5 Reasons The Milwaukee Bucks Lost Their 1st Round Series With Toronto
Minutes At Power Forward
For the first half of the season Jabari Parker started for Milwaukee at power forward, averaging 33.9 minutes per game. When he went down with a major knee injury, head coach Jason Kidd slid Giannis Antetokounmpo to the 4 and inserted newly returned Khris Middleton at the 3.
This was a lineup change that leveraged the size and length of his team and gave the Bucks offensive firepower without sacrificing defense. It was a great move, and it’s reasonable to say that Milwaukee’s best lineups feature Antetokounmpo at the 4.
Once the postseason began, Kidd struggled to find a reliable option to back up Antetokounmpo at the 4. Mirza Teletovic provided spacing on offense, but his lack of foot speed and defensive instincts meant the Bucks could not execute their aggressive defensive scheme. Spencer Hawes offered a lesser option at both ends of the court.
Michael Beasley was another option, and he gave more effort on defense than either Teletovic or Hawes. But a career of bad defensive habits does not die easily, and it was always an imperfect answer. On offense Beasley is best deployed as an offensive creator against weaker bench units, but against P.J. Tucker and Patrick Patterson there were no such weaknesses to provide Beasley with value.
Kidd’s final solution was to play Antetokounmpo nearly the entire game, a postseason necessity that even so would have been avoided had there been a better option. The lack of another option also limited Kidd’s ability to deploy his best defensive player elsewhere, either as an extreme small-ball 5 or slide him the other way as an impossible wall for DeMar DeRozan to score on.
Next season as Parker works his way back into the rotation the Bucks will gain that option at the 4 they needed in this season. A lineup of Malcolm Brogdon, Khris Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jabari Parker and Thon Maker has immense potential on both ends of the court, and inserting Tony Snell for Maker would be a fearsome Wisconsin version of the Golden State Death Lineup.
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A hole at the 4 is not a long-term issue, simply a short-term one that contributed to their loss in the first round. But the Bucks will be back, with their young talent even better and a roster ready to avenge their postseason loss. That is a reality for the Eastern Conference to fear and NBA fans to look forward to.