Milwaukee Bucks: Jason Kidd’s Desperation Strategy
By Kurtis Hardy
A Game 1 playoff victory has fans rejoicing, but Jason Kidd is not developing a sustainable road for the Milwaukee Bucks.
The amount of commotion the Milwaukee Bucks generated following a Game 1 win against the Toronto Raptors was comparable to that of a team going to the NBA Finals.
A rebuilding effort that realistically remains two years off, combined with a season-ending injury to Jabari Parker, left modest Bucks fans cheering for a great draft pick.
Yet, instead of the anticipated bleak outlook of a first-round beatdown, those in Milwaukee are increasingly more hopeful towards a second-round debut.
Before fans could joyfully clamor “Bucks in 6”, Milwaukee was firing on all cylinders. After finishing the season on a 20-10 run, Greg Monroe looks like a rebounding machine, Thon Maker is averaging a block every five minutes and Giannis Antetokounmpo is playing like, well, a mad man.
Giannis’ performance has been nothing short of astonishing on both ends of the court. It was exceptional enough to gain praise from now-ESPN analyst Jalen Rose, who called Giannis the second-best player in the Eastern Conference.
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A remarkable feat considering the guy in Cleveland, Isaiah Thomas, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, and John Wall are all deserving mention.
In fact, Giannis is putting up 2007 LeBron James-type numbers. Now, before you draft your outraged, “How DARE you compare him to LeBron!” comments for this post, recognize that this is baby LeBron, circa Year 5 B.C. (Before Championship).
At 22 years of age, LeBron worked his butt off to carry his team of Larry Hughes and Zydrunas Ilgauskas (among others) to The Finals before being annihilated in four games by the San Antonio Spurs.
And today, at the same age, we see Giannis putting up similar numbers (per Basketball-reference.com).
The key here is that this workload is simply not sustainable. LeBron carried his team for 40 minutes night after night offensively and defensively. James not only contributed more than 20 points a game, but was often given the dismal burden of stopping Tony Parker on the other end.
Milwaukee Bucks
And even though 20-year-old bodies certainly recover at a greater rate, the endless pursuit takes a toll.
That brings us to Jason Kidd. With the knowledge of this tremendous talent on roster with further development yet ahead of him, Kidd has sufficiently limited Giannis’ minutes during the regular season (35.6 mpg).
This is in addition to designing schemes to spread the ball around and establish a better all-around team.
Issues emerge, however, when Kidd starts to get desperate. Evidence of this first arose in early April when the Bucks concluded their regular-season series with the Indiana Pacers.
With rookie point guard Malcolm Brogdon out due to injury, Matthew Dellavedova and newly-acquired Gary Payton II were given the keys to the offense.
But when the Bucks noticeably started to struggle, Kidd got nervous. Not trusting these guards to prevail offensively, Giannis was instructed to take the lead at point-forward.
The immediate adjustment in strategy was no mistake. In fact, it works quite well. What’s alarming in that video is that Giannis is guarding Paul George defensively, requiring all-star effort on both ends of the court.
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Luckily, Brogdon is now back to delegate major control of the game, but there ultimately remains significant minutes where he will require rest on the bench. The question is then whether Kidd would put his trust in his other point guards or in Giannis.
Admittedly, the existence of two-way ability will materialize in select players around the league. James, Kawhi Leonard and, one might argue, Klay Thompson are often required to contribute offensively as well as shut down the opposition’s leading scorer on a frequent basis.
But as detailed earlier, this is not a winning strategy when it comes to the NBA Playoffs. Understanding that Milwaukee is desperately hoping to simply win a playoff series for the first time since 2001, a plan for reasonable repression must be in place.
If Kidd is unwilling to yield from his rash judgement, tiresome consequences will follow in future rounds.
Giannis is undoubtedly a freak athlete, but the NBA Playoffs are a grueling marathon. This isn’t a Rocky workout montage, where the Greek Freak continuously appears stronger and stronger before overcoming all odds to defeat Mr. T.
One learns from analyzing 2007 LeBon that Giannis will not be able to do it all.
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Reasonable workload and strategy must be developed if Milwaukee not only hopes for a first-round victory, but to also look beyond.