Milwaukee Bucks: Why they should use Giannis Antetokounmpo as a roll man next season

Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo reveals that winning a championship hasn’t changed his career priorities. Antetokounmpo told the media on September 27th that he didn’t care about winning trophies; he was solely focused on getting better as a player.

Although getting better is a great long-term goal for him, Antetokounmpo should focus on simplifying his skillset, at least for next season. Antetokounmpo was the primary ball-handler last season, leading the team in touches, averaging 70 per game.

Antetokounmpo had a 9.6 percent lead in touches compared to the rest of his teammates because Khris Middleton, who was second on the team in the category, only touched the ball 63.3 times.

Here’s why Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo should be used as a roll man due to the strengths and weaknesses of his supporting cast.

The Bucks split up Antetokounmpo’s touches in three different ways. He spent most of his time as a transition ball handler as it accounted for 26.4 percent of his possessions, averaging 6.6 per game. When Antetokounmpo wasn’t in transitions, he split his time between isolations and post-up possessions, as he spent at least 13 percent of his possessions in those sets averaging 4.5 and 3.3 per game, respectively.

Antetokounmpo’s offensive role requires the paint to be mostly empty during offensive possessions. For example, Antetokounmpo grabbed a rebound early in the first quarter of a home game against the Portland Trail Blazers.

He proceeded to dribble the ball down the middle of the court until he got to the basket where Antetokounmpo missed a layup. While Antetokounmpo was trying to score, all of his teammates stood behind the arc as floor spacers.

Consequently, multiple members in the starting lineup spent a substantial amount of time behind the arc. Donte DiVincenzo and Jrue Holiday took at least 34 percent of their shots from the three-point line as they averaged 5.2 and 4.8 per game, respectively. Unfortunately, three-point shooting has been the weakest aspect of their games.

Before coming to Milwaukee, Holiday had only converted slightly more than 34 percent of his attempts from behind the arc on over 4.6 shots per game. Upon arriving in Milwaukee, Holiday had mixed results from behind the arc. He shot over 38 percent during the regular season.

Holiday didn’t maintain his 3-point shooting statistics in the playoffs as he only converting 30.3 percent of his attempts on 6.1 shots per game. Conversely, DiVincenzo has been a below-average performer from behind the arc, shooting 34.9 percent on 3.5 attempts per game.

Given the weaknesses of Holiday and DiVincenzo, the Milwaukee Bucks should use Antetokounmpo as a roll man, as both of those players are more effective inside the arc. Holiday has been most effective in the pick and roll, shooting 44.4 percent on 5.7 attempts per game since 2015. He has been able to average 6.1 points in the pick and roll: 33.5 percent of his scoring output.

On the other hand, DiVincenzo has been most effective around the basket shooting 61.8 percent in the restricted area on 2.3 attempts per game. He has averaged 2.8 points per game in the restricted area.

Both players’ effectiveness inside the arc indicates that Antetokounmpo could spend more time as a roll man. Antetokounmpo has thrived in that specific role, shooting 60.5 percent as a roll man on 0.9 shots per game since 2015. The roll man role has allowed him to create 1.5 points per game.

In conclusion, the Milwaukee Bucks would be better off using Antetokounmpo as a roll man due to the skillset of certain players in his supporting cast.