack in both offense and defense, and have the third-largest difference between expected winning percentage (.434) and actual winning percentage (.333) through 12 games.
Antetokounmpo himself is off to a solid start to the year statistically. And for Giannis, “solid” means destroying the world. He won with 59 points. win against the pistons He is averaging 33 points, 12 rebounds and five assists per game on Wednesday night, but the team did everything it could to thwart its own chances against Detroit.
Giannis can still win games on his own, but this team doesn't have the firepower to seriously compete alongside him.
Even the most optimistic statistics indicate that the expectations for the Bucks this year are middling at best. Their expected winning percentage is .418, which is a whopping 34 wins. That's not enough. Even in the mostly disastrous Eastern Conference. In fact, there was nothing about this season sufficient for their purposes. this team can't get it sufficient It will stop. no points sufficient point. I can't win sufficient game.
With the current structure, the Bucks can't beat any team. knicks. They can't beat the Celtics. They can't beat the Cavaliers. Through 11 games, they have lost to these three contenders a total of five times. Even if Khris Middleton does eventually return to the playoffs (though it's not a guarantee given his history), that doesn't suggest he's likely to do any better in the postseason series, and it's more likely that Damian Lillard and That means Antetokounmpo is fully healthy.
That's the current situation in Milwaukee. The team is Almost the same statistical profile The Chicago Bulls are a team teetering on the edge of play-in or lottery. But the Bulls have their picks and modest expectations. Despite his terrible mediocrity, he shows remarkable flexibility.
Meanwhile, the Bucks won't have a first-round pick until 2031. Until then, the president has been in office for almost two terms.
And with so much investment, this team can't afford to be this mediocre. The Ringer's Zach Crumb has produced something that truly lives up to its name. “NBA All Index” This is to show how much each team is committed to the pot with their current roster. Although the Bucks finished sixth, they lost the third-most draft assets and had a reasonable financial score. Lillard and Khris Middleton, who will account for the majority of their future salaries, both have player options for the next two years, and both could hit the open market sooner rather than later. But the distinction from small-market Milwaukee may still be questionable. pays the fourth highest salary Teams below .500 in the league.
Crum views these expiring contracts as having better financial flexibility than the Celtics and Suns, but I think this is further evidence of how bad the Bucks really are. I'm watching. Lillard and Middleton are their second and third most valuable assets, and they could lose both for nothing as early as 2027.. They have (basically) no picks and no valuable young players. Essentially, they're piecing together a hodgepodge rotation around star players who should be a good fit, but so far… things haven't worked out.
Ironically, this portland trail blazers Right before Lillard was traded. The team didn't win anything, and Lillard's value didn't increase any further. This trade had to pay off big enough to define the Trail Blazers' next decade, or it was all for naught. But if Lillard is an explosive trade asset, Antetokounmpo is thermonuclear.
We're talking here about one of the greatest players in basketball, and perhaps of all time. He doesn't turn 30 until next month, but he still has a combination of speed, angular delicacy, and pure destructive power that only LeBron James in his prime can match. And he's taller than LeBron. Two years ago, when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were asked to leave Brooklyn, it was a big deal. This is a level above that.
Antetokounmpo will command the largest asset package in NBA history, and perhaps the history of the sport. Mikal Bridges was recently traded for essentially six first-round picks, five for Durant, plus Bridges (also apparently worth six) and Cameron Johnson (who himself is worth at least one). It must be remembered that there was a need for
But Antetokounmpo will break through all this math and demand some new kind of metaphysical framework for trades.
The only team with plans to acquire him is houston rockets or brooklyn nets. They have the young players, expiring contracts and asset profile to build at least some sort of reasonable offer. Antetokounmpo will probably have some say in where he wants to go, but the Bucks have an elite (not just good) young player and more draft picks than the world ever thought possible. would require both. Since the Nets may not have the former, I think the Rockets might be their only option. Exclude…
…Okay, there's one more option…it's so scary that I don't actually want to admit it, but what if the Thunder strung together a salary and a (nearly) infinite supply of first-round picks to give the Bucks a run for their money? What will happen? eight First time for Giannis?
This trade could open a black hole. It may shatter the fabric of reality. It can cause unexplained mass mortality of livestock across the Americas. If Antetokounmpo is actually the result of the Thunder's decade-long asset stockpile, I'm going to have to take a week off work and walk around my neighborhood in circles because… and why not?
It's all about the silver lining. The Bucks won with Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday all in. No one will take that away from them. But they went all out with Damian Lillard again to try and rebuild a decaying roster, but they failed, and now a historically valuable asset is on the line to avoid falling into obscurity for the next decade. One left.
Some may say we should trade Lillard and keep Antetokounmpo, but the former's value has only declined since he was acquired last September, and he could single-handedly recoup the losses he incurred over the years. is not enough. Even if you go all in, you cannot get a mulligan. I have to do my best.
It's also possible that sooner or later you won't have a choice. Antetokounmpo may be affable on the outside right now, but calling out a superstar on a team that's not doing well is a ticking time bomb. Durant has proven he can force a trade on any contract, but the Bucks may learn how tough things can get if they don't get ahead of it.
This sucks. I understand that this is terrible. But they may not have a choice in the end, and I am reminded of the following: anonymous advice As for what to do with a talented but perhaps overly ambitious Corsican general named Napoleon Bonaparte, he told Paul Barras, director of the French Directory, “Promote this man, or he will be promoted without you.'' was given.
After all, the wheels of history turned in such a way that Bonaparte was promoted without his supposed boss, and Antetokounmpo might do the same to the Bucks if they don't see the writing on the wall for themselves. This doesn't just get better, it can actually get worse. Antetokounmpo could get injured, call himself out, or simply refuse to play like Anthony Davis did in 2019. And it's not like Antetokounmpo will “never” do this. He's already flirted with being ejected twice to force the Bucks to shift all their chips to Holiday and Lillard. Who's to say he doesn't mean it?
Ultimately, the Bucks are forced to make a choice. They can either trade Antetokounmpo now and get the biggest observable asset package in the world, or they can lose Antetokounmpo somewhere for less if he goes out of their way and leverage is gone. . Worst case scenario, the worst could happen and you could just walk away and do nothing.
The Bucks have a chance to get ahead of all of that. They need to learn from the Brooklyn Nets' five-year humiliation. Brooklyn went all-in twice, but bailed out too late, gutting the roster and forcing them to trade for their own picks to properly tank. The 2021 championship makes this all less embarrassing for Milwaukee, but the logical reality remains that, like it or not, it's time to jumpstart the rebuild that's coming.
The Bucks think they've hit rock bottom, but haven't seen anything yet. It's time to take the last exit off the highway to hell.
