Which team is better? Boston Celtics or Milwaukee Bucks?
The Bucks now have Dame, Giannis, Middleton, Lopez and Thanasis. The Celtics now have Jrue, Tatum, Brown, Porzingis, Horford. Which team do you think is making it out of the Eastern Conference?
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I was going to say Celtics but then I realized the Bucks have Thanasis
Thanasty dynasty
Buck Thanasty, the OG player hater
Man you corny!
Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate!
Good thing they made that Dame trade to convince him to stay long term.
Thanosis, the warlord of the east and his right hand freak-man Giannisos.
I respect this answer.
Who let thanasis eat with the big boys
He’s emotional support
Emotional Support Player..he wears a vest when going into costco
Don’t pet him
GOAT 15th man
He’s sort of a 2 for 1 deal with Giannis
Neopotism
one of these is not like the others 🤔
Thanasis has just been faking being bad all these years for this moment
KP is white?
Not to be confused with Derrick White, who is not white.
Not to be confused with Jaylen Brown, who is not brown.
Not to be confused with Draymond Green, who is not green.
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Plays the game the right way. He’s got a lot of grit and is sneaky athletic.
Yeah who added brown
Yeah why is Thanasis named twice?
Nice try thanasis
Depends on how well Horford holds up as the only Giannis defender still on the Celtics roster. And whether Jrue has 2021 Finals type play against the Bucks, or 2023 Heat series play.
Plus Porzingis has to stay healthy now.
Are Tatum and Brown not options against Giannis?
I wouldn't recommend it. Tatum in theory is decent bit you never want your best player to guard the other teams best player who basically is the PF version of Shaq.
In the playoffs you have to if you want to win. Guarding Giannis can't just be one guy's matchup the whole time. I think Tatum and Brown will do well even accidentally when they get switched on him and such. I think it's one of the main reasons Boston has had success against Milwaukee. Tatum and Brown on the wings in addition to Horford.
You have to load up and collapse the paint. Giannis isn't someone you want the straight one on one defense to be predicated on. Heavy emphasis on help needs to be placed
Do you really wanna know why the Celtics do well vs the Bucks ? Its because Milwaukee is shooting 30% from 3 when they play them .
Especially considering giannis’s playstyle is just power through everyone in front of him, you really don’t want tatum getting hurt.
Jaylen Brown IS NOT guarding Giannis
forreal lol, in that playoff series he was the clear weak link defensively against him
He’s historically dunked all over them when it’s been tried. They arent big or thick enough to handle his drives.
Nobody is thick enough to handle the Greek Freak’s drives
Tbh Marcus Smart and Grant Williams did a good job lmao
Yea not sure why the fan discourse hasn’t figured out that exactly ZERO top players are guarded individually by someone on the other team. Guarding Giannis, Dame, Tatum, Jokic, whoever is a team effort.
That piece of Caribbean Dominican meat certainly held his ground decently.
Lol
Whoever is healthy come playoffs.
What if they’re both healthy?!?
No way is KP healthy
Thank you. I’ve felt like I’m the only one noticing this trend of “they have Porzingis, their defense will be great”. Not when he’s hurt all the damn time!
Tall skinny bigs with foot issues smh
He had a good season and played a lot of games last season but it’s not like he had to make the effort he’s going to have to make this season on a team actually trying to win.
We just got rid of the more injury prone big
Also, Porzingis is probably great if he can guard Lopez and can avoid getting switched. If MIL goes small with Giannis at the 5, I don't think you can play Porzingis at all. Not sure he provides enough on offense to make up for defensive troubles.
No way, Dame, Middleton and Lopez are healthy
That rarely happens. 100% chance one of the two teams has a key piece missing.
whichever team plays the heat first will have a key piece missing :P
100% chance, guaranteed! Wow…what is our cutoff for a major piece, top 7 players by time?
I mean for Boston it’d for sure be their top 6 guys (listed in post + White). Clear drop off after that.
Nothing is 100%
Are you 100% certain that nothing is 100% though?
Porzingis is physically cooked, Jrue is old and Al Horford is 75.
Dame also is old and has been racking up injuries, Brook is old and has had a few injuries, Middleton missed more than half a season due to injuries last year.
If by some miracle (less than 0.00001% chance) both teams are healthy come playoff time, Bucks edges it out.
Porzingis played 65 games last year. I think he can be healthy this season
…and that’s the most games he’s played since his second season with most of his previous seasons not coming close to that. Of course there’s always the chance he stays healthy, not saying it’s impossible. But the injury history + track record for guys with his build don’t put the odds in his favor. The Celtics know all this though, they’re just wagering they can catch him on a relatively healthy season. They’ll be perfectly happy with 40-50 regular season games as long as he can gel with the starters and be good to go for the playoffs.
So your saying The Heat are going to pull it out again, just because they know how to play injured???
It’s annoying how often fans don’t realize this
76ers got Oubre sooo all of this is irrelevant
In all honesty it's a good pickup for an Eastern conference team and I wish we'd gotten to him first.
Tobias Harris and Kelly Oubre are two very sneakily good Tatum defenders.
The same way Marcus Morris was specifically good on LeBron and nobody else.
He's not a guarantee to lock down Tatum but Oubre is worth the contract for that matchup alone.
bro is anti-coping 😐
Oubre is booty cheeks my man. You get fooled by the eyes
He’s like Christian wood. Casuals see talent but veteran fans see tunnel vision
Kai Jones being taken out just opened up the east
We just absolutely fucked Miami in the front and back
Proper fucked
Before Ze Germans get here
5 more minutes Turkish
It was 2 minutes 5 minutes ago.
Thanks for this
You’re summoning up a playoff run where Miami go through both injured Bucks and injured Celtics to clinch the east
I think I’ve seen that show before.
What do you mean you’ve seen this? It’s brand new.
I understood that reference
Time is a flat circle
How about this, the ultimate surprise, since 2020, there have been 4 teams in the east who have been picked consistently to be a contender, the bucks, the Celtics, the heat, and... the 76ers.
Boom! Hot take, the 76ers are gonna pull their shit together, Embiid learns how to play in the playoffs. This harden thing is all a ploy. Him and morey are actually golfing as we type. (Or more realistically clubbing)
Ecf 76ers vs... Cavs.
Double boom! Bet ya didn't think I was gonna say the cavs, well I did. Deal with it
Wcf, hmm, no idea let's go with the... TIMBERWOLVES
Triple boom. Twolves vs the Kings, that's right... light the beam or something.
The good thing about being a heat fan through this is either A. I'm right and will look like a genius. Or B. I can just use the events of this off season to say i went insane
Going insane is kinda fun
Miami dropped the soap and the Throwback jail blazers let ‘em know.
Imagine hating someone as much as Portland hates Miami
Don’t worry bby. We still hate you guys just as much as the rest of the Western Conference does.
As it should be 😊❤️
Lmao I haven’t felt this much attention since the Heatles days. It’s kinda fun though, can’t wait til the season starts!
I've seen more comments about or directed towards the Heat during this offseason than I saw when they were in the finals lol
❤️
Thank you
inb4 playoff Jimmy goes through all of them, again
RemindMe! 9 Months
And we know that this will happen, but people will be "what a surprise" AGAIN
I can answer this question once they actually play games
Inb4 Jimmy Butler and roleplayers somehow beats one of these teams in the playoffs.
I have Caleb Martin nightmares
I swear the Celtics, more than any other team, have the most number of random guys that consistently go off against them
proceeds to beat both teams
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I count 3. Who am I missing
Holiday/Brown/Tatum/KP
Dame/KMid/Giannis/Lopez
I mean, you could’ve also just looked at the starting lineups and picked out White and Connaughton lol
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Shiiiit so the guy clearly meant the Bucks since the Celtics have 5
Lopez, Antetokounmpo, Middleton, and Lillard
Tatum, Brown, Jrue, and Porzingas
Who’s the Bucks’ 5th former all-star center they were referring to? Celtics have Horford.
I see what you did there
Diangelo Russell is a former all star as well
Oh, and the 1 non-all-star was all defensive 2nd-team.
The east runs through Cleveland
Did LeBron secretly re-sign there and we just forgot?
Tristan Thompson has declared it
He means “runs through Cleveland” as in “Cleveland is about to get run through”
about to? It already happened!
Idk depends on who scores more points
Magic is that you?
Celtics depth got way worse. We have no injury insurance.
True at the moment but there's no way they're going to stand pat with the current bigs rotation, would be insane to even try with it being as thin as it is right now
Time to call the pistons. They have way too many bigs
They seem to be addicted to hoarding them though
Agreed, Boston could really use some beef stew
Biyombo time 🤷🏻♀️
Pretty sure we have Arbella Insurance
It’s not like we are winning if we have injuries anyway. “Injuries insurance” isn’t really an actual thing, if your star players are out during the playoffs your not winning a championship.
The depth concerns are a bit overblown imo.
The biggest hole is supposedly at center, but we are going from playing two-big lineups the majority of the time to playing one-big most of the time. There will be less center minutes, so Porzingis starting, Horford as backup, and Kornet as emergency cover is more than enough. If it’s not, quality third center is the easiest role to fill in the league.
People are assuming that we get zero from all of the new bench signings this season (Svi, Brissett, Walsh, Stevens etc.) We will probably get nothing from most of them, but there are enough of them that odds are at least one will hit as a quality bench guy.
Any unforeseen problems can be solved in season. We still have FRPs in 2024, 25, 26, 27, and 28 (subject to swap with Spurs.) and extra SRPs our the wazoo. The edge the Celtics have over the Bucks is that they still have so much flexibility to fill out depth.
Tingus playing a lot of minutes at center is when he tends to get injured though. He stayed healthy this year in part because the Wizards had Gafford to tank all the abuse in the paint.
Do the Bucks?? Do any of the tops teams??
The Heat don't, but Spo seams to wave his magic wand and they wins games anyways (see: the last 7 years). So yeah, the Heat have "depth"
Still though, the Celtics 5 is what always gives teams like Miami, Milwaukee and Philly trouble. Rotations get tighter in the postseason. Though, I wonder if this would be a move Ainge would go for if he was still around.
I don’t know if this necessarily true. Celtics depth has kept them in games where Tatum or brown aren’t on in the playoffs
You still gotta survive to the post season though
I really wouldn’t be surprised if either team won a close best of 7.
You included Thanasis but not White lmao
White was literally the best perimeter defender in the league last year and their best guard too lol
Somehow, someway, it will be the Heat again.
This is the funniest possible outcome
The funniest possible outcome is the Sixers finally getting over the second round hump and then getting swept in the ECF
Brown will turn possessions into fastbreaks for the other team (again), Jrue will shoot like .300 (again), Zingy will be absent (again), Horford will be older, and Timelord will be on another team. That series I get. I don't see how the Heat beat Milwaukee, though, barring injury or coaching malpractice.
Well, we seem to have that particular art mastered to a T, so don't worry lool
Depends on health tbh, if Thanasis is healthy come playoff time I’d say the Bucks have the edge
Feels like people are implying Jrue and Dame are net neutral despite us “getting much better” by swapping Jrue and Grayson for Dame.
I think its the KP + Jrue vs Dame. Y'all are gonna be bananas on offense and are def the more skilled team, Id like to think the Cs fit together a lot better (perimeter shooting + defense), and have underrated depth but time will tell. Dont think its as clear cut as Dame > Jrue though
Because everyone’s pretending they watched the POR-NOP series in 2018 and that it was just Jrue playing man to man
And that both players are the same as they were 5 years ago.
Anthony who?
Bucks
This is gonna be a fun season
Thanasis lol
Thought first this is r/nbacirclejerk
Whichever one can stay healthy in the playoffs.
This is the right answer.
I don’t like what Boston had to give up. Im a little concerned about the front court if Kristaps or Al go down. I’d say rn tho they are the slightly better team. Time will tell tho
Whoever wins, Miami loses
And Philly
Bruh that's been said 6 times since 2020. Miami has humiliated your team and the Bucks twice. 🤣
This fella needs to consider Derek White
For it is written. A Great White Buffalo will roam again. He is inevitable
Miami Heat
Is this sub allergic to talking about hypotheticals and predictions? Comments lame af
It’s hard to say OP, both healthy I see a very close game 7
Bro just criticized everybody and then gave us the vaguest answer possible
I criticized over people refusing to attempt to answer or acting like it’s dumb question. I mean it’s the obvious answer. Neither of these teams are gonna pull away from the other one.
Celtics have porzingis
Team with a 2 time MVP and a ring. Which also just added Dame
The heat (not subjective at all)
I'll have an extra large copium, please!
Blazers really set their minds to make heat main rival better huh
Next stop. Sixers
The team with Derrick White
Probably somehow the Heat
I don’t know how or why but probably the Heat
It’s the one with 2 out of 3 of the best players out of everyone on those two teams.
Games played by more than just the top 2 guys
Assuming everyone is healthy, it's tge Celtics
Did Thanasis post this?
Sacramento Kings
Cavs
Push?
I think the celtics have even more problems up front now. Unless they somehow get a better 4/5 I think that's going to kill them. Horford can play 'n all but he's getting too old.
Scene when Heat win ECF again
No one guarding antetokounmpo on celtics, bucks sweep
giannis is decent too i guess
Bucks.
Celtics are gonna have rim protection issues, and the Bucks got better spacing. Idk why everyone is still high on the Celtics; Porzingis is not going to magically stay healthy when he’s gonna have to play so many minutes.
All for Jimmy to drop 50
I think the Bucks are better. Al Horford is getting really old. Tatum and Brown's skillsets need to complement each other more. KP has a history of injuries. And their lockeroom leadership and chemistry could take a huge hit after losing so many players. Coach Joe has his work cut out for him.
Bucks. Top two scorer in Lillard and Giannis. Front and back court on lock. Giannis will eat Celtics front court up and KP is never healthy, lol. This has flop written all over it for Boston and if there was a script it'll be that Lillard gets his ring and goes back to Portland with a revamped team ala Lebron style to bring a ring with their improved youth and having some experience.
Celtics are getting wildly overrated. They lost a lot of heart and soul from this team this offseason. And Horford is just about cooked.
With that said, the east is so weak they may cakewalk to the ECF anyway.
I think heart and soul is a bit overrated tbh. Championship teams have raw talent and just dont hate eachother. Negative chemistry is devastating and could be a risk but positive chemistry doesnt win you chips, talent does
Their heart and soul constantly choked when it mattered. They had hit their ceiling with that core
Fine but Kristaps Porzingis is going to be the difference? And Jrue was getting cooked by Miami in the 1st round
I guess we don’t know until the season happens? Very well could be
Edit: Oh, philly fan. They’ll dominate the 76ers no matter who is on their team
The Celtics traded away all of these pieces to rest the offense at the feet of Brown and Tatum. One who can’t dribble left and the other who looks to pass or get fouled in clutch moments. Unless they both take a step up, Giannis and Dame are going to feast on them, neither of those guys are afraid of taking control of a game.
These trades made them go from top 2 in the East to top 2 in the East.
Jrue locking up Dame and also dropping 30 revenge mode
I could see it happening 1 game. Then back to 4-19 shooting for jrue.
Horford probably comes off the bench now with White taking that spot. Basically all last year they ran White, Smart, Brown Tatum and Horford as starters.
Tingus takes Horford’s spot and Jrue takes smart’s spot.
Mans just casually slides Thanasis in with the all stars like we wouldn’t notice
Whoa.
Celtics have better shooting. Bucks have better Giannis.
Giannis is like Lebron, Gobert, and Wilt.
Thanasis? The dude that averages like 3 minutes per game? Lol
The Orlando magic
Boston's 5th guy is better than Milwaukee's 5th guy.
If Kristaps and Horford are healthy, it’s Boston. But I feel like you’re betting a lot on that. Boston nuked their depth.
Whichever team doesn’t get injured
one player does not belong on this list lol
Bucks are the easier bet. They didn't lose as much continuity/cohesion from their trades, and while we don't know the exact details of how they will incorporate Dame it's hard to imagine a world where he doesn't fit well.
On the other hand Boston have lost 4 of their 9 man rotation from last year, and while their replacements are good there's much less of a guarantee of it working out.
Could this Boston team have a higher ceiling than this Bucks team is a different question. If the fit works out with the new guys and we don't see any major injuries I think Boston could be favourites going into the playoffs. I think they'll cause issues for certain teams with their 5 out style and they don't have any weaknesses to exploit. Super well rounded team.
That Jrue deal sealed it for me, Celtics > Bucks (on paper) - but got dam!!!!!!! Of course I’m a MIA fan so I expect us to win anyways ✨🤪