Milwaukee Bucks: 3 takeaways from the 2018 offseason

1. Budenholzer wants to space the floor

The key to a successful modern offense is spacing the floor. For decades, teams generated high-level offense with smart passes, hard cuts and brilliant shot creation. Those things still matter. But defenses are smarter and faster than they have ever been, and for a team to be consistently productive, it must space the floor.

Milwaukee ranked seventh in offense last season despite a lack of spacing in the frontcourt. The Bucks did this by rolling out plus shooters at the wing positions: Tony Snell, Khris Middleton, Malcolm Brogdon, Jason Terry. Unfortunately, the ability for Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo to create offense was stymied by the lack of shooting bigs on the roster. This offseason took a major step in solving the problem.

Brook Lopez and Ersan Ilyasova are both comfortable and confident stroking the long-ball, and defenses have had to respect that shot and guard them out on the perimeter. This pulls the other team’s rim protector away from the paint — the Philadelphia 76ers accomplished this by playing Ersan Ilyasova at center to neutralize Hassan Whiteside in last year’s first round playoff matchup.

Antetokounmpo is talented enough to score no matter who is in the paint, but pulling away a team’s best rim protector and clearing two bodies from that tight area should give him room to shine.

If teams try to switch, the starting lineup will now have three players — Middleton, Antetokounmpo and Lopez — all capable of taking advantage in the post, and moving the ball to open shooters and cutters if opponents double. The offensive versatility on this team was significantly boosted this summer, especially with Connaughton also spreading the floor off the bench.

That’s what this summer did — it made smaller moves that will unlock exponentially more options for this team. Starting with the hiring of Budenholzer and running through all of its moves, this team should feel confident it can change its fortune. Now we all wait for October to see if that’s what happens.