Therapy? What’s that?
The Milwaukee Bucks are five games into an 82-game season. Every game provides valuable data, but it takes a while for data to coalesce into meaningful patterns. Thus, it is wise not to get hung up on early results and instead focus on the bigger picture.
I reject this myopic either/or mentality. Give me both/and. Hang me up on early results and focus on the bigger picture. Trade Bobby Portis and cancel the playoffs. Reform this team and the entire sport. Let me enjoy this season and beyond.
Until recently, I was the proud campaign manager for Bobby’s Sixth Man of the Year campaign. I remember it like it was last week.
Forgive me, for I have sinned.
Bobby is an offense-first player. When he is on the floor, the Bucks would ideally maximize the offensive gain while minimizing the defensive loss. Instead, they are getting the reverse: minimal offensive gain and maximal defensive loss.
This is partly due to a core principle: it is better to be worse on offense than worse on defense. On offense, you can sit in the corner with a coloring book and still require a defender to look after you while the rest of the offense does its thing. Hell, you can win a championship that way (thanks, PJ).
But on defense, you can’t hide. You can’t sit and color, even if it’s one of those newfangled coloring books for adults. You have to look after an opposing player. If the rest of your team does its thing, you can still sink the (champion)ship:
Nets have been doing this thing where they relocate ball-side corner if a team is ‘Icing’ screens…Bobby Portis loses Noah Clowney, who hits a three, look at Juwan Howard’s reaction on the bench: pic.twitter.com/ziNYjUlSo7
— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) October 28, 2024
That’s an anecdote. Here’s the data, with the caveats of small sample size and challenges of applying these metrics to individual players (editor’s note: all data came before last night’s game in Memphis, and it doubtlessly looks worse after). His individual defensive rating is 122.3, only a hair off from Delon Wright (whom I’ll give a pass for being the new kid in school) for worst on the team.
I expected that the two-man numbers would highlight the danger of pairing Bobby with Dame, but that was far from the case: he pairs best with Dame (116.8) and worst with… Giannis (125.8). Although this may lend some credence to Brew Hoop’s own Jack Trehearne’s criticism of his lackluster (or should I say lacklustre?) effort on that side of the ball, it’s probably due to the Bucks sitting Brook when the other bigs are on the floor (and Brook has been excellent—the only non-garbage-time Buck with a positive net rating!). But with both of them, it’s even worse: 127.7 with two of the Top 75 players of all time (even if one of them isn’t known for that side of the court).
But surely his offense makes it worth it. Alas, it doesn’t: his 107.0 thus far is near the bottom of the Bucks’ pile. And the post-up cheat code? Not working:
No one asked but P0rt1s is second in post up frequency in the entire league currently. 0.71 Points per possession! pic.twitter.com/fZicp1uzLr
— Henny (@Gintama__Stan) October 29, 2024
I was duped into being a Bobby Believer on offense because his post-ups were straightforward and an upgrade over dribbling and hero ball. But that doesn’t mean they’re good! Contenders don’t rely on role-player post-ups to keep the scoreboard (barely) moving.
But let’s not be miserly with our misery. Let’s be expansive. Maybe Bobby is just a symptom. Maybe the deeper malaise is the entire edifice that the NBA is built on.
The Milwaukee Bucks play 82 games every single year. They are meaningful. If you win more of them, you make the playoffs! If you win even more of them, you get to host an additional home game! If you win the most of them, you get to host an additional home game up to FOUR TIMES! It’s like a fundraiser. But this illustrates that regular season games are only meaningful as a means to an end: the playoffs. In turn, the playoffs are only meaningful as a means to the ultimate end: the championship, which the NBA Industrial Complex has decreed is the only meaningful indicator of success.
What does this mean? It means that the regular season is two steps removed from any actual meaning. It means that teams are incentivized to basically dither around for almost half of my life in the hope of catching fire for a couple weeks of spring and summer. It means that the Bucks are perfectly content to have the oldest roster in the league because it will provide them with coveted experience in the playoffs. It means that I am subjected to Bobby Portis on an every-other-nightly because he very well might need the entire regular season to find some semblance of decency on the court so that he can be at least borderline playable in the games that matter.
To hell with it. Cancel the playoffs. Give me a regular season where every game matters—even Tuesday night in Washington. Give me a league with less incentive to load-manage. Give me a team that is built to try to play 82 games of decent basketball rather than 82 games of half-assed basketball for the chance to win 16 games of decent basketball. And don’t give me Bobby Portis—give me all of the AJs.
Which brings me to joy.
Bobby Portis will not be traded. The playoffs will not be cancelled. It is what it is.
But I can still both/and. I can demand that the Bucks trade Bobby Portis and I can find joy in his marginal improvement when (…if) it happens. I can demand that the playoffs be canceled, and I can find joy in the playoffs themselves (…if we make them, lol).
Ultimately, it’s up to us as fans to define the parameters of our fandom: what we find meaningful and how we derive joy. Even staring down the barrel of 77 more games of Bobby post-ups, we have to let ourselves enjoy this season and beyond.