Rashad Vaughn: Milwaukee Bucks February Phenom
By Jason Kezman
After a slow start to the season, Milwaukee Bucks rookie guard Rashad Vaughn is coming into his own.
Shooting, shooting, shooting.
Outside of defense, it is the main thing critics point to when discussing the struggles of the Milwaukee Bucks.
Heading into the All-Star break, Milwaukee may have found a weapon to help quiet some of that noise.
When the Milwaukee Bucks selected Rashad Vaughn with the 17th pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, they had hoped they acquired a knockdown shooter to help their shooting-deprived squad. Vaughn followed the draft with a very promising summer league campaign and a preseason opener that saw Vaughn score 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting.
Therefore, the expectations from the fan base were for this young guard to immediately help Milwaukee stretch the floor on a nightly basis.
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However, like many other rookies, it was a struggle for Vaughn to find consistent time on the court early in the season. When Vaughn did find himself on the floor, he became so lost in the trapping team defense of the Bucks that coaches could ill-afford to have him out there long.
Outside of his poor defense, Vaughn wasn’t shooting the ball well either, hitting only 30.8 percent from the three-point line in the season’s first month. With limited time on the court to shoot himself out of the slump, Vaughn was lost at the end of the struggling Bucks bench.
Even with an early season injury to Greivis Vasquez and O.J. Mayo in and out of the lineup with injuries, Vaughn racked up seven DNPs before the month of December.
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Luckily for Vaughn, when the calendar turned to 2016, so did the fortunes of his rookie campaign.
As the season has progressed, the goals for the Bucks have seemed to shift. A team entering this season with high playoff aspirations, they have had to reassess their roster and the direction they are heading. This in effect, has given Vaughn more time to work through his rookie woes on the court.
Despite shooting a measly 31 percent in the month of January, Vaughn was given an extended role throughout the month, averaging a season-high 15 minutes per game.
The increase in minutes has seemed to give Vaughn a better feel for the NBA game, and the Bucks are starting to reap the rewards of the young buck’s maturation.
The turning point of Vaughn’s season may have come on Jan. 29 against the Miami Heat. The rookie broke out of his January shooting slump that night, connecting on 2-of-3 threes and scoring eight points in only 11 minutes of action.
Since that game, Vaughn is shooting 47 percent from the field, including an outstanding 41 percent from behind the arc, including hitting a career-high three three-pointers against Sacramento last week.
The importance of Vaughn’s presence on the floor becomes even more prevalent when looking at net ratings.
The transformation of this young guard’s impact is quite staggering. In November, Vaughn posted a horrendous net rating of minus-27.1, which is surprising even when noticing how lost he looked at times on defense.
However, since the opening month of the season Vaughn has seen his net rating improve each month. This improvement has blossomed in the past two weeks, where Vaughn has boasted a plus-18.6 net rating, the highest rating on the team for the month.
The most impressive part of that rating is that the Bucks are holding teams to 97 points per 100 possessions while Vaughn has been on the court.
With his ever improving defense, Vaughn should find ample time on the court after the All Star break. And with Mayo’s nagging injury and diminishing play, a prominent role off the bench is in the near future for the rookie.
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There haven’t been many bright spots for this Bucks team, but Rashad Vaughn’s progression is definitely one of them.