To open the season, the Milwaukee Bucks handily beat Philadelphia’s JV team plus Tyrese Maxey, which was a solid win. Since then, the Bucks have been anything but solid with unimpressive losses to Chicago and Brooklyn — two teams expected to be in the lottery — and while it’s small sample size theater, the Bucks have a -2.9 net rating and bottom 10 defense so far.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is frustrated and his postgame comments Sunday after the loss to Chicago basically threw Doc Rivers under the bus. Via Eric Nehm of The Athletic.
“Right now, we don’t have an identity,” Antetokounmpo said following Sunday’s loss. “Like, how are we going to win the game? Are we going to defend for 4 minutes? Are we going to move the ball for 4 minutes? Are we going to attack and play fast for 48 minutes — or 36 minutes and slow down in the last 12? We gotta find an identity. We don’t have that right now.”
Antetokounmpo is averaging 28.3 points, 12.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists a game on 66.7% shooting so far this season, but he is not blameless in his team’s struggles — the Bucks are getting outscored by 8.3 points per 100 possessions when he is on the court this season but they are outscoring opponents by 8.4 per 100 when he sits. Milwaukee has been better without Antetokounmpo on the court. Obviously Milwaukee is not better without the Greek Freak, but he has work to do, like his teammates.
It’s worth noting here that Damian Lillard went on The Knuckleheads Podcast this week (Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles show) and said this: “Me and [Antetokounmpo] got to be able to hold each other accountable, and that don’t mean yelling at each other all the time. It just means, like, I got to be able to say something to you, and you got to be able to say something to me at all times.”
There is low-hanging fruit Milwaukee can fix to look better — but the finger points right at Doc Rivers. First is rebounding, Milwaukee has too much size up front to be bottom 10 in the league in rebounding percentage. The Bucks are just getting outworked on the glass. The second is transition defense. Watch the Bucks play, and the first thing that leaps out is they have been terrible at getting back and getting stops — teams have a 151.1 net rating in transition against Milwaukee this season, second worst in the league. Teams aren’t running a lot on the Bucks (league average) but are thriving when they do, so expect teams to do it more.
It’s just one week, but Antetokounmpo is right, this team does not have an identity — that should never be an issue.
