Milwaukee Bucks: Management of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton’s minutes

Head coach Mike Budenholzer is masterfully managing the minutes load of the Milwaukee Bucks’ two best players, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton.

Minutes played and rest have become some of the most relevant topics in the NBA. Empirical studies have shown that rest and lightening the minutes of players is objectively beneficial to the success of players and teams alike.

Conversely, heavy minutes and playing back-to-back games and three games in four nights can be detrimental to player health, especially on the road when traveling. Naturally, this has had an effect on how coaches, like Mike Budenholzer, choose to manage their teams.

Many of the elite coaches in the NBA have caught on to this and adapted accordingly, fully embracing this relatively new culture of not playing star players, even when they’re fully healthy. Most notably, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr have bought into this reasoning, and have helped make “DNP-Rest” a well known phrase in the NBA.

Despite many of the best and most successful coaches incorporating minute restrictions and rest into their nightly coaching decisions, with some going as far as scheduling rest games for stars weeks in advance, it has certainly not been a league-wide movement.

Minnesota Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau is perhaps the most well known coach for overworking players and not taking their minutes into account when performing his coaching duties. Not without consequence, as there is a major correlation between his heavily played players and injury.

Countless former players including Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler, and Zach LaVine have all endured major injuries while playing a lot of (and maybe too many) minutes for Thibodeau.

Former Milwaukee Bucks coach Jason Kidd had a coaching philosophy more similar to that of Thibodeau than Popovich or Kerr. However, new coach Mike Budenholzer does adhere to the ideology of Kerr and Popovich (not surprising, considering he was an assistant coach under Pop for 17 years). This new change in coaching outlook is already apparent when looking at how Bud has managed his two star players.

Giannis Antetokounmpo has led the Bucks in minutes played per game (and total) each of the past two seasons, and was second on the team in the 2014-15 season. Khris Middleton was second on the team last season, third in 2016 (despite coming back from a severe hamstring injury), and led the team in the 2014-15. They are clearly the two most important players for the Bucks, and have been vital to their success as a team.

The only Buck who has played more minutes per game than either of them in the past three seasons was Jabari Parker. Coincidentally, the year Parker averaged more minutes than Middleton, he suffered an ACL tear midseason, which just speaks to the potential detriment that playing heavy minutes can lead to.

Fortunately for the Bucks, the regime change in the hiring of Budenholzer is starting to show a distinct difference. Last season Middleton and Antetokounmpo were both in the top 10 for most minutes played in the NBA, with Middleton second overall. They also were both in the top seven in minutes played per game, with Antetokounmpo second overall. This year, neither player appears in even the top 50 of either category.

The changes for each player become even more apparent with a closer look at their minutes played and games played statistics. Antetokounmpo has averaged 35-plus minutes per game each of the previous three seasons, with a career high 36.7 per game last season. This season he sits at just 32.6 minutes a night. While it is still certainly early in the season, the distribution of his minutes played is also already vastly different from past years.

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Antetokounmpo has already played three games with fewer than 28 minutes (25 percent total of his 12 games). In 75 games last season, he only did this six times. In the past three years he has never played fewer than 28 minutes in more than seven games.

Similarly, the changes in distribution of minutes played for Middleton are perhaps even more palpable. Middleton has played fewer than 28 minutes three times this season (in 13 games), when last season he only did this twice (while playing all 82 games). Additionally, Middleton has yet to play more than 35:30 in game, when last season he averaged 36:22 per game.

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In the first 12 games Antetokounmpo has appeared in this season, he has played 391 minutes cumulatively. For comparison, at this point last season he had played 448 minutes, in 2016-17 he was at 417 minutes, and he was at 424 minutes in the first 12 games of 2015-16.

Through 13 games this season, Middleton has played 398 minutes, compared to 483 total minutes in his first 13 games last season, and 458 minutes in 2015-16. This puts them on pace to play 700 fewer combined minutes by the time the NBA Playoffs begin this season.

Managing minutes of star players is paramount to keeping them fresh and available when it is most important for the team come playoff time in April. It becomes even more important with young players, like Antetokounmpo, who will be important for a team’s long-term success, and extremely important for other players that have already sustained significant injuries like Middleton.

Budenholzer is keen to recognize that the success of the Bucks hinges on their performance in the playoffs, and they can only reach their ceiling with healthy players.

Furthermore, Antetokounmpo’s long-term health should be the biggest point of emphasis for the organization. Bud has already rested him a full game this season (against the Toronto Raptors). Recognizing that long-term goals outweigh short-term benefits speaks to Budenholzer’s awareness. With a superstar like the Greek Freak, and an early All-Star candidate in Middleton, the Bucks are equipped to establish themselves as real contenders under Budenholzer’s leadership.