Milwaukee Bucks Roundtable: Impressions through 10 games
By Adam McGee
3. In spite of their early struggles, the Bucks are 7-3 through their first 10 games. Do you think that’s a fair reflection of their play and where they need to be at this point?
DL: Considering how often they nearly gave away some of their wins during this start, they fully deserve to have a 7-3 record. They certainly showed flashes of being better than that, but until they clean up the sloppiness that’s plagued them to this point, they don’t deserve to have a better record than this.
BR: After a rocky 2-2 start featuring a couple second-half collapses, the Bucks are 5-1 in their last six games with their one loss coming in the cursed city of Salt Lake where some dark, ancient magic still lingers. If not for the great sorcerer Bojan the White bewitching Khris Middleton in the final seconds, the Bucks would be coming off an undefeated road trip before a much softer upcoming schedule. You can certainly do worse than 7-3, particularly with the difficulty of the Bucks’ early schedule thus far.
LB: I managed to get a college degree with a 70 percent success rate, so I’m going to hold the Bucks to the same standard as I hold myself. Second place in the East after playing a pretty daunting schedule is nothing to shake a stick at. Could they realistically be 9-1? Sure. Some of those early season blown leads were complete head-scratchers. But they could also be a little worse, having won some tight contests in L.A. and OKC. I’m interested to see if they can keep up this pace sans Middleton.
JT: I will follow the crowd yet again and say yes as well. There are definite areas and players that have to show improvements and perhaps facing off against an easier slate of opponents like the Bucks will be taking on over the next few weeks will bring about that. But with each and every one of the Bucks’ losses this season being disastrous to varying degrees, I think it’s fair to be optimistic about where the Bucks stand and where they could be heading, which does get a little complicated with the loss of Khris Middleton.
AM: I could easily entertain arguments that the Bucks are both lucky and unlucky to be 7-3 at this point. That probably suggests they’re exactly where they’re supposed to be so far.