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No Shai, Donte, Trae - Killian time

Bucks are used to injuries cutting their season / offseason short. And while the status of Trae Young and Giannis Antetokounmpo is still up in the air, and they could only miss a few games, it’s already clear that Bucks will have to try to defend the title without two big pieces, Shai Gilgeous Alexander and Donte DiVicenzo.

Shai emerged as a starting point guard of the Milwaukee Bucks at the beginning of the season, when the position was left vacant by Donovan Mitchell who played there most of the championship year. Trae was the other candidate. It was clear that the team has depth and quality at two guard spots with Trae, Shai and Zach and Trae seemed best fitted to continue as 6th man. The plan worked quite well, and all three players flourished and played great in over 30 mpg. Until Shai went down with plantar fasciitis around all star break. It is still unclear whether it was a real injury on an “injury”. Either way, the NBA Thunders decision to tank and the secrecy about Shai’s progress and him skipping potential Olympic team cemented the NLL Bucks destiny. Shai is out of the playoffs.

But depth pays off, and Bucks had a Shai substitution playing the role of 7th man on this team. Call up Donte DiVicenzo. The Big Ragu played really well in his stints as the fill in starter this year, he had some big games and averaged almost 13 ppg on 43/47/88 splits in 27 games he started. He also had a solid NBA season with improvements all over the floor, especially on defensive end and as a shooter, something 2k chose to ignore and dropped his ratings to the cellar. But the idea of starting Dobte didn’t last long as he hurt a tendon/ligament in his foot and will watch playoffs in street clothes.

No Shai, no Donte, no problem? Next man up is Trae, who finally gets a chance to start (and does well, of course, it is Trae after all). But that really hurts the 2nd unit that goes from strength to weakness immediately. And there’s just not enough next men when Trae and Giannis go down, bottom 5 rotation guys, who play decently when around better players, just went 1-17, -15 vs Magic bench.

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