Media day for the 2024-25 season for the Milwaukee Bucks will be held on Monday, Sep. 30, which means the upcoming season is less than two weeks away.
With that in mind, let’s keep this mailbag rolling and answer some more of the questions our readers submitted at the start of this month.
As always, questions have been edited for length and clarity.
Everyone was buzzing about the Giannis-Dame pick-and-roll potential when the trade happened but it seemed like opposing defenses figured out how to manage it. Are they capable of an adjustment here, or do they have to find something else to lean on offensively? — David G.
I’m not sure if I’d agree with the assessment of defenses figuring out how to manage it. I just think the Damian Lillard-Giannis Antetokounmpo pick-and-roll doesn’t necessarily manifest success in the way people are used to seeing those two players playing in the pick-and-roll. Let me explain.
For the majority of his career, Antetokounmpo’s best pick-and-roll partner has been Khris Middleton. Their chemistry is outrageously good at this point, obviously, but their games also fit together well in the pick-and-roll. Middleton is a lethal jump shooter off the dribble from both the 3-point line and mid-range. That means that defenders cannot go under a screen set by Antetokounmpo and that puts the Bucks in a great position because it gives Antetokounmpo a lane to roll to the basket.
What is particularly great about Middleton, regarding playing in the pick-and-roll with Antetokounmpo, is that his lack of speed does not affect his ability to maintain the advantage on the play. Even if Middleton moves slowly toward the basket, his size, strength and mid-range ability allow him to still score on pull-up jumpers. And if he can’t score, being a scoring threat means he can keep the attention of the big man and then use his size to throw late lobs and bounce passes to Antetokounmpo.
With the ball in Lillard’s hands, the play develops much quicker.
Because of Lillard’s deadly 3-point shooting and quick release, he can catch teams sleeping as soon as the screen is set by either staying behind the screen (as he does on the play below) or taking one or two dribbles to pull up from behind the 3-point line.
Last season, Lillard was less accurate from behind the 3-point line than normal — 35.4 percent from 3 in the 2023-24 season vs. 37.1 percent for his career — but if that number bumps up higher, it could be an even bigger problem for teams because the counter to greater attention at the 3-point line is Antetokounmpo potentially blowing by defenders and getting to the rim.
Again, that is an effective play, but it is a quick finish for a pick-and-roll action, which means Antetokounmpo doesn’t get to do much on the play other than set a screen.
Similarly, if teams decide to get the ball out of Lillard’s hands with a blitz, a double-team or trap, they are forcing Lillard to give Antetokounmpo the ball immediately and then defenses force the ball out of Antetokounmpo’s hands with extra help from the backside. Those decisions in tandem can lead to open catch-and-shoot corner 3s for good shooters in many instances.
In concert, those defensive decisions don’t lead to a heavy diet of Lillard 3s and Antetokounmpo dunks, but all of those shots — Lillard 3s off the bounce, Lillard lay-ins, catch-and-shoot corner 3s for good shooters — are good looks and can lead to a very successful pick-and-roll pairing for the Bucks, even if it doesn’t lead to a ton of points for Antetokounmpo. If the Bucks are relentless in attacking defenses and creating those looks, they can make teams consistently pay for those decisions.
There are other coverages for the Lillard-Antetokounmpo pick-and-roll and more things that the Bucks will have to figure out, but I’d like to see them fully take advantage of these coverages and put opponents in a bind far more often this season before saying that they need to make some changes or move away from trying to make the Lillard-Antetokounmpo pick-and-roll a significant part of their offensive attack.
Where has all the excitement gone? — Michael W.
Michael asked this question before the results of our annual Milwaukee Bucks fan survey came in and, as the results of the survey confirmed, he nailed the general mood/vibe for Bucks fans at the moment. This comment on the fan survey from reader Paul S. stood out to me as well: “The last three seasons have been increasingly disappointing and my enthusiasm for the Bucks is lower than it has been in a long time. My brain tells me they can still do it, but I’m just not feeling it.”
I learned pretty early in my career that telling fans how to feel as fans is a bad way to approach this job, so I do my best to avoid telling fans how they should go about being fans. It is interesting to note the place where the fanbase currently finds itself three years after seeing their team win their first championship since 1971. It’s clear that while that moment will be among the fanbase’s most joyous moments, it doesn’t sustain fans in the subsequent years.
Nor should it.
With an all-time great player in Giannis Antetokounmpo and a consistently strong roster around him, expectations remain high each season. That means coming up short will not feel good at the end of the season. That makes for seasons that have been much less enjoyable. That means rather than thinking about a dynasty and looking gleefully into the future as Antetokounmpo secured his first NBA championship at 26 years old, Bucks fans are now forced to think about Antetokounmpo turning 30 years old and what happens when it all comes crashing down.
Personally, I think there is still plenty of reason for optimism. The Bucks are one of the few teams that enter this season viewed as one that can win a championship. There are realistically eight to 10 teams that can say that at the start of every season and the Bucks are one of those teams. They still have one of the best basketball players in the world in Antetokounmpo, an eight-time All-Star in Lillard and a three-time All-Star in Middleton, along with a talented cast of characters assembled around that big three. They might not enter the season as the favorite to win the title, but they’re still in the championship mix and that’s pretty exciting.
I kinda want some humble realism. Part of me thinks this is the best roster they’ve assembled match-up-wise, shooting-wise and length-wise in the Giannis era. You’ve been around the team through various eras of playoff rotations, what’s your prognosis if the overall team has a healthy season (maybe compare three different Giannis playoff squads)? — Evan M.
Look at that, Evan bringing the optimism! I think it’s an interesting question overall, so let’s take a look.
I think you have to start at the core four that builds the base of the team. I think that base is probably slightly worse than the championship version in 2021 because that base is older.
While he isn’t the same player he was in 2021, Antetokounmpo at 26 was one of the best players in the world then and he is one of the best players in the world now at 29 years old. But when you look at the other three players, it’s just difficult for me to say that Middleton and Lopez are as good as they were three years ago. I think both players can still bring it when it matters most and play at a championship level in the postseason, but they’re both three years older and it’s difficult to bring that level consistently every night.
Lillard is the swing piece. He can undeniably reach levels Holiday simply could not entertain on the offensive end, but the trade-off on the defensive end is interesting to consider. In his first year in Milwaukee, the Bucks never found the chemistry needed to turn their offense into one of the best in the league (finished sixth in offensive rating, per NBA.com) and their defense slipped to its lowest level (19th in defensive rating, per NBA.com) during this championship contention era.
For the Bucks to find their way to becoming as good as that championship team, they probably need to find their way to becoming a top-3 offensive unit and at least a top-15 defensive unit, if not a top-10 defense.
The bottom half of their rotation has the opportunity to help them get to that place. In that area of the roster, I think it is reasonable to say this is the best roster that has surrounded the core four. Comparing it to the championship roster in 2021, you would be looking at the following comps:
While we just learned that Bucks fans believe the drop off from ’21 Connaughton to ’24 Connaughton is significant, the fans who participated in our survey did not feel the same way about Portis. The current version of Portis feels plenty capable of making an impact in the playoffs, just as he did in 2021. While Connaughton has regressed, his role should be smaller this time around.
Looking at the newcomers, I think it’s reasonable to believe that Trent (26 years old) can perform at a higher level than DiVincenzo did in his breakout season at 24 years old. Prince (30 years old) may not bring the same grit and defensive tenacity as Tucker did at age 35 in 2021, but he is a more voluminous shooter than Tucker and he has the size to defend and rebound on the wing while also potentially being able to play in small-ball units as Tucker did. Wright and Forbes are very different players, but Wright’s disruptive defense may be able to impact playoff games similarly to what Forbes’ lights-out shooting did on the other end of the floor.
Ultimately, that 2021 roster gelled in a unique way and ended up winning a championship, so it is going to be hard for me to say this is the best roster the Bucks have assembled during the last seven seasons. I can see the argument for this roster being the best of the rest. It does not require a heavy prescription on rose-colored glasses.
How might changes to the coaching staff affect player development of the younger players, such as MarJon Beauchamp, Andre Jackson Jr., AJ Green, and the new rookies? Do specific members of the coaching staff typically bear a greater hands-on responsibility when it comes to player development? — Caleb R.
With NBA staffs continuing to grow, I would say player development has changed quite a bit over the last 10 years. Previously, you might have been able to say one specific coach handles player development or puts together the player development plans for a team, but that isn’t the case anymore.
Every coach on the staff is going to have some responsibilities when it comes to player development. The last few coaching staffs that I have covered have assigned each assistant to a small handful of players and assigned them player development responsibilities for that player. If you happen to get to a game early, you will be able to figure out which coach has which player because that coach will be taking their assigned players through their pregame routines during their assigned time on the floor.
But that isn’t all they do. That coach will also be watching video clips with them before the game, after the game, and in the practice facility to let them know what to expect on offense and defense in upcoming games and they will be working on specific personalized ideas that they are emphasizing for that player at that time, as well as larger ideas they want to improve over the course of the week, month and season.
While a specific coach will be given the responsibility of taking their assigned players through their training regiment, those plans can only be built with the guidance of the head coach and then the backing of the team’s film room. The head coach will work with the assistant coaches throughout the season to tweak and change what needs to be done with specific players, while the film room/player development coaches will be responsible for finding certain video clips for the assistant coaches and also being available to help out on the floor whenever coaches or players need help.
As far as how things will change for the young players on the roster this season from last season, the biggest overall change will simply be how well Doc Rivers knows all of them. Last season, Rivers took over midseason and needed to try to work through the team’s identity at the top of the roster and try to put schemes together on both sides of the floor that better fit his ideals and beliefs as a coach. That meant spending time on the main players on the roster that he already knew well from coaching against them in previous stops around the league and playing catch up on the young players.
With a full offseason, Rivers should have a better idea of what the young players on the roster can do and also have a plan for how they might be able to contribute this season and thoughts on what their future roles might look like with the Bucks. That means he will figure out the best assistant coaches to assign to each player and then the best ways to help them develop as the team tries to make a deep playoff run and get ready for next season.
(Photo of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard: Andrew D. Bernstein / NBAE via Getty Images)
