Milwaukee Bucks: Who Will Be The Starting Point Guard?

Although it was Michael Carter-Williams‘ job for much of last season, the addition of Matthew Dellavedova introduces a battle to be the Milwaukee Bucks starting point guard.

Three of the Milwaukee Bucks starters are set for a long time. There will be no surprises at shooting guard, small forward or power forward going forward–as long as Khris Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jabari Parker stay healthy they’ll be starting there.

Point guard and center aren’t so set in stone. As our Adam Coffman explored recently, John Henson and Miles Plumlee–and technically Greg Monroe, for the moment–will all fight for the starting center gig.

And then there’s the point guard job. Two players have a realistic chance to start there for the Bucks (sorry, Tyler Ennis).

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Michael Carter-Williams was supposedly the Bucks point guard of the future when Milwaukee traded Brandon Knight for him, plus Ennis and Plumlee. That hasn’t been the case for MCW thus far in his Bucks career, which has been fairly up and down.

His struggles with his three-point stroke have made many question his fit next to Giannis and Jabari, and Carter-Williams isn’t the distributor a guy like Ricky Rubio is. Even Rubio, as skilled as he is, would have problems fitting with the rest of the Bucks due to the lack of shooting.

MCW lost his starting job at times to Jerryd Bayless and even O.J. Mayo last season, due somewhat to injuries. Still, he started just 37 of the 54 games he played in last season. Despite his own opinions on the matter, Carter-Williams doesn’t exactly have a chokehold on the starting job next season.

Especially now that Matthew Dellavedova is in town. Delly is everything that MCW isn’t. MCW has a career three-point percentage of 25.5–Dellavedova’s is 39.8. Carter-Williams takes 14.7 field goals per 36 minutes–Delly takes less than nine.

Player	G	MP	FGA	FG%	3PA	3P%	2PA	2P%	FTA	FT%	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PTS
Michael Carter-Williams	190	6212	14.7	.412	2.4	.255	12.2	.443	4.8	.690	6.2	6.7	1.9	0.7	3.8	16.0
Matthew Dellavedova	215	4518	8.9	.395	4.5	.398	4.4	.392	1.2	.816	3.3	5.8	0.8	0.1	1.9	9.8

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/29/2016.

There are certainly things MCW does better than Dellavedova as well. He’s much better from two-point range, and accrues more rebounds, assists, steals and blocks per 36 minutes.

Delly turns the ball over half as often as Carter-Williams though, and he’s a much better free throw shooter. He’s more efficient, but less impactful on the game than MCW is.

Dellavedova’s lack of bulk per 36 minutes statistics actually shouldn’t be a problem for the Bucks–he’s the perfect fit for the team precisely because he doesn’t need the ball in his hands often to be effective.

Aside from pure numbers, Delly is the better fit because he can let point Giannis run wild. Adding something like ten points and six assists per game will be just fine from Dellavedova, as long as he’s still draining threes and not turning the ball over much.

Having Dellavedova out on the perimeter next to Middleton will open up a lot of space for Giannis, something that MCW simply can’t provide at this point. Teams will sag off of him to clog the paint–they can’t do that to Dellavedova, or he’ll make them pay by nailing a trademark Delly Trey.

Michael Carter-Williams still has the potential to be a good player in the Association, but he may have to do it from the bench for the rest of his Milwaukee Bucks tenure.

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Theoretically he should be a fantastic sixth man. Carter-Williams put up impressive numbers with the Philadelphia 76ers because he was the team’s best player–he was allowed to run everything.

Those 76ers teams starters were probably roughly equivalent to the Bucks bench. MCW taking touches away from Steve Novak and Mirza Teletovic doesn’t hurt Milwaukee like it does when he was using possessions that could’ve gone to Giannis and Jabari.

His own acceptance of the role will be the biggest story to watch, should Milwaukee do the smart thing and go with Matthew Dellavedova as the starting point guard.

Next: Bucks Rumors: Greg Monroe To New Orleans?

If Carter-Williams embraces the role, it could rejuvenate his career after a disappointing season last year. If not, it could spell the end of his days with the Milwaukee Bucks.

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