Milwaukee Bucks: Miles Plumlee Is An Underrated Offensive Player

The Milwaukee Bucks may not rely on him in the post, but Miles Plumlee is still a more gifted offensive player than he’s typically given credit for being.

Miles Plumlee is not a bulk scorer. He likely never will be. Plumlee has a career average of 5.6 points per game, and he’s scored over 20 points exactly one time in his four-year career.

That does not automatically preclude Plumlee from being a gifted offensive player, though. There’s a difference between a scorer and a skilled offensive player that is lost on many casual fans of the game.

Efficiency is one mark of a good player on offense, and Plumlee has that in spades. He led the Bucks in field goal percentage, offensive rating and true shooting percentage last season. Plumlee was the only Buck to make more than 60 percent of his field goals last year.

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Looking in more specific roles on offense, Plumlee stands above not just the rest of the Milwaukee Bucks but the rest of the NBA in some areas.

No player to receive at least as many touches as the roll pan in pick & roll situations as he did managed more points per possession than Miles Plumlee.

Plumlee shot a remarkable 76.5 percent as a roll man, which was second to only DeAndre Jordan among players with at least as many touches as Plumlee got.

There’s a sort of stigma on players like Jordan that implies that they can’t score by themselves because so much of their scoring comes around the basket and from pick & rolls. Over 30 percent of Plumlee’s attempted field goals might have been dunks, but that doesn’t mean he is incapable of scoring by himself.

As Jordan Treske pointed out in his review of Plumlee’s season, he also was in the top ten percent of scorers in post-up situations. Plumlee shot 56.3 percent in such situations, showing he can score on his own as well as after catching a pass in the pick & roll.

Plumlee is limited by distance on the offensive end. Over 90 percent of his shots came within ten feet, with 68.7 percent of them coming within three feet of the rim.

It’s great to have floor spacers at every position in the NBA these days, but centers are not yet required to be proficient shooters. Being efficient offensively and disruptive defensively was enough to get DeAndre Jordan a max deal twice in the same offseason.

Plumlee actually shares a lot of tendencies with Jordan, aside from a massive difference in rebounding ability.

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Generated 5/1/2016.

Plumlee actually snags more offensive boards per 36 than Jordan, but Jordan more than compensates for that by nearly doubling Plumlee’s defensive rebounding total.

In statistics other than rebounding, the two players are quite similar. Jordan accrues more assists and is a more efficient scorer, but Plumlee takes nearly three shots per game more than Jordan.

Neither are great free throw shooters, but Plumlee is noticeably better. That edge boosts Plumlee’s true shooting percentage almost to Jordan’s despite the difference in field goal percentage. Plumlee racks up less assists and blocks than Jordan, but manages to get more steals.

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Is there really that much that differentiates the two players? DeAndre Jordan was seen as easily worth the max deal he got last summer. If the Bucks can lock down Plumlee for a reasonable amount, say $7 million annually, he’ll make a third of what Jordan does.

Is an edge in rebounding really worth $14 million more per season? Throwing Miles Plumlee in a starter’s role on a team with Chris Paul would probably cause his advanced metrics to spike at least nearly as high as Jordan’s are.

He’s already better than Jordan in post-up situations, and about as good in pick & rolls. Plumlee may not ever get credit for it, but he’s a skilled player on offense.

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Luckily for the Milwaukee Bucks, he probably won’t get paid like it either.