© Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports
"The scheme doesn’t fit the personnel" - Analytics expert comments on the Milwaukee Bucks’ defensive problems this season
The Milwaukee Bucks’ defense has gone from being a feared component of the team’s two-pronged attack to a liability this season. To date, the Bucks are currently ranked 19th in defensive rating, a far cry from their top-five ranking in previous seasons. This drop in performance has led to many questions and concerns among fans and experts alike.
One such expert is The Athletic’s analytics guru, Seth Partnow, who has been closely following the Bucks’ defensive woes this season. According to Smith, one of the main reasons for the team’s struggles on defense is their inability to adapt to the personnel they have.
Not playing to their strengths
The Bucks’ first-time head coach, Adrian Griffin, is adamant that his players press up all the way to the perimeter to try and create turnovers. However, this often leaves the lane wide open for drives that can lead to either an easy layup or a kick-out to a wide-open shooter.
“My intuition is that even with better execution, the scheme doesn’t fit the personnel. This roster is very unlikely to be a turnover-generation machine. Maybe better execution does create an extra opponent miscue or two, but I don’t think that benefit is worth the cost in terms of the scoring efficiency, foul drawing, and offensive rebounding increases, which result from increased aggression without the sort of ball-hawking players required,” said Partnow in a conversation with Bucks insider Eric Nehm.
Need to get drastically better
Get better—that has been the battle cry of superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo in the days that followed the Bucks’ losses to the Houston Rockets and the Utah Jazz. Milwaukee’s defense may never reach the elite status that it held under former coach Mike Budenholzer, but even a slight improvement could make a significant difference in the team’s ability to contend for an NBA title.
“If the Bucks are going to be title contenders, they are going to need to get better on the defensive end. They may not need to be one of the league’s best defenses as they were throughout Budenholzer’s time in Milwaukee, but they will need to get much better at executing the simple things defensively and bring themselves far closer to being an average defense if they want to contend for a title this season,” Nehm added.
