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Milwaukee Bucks are a power – or at least that's what you feel after four games in the regular season. Not only are they undefeated, but everything that everyone hoped for when they hired coach Mike Budenholzer seems to materialize. They rank among the top five in the offensive and defensive standings, and their new five-player offense gives Bucks' previous systems a grotesque appearance in comparison.
& # 39; A brand new Giannis & # 39;
Here's a look at three of the factors that have contributed to all of this, including how the Bucks franchise player is annihilating weak defenders:
Trust the process
After the Bucks' 124-113 victory over the New York Knicks on Monday, Antetokounmpo had a notable exchange with Eric Nehm of The Athletic:
The message of Antetokounmpo is: Trust the process. If you miss 3 open and the other team does a difficult 2, do not give up the game plan.
Commitment
This is the clearest proof that the Bucks believe in the Budenholzer system. It's easy to be safe in what you do when the shots fall. buy-in matters only when they are not.
Milwaukee must have trusted the process against Philadelphia. The Bucks started the game scoring 4 goals out of 20 and missing their first nine attempts at 3 points. A trip on the ground, John Henson and Eric Bledsoe made a brick 3 in the opposite corners, the latter hitting the side of the panel:
Milwaukee lost 14 points, but at the end of the first quarter, Sixers coach Brett Brown told ESPN's Ryan Ruocco that he had been lucky with all of them. 3 missed. Indeed, after missing his first four 3s, Bucks' center, Brook Lopez, scored five in a row, which helped lift the bar. Milwaukee was 8-15 in the second quarter, beating Philadelphia 49-30 in the same period and never giving up.
To follow Lopez's 11 attempts in three points is instructive. He is not the kind of player who forces the shots from far, and he was paired with Joel Embiid, a player who prefers to be near the rim in defense. This means that all were punctuated and fairly open:
Logically, there is no reason that Lopez should doubted him after missing a lot of good looks in the first quarter. He is human, though, and it's not like he's shooting all his life. In fact, it was only the fourth time in his career that he was trying at least 10 3 in a game. If he played in a different system, for a different coach, he might have decided that it was not his night or trying to gain confidence by taking shots closer to the basket.
Lopez however knows that the Bucks did not sign because of his ability to score in the low block. He is in this particular team to space the ground, and his main work in attack is to force guys like Embiid to enter the perimeter and open traffic lanes to his teammates. No matter what happens in a particular game, Budenholzer makes sure his players understand the formula.
Giannis, the switch destroyer
The explosion of the NBA indicates that defenses are generally powerless at the moment. There is no effective way to protect large pick-and-rolls when the ground is wide and the ball carrier can shoot three goals off the dribble. As a result, more and more teams have chosen to switch screens. Some even do it on and off the ball each time, even if it involves a tiny playmaker and a huge job in the middle.
When switching works, the offensive team is out of order and creates beautiful flawless faults – like the one Budenholzer has installed – down. If you try this against Antetokounmpo, however, you'd better have an army of agile, long and intoxicating defenders on the list. Watch how he demolishes poor Furkan Korkmaz here:
Like LeBron James and James Harden, Antetokounmpo aggressively hunts mismatches. When it forces a beneficial change, it is even more deadly than it was because of the fencers that surround it. Against the Sixers, he got J.J. Redick on him, then drove and threw a blind pass behind the head to Tony Snell for a corner 3, after admitting that he had just guessed that someone would be there:
Antetokounmpo only played 141 minutes in the regular season, but there are already many examples of attempts to destroy switches:
Of course, Antetokounmpo does need switches – it can create easy opportunities against the best defenders in the league. If he sees an opportunity to attack a little guy or a slowpoke, he will get the most out of it.
Middleton Mania
In pre-season, Middleton told me he saw holes that he had never seen before in offense. He also said he and Budenholzer had reached an agreement on when they should take mid-range shots. He knew that he should expect to trade 2 difficult versus 3 more efficient ones. In this respect, the first returns are excellent – he averages 24.3 points on 50.8% shooting, takes 7.8 points to 3 points per game and achieves 58.1%.
Middleton tries almost the same number of shots as last year. He simply improved his throwing selection, taking well over 3 as never before. It is a threat to take a 3 in the dribble every time he gets the ball on the perimeter, and he is actively trying to create those shots rather than sneaking into the midfield:
In the last two clips of the video above, Middleton imposes a change and gets the look he wants against Enes Kanter. Middleton had 30 points on 11 shots out of 14 against New York, and – it's there that these shortcomings come into play – with a perfectly spaced floor, he showed his playmaking skills:
Middleton is the kind of player who can make contentious shots against good defenders. When he becomes All-Star this year, it will be because he will have more to do. He did not give up his post-match – that would be crazy – but he refined his approach at the right time. When he does his damage now, it seems so much easier than before.
The fact that this seven year veterinarian is so much more dangerous without adding anything important to his game says a lot about the new Bucks. It's extremely early and there are problems – the turnarounds are up, Antetokounmpo has a 1 for 15 in 15 lead and does not touch the line much – but they make us think of how they compare to Toronto , Boston or Philly in the second round, rather than knowing they have the appropriate pieces to interpret Budenholzer's favorite style.
Net's third-place rating of Milwaukee is reinforced by the fact that he played three of his four home games and that he still faced no one from the West, but this does not mean that it is a fluke of luck. Since their very first pre-season game, the Bucks are playing with the quiet confidence that comes with knowing exactly who you are.
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