Milwaukee Bucks: Why Mike Budenholzer is using Jrue Holiday incorrectly

Let’s take a look at how Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer is currently using Jrue Holiday and why it is the wrong role for him.

There is a perception around the league that the early returns from the Jrue Holiday trade have been positive for the Milwaukee Bucks. Eric Nehm of The Athletic ($$) wrote an article on Christmas Eve where he stated Milwaukee had finally found a third offensive option after Holiday scored 25 points on opening night.

At first glance, he appears to be correct as Holiday is shooting  51.8 percent from the field on 11.9 attempts per game in seven games. The field goal percentage has helped him average 15.4 points per game. Unfortunately, when you dig deeper into the numbers, there are alarming indicators suggesting that Holiday will not maintain the current performance level.

Head coach Mike Budenholzer is running an offensive system centered around isolation, transition, and post up possessions throughout the first seven games. Holiday is most involved in the team’s isolation sets averaging 1.6 per game. He is responsible for 23.9 percent of those possessions as the Bucks are currently 13th in isolations averaging 6.7 per game.

Holiday’s involvement in the other areas of Milwaukee’s offensive system is almost nonexistent as they are currently leading the league in transition possessions averaging 28 per game. He is fourth on the team behind Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, and Donte DiVincenzo, averaging 2.1 per game, 7.5 percent of possessions.

He is even less involved in the team’s post-up possessions accounting for none of their 7.9 post-ups per game. Consequently, Holiday has spent most of his offensive possessions off the ball as a floor spacer. Holiday has taken 42.2 percent of his shots from behind the arc this season, averaging 5 per game.

58.0 percent of those attempts have been via the catch and shoot variety as he takes 2.9 per game. He is currently making 45 percent of those attempts during the first seven games. These statistics are way above Holiday’s normal level of performance as he 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 on an average of 1.7 attempts from 2015-16 to 2019-20. The inconsistency has led defenders to leave him open as 98.0 percent of his threes have been uncontested during the first seven games.

Budenholzer’s deployment of Holiday’s has not only shined a light on his big weakness, and it has the strengths further into the background. Holiday has depended on attacking the basket to generate nearly half of his scoring production.

Jrue Holiday has forsaken his best form of production since joining the Milwaukee Bucks

Before this season, he shot 49.4 percent on drives in 6.1 attempts per game. The field goal percentage helped him generate 7.2 points on 13.9 possessions per game, 40.9 percent of his scoring output as he averaged 17.6 points per game from 2013-14 to 2019-20.

Unfortunately, his drives have decreased by 42.4 percent over the first seven games as he is averaging 8 per game. He is currently shooting 52 percent from the field on 3.6 attempts per game, creating 4.4 points, 28.6 percent of his scoring output.

Budenholzer could get more reliable production from Holiday by using him as a cutter. The role would allow Holiday to attack the basket more often without forcing Budenholzer to change his offense.

Holiday has excelled as a cutter in limited opportunities throughout his career. Before this season, he shot 76.6 percent from the field on 0.54 attempts per game. The conversion rate allowed him to generate 0.88 points on 0.64 possessions per game.

Jrue Holiday currently is responsible for none of the Milwaukee Bucks’ 5.9 cuts per game. Although Holiday performs well in his current role, the track record suggests he should regress to the mean.