GDHQNBA15_2pg-Milwaukee Bucks

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EASTERN CONFERENCE CENTRAL DIVISION Milwaukee While there weren’t very many people who had high hopes for the Milwaukee Bucks as contenders last year, it was hard to imagine just how bad they would be. There were plenty of players the Bucks could point to as rising talents: Larry Sanders, Ersan Ilyasova and John Henson among them. Milwaukee didn’t have any true superstars, but the idea that they could make the Eastern Conference playoffs didn’t seem far-fetched. As it turned out, in a league with a bunch of teams tanking for draft picks, it was Milwaukee who finished with the League’s worst record at 15-67. Sanders was injured and involved in multiple incidents off the court. Ilyasova was also injured and not the same player when he was in the lineup. Offseason acquisitions didn’t work. The result was a team that was a total mess on both ends of the court and an overall disaster. Defense Silver linings are hard to find from the Milwaukee season last year. One of them is obviously the selection of Jabari Parker with the second overall pick. Another was the play of rookies Nate Wolters and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Wolters improbably finished with the fifth highest defensive Real-Plus Minus rating among NBA point guards last year at +1.57. Antetokounmpo is an extremely young player with a lot of promise, but he was equal parts talented and raw last season. The best overall defender on the Bucks is Sanders, a lean big man with tremendous athleticism and superb shotblocking ability. However, Sanders is known for having a short temper, a personality trait that really hurt him last year. Sanders tore a ligament in his thumb during a nightclub altercation last year; that and a fractured orbital suffered against James Harden limited him to just 584 minutes, effectively taking Milwaukee’s best defender out of their rotation. The remaining players simply were not good. John Henson had a very disappointing season; while he produced a good PER of 17.4, that number is not a good reflection of how poorly he actually played. Henson was mostly abused by opponents in the post and his offensive game was relatively limited. O.J. Mayo also struggled badly as the new shooting guard in the Milwaukee lineup. Mayo has never been a plus defender but his flaws were exacerbated by the lack of rim protection behind him. The same could be said of Brandon Knight, a player who has never quite turned the corner at the point guard position. I l yasova may have been Milwaukee’s best defender, which just goes to show how poor Milwaukee’s defense was last season. The Bucks ranked dead last in defensive rating at 111.8. There wasn’t a single aspect of defense Milwaukee was good at last season. Their biggest flaw was their tendency to leave shooters wide open, as opponents shot a staggering 38.2 percent from three-point range against the Bucks. New head coach Jason Kidd will find coaching defense in Milwaukee to be a much tougher task than anything he had to deal with in Brooklyn. While the return of Sanders should help, the Bucks simply lack any plus defenders other than him. There’s no reason to think Milwaukee’s defense will be anything other than a mess again this year. Offense There are a few ingredients necessary to produce an effective NBA offense. First, and most importantly, teams need a superstar. There are only so many of those to go around, but having a single player who can create shots and demand double teams goes a long way towards opening up an offense. Second, teams need players who can knock down outside shots. Third, teams need a low-post scoring presence, and fourth, teams need a player who can run the point and set up teammates with well-timed passes. The Bucks don’t have the superstar. Ilyasova struggled badly last year as he was injured and then ineffective. Knight was their top scorer with 17.9 points per game, but he was far from an efficient player. Giannis Antetokounmpo Ned Dishman/NBAE/Getty Images


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