Milwaukee Bucks: Recommending a playoff rotation to Joe Prunty
Shooting Guard
- Tony Snell: 24 minutes
- Malcolm Brogdon: 16 minutes
- Sterling Brown: 8 minutes
Tony Snell has somehow found himself in Joe Prunty’s doghouse, losing his starting spot to veteran Jason Terry despite putting up solid numbers on the season. Snell is the perfect 3-and-D wing to fit into a lineup loaded with creators; his low-usage role and dead-eye shooting works great with the Bucks’ starting lineup.
Brogdon has also shown he’s capable of stepping up at the 2-guard position; former coach Jason Kidd would often close games with Brogdon and Dellavedova together, or more recently Brogdon and Bledsoe. When he plays the 2 on the wing with the larger Khris Middleton, the Bucks find success; if Tony Snell slides to the 3, the wheels fall off. Prunty will need to effectively work a rotation where no more than two of Bledsoe, Brogdon and Snell are on the court at the same time.
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If Brogdon is fully healthy and Snell is hitting his shots, the Bucks may not need contributions from rookie Sterling Brown. But the first-year player out of SMU has proven worthy of consideration for the rotation. On the season, the Bucks have a -2.5 net rating when Brown is on the court, per Cleaning the Glass.
Look deeper and that’s mainly a reflection of how the team performs with and without Antetokounmpo as a whole. When Brown plays without Antetokounmpo the Bucks have a -9.3 net rating, but when he plays alongside the Greek Freak it yields a +5.1 net rating. A substitution pattern where Brogdon, Brown and Antetokounmpo share the court at the start of the second and fourth quarters could be successful and allow Snell to stick with the starters.
Jason Terry will see minutes this postseason, but in an optimal rotation he probably shouldn’t. He has positive numbers when playing with the Bledsoe-Middleton-Antetokounmpo-John Henson quartet, but every 2-guard does on the team — including the long-since waived Gary Payton II. His lack of size and defensive limitations mean the younger Brown would be a better choice for those minutes. Even so, expect Prunty to lean on Terry when the games get tight.