Lessons Learned from Milwaukee Bucks' 1st-Round Series with Bulls

The NBA playoffs can be many things, including a great learning environment for a young, inexperienced team. For the Milwaukee Bucks, that's a notion that will ultimately be proven correct.

Throughout their first-round series with the Chicago Bulls, the Bucks learned some valuable lessons—both good and bad—and should be able to build on those moving forward.

From positives like the development of a gritty, hard-nosed attitude, to negatives such as not being able to maintain big leads, this series has established some focal points for the offseason.

Where is the team going to find consistent scoring? Can the Bucks take the next step without significant contributions from the center position?

These are just some of the lingering questions. Throughout the first-round series, the answers have become more clear.

Let's dive into those now.

Jason Kidd Can Mold Michael Carter-Williams

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Bold statement? Perhaps.

When the Bucks traded Brandon Knight and received Michael Carter-Williams in return, the typical concerns about MCW's ability to shoot the ball and sometimes poor decision-making made some question the deal. And while a career field-goal percentage of 40.1 and an average of 3.7 turnovers don't help his cause, it's still premature to write off the 6'6" point guard.

Especially with Jason Kidd as his head coach. If there was one thing clear about the deal, it was that Carter-Williams is the guy Kidd wants at the point. And so far, it's hard to say that's a bad thing.

In 25 regular-season games with the Bucks, Carter-Williams has improved his true-shooting percentage to a respectable 49.6 percent. Additionally, this first-round series against the Bulls was more successful than unsuccessful for the second-year point guard.

He averaged 14.0 points, 5.6 assists, 4.6 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.0 blocks while connecting on 44.4 percent of his shot attempts. Not only are those numbers encouraging, but the fact that they came against a top-10 defense—in terms of points allowed—is even more impressive.

It's a relatively small sample size, but it seems Carter-Williams is responding to his new environment in a positive way.

Learning How to Finish Games Is a Must

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Seeing the Bucks fight their way back to win two in a row after being on the verge of getting swept is an encouraging sign. However, that encouragement cloaks the fact that they could have been on the opposite side of a 3-2 series. Maybe, then, Game 6 would have been different.

In Game 3, Milwaukee exploded in the second quarter and led by as many as 18 points with right around five minutes left in the half. In the blink of an eye, the Bulls cut that lead to four by halftime and ultimately won the game in double overtime.

As good as they have been defensively, the Bucks blew several big leads throughout the season.

Op opening night, they completed a monumental collapse by blowing a 24-point second-half lead against the Charlotte Hornets and lost 108-106 in overtime. And while nothing else was quite that bad for the remainder of 2014-15, holding on to leads wasn't a strong suit for the Bucks.

Inexperience and being used to playing from behind are contributing factors here, but in order to grow and become a better team, executing enough down the stretch to get a win will be a vital point of emphasis this offseason.

Shooters Are Invaluable

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A large part of the Bucks' success this season can be attributed to excellent shooting, both overall and from behind the three-point line.

On the year, they connected on 45.9 percent of their field-goal attempts and 36.3 percent from behind the arc. Both of those percentages were good enough to rank seventh. And while those numbers as a whole are great, it was a struggle over the season's second half.

After the All-Star break, they connected on just 33.3 percent of their threes, and it's no coincidence they went 11-18 to end the year. Was it fatigue? The addition of Carter-Williams? Or did the performance of individuals just level off?

Probably all of the above.

Unfortunately, the poor shooting continued to rear its head during the first round. The Bucks knocked down a dismal 39.7 percent of their shots and an even more disappointing 32.2 percent from three-point range. Given the shooting woes, it's even more impressive they managed to make this a series.

Shooting will dictate how successful the team is in the future, though, and it will be crucial to the development of Carter-Williams and anyone who thrives on penetrating. Without shooters, teams will be able to collapse into the lane and better challenge at the rim with little consequence.

Movement on Offense Is Vital

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Struggling to get shots to fall is an inevitable fact every team faces throughout the season. When an offense becomes stagnant and players stand around, though, it gets exasperated.

The Bucks didn't shoot well at all throughout the series, and by watching them on offense, that's not a big surprise. In several games—particularly the losses—they seemed to have absolutely no flow on offense. This was even more recognizable late in games, when they needed points.

Some of the blame can be placed on the fact that Carter-Williams has only been with the team for 25 games—which is still a small sample size—and that chemistry hasn't fully developed. Regardless, it's clear that the Bucks are better when they move the ball and don't dribble into trouble.

It may seem contradictory considering they turned the ball over 17 times, but the Bucks looked more comfortable on offense in Game 5. There was more ball movement, they were making strong cuts and they were converting easy shots.

A fluid offense almost always operates more efficiently, and if Milwaukee wants to improve offensively, it'll have to figure out a way to consistently be engaged on that end of the floor.

The Future Is Now

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For a team that finished the 2013-14 season with a franchise-worst record of 15-67, the 2014-15 Bucks were a refreshing, competitive team that demonstrated its potential the entire year.

From a 93-92 upset win against the Memphis Grizzlies on November 8, to a 107-77 thumping of the Atlanta Hawks on December 26, the Bucks had their share of impressive victories. They consistently showed they could compete with some of the league's better teams, and that instilled confidence as the year went on.

Despite losing to the Bulls in near-historic fashion in Game 6, the Bucks have nothing to hang their heads about. It was a season far more successful than anyone could have hoped. After trailing in the series 3-0, they gritted their way and made it a series before succumbing to a team that some think may win the Eastern Conference.

Make no mistake about it: This year was not a fluke.

Carter-Williams is going to have a full summer to form chemistry with his new teammates, Jabari Parker will hopefully return healthy and continue to build upon his rookie successes and Giannis Antetokounmpo will continue to mature.

It may have seemed like the future was a ways off when 2014-15 began, but with how quickly things progressed under Coach Kidd, it has clearly arrived sooner than expected.