thelesterlee
On Tuesday night, the Milwaukee Bucks won their first NBA title since 1971 thanks to a 50 burger from Giannis where he carried the team on his back through their awful shooting performances.
The most glaring of the shitty shooting performances came from the extremely cold hands of Jrue Holiday who went 4-for-19 from the field. Yes, Jrue dropped 27 in Game 5. Congrats or whatever. But that was after a Game 4 where he shot 4-for-fucking-20.
What’s even more frustrating about Holiday’s game is his terrible decision-making. It’s not a coincidence that New Orleans brought in Rajon Rondo and Lonzo Ball to run point and take Jrue off the ball.
His shot selection is arrest-worthing. Here’s a shot attempt he had in Game 6 last night:
Jrue Holiday was shooting 1-for-10 before throwing a basketball directly into Deandre Ayton’s palm
Jrue trick y’all pic.twitter.com/P9dvM8ohNC
— Dreadlef Schrempf (@TheLesterLee) July 21, 2021
What…what is this?
Jrue Holiday consistently takes contested midrange jumpers as if he’s Kawhi Leonard while managing to make about 0% of them. He chucks 3’s with the confidence of Ray Allen despite shooting 30% from behind the arc in the playoffs.
Holiday brings so much defensively. He’s 3-time All-Defense. He’s bigger and stronger than most of the guards he’s tasked with defending. Top-notch on-ball defense.
Cool.
You know who else was a great defensive guard? Tony Allen? You know who would NEVER shoot 20 times a game knowing damn well he wasn’t going to make more than 4 shots? Tony Allen.
You can be a top defender without also attempting to go shot-for-shot with Devin Booker.
Doesn’t help that Milwaukee will be paying 32, 34 and then 37 million over the next three seasons for Andre Roberson with a green light.
With the entire internet dunking on Ben Simmons following his refusal to shoot the basketball at all, it makes my head hurt as NBA fans seem to think it’s better to chuck up bricks that have no chance of going in than it is to know your limitations and refuse to shoot.
Both Ben and Jrue are top-tier defenders who are almost irreplaceable on that side of the floor but are both absolute nothings on offense. Personally, I’d rather have 25 year old Ben who hasn’t even begun to shoot and introduce that level to his game than 31 year old Jrue who had more shot attempts than Chris Paul and significantly fewer makes.
Milwaukee cannot repeat if Jrue continues to behave as if he’s the 2nd scoring option on the team. But the NBA has a point guard shortage. After watching Elfrid Payton singlehandedly tank the Knicks season this year, I have seen firsthand how broken a team can look without a great point guard running the show.
Bucks fans know themselves after seeing Eric Bledsoe stink it up year after year. Jrue is a step above that and trading him would probably make them worse.
The only hope Milwaukee has is that Donte DiVincenzo comes back from injury and takes a massive step forward into a reliable 16-20 point scorer on a nightly basis otherwise the Bucks are going to have to face a healthy Brooklyn team that will run them out of the gym.
Atlanta is an offensive machine. Philly is dangerously close to a blockbuster deal. Miami has the cap space to reel in a big fish. Oh, and obviously the Knicks are getting Damian Lillard of course.
Knicks in 4.
