How the Milwaukee Bucks Can Become the NBA's Most Intriguing Rebuild
I'm going to say something, and I need you to know I understand how crazy it sounds: I like the Milwaukee Bucks.
Yeah, those same Bucks that won 15 games a year ago—less than a Philadelphia 76ers team seemingly hellbent on redefining NBA futility. Less than any squad since the 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats.
The same Bucks who paid Larry Sanders $44 million last August and then saw him torpedo his season in a November bar fight.
The same ones that just messily replaced a well-liked coach with one who arrived in the dead of night after a failed power grab with his previous team.
For all that, I like the Bucks. Because if you leave all that past stuff where it belongs (in the past. Duh), it's not hard to see a bright future on the horizon.
First Glimpse
The Bucks' ample talent was on show in their preseason opener against the Memphis Grizzlies on Oct. 8. And though the enduring image from the contest was probably Khris Middleton striping a game-winning triple in the late stages, the main takeaway probably should have been how good the team's young core looked.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, he of positional indecipherability, provided eight points, five rebounds and five assists in 28 minutes. Top pick Jabari Parker shook off the early jitters of his first quasi-NBA contest and scored 14 points while doing battle with Zach Randolph at the 4.
And Sanders (remember him? The guy who was the most impactful defensive player in the league a mere two years ago) looked fantastic. His 10 points and 15 rebounds in 25 minutes suggested a potential return to his borderline-superstar status.
He downplayed the immense value of his return to form, per Charles F. Gardner of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "That's what I was trying to do, just hustle. We've been playing pretty hard in training camp. I got a chance to knock a lot of the dust off, a lot of rust off and compete a lot. We were really amped to play against another team."
Milwaukee has talented payers throughout the roster; most of them still young and likely to get better. John Henson is a rangy force inside, and Brandon Knight is, at worst, a nice rotation piece at age 22.
That's all great, but Milwaukee's potential as a fascinating rebuild isn't just about the skill on the roster. It's about how that skill could be put to very effective use.
Positions, Shmositions
If, as a starting point, the indeterminably tall (we think he's 6'11", but he may have grown in the past five seconds) Antetokounmpo is getting looks as a lead guard, it's a good sign your lineup has some positional flexibility.
The Bucks are going to experiment with Giannis-as-Magic this year, and the Greek import is ready for the challenge, per Alex Kennedy of BasketballInsiders.com: "I’m not going to say I was shocked by it. It’s something that I feel comfortable with and I’ll play wherever Coach wants me to play, especially when it’s Coach Kidd who thinks that I can play point guard. That makes me feel like I can play it. I can play point guard."
It's hard to overstate how potentially cool this is. Antetokounmpo is extremely fast end-to-end, he can scan the floor and pass over the top of anybody and he even showed some sneakily advanced handles in attacking pick-and-roll defense over the summer.
He's not the only guy with positional fluidity, though.
Parker can play either forward spot and could quickly develop into a matchup nightmare as a power forward. The Carmelo Anthony comparisons are hasty, but this guy handles the ball, has a ready-made face-up game and can score from anywhere. If he morphs a little of that baby fat into muscle, he'll be plenty strong enough to bang with conventional bigs on defense.
Knight can play either guard spot and would be a terrific guy to pair with Antetokounmpo in a dual-point guard backcourt.
Sanders and Henson can play the 4 or the 5 interchangeably, and both will wreak havoc as weak-side helpers. There's no question the Bucks will surrender bulk in most of their matchups, but they can make up for it with ridiculous length and the ability to switch constantly.
The Right Guy
Say what you want about Kidd and the way he landed in Milwaukee, but remember what he did with the Brooklyn Nets last season.
After fiddling with lineups for a good chunk of the year, Kidd eventually arrived at one of the most exciting rotational schemes we saw in the entire NBA last season. No Brook Lopez? No problem.
Kidd shifted Kevin Garnett to center and trotted out baffling hybrid lineups. Paul Pierce slid to the 4, and Kidd frequently tossed the ultra-rangy (and pointy) Andrei Kirilenko out there with Mirza Teletovic, Joe Johnson and Deron Williams.
And they switched everything.
Grantland's Zach Lowe explains the effective wackiness that ensued:
"Teams have just had no idea how to handle these offbeat looks. Bigger power forwards struggle to chase Pierce around the perimeter, and some opponents have had a wing player guard Pierce while stashing the extra big on the nonthreatening Alan Anderson. But hiding a big that way becomes much harder if Deron Williams permanently replaces Anderson in the starting lineup. ... Kirilenko adds doses of speed and crazy that the slowpoke Nets sorely need, and he allows Brooklyn to let Teletovic launch on offense without worrying too much about the other end. The Nets, basically, are dictating matchup confusion.
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Kidd can try the same things with these Bucks and will get to do so in an environment far less encumbered by expectations. Maybe he'll go even further outside the box.
Anybody interested in seeing Antetokounmpo, Middleton, Parker, Henson and Sanders on the floor together? It could happen.
And if it does, opposing offenses might have to scrap plans. After all, the pick-and-roll doesn't really move bodies the same way if the defense can just switch—regardless of who's involved in the play. In theory, the Bucks could find themselves in quirky matchups, but why not risk it?
A team coming off a 15-win campaign has carte blanche to get weird.
The Bucks have the personnel and coach to do exactly that, and it's possible they'll carve out a fresh (and, for opponents, terrifying) identity that carries them into an exciting, uncharted future.
Not Your Average Rebuild
The term rebuild gets tossed around a lot in the NBA—too often, probably. Any time a team is terrible, we can simply say they're in a process of rebuilding.
That's not really accurate, though. Rightly used, the term should imply an actual plan is in place, that the construction has a particular end in mind.
When you're building something, you don't just collect a bunch of cinder blocks and rebar, toss them in a pile and wait for something to happen. But that sounds a lot like what the Philadelphia 76ers are doing in their rebuilding process.
They're collecting assets.
And the Los Angeles Lakers, also theoretically rebuilding, are stuck in mid-construction limbo until their high-profile vets are off the roster.
The Bucks are different. There's a real plan here, a potential identity forming that makes it easier to chart a course toward success. The books are clean, with just $47.9 million committed after this season, per ShamSports.com, the talent is in place and the right guy is installed as coach.
So if you thought it sounded crazy when I said I liked the Bucks, try this on for size: You should too.
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