Even after acquiring a superstar to pair alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Milwaukee Bucks were swiftly taken care of in the first round of the playoff by an inexperienced Indiana Pacers. Both Giannis and Damian Lillard missed significant time due to injuries in the post-season leading to their downfall. Looking back, their season has been more or less a disappointment, and heading into next season, the team will need to make some key adjustments.
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Former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, on ‘All the Smoke Unplugged’, discussed various shortcomings in the Bucks’ run and how they could plug those holes.
For Jackson, the situation begins with the team’s Marque player, Antetokounmpo. The 46-year-old believes he hasn’t evolved since he came into the league, and his lack of outside scoring has been a major determinant for the team.
“How long do we think just running downhill full-speed dominating is going to last? You know what I’m saying—like his game never evolved,” Jackson asserted.
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While Jackson does have a point, the Bucks are already the fifth-best 3-point shooting team in the league. Forcing the Greek Freak to develop an outside game, especially when he lacks the skills and the feel for the same, can be detrimental. However, unable to fathom any other way for the team to grow in the upcoming seasons, the Spurs legend added,
“I would say it’s evolved if he started shooting threes—like he’s always been the guy that attacks downhill, one-two dunk—and he has just been getting stronger and smarter over the years, but his game, skill-wise, has not gone anywhere.”
Giannis was a decent shooter entering the league, making 34.7% of his long-range shots as a rookie. Fast forward a decade, and the Bucks star has attempted 1.7 shots a game on 27.4% shooting, this regular season, per Statmuse. The scope for improvement is vast, but the effort to improve might not be worth it. Further, Barnes and Jackson highlighted another critical issue with the squad.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Co. might be getting old
Shooting aside, the Milwaukee side has also had to deal with injury problems as a number of the Bucks players are getting older. While bringing in an experienced coach such as Doc Rivers did help slightly, the main issue with the team remains their health and availability. Even Jackson chipped in with some comments, saying that,
“Bringing Doc in, that ain’t going to change nothing. Giannis is getting older, you see, Dame was being hurt more, now you got Portis, you got Lopez, all these guys of age.”
When healthy, the Bucks are definitely championship favorites, and per se, there are no glaring deficiencies in the roster. Entering this season, there were serious concerns about the team’s defense. The backcourt of Dame and Middleton seemed flimsy on paper, but the team has faired well in that regard, securing the 8th-best record in the league in team defense, per NBA.com.
Moving forward, the Bucks should focus mainly on keeping their players healthy. They could only need a defensive guard like Jrue Holiday or Marcus Smart, who can pose a challenge on the defensive end.
