Milwaukee Bucks: Jrue Holiday is better than Eric Bledsoe but not the best fit

Let’s take a look at why newly acquired guard Jrue Holiday is an upgrade over Eric Bledsoe but not the best fit for the Milwaukee Bucks offense.

The Milwaukee Bucks completed a trade earlier this week to acquire Jrue Holiday from the New Orleans Pelicans. Milwaukee traded Eric Bledsoe, George Hill, and three first-round picks to New Orleans for Holiday.

But is Holiday the right player for Milwaukee? No, as the Bucks’ offense should emphasize one of his biggest weaknesses. Milwaukee has been utilizing guards as floor spacers over the last few seasons because former head coach Jason Kidd believed that his best shot to win games was by using Giannis Antetokounmpo as a point forward.

According to ESPN, Kidd thought that Antetokounmpo did the best job of putting pressure on the defense to force mistakes and had the court vision to find his teammates consistently. Kidd’s decision was the launching pad for Antetokounmpo’s career as he has averaged a career-high 84.4 touches per game over the past four-plus seasons, a 58.3 percent increase from his first two-plus seasons.

The touches have enabled him to attack the basket 11.7 times per game, a 91.8 percent increase from his first two-plus seasons. It resulted in 6.8 points and 1.2 assists, at least a 126 percent increase from his first two-plus seasons in both categories. More importantly, his statistics on drives equated to 29.7 percent of his points and 22.2 of his assists.

The utilization of Antetokounmpo has led to his teammates being boxed into the floor spacer role. For example, Eric Bledsoe took 38.8 and 30.6 percent, respectively, of his shots from behind the arc over the past two seasons. Catch and shoot field goals accounted for 45.3 percent of his three-pointers as he attempted 1.95 per game.

Unfortunately, Holiday has been inconsistent in the catch and shoot department. Holiday converted 35.6,30.1 39.5,35.4 and 36.4 percent respectively of his catch and shoot field goals over the past five seasons on an average of 1.7 attempts.

Consequently, defenders will ignore him until he proves to be consistent as a floor spacer. Therefore, Milwaukee will have similar issues to the past two seasons as Bledsoe only converted 28.2 percent of his catch and shoot attempts.

Bledsoe’s inability to shoot led to him taking uncontested 3-pointers 94.6 percent of the time. Bledsoe’s presence affected the quality of Antetokounmpo’s shot attempts as he averaged 10.4 contested shots per game during this span, 56.2 percent of his total field goal attempts.

How the Milwaukee Bucks can best utilize Jrue Holiday

Milwaukee has to allow Holiday to attack the basket for the trade to be successful. Holiday posted his best offensive statistics in his 2018-19 season, averaging 21.2 points per game. Holiday was allowed to drive a career-high 16.6 times per game, shooting 52 percent from the field on 7.7 attempts per game. The field goal percentage helped him generate 9.7 points per game, 45.7 percent of his scoring output.

Sadly, Bledsoe has seen a significant decline in drives on the Bucks. He has attacked the basket 11.4 times per game over the past two years, down 19.7 percent from his tenure in Phoenix. Milwaukee should have targeted Patrick Beverley, who is better suited to thrive in the floor spacer role. Beverley converted 39.8 percent of his catch and shoot attempts over the past seven seasons on 3.5 attempts.

More importantly, the Milwaukee Bucks could have gotten Beverley without giving up the three draft picks. This is because the LA Clippers are reportedly in the market for a playmaking guard. Consequently, they could have done a Bledsoe for Beverley swap.

Milwaukee could have used those picks in a trade for Robert Covington who was sent to the Portland Trail Blazers for two first-round picks. Although Holiday is an upgrade over Bledsoe, the team mismanaged the situation as there were better fits available.