Milwaukee Bucks: 3 reasons Malcolm Brogdon will be missed

1. Efficiency

This is the most obvious of the three, but certainly the most important. Aside from his facilitating, defense and overall hand-in-glove fit in head coach Mike Budenholzer’s offensive system, Brogdon was a model of efficiency in 2018-19. Averaging just 1.4 turnovers per game last season, he was extremely careful with the ball in his hands and could constantly be counted on to make the right play.

From a shooting standpoint, not too many players in league history can say they’ve had a season comparable to that of Brogdon. Just seven others, to be exact. Posting shooting splits of .505/.426/.928, the former Virginia Cavalier was a threat from anywhere on the court.

Opposing defenses struggled to game-plan for Brogdon. Could they force him to the rim? Not really, as he shot 63.6 percent from that area, near the 2018-19 league average of 65.8 percent. Could teams leave him open beyond the arc? Absolutely not, as Brogdon finished in the top 10 of the league in that category. What about fouling him and forcing him to shoot free throws? We’re talking about the league leader in efficiency from the charity stripe.

Replacing Brogdon’s raw averages may be an attainable goal. Finding a player — or a combination of players, for that matter — to join the 50-40-90 club is unbelievably difficult. A seamless cog in the machine that was the NBA’s highest-scoring offense a year ago, Brogdon’s ability to score the ball without taking a ton of shots is hard to come by.

Malcolm Brogdon’s presence on the court will be sorely missed by the Milwaukee Bucks. With players such as Antetokounmpo and Middleton left to pick up the pieces, though, the team is built perfectly to weather this storm.