The Milwaukee Bucks are 25-11 as we near the midway point of the NBA season, good for second place in the East, 3.5 games back of the Boston Celtics. However, despite boasting the NBA’s third-best record, there are some serious concerns for the Bucks, namely on the defensive end of the floor.
Milwaukee has been winning largely due to the second-best offense in the league (124.3 ORtg, per Basketball-Reference), but they give almost all of that back on the defensive end, where they’re 24th in the NBA (119.5 DRtg). There was always going to be a step back defensively when swapping Damian Lillard in for Jrue Holiday (along with Cameron Payne for Jevon Carter and Malik Beasley for Grayson Allen). However, the dropoff has been far more severe than most expected, and you can count the Bucks locker room among those trying to figure out why they are so bad on that end.
On Saturday night, the Bucks dropped one to the Houston Rockets, 112-108, but after the game Giannis Antetokounmpo wasn’t lamenting an off night from the offense. Instead, the former MVP and DPOY took aim at his team’s defensive effort, ripping into every layer of their defense (including himself) in lengthy postgame comments.
Giannis took aim at the Bucks for not having enough pride on that end, calling on Adrian Griffin to sit anyone who isn’t showing effort on the defensive end — again, including himself. He then was asked for specifics on what they can do better and pointed out how often Milwaukee dies on screens, putting their bigs in an impossible position of having to defend two players at once, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic.
“We cannot die on screens. We die on screens, including myself,” Antetokounmpo said. “I’m not trying to throw anybody under the bus. That’s why I keep saying including myself. Always. It starts from me. I’m the leader of the team. It always starts with me. I have to be better, but we cannot die on screens. What, because Bobby (Portis) and Brook (Lopez) are back there, what does that mean? That we are going to— we are just going to die on screens and let the guy go downhill and shoot a floater because Brook is going to save our butts? That’s how we’re going to win a championship? No, that’s not how we’re going to win a championship.”
Antetokounmpo also pointed at the Bucks scheme as an issue, noting they lack an identity and a defined strategy, seemingly pushing for the coaching staff to craft more strict principles for them to play with.
“Now, defensively, we have to have a plan,” Antetokounmpo said. “What is our strategy? Are we going to give a lot of open 3s? Are we going to let them get in the paint? When they go in the post, are we going to stay with ours and play one-on-one? What is our strategy? Right now, we are giving everything. We are giving everything. We are giving the 3s. We are giving straight line drives. We are letting guys play in the post and get comfortable. We’re giving offensive rebounds.
“And when I say this, this includes me. Always, it starts from me. I’m part of all of that too. We have to be better. Even as a team, we have to figure out what works and create a strategy around things that work. Like sometimes, you cannot stop everything. Sometimes, we’re going to play a team that wants to shoot a lot of 3s. We have to send them to the paint. Sometimes, we’re going to play teams that want to get to the paint. Everybody, now we got to muck the game up, show help and after that, we play. Sometimes, we play teams that want to crash the offensive rebounds, they want to get a lot of rebounds, we have to come together as a team. We cannot rely on Brook or Bobby. As a team, we have to get back and get rebounds.”
Giannis makes sure to constantly put himself in the criticism, as he’s not one to bury his guys, but it’s clear he’s frustrated with some of the things happening around him — as well as how he’s feeding into it at times. What will be interesting is how the Bucks respond. They do not have the personnel to make a gigantic leap on the defensive end and become a top-10 unit, but they do have to be better than what they are if anyone’s going to believe in them in a seven-game series against top competition. Giannis said it’s on everyone to be better (joking that includes the equipment manager who needs to wash the uniforms better) but it certainly seems from his commentary that it’s the perimeter players and coaching staff that he wants to see take real steps forward, as he constantly harped on how they all can’t rely on “Brook and Bobby” on the backline.