Your biweekly (Buck)date — Hello All-Stars my old friends…
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time once again.
We’ve been away for far too long and I’ve missed you all dearly.
Yes, in truth it’s been the same two-week hiatus as usual, but it just felt interminable this time.
(Look, I don’t have a lot going on, OK?)
Anyway, my oversharing aside, I’m far from the only one who’s thrilled to be reunited with some certain folks, as last night Milwaukee Bucks fans were treated to the return of not one, but two long-time stars to the floor.
After a five-game absence Giannis Antetokounmpo was back in his typical starting role — promptly scoring 20 first quarter points on 100 percent shooting from the floor, because why not?
In addition, Khris Middleton — yes, that Khris Middleton — made his own return as well, tallying 15 minutes and a couple of his patented offensive sequences in his first action since mid-December.
And wouldn’t you know it, with its full complement of players available for the very first-time in 47 games Milwaukee’s ‘A-team’ went out and promptly dropped its most points in both a quarter (49) and half (83) this season. When it was all said and done the Bucks finished with 150 points against the hapless Pistons and left Detroit feeling pretty good about themselves.
In the words of their two-time MVP, “The band is back together.”
That victory edged Milwaukee (30–17) up to a half-game back of the 76ers for second place in the Eastern Conference (4.5 back of first place Boston) and capped a 4–3 record over the past two weeks of action.
If you’re a Bucks fan or even just a fan of high-level basketball in general Monday night was but the briefest taste of what you’ve been waiting to see all season.
I won’t rehash too much of such a tiny sample size as we’ll hopefully have a lot more to dive into a couple of weeks from now. That said, it was certainly the biggest development to take place since our last visit, and thus well worth mentioning here at the top.
Where we’ll be spending most of our time, however, is on a couple of elements that I’ve been tracking lately that I think could be instructive as to how Milwaukee might be planning to attack the postseason, as well as its hopes of performing at a championship-caliber level once it gets there.
Starting us off, let’s take a look at the Bucks’ improving grasp on one of the hippest new trends of modern basketball — the long ball.
It may not be raining yet, but the three-point drought at least appears to be subsiding.
It may have taken awhile, but Milwaukee finally seems to be upping its street cred to better align with the league norm of long-distance shooting in today’s NBA.
After sandwiching bottom 20 percent of the league rates in terms of three-point proficiency in October and December around a middle-of-the-pack November the Bucks’ collective marksmanship has seemingly come alive since the turn of the New Year.
In the month of January Milwaukee is knocking down nearly 39 percent of its long-range attempts — a three percent improvement over any month prior, and good for fifth best league-wide in 2023 to date.
Did I think the team was bound for an uptick at some point? Absolutely. There are more than enough established, capable perimeter shooters on the roster to have held such an expectation. But a combination of absence due to injury and some slow starts thereafter meant that it never really felt as though the Bucks were collectively knocking down shots at the rate one would expect.
Brook Lopez has continued to shoot a career-high volume and efficiency from downtown, Grayson Allen remains a steady 40-percent marksman and Jevon Carter has hovered around that mark as well in a welcomed development from the defense-first guard.
But the total absence of Middleton’s historically excellent shooting from the lineup, combined with slow starts for Pat Connaughton and Joe Ingles — out with injury for the first month and two months of the season respectively — and an uncharacteristic dry spell from Bobby Portis left Milwaukee without the desired, consistent floor-spacing around its interior scoring dynamo in Giannis.
Thankfully the Connaughton/Ingles/Portis trio are all back to shooting much more like their typical selves in January, while Middleton’s return adds yet another big-time threat that had pretty much been missing for Milwaukee altogether this season.
I’d expect each of the seven aforementioned shooters to be a part of the playoff rotation come April (more on that later), and their ability to stretch the floor and knock down shots around Giannis will be critical to making another championship run.
Of course, there’s an eighth not-so-Greek-Freaky member of the Bucks who figures to aid in that shooting effort as well, but also so much more. And his recent run of play would do nothing to dissuade anyone of the notion he’s more than capable of doing so.
Holiday’s heater
Jrue Holiday is an All-Star plain and simple.
If it took a stretch of more overt dominance in order to crystalize that notion in people’s minds, shame on them.
That said, it certainly doesn’t hurt his cause with fan-voting having come to a close last Saturday and starters/reserves for the event set to be announced this Thursday (1/26) and next (2/2) respectively.
In the six-game stretch prior to yesterday evening’s full roster reunion in Detroit (five of which came without both Giannis and Middleton) Holiday was absolutely phenomenal serving as his team’s offensive focal point.
Not only were his splits a sight to behold — 27.2 points/game on 53.8 percent shooting (42.9 percent from three), 9 assists, and 4.5 rebounds — but he delivered in multiple clutch situations to help his significantly undermanned squad scratch out a .500 record over that span of games despite being without two of its stars.
He closed out the Pacers on MLK Day with a 21 point, six assist second-half barrage, and then arguably topped himself the very next day to finish off the Raptors.
Holiday doled out double-digit assists in four of the five games sans Giannis/Middleton despite an uncharacteristic (for him) high shot volume — nearly 20 FGA’s and seven 3PA’s/game — all the while maintaining his typical dogged defensive effort.
Not that it should’ve been necessary, but elevating both his burden and efficiency during a stretch of games like that was a great reminder of not only his importance to Milwaukee, but his standing amongst the elite players in the league as well.
And great as it is to have during the regular season, his value only increases as the stakes and intensity ratchet up another notch come playoff time.
Speaking of which…
Potential signs of a playoff rotation to come?
Wes Matthews and George Hill are both 36 years old.
LeBron James in 38 years old.
Wes Matthews and George Hill are not LeBron James.
My point being, because of how influx Milwaukee’s roster has been all season long it hasn’t always been the easiest to identify certain trends/combinations that Mike Budenholzer may be moving toward with fewer than 40 games left until the playoffs.
But if his decision making in recent weeks in any indication there may be something afoot regarding these two veterans for the Bucks.
Hill was active and played in each of Milwaukee’s first 29 games. In the 18 since he’s been a DNP (did not play) in half of them while listed as inactive for another four.
Matthews was active for 18 of Milwaukee’s first 21 games and played in each of them. Since then, he’s registered 13 DNP’s (including 11 of the past 16 games) and sat out an additional three as inactive.
One could make the argument that Budenholzer is giving some rest to a pair of guys with a combined 27 years of NBA experience between them. Perhaps the return of Connaughton (mid-November) and Ingles (mid-December) have made it less necessary to put tread on their tires over a long regular season. But I wonder if we’re not instead watching the coalescence of an eight/nine-man playoff rotation that includes neither of them.
I’ve gone through the exercise of divvying up potential playoff minutes and while a picture I can totally envision happening emerges pretty quickly, it typically doesn’t have Hill or Matthews in it.
For instance, a combined 240-minute rotation might look as follows:
- Holiday — 40 minutes
- Allen — 20 minutes
- Middleton — 38 minutes
- Giannis — 40 minutes
- Lopez — 27 minutes
- Portis — 24 minutes
- Connaughton — 20 minutes
- Ingles — 21 minutes
- Carter — 10 minutes
Even for that group of nine it’s tough to disperse what feels like enough minutes to the everyone, and that doesn’t account for the fact that a tight, crucial game could dictate siphoning off even more for Milwaukee’s three stars, leaving even fewer to go around to the rest.
Though I appreciate the playoff experience and just the all-around grit and guile of players like Hill and Matthews it feels like at this point you’d be playing them more so out of gut instinct than based upon what we’ve seen so far this season.
Combined the duo is shooting just 32.1 percent from three (44/137) and neither provides much in the way of attacking the basket or playmaking for others at this stage in their careers.
My biggest concern with Milwaukee — health aside — continues to be its ability to generate consistent offense from game-to-game against the high-level foes it’s sure to see come playoff time. So, if these two aren’t much help in that regard, much less an improvement over those whom they’d be competing with for minutes, it’s hard for me to make an argument as to why they should be on the floor.
The cruel irony of all of this is that both Hill and Matthews were with the Bucks the year prior to its championship season only to leave and play elsewhere in 2020–21. Now having returned for the past year-and-a-half there’s a chance that the Bucks make another title run only for the two of them to watch it from the bench.
I’ll continue to track Budenholzer’s lineup choices moving forward because simply put, not everyone can get minutes come the postseason. His propensity in the past has consistently been to go no more than nine-deep, and I’d argue that cutoff line on this Bucks roster should be his hardest ever to crack given the depth of talent at his disposal.
Play of the week(s)
It’s another special POTW(s) edition as we eschew basketball ‘skill’ entirely and instead delve into shenanigans.
And so, I present to you ‘A Buck run amuck’:
Aside from the rarity of the Disney-loving, gentle giant Lopez ever displaying this sort of hostility towards an opponent, my favorite parts of the sequence and its aftermath (in no particular order) can be catalogued as such:
- Lopez ties up/confronts 19 feet, nine inches and 671 combined pounds of Toronto Raptors as a woman watches on completely gobsmacked by the entire ordeal. Lopez can do this because he’s a 282 pound seven-footer. At that size everyone else is pretty much just along for the ride when you decide to make it so.
2. My favorite angle of the whole kerfuffle actually comes from the Bucks’ home television broadcast. The wide shot gives perfect context for everything that transpired before, during and after Lopez hurled Gary Trent Jr’s headband off of his dome — including his four Milwaukee teammates pivoting and jogging over to his aid (not that he needed much) in near unison after realizing that a brouhaha was afoot.
I’d imagine that was a point of pride amongst members of the Bucks roster during their next team film session — as well it should be.
3. And finally, the cherry on top of this proverbial ‘sundae’ undoubtedly has to be Lopez’s media session following the game.
All of the sweet, sweet goodness can be found via the Twitter thread below from Bucks beat writer Eric Nehm.
The highlights include a not-so-passive-aggressive critique of that evening’s officiating, an insinuation of a talking headband via serial killer analogy (funnier than it sounds, I promise), a lovely back-and-forth dialogue with Joe Ingles and so much more.
I sincerely hope you take the time to consume it all as there’s an overwhelming likelihood of it being Milwaukee’s media moment of the year at season’s end.
(Perhaps that’ll be another award once we get there.)
In fact, I struggle to fathom what could possibly surpass it.
Alas, the season is still young, and I’d never want to set limits on what can yet be accomplished — be it on court or off of it.
I will, however, set a limit on our latest (Buck)date edition.
Closing out
Milwaukee will play five of its next six at home inside of Fiserv Forum, broken up only by a short trek to Indianapolis to take on the Pacers.
Within that six-pack they’ll lead off with a clash against the Western Conference leading Denver Nuggets and two-time defending MVP Nikola Jokić. And after that (in order) it’ll be the Pelicans, Hornets, Clippers and Heat before embarking on a west coast road swing beginning in Portland.
I’m very much looking forward to seeing these Bucks get an extended run of action at full strength, so here’s to a continuation of the good health that the entire organization has surely been yearning for.
That’s for their sake.
Four ours let’s enjoy finally getting the chance to see what this group can really be out on the floor. I suspect it could be something pretty appealing to watch, and that’s what we’re all about here — enjoying some basketball.
Thanks as always to everyone for reading, and I look forward to meeting you back here in a few weeks as we rapidly descend upon the All-Star break.
‘Till next time.