The Milwaukee Bucks’ second-round defeat in 5 games to the Miami Heat came as a surprise last season. With the growing consensus that Giannis was the best player in the league, the analysts assured the Bucks to the NBA Finals.
With the East getting significantly better, their playoff road will only be tougher from here on out.
Fresh off signing his 5-year, 228 million super-max contract this offseason. Giannis should have all the motivation he needs to secure a championship for his city.
The two-time MVP became only the 12th player in NBA history to accomplish the feat of back-to-back MVP awards. Giannis finished last year averaging a double-double with 29.5 PPG, 13.6 RPG, and 5.6 APG.
The Bucks also made an offseason point guard swap with the New Orleans Pelicans. They dumped veteran Eric Bledsoe for veteran Jrue Holiday. Bledsoe has been plagued with injuries as of late, so fans were happy with management acquiring Holiday. Holiday put up 19.1 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 6.7 APG.
To provide minute relief for the likes of Brooke Lopez and Giannis, they signed free agent Bobby Portis to a one year deal. Portis averaged 10.1 PPG and 5.1 RPG. Not fantastic numbers but good enough to sign for load management purposes.
In order to remain the top team in the East, the play of Khris Middleton must elevate. He put up decent numbers finishing last season on 20.9 PPG, 6.7 RPG, and 4.3 APG. Solid numbers in a weak East. However, the East is no longer weak and we must see an improvement of PPG to edge out the other top teams, especially in the playoffs.
The Bucks rely on great pacing to keep teams from coming back. Giannis does this by going to the rim hard getting the foul. This stops teams from running fast-paced games to attempt a comeback forcing the other team to be as disciplined as them. This makes it almost impossible for mid-tier and bottom tier teams to compete.
That being said, when betting on the Bucks against these mid-tier and bottom tier teams, lines as high as -7.0 can have value depending on the team. I will be riding the Bucks when playing against these mid-tier and bottom tier teams.
When facing top tier teams, we may want to go with the money line play, whether it be plus or negative on the money line. For instance, if facing a top tier team off the back of a loss. The money line will most likely be plus or a pick’em. Ride the Bucks in this case as back to back losses were rare last season.
I predict the Bucks will slide a little this season going 56-26 in the regular season due to more competition.
At the very least, I believe the Bucks will make it to the Eastern Conference Final in a most likely match up against the Brooklyn Nets.
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