Dub Nation Rooting Guide ECF: Milwaukee Bucks (3) vs. Atlanta Hawks (5). & Open Thread
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Dub Nation Rooting Guide ECF: Milwaukee Bucks (3) vs. Atlanta Hawks (5). & Open Thread
The dumbest team in the playoffs vs the floppiest?
Well, this Rooting Guide is somewhat obsolete because everyone on both teams in injured, but just for completeness, here it is.
Dub Nation Speaks
vignette17 on Jun 19
I really want to root for KD. Dude is really fun to watch and terrrrrrrrifying to root against. It's really a shame that he's on a team with Harden, Kyrie, and Blake. Glad the Bucks move on, but Giannis and the Bucks are really, really dumb. Chuck was right when he said they might be the dumbest team to win a ring.
belilaugh on Jun 19
The Bucks players deserved that win, but Bud didn't.
The Sword Of The Morning on Jun 19
Could be one of the first times ever that a title winning team fires its coach lol.
SoCalJusticeWarrior on Jun 13
Having a hard time feeling bad for the Nets. The whole league bitched and moaned for three years because our homegrown team signed *one* superstar in free agency. They signed THREE (maybe two, don’t know if I count Kyrie as a superstar, but he’s really, really good nonetheless).
More than anything, this should reinforce just how remarkable the Warriors dynasty run was. This Nets manufactured juggernaut might not even make it to the Conference Finals. Our homegrown core made it to two Finals in a row, then with one key signing in free agency made it to three more, winning three rings in that span.
These Dubs, with their “fragile” leader, are something truly special, and something tells me they aren’t quite done yet…
Milwaukee Bucks
Ex-Warriors
None, I think?
Friends
Jrue Holiday. Hard working, great defender, two-way talent. Fierce rival, but also a big public fan of Stephen Curry.
Giannis Antetokounmpo. He and Stephen Curry regularly pick each other first in All-Star games. Make googly eyes and godly plays together.
From Giannis’s Honorary Warrior For Life election (he fell short):
Dub Nation has been pining for this MVP to bolt Milwaukee and join the Warriors. We also have a soft spot for him for picking Stephen Curry first when he was All-Star captain, which Steph rewarded with this absurd alley-oop.
Giannis has also been openly humble about his MVP case, claiming not to care about it, in stark contrast to certain other bearded players who are obsessed with MVP. In fact, Giannis has been taking jabs at Harden and Harden has been taking bigger jabs back. Here’s the latest round from today:
So the poll results were very friendly to the reigning MVP.
Well 73.4% / Poor 4.6% / Don’t care either way 20.2% / Don’t know who they are 1.7%.
Dub Nation has lots of affection for the Greek Freak, but he falls juuuust short of the 75% mark. He is hereby awarded Honorary Warrior.
Warriors Villains
Petty Rivalries
P.J. Tucker. Underhyped crucial part of the Houston threat to the Dynasty Warriors. His great defense wore down KD and his timely three-point shooting helped bring GSW to the edge. Not sure anyone has bad feelings about him.
Mike Budenholzer. Runs interesting offenses, and the worst can be said is that his teams keep falling short in the playoffs. First, the Atlanta Hawks didn’t make LeBron even break a sweat in 2016 and 2017 allowing him to coast to the Finals. Second, the Bucks dropped the ball against the Raptors in 2019 allowing that bad matchup through against the Warriors in the Finals.
Team Grudges
Not sure who hates the Bucks, as they didn’t win a playoff series from 2002 to 2018, and now have disappointed in two straight playoffs.
Some people hold on to the dream that Giannis will come to GSW and that MIL crashing out of the playoffs will make that happen, but I don’t see it.
Atlanta Hawks
Ex-Warriors
GM Travis Schlenk helped assemble the Dynasty Warriors as Associate GM, then got the big seat in 2017 in ATL, and immediately stole away GSW head performance therapist Chelsea Lane. Maybe that makes him a villain? He followed a Warriors-esque blueprint, even drafting micro-Steph Trae Young.
Friends
None that I know of.
Warriors Villains
Trae Young. Started as a college star with a very Steph Curry style game style. Had a splashy but inefficient rookie year as a micro Steph Curry. Then turned to the dark side to become a macro James Harden, somehow taking the latter’s pioneering foul baiting and cheating and putting a personal spin on it to degrade the sport and generally make his games tough watches.
Petty Rivalries
Clint Capela. A key role player with the Houston Rockets that threatened the Dynasty Warriors, but I don’t think he got involved in anything too cheap or annoying.
Lou Williams. Helped out the Harden Rockets in 2018, and annoyed the Warriors in 2019 with LAC.
Onyeka Okongwu was one of my draft targets, and he ended up falling to ATL, and then due to injuries and other reasons I don’t understand, never seemed to get a chance.
Team Grudges
Other than being a mini-me version of the Warriors and supporting Trae Young’s assault on the eyeballs of all basketball fans, I’m not sure ATL has made any impression on Dub Nation.
Dub Nation Rooting Guide ECF: Milwaukee Bucks (3) vs. Atlanta Hawks (5). & Open Thread
That close out really a T?
Bucks have failed so much, I'd like to see them succeed. Giannis seems like a solid citizen and I like that he stayed with a small market team. Atlanta is at least not unlikeable, although Trae Young is a poser if he thinks he's Young Steph. I like the "micro Steph" moniker, because it speaks to his small size and no-defense self.