Milwaukee Bucks Breakdown: Frenetic Defense Fuels Wins

After dealing away Richard Jefferson, and letting go of Charlie Villanueva and Ramon Sessions, the Milwaukee Bucks appear to have one of the least talented rosters in basketball. Throw in the fact that Andrew Bogut is recovering from back surgery, and Michael Redd has been out, and the Bucks have the makings of a bottom-feeding basketball team.

Yet after trouncing the listless Knicks 102-87 in a game that was over at halftime, the Bucks stand with a record of 3-2.

Are they that good? Or are the Knicks just that bad?

Let’s examine how the Bucks are prevailing.

Offense

Despite having a reputation as a grind-it-out halfcourt offense, Milwaukee looked to push the tempo, and exploit the Knicks’ porous transition defense.

When Milwaukee slowed down, they looked to post up Andrew Bogut, run various cross-screens, down-screens, and dive cuts away from the ball before allowing Bogut to go one-on-one.

Wing screens and drive-and-kicks were also parts of Milwaukee’s arsenal.

Brandon Jennings is Milwaukee’s high-prized rookie sensation, and he showed a lot of potential—7-16 FG, 0-2 3FG, four REB, three AST, five TO, 17 PTS.

On the plus side, Jennings has good command of the ball with both hands, despite being left-handed. He’s very quick, and has the ability to turn the corner of screens, and get into the paint, where he unleashed two very creative right-handed layups over the course of the game.

Jennings has an advanced floater which he can unleash anywhere inside the foul line with success. He has good instincts on the break, and made plays happen in a broken field, including hitting a floater between two Knicks, and seeing Andrew Bogut beating the Knicks down the court in transition.

However, Jennings showed poor floor awareness, once stepping on the baseline before receiving a pass, another time stepping on the endline after over-penetrating on a drive. He forced several other passes, and multiple shots, especially after the first quarter. In one third quarter sequence, he noticed Luke Ridnour checking in at the scorers table for an early substitution, so Jennings promptly pulled-up around a screen early in the shot clock, and air-balled a three.

Jennings’ jump shot mechanics aren’t up to snuff right now. He doesn’t have a lot of backspin on his shot, and he kicks his leg out when he rises up, throwing off his balance. It’s a small wonder he was shooting over 40 percent from downtown coming into the game.

Right now, Jennings’ offensive game is very raw and unpolished, though he doesn‘t seem averse to distributing the basketball. He’s definitely a creative player, but his lack of size, his broken jumper, and his terrible shot selection leave much to be desired.

Andrew Bogut played like a number-one overall draft pick—8-14 FG, eight REB, four AST, two TO, 22 PTS—hitting hooks with either hand (though generally the left hand from the right box), running the floor, and making nifty passes from the high post. It should be mentioned that his counterpart, David Lee, lacked the size, or the strength to bother Bogut’s hooks, or defend him one-on-one.

When Bogut’s on his game, he eats up space inside, and can overpower smaller centers.

Luke Ridnour—5-12 FG, 0-4 3FG, four AST, two TO, 10 PTS—ran a steadier ship than Jennings in the first half, making all sorts of tricky passes, and wrong-footed floaters to tantalize the Knicks. As the game wore on, he, like Jennings, forced too many shots, and he also lacks range on his shot.

Carlos Delfino has sticky fingers. He never gave the ball to the point guard in transition taking the Bucks out of two scoring opportunities, and he shot the ball nearly every time he saw it. Nonetheless, he converted two early threes, and made a sharp baseline cut for a layup.

Charlie Bell—2-5 FG, 1-2 3FG, one AST, two TO, five PTS—traveled, was out of bounds when he caught a pass, and was generally useless.

Hakim Warrick reached the stratosphere whenever he was cleared for takeoff—nine points, and two frightening dunks.

Jodie Meeks had a hot hand and rode it—7-11 FG, 5-7 3FG, 19 PTS.

Ersan Ilyanasova was all over the offensive glass—six offensive rebounds, 13 overall—made the extra pass—four assists—executed several timely cuts off the ball, and is a much more polished player than he was his first go around in the league three years ago.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute can’t find the basket with a Sherpa.

Despite not having a very polished offensive cast, the Bucks befuddled the Knicks with their constant cutting, their committed weak-side action, the playmaking of their point guards, Bogut’s reliability, and in all honesty, the fact that the Knicks played with zero enthusiasm.

Against teams that bother to try, the Bucks will have trouble consistently finding the hoop. However, given that Scott Skiles is coaching Milwaukee, they’ll always be prepared, and they’ll always play with effort and enthusiasm, a great equalizer to offset a lack of talent.

Defense

The Bucks played a swarming pressure-oriented defense that will ambush teams unready to play.

Jennings and Ridnour were each able to pressure the point guard up the court, taking time off the court, and disrupting the Knicks rhythm.

Screens were combated a number of ways. Because Andrew Bogut isn’t mobile enough to hedge, the Bucks had him zone the paint while the player defending the ball looked to overplay the screen, and send him away from it. As a result, the paint was protected from Knicks’ drives. David Lee was left with open jump shots because of the tactic, but couldn’t connect.

If the Bucks didn’t overplay the screen, the strong-side wing would pinch the ball-handler for a beat, and scramble back to his man. If the player defending the screener was mobile enough, the Bucks would trap the ball-handler for a beat before the screen-defender would scramble back to his man.

The frenetic helping and recovering coaxed the Knicks into bad shot, after bad shot, and 10 first quarter turnovers.

Individually, Jennings has the athleticism to pressure the ball with success. It’s easily his best defensive quality. Because of his diminutive frame (169 pounds), he gets rerouted by screens, and he picks up careless fouls easily. When the Knicks used his man as a screener, he was confused, and made a half-hearted attempt to stop the ball-handler, but in reality, was nowhere near the ball-handler, or the screener.

Basically, Jennings plays like the rookie he is, and has a ways to go before he’s even adequate on that side of the ball.

In fact, few of the Bucks played appreciable one-on-one defense. Bell bit on a pump fake 20-feet from the basket, Ilyasova had trouble staying in front of Galinari, Bogut had only moderate success defending Lee, etc.

The only real stopper the Bucks have is Mbah a Moute, who has quick feet, quick hands, and a wingspan which can span rivers.

However, since Milwaukee plays with so much defensive energy, and since the way to beat their pressure requires constant offensive work (weak-side action, backcuts, patience to let them make a mistake), they’ll slow down any unwilling opponent with hustle alone.

So while it’s doubtful the Bucks will continue their modest early success, credit should be given to the team for playing with discipline and enthusiasm to offset their moribund roster.

Given that attitude, the Bucks can beat all but the best teams at home, though they don’t have the horns to make a serious playoff push.