Bucks vs Hawks NBA Cup Predictions: Who Will Reign Supreme?

The NBA Cup Semi-Finals are here, and CP The Fanchise is breaking it all down with special guest Eric Newman of BBall Radio! 🏀🔥

In this episode of The NBA Report, we dive deep into the matchup between the Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks. Can Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard's star power outshine the Hawks' rising talent and defensive juggernaut led by Quin Snyder?

Topics Discussed:
✅ Knicks vs Hawks breakdown – What went wrong for the Knicks?
✅ Hawks' impressive depth and coaching adjustments.
✅ Bucks’ resurgence with Giannis and Dame leading the charge.
✅ Predictions for the Semi-Finals matchup in Las Vegas.

Join us as we analyze the key players, team strategies, and what to expect from this epic showdown! 🏆

Transcript

(7) Bucks vs Hawks NBA Cup Predictions: Who Will Reign Supreme? - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdpLzygtprM

Transcript:
(00:00) all right here we go salute to NBA Nation CP the franchise here special edition of the NBA report we are going to tap in on the final four of the NBA cup and joining me today is returning to the show is my guy Eric Newman man the founding partner of Untouchable creative former executive producer with Showtime basketball and the current host of basketball radio Eric how you feeling man terrific my man terrific appreciate you having me back on love the Rhythm we're in and uh let's get this some NBA cup let's do this yeah we we got to talk
(00:37) about it man but man I wanted to come to Vegas I wanted to be there I was planning to be there with my New York Knicks but they just could not get past this vaunted Hawks defense I was at the game in Madison Square Garden look give credit to the Hawks they they're well coached this year quin night is doing a hell of a job um but damn Nick's crashed out man did you see that game what you think about that so it's not often I confidently and like positively pick the Knicks to to win you know my complicated uh history as a as a Celtics fan from
(01:14) New York right and all joking aside like what a great opportunity to build upon this Foundation build upon how well they've been playing with Carl Anthony towns Mel Bridges finding his way and it's ironic it's the Hawks that that did it right because this is not the same Atlanta Hawks team that knocked the Knicks out of the playoffs a few years ago yes Trey young is still the head of the snake but this Supporting Cast is much different now and it unfortunately for you and nicks Nation shows that the Knicks have a depth problem regarding uh
(01:55) athleticism and regarding size up front and this is how this Hawks team has been put together around Trey young it's no accident that yes while Trey Young's field goal percentage is far from impressive he's leading the league in assists yeah and they are starting to find a really nice Rhythm and I can't say enough about the development of Jaylen Johnson who of course fills the spot left by uh the much maligned John Collins who thought he was going to be part of the Hawks future when dejonte Murray joined the team who's now in New
(02:26) Orleans and the Hawks as you said playing for Quinn Snider and revamping this team a bit um are finding a nice Rhythm and a really tough matchup for the Nicks and that's why the Hawks are going to Vegas and the Knicks are back to their regularly schedule programming yeah and and and you nailed it man Jaylen Johnson who was absolutely terrific in this game amongst you know a lot of the Hawks uh but to me he has really swung things in that northwards trajectory for this Atlanta Hawks team in their build you know and and it's
(02:59) it's interesting because this was a team who when they saw the Knicks in 2021 and went all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals it was thought that man this team is here they've arrived and and they are going to continue to climb and then they took those steps back they did struggle they bring in Quin Snider here they had Jaylen Johnson parked on the bench they went through that rebuild but he's sparking things man and you can see why with his Ascension why they chose to part ways with John Collins and he's not only a
(03:31) prolific Wing he's his shot creation skills have also been very very impressive man I mean just watching him operate out there he gets it done on both ends of the floor on all three levels he's been great for them not only has he been great but Dyson uh Daniels um I was just I was just checking to make sure I was getting getting all my names right like yeah Dyson Daniels is a 6'7 21y old two-way Wing who can handle the ball a bit when Trey is either out of the game or they want to play him off the ball to get him going
(04:05) offensively and they added depth with uh Larry Nance Jr who can be a spot starter at any time at the four or the five position obviously bogdanovich gives them great shooting and they're a team especially with the injuries that have hit the magic we know what's going on in Philadelphia we know the slow start the Bucks got off to you know the Hawks could be that team that starts to sneak into that top five in the East and be there for a majority of the season so this isn't just oh they're playing well now and they caught the
(04:45) Knicks right place right time like this is a team that has retooled we we all know and if you haven't paid attention like Quin Snider is the real deal as a head coach and he's proven that now in two places and um and I don't I don't want to harp on the negative with the Knicks but they need health yeah obviously you need Mitchell Robinson back uh precious sucha obviously played in that game but um it's not time to hit the Panic Button as far as adding depth in the front court but you'd have to believe they are
(05:23) scouting the league right now for what to do in 8 weeks when it's deadline time and they've got to add some death because as good as they are top seven top eight um they're going to have a problem against the better teams who have size length and athleticism that's just that's just the facts of the situation as well as they've been playing yeah I mean those are the type of teams that uh that have given them hell this year and we're going to talk about the Rockets a little bit later on on uh on this show uh but when it comes
(05:56) to having athleticism having depth at the Wing Spot those guys has crushed the Knicks because number one they put one of those wings on Jaylen Brunson and that was the AFF forementioned Dyson Daniels who for the second game against the Knicks has absolutely shut down Jaylen Brunson not allowing him to get to his spots you know blocking threes I mean Dyson Daniels what six seven I mean you know you I don't mean to cut you off you combine foot speed with wingspan that's what you need against Brunson right like good defensive guards who are
(06:29) 63 and under who try to get physical with him they're just going to get bounced off him yeah like the way Brunson uses his shoulders he uses his hips that's a problem but when you're 67 you can be another half a step off of them because you can challenge shots with either hand and compete and you take Daniels you take DeAndre Hunter who's back on the floor Jaylen Johnson and those are your two three and four with Trey young and Clint capella with a Kong wo behind him or Nance behind him or bogdanovich that that's that's a damn
(07:04) good team in terms of talent and versatility and now that they're building the chemistry and the confidence on the floor again we we got to we got to see the Hawks for what they are and it's a team with a lot of potential who On Any Given night can beat any team in the league yeah and and this team this Hawks bench you mentioned uh Bach donovic and Hunter they score they combine and score over 40 points uh that Hawks bench with DeAndre Hunter accounting for 24 of those points he's having a great year I've always been a
(07:33) fan of him even even coming out of UVA and despite the ups and downs that he's had in in his career whether it's with injury or with consistency uh you know just one of those three four five Tweeter wings that can give you hell and for the Knicks a guy that they just could not stop and so despite Trey not shooting at HIS try type of levels over his career you know this Hawks team is showing you a lot of depth athleticism and then most importantly it's their defense man it it is their defense it is hard to beat them capella is still doing
(08:07) a good job protecting the rim you have oku who's coming off the bench to give teams problems as well so I think for this Milwaukee Bucks team this is a this is a hawks Juggernaut that's coming in who by the way they've beaten the Cavs twice already they've beaten the Knicks twice and they beaten the Celtics already so a hot Bucks team cannot look past this Hawks unit when it catch the Vegas no and it's an intriguing matchup because both have front court size and depth Bobby Portis had a monster game the other night Giannis is putting up
(08:41) video game like numbers Brook Lopez is still a consistent veteran presence out there is he the same player from a few years ago when they won the championship or even when they were in that great series with the Celtics in 22 no but he's still 7'2 with a the big-time defensive presence and obviously can post up and play out of the three-point line so for Milwaukee you know they've been getting it together because the chemistry has finally started um to make some sense Chris Middleton is not the same player he was but he's back in the
(09:17) lineup and he can be a threat and Milwaukee has some of the issues the Knicks have in terms of athleticism depth obviously the Knicks have OG who can guard multiple positions on the wing they have Bridges and Hart who can guard multiple positions on the wing but after that it really thins out in terms of guys you can trust right now in the season that could change down the line that's been a similar case for the bucks but adding somebody like Gary Trent Jr who while only I believe is 6' three can get hot and score 12 points in three
(09:54) minutes for you and take the pressure off of Dame and take the pressure off of Giannis when they need it and again Milwaukee playing much better I think this is going to be a terrific game in Vegas I picked the Knicks and the Bucks to be seeing each other yeah so um to pick a winner right now I mean this game to me is a coin toss um but I I think Giannis um is starting to put that chip back on his shoulder and I I'm saying that as an understatement I think he's gotten tired of the quote unquote slander tired of people questioning him
(10:28) tired of people burying the Bucks and he's playing like a a determined superstar that he is so expect a great game um if you're putting me on the spot I'm going to say the team with the best player is going to win a tight one and I'm going to take Milwaukee but Atlanta right now looks really really good so my prediction is terrific game in the East semi-final in Vegas yeah no no question about it and I I think obviously Atlanta's goingon to be bringing their defense to this matchup but with the Bucks I still have to go with the team
(11:01) with the two superstars because what they've shown over the last year and a quarter now is that even though the Outer Perimeter needs work and the intangibles sometimes might need not be there you can question the coaching when you have Giannis you have Dame most Knights you're going to have the best duo on the floor and at times they could be damn near Unstoppable and you know look even though they had trouble with a tough and stingy Orlando team I still think just like Orlando I think the Hawks could come to
(11:36) a point where they struggle to score in this game despite their defense being tough and that's where the Bucks can put a lot of pressure on you especially if Giannis is killing downhill especially if Dame is going I think that can really put a lot of pressure on this Hawks team and cause a lot of problems going into Vegas man yeah I mean if Pat conington or AJ Green are making three or Gary Trent are making threes and Giannis and Dame are doing their thing that really opens up the floor for the bucks so a lot of it has to do with
(12:09) Supporting Cast and you know again it's the question for them is going to be how Chris Middleton let's be real right like NBA champion All-Star player perfect to me third guy when healthy on a contending team now obviously him and Drew holiday were kind of flip-flopping with that role who was second who was third it didn't matter because they were steady and they always showed up in big moments the question I'm throwing out there is how much of Chris Middleton can they get back can they get 80 or 85% of Chris Middleton
(12:50) back because if so that's going to make life a lot easier for Dam and Giannis and it's going to put less pressure on those role players who frankly right now are still kind of Hit or Miss now I will say this and this is my forever bias right like Doc Rivers won a championship as a Celtics coach we've seen all the slander out there on him over the years um I've interviewed the man I've talked Hoops with the man um I hear the stories about him from kg from Paul from Sam Cassell from Rondo I think Doc Rivers gets unfairly
(13:32) criticized at times is Doc Rivers one of the three best coaches in the NBA right now no I don't think so but I think Doc Rivers gets unfairly criticized last year he was put in a pretty crazy position they fire a head coach who was close to 20 games over 500 to bring in Doc without a training camp Lillard is brand new to the team he was still wasn't himself and now this year they start slow the team wasn't fully healthy and all of a sudden they're winning so is Doc to blame just for the losing and not to get credit for the winning and then
(14:10) something else we should talk about another time and really go deep down the rabbit hole with is you know everybody loves to site the playoff leads that he's had and blown but nobody wants to peel back the layers and look at the context behind them so I I think that's an interesting exercise one more thing that I don't want to lose sight of here and you mentioned it quickly like let's take our hat off to the Orlando Magic M A team that is going in the right direction but the worst luck at the worst time early this season
(14:38) first Pao goes down I mean how many Star players go down with an oblique injury and then arguably fron Vagner who the truth Paul Pierce likes to call Frank Wagner which is hilarious stick from him on a weekly basis he goes down with the the same injury he's playing at an all NBA level same injury man and the magic show up and they're in that game and very well could have won that game so I love what is happening in Orlando I think by the end of the year if that team is healthy that's going to be one of those teams
(15:17) homecourt advantage or not whether they can get up to the top four or not that's a team you don't want to see in a playoff series they are laying a great foundation with Coach Mosley they have versatile gritty guards who play both sides of the basketball and then Pao and and Vagner are like very very special unique versatile front Court players so want them to make sure we shout out the magic who unfortunately had those injuries and the matchup with the Bucks just at the wrong time uh trying to get to Vegas yeah career high for Jaylen
(15:48) sugs in that game 32 points uh one thing you can count on with this magic team is that they're going to bring their defense to the dance on any given night Dame Lillard gave it was highly highly complimentary of that team in his postgame press conference uh and just just being very complimentary of their defense their physicality and things of that nature so we'll see what happens when both Paulo and France come together because you're gonna have Paulo back first and then I think you're going to see similar to when he went out and then
(16:17) Fran started to to elevate I think you could see the same thing but then the key is going to be how do those two guys come together now and raise their offensive ceiling cuz you know defensively they're going to be great but offensively can the two of those guys raise their ceiling and make up for the lack of shooting depth that they have around them you know kcp will certainly do his thing and contribute but we'll see just how far they can go offensively I think that's going to be the ultimate uh judge in terms of this
(16:48) Orlando Magic season and then you know lastly on the Milwaukee Bucks couple weeks ago a lot of the talkers around joic and and going for that that you know that monumental MVP in the season that he's having well Giannis is averaging 3211 and six and arguably his best season of his career and given the fact that the Bucks really came out the gate so slow and were struggling mightily here is a guy who challenges team challenges coaching staff challenges front office but is backing it up on the court and dominating so I
(17:25) we we got to shout Giannis out for that man because he's he's doing the damn thing right now yeah for sure and and we've had some crazy MVP races last excuse me three or four years um and it's interesting both the Bucks and the nuggets are right around that 500 Mark with their best players having monster season Jason Tatum didn't play tonight against the Pistons he's got a little bit of a of a knee issue not to be concerned I think they're just being overly cautious with him right now Jason Tatum is clearly in
(17:56) the MVP conversation for how he's playing and SGA in Oklahoma City top state in the Western Conference who we're going to talk about a minute headed to Vegas he is definitely in a tier one MVP conversation so I I think it's way too early um but it's going to be an exciting race for the MVP this year and what's going to be I think one of the most interesting Parts about that conversation is how much will record and standing play into it versus individual performance trying to keep the team in the middle of the pack right which is
(18:30) where Denver and Milwaukee find themselves as we hit mid December absolutely because both of those teams are going to be in that dog fight in their respective conferences and you know for Denver it's going to be left to be seen how much pressure does y does yish put any pressure on them to to upgrade that team does Murray snap out of it so a lot to consider there but you're absolutely right record is going to be one of the determining factors in this thing and both of those guys are still trying to get their respective
(18:55) teams out of the mud so uh we we'll see what happens there going to be an action-packed game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Atlanta Hawks and we'll see who comes out on top in Vegas to head to the finals who you picking who you picking I'm going Milwaukee man going Milwaukee yeah I'm going I'm going I'm going with the star power man and as a an Atlanta Hawks hater I got to see somebody events at lost by my New York Knicks man but as an objective basketball fan I'm going to go with the Bucks yeah and and not let's
(19:25) not get like giannis's greatness is one thing but Dame Lillard now on the Vegas stage it's Dame time against Trey yeah yeah and look going to be a good game and and look the the Milwaukee Bucks were NBA cup bridesmaids last year they didn't get the 500,000 for the for the for the squad so hey maybe that's a little more motivation for Damon Giannis to uh to go out there and get it this year for the team and we've seen it we saw it with the Pacers you know that hey that NBA cup was kind of a win beneath a team D Pacers were able to launch all
(20:01) the way to the Conference Finals so maybe that's you know further fuel for the Milwaukee Bucks to keep it going and resurrect their season man