Who Are The Post-Trade Deadline Milwaukee Bucks?

Since the now infamous trade to send Brandon Knight to the Phoenix Suns and bring Michael Carter-Williams to Milwaukee, there has been a huge fan backlash, and most of the blame has gone unfairly on Michael Carter Williams. Now I’m not going to argue that he hasn’t been good, or that he isn’t part of the reason we have been losing. He has been shooting way too much and turning it over a lot, but I think Ti beat that drum already.

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When Brandon Knight was traded I wondered who would be the person to step up and fill the role of number one scorer. It seems like everyone thought that would be Michael Carter-Williams. So far in his games with the Milwaukee Bucks it has been pretty obvious that Carter-Williams is not the answer as number one scorer.

However the answer has been Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo, since the Brandon Knight trade they have been great. Specifically in these last ten game where they have started to find their groove. Over the last ten games the Bucks are 2-8 but Giannis Antetokounmpo is averaging 16/8/3/1/1 on 47/16/79, while Khris Middleton has averaged 18/4/3/1.5 steals on 47/48/82.

Giannis and Khris have flourished in their new roles. Giannis has turned in a 29 point game while Middleton cashed in two 30s and a 29. Yet it hasn’t been enough. They just can’t play all 48 minutes. And even with as much as Kidd plays them, each at over 38 minutes a game in their last ten games, the lack of depth on the Bucks bench tanks the lead as soon as leave the floor.

In stretches where Carter Williams is asked to share the floor with Bayless/Henson he is a 35 perent shooter however when on the court with Middleton/Giannis he is a 40 percent shooter. While on the court with the starters Carter-Williams shoots more in the flow of the offense, this is especially true during the first half where the Bucks average 52 points per game, compared to the second half where they average 41.

Part of this can be based on Kidd, but can you blame him? He plays his starters a lot in the first half of the game. Giannis has finished the first quarter with 12 minutes played in 4 of the last 5 games. Middleton usually comes out with 4 minutes left and then plays the whole second quarter. By the time the Bucks get to the fourth quarter where the starters need to be primed and ready to play they falter as they reach almost 40 minutes per game. The bench however has been forcing Kidd’s hand.

The ten game stretch before the trade where the Bucks went 8-2 the trio of OJ Mayo (35%), Jerryd Bayless (44%) and Jared Dudley (55%) were scorching the net from 3. Putting up huge games for us and hitting clutch threes late in games to help us clinch games over slumping teams. Now our bench has crashed back down to earth in the worst way. Over our last ten games Jared Dudley has played 4 games, Bayless 7 games and OJ Mayo 2 games, over that time they’ve combined for 5 total made threes.

Its not just those three either, the entire Bucks bench has been bad. Since the All-Star break they contribute a league-worst 22.7 points per game. A bench once lauded as being the best in the NBA, and a huge credit to our success, has in front of our eyes become the worse bench in the league. Even after adding two new healthy players to the bench in Miles Plumlee and Tyler Ennis.

However among all of this, the main focus still has been on Michael Carter-Williams. Naturally we want to compare him and his predecessor. We want instant answers on if the trade was the right move or did we just trade another young piece for no reason. There is a fear that what we might have been able to sustain and with adding Jabari next year we would have only gotten better.

But those answers don’t come quickly. For once, Bucks fans will just have to wait for a trade to develop, because it was made with the future in mind.

Next: Khris Middleton And The Value Of Real Plus-Minus

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