Milwaukee Bucks: Additions allow Giannis Antetokounmpo to shine brighter

For the last five seasons, Giannis Antetokounmpo has been the spare parts man for the Milwaukee Bucks, doing everything. Now he has the help he needs.

Since his second season in the NBA, Giannis Antetokounmpo has been the target of opposing defenses. Due to his lack of a reliable jump shot, top teams have worked out how to stop Antetokounmpo close to the rim, and therefore stop the Milwaukee Bucks. However, thanks to some key additions over the summer, Giannis and the Bucks are going to be harder than ever to stop.

Khris Middleton and Eric Bledsoe were solid second and third scoring options last season. However, the Bucks needed more. They needed bigs who could space the floor and a more reliable perimeter threat than Tony Snell.

The Bucks front office then got busy, first drafting Donte DiVincenzo. In the first two games, the rookie has gone 3-for-8 from deep. However, he has scored eight points in both games and looks like he has earned his 21 minutes per game.

While DiVincenzo has been a good addition, Ersan Ilyasoya has been a great one. Off the bench Ilyasova is averaging 8.0 points and 6.0 rebounds in 26.5 minutes per game. He is 2-for-4 from deep and is spacing the defense thanks to his respected shot. He is a tremendous positional defender who is well known for taking a charge.

Brook Lopez appears to have been an inspired signing too. The 7’0″ center added a 3-point shot to his game in his final season while playing for the Brooklyn Nets. While he has only gone 4-for-13 from 3-point range in the two games, Lopez has the ability to hurt an opposition team from deep.

The Milwaukee Bucks also benefit as they have a center as the first player back on defense in a transition situation. This is almost the perfect setup for a transition defense, with a reasonable rim protector as the player to beat in a one-on-one situation.

How this helps

This all helps Antetokounmpo as he is able to play close to the basket which is his strength. On offense, he’s often the worst 3-point shooter on the court for the Bucks. When he is surrounded by quality 3-points shooters, opposing defenses need to get out of the paint to stop the 3-point barrage that will hit them if they leave any Bucks player open.

This in turn creates mismatches, which is the name of the game in the NBA. While the Greek Freak is a mismatch already, there are two big men on the perimeter, itching to shoot. Rotate a smaller player onto them and both big men will still get a good look at the hoop. Send a big man to each of them and Giannis gets to dominate a smaller defender.

However, it is not just offense where Antetokounmpo is reaping the rewards. On defense, he does not have to be all things for all men anymore. While John Henson is a capable defender, Lopez and Ilyasova are doing the heavy lifting on defense, allowing Antetokounmpo to crash the boards. As a result, he is averaging 16.5 rebounds per game through his first two contests. Of these, only three per game have come on the offensive end.

While Lopez and Ilyasova are not pulling the huge rebounding numbers themselves, they are allowing Antetokounmpo to get the rebounds, which was one of the biggest issues with the Bucks last season.

This has resulted in two wins against conference rivals. They just squeaked out a win against the Charlotte Hornets and then blew out the Indiana Pacers. Wins like these will potentially have them higher up the standings by the end of the season.

Last year, the Bucks were 15-10 in games decided by five points or less. Seven of the 10 losses were against Eastern Conference opponents. Win most of these games and the Bucks would’ve had home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

While this sample size is only two games, the Milwaukee Bucks will continue to develop chemistry over the season, and could be considered a possibility to make the Eastern Conference Finals. Time will tell, but the new additions already seem to be paying off.