Milwaukee Bucks: Can Miles Plumlee Be A Solid Rotation Big?

Miles Plumlee is one of those guys you just never mind having on your team because of his attitude and work ethic.

Despite not having a huge role on the team last season, he never spoke out against Jason Kidd or the Milwaukee Bucks. But the important question that this article is centered around is if Plumlee will be able to be a solid rotation player on the 2016 Milwaukee Bucks.

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If the Bucks are truly done making moves this offseason, they have just four true big men going on the roster next season–Greg Monroe, Jabari Parker, John Henson and Plumlee himself. The departure of Larry Sanders, Zaza Pachulia and Ersan Ilyasova has opened a lot of room in the frontcourt, and although Monroe will play big minutes Parker may not be ready to play by the start of the season.

That leaves just Monroe, Henson and Plumlee. Henson may be asked to play power forward in certain games going up against larger front courts, as Adam McGee mentioned in our most recent podcast. That means that Plumlee would be the only big to bring off of the bench, clearly an important and key role to play for a guy who averaged less than ten minutes a game with Milwaukee last season.

Is Plumlee good enough to occupy a real rotation spot with the Bucks, and not just play garbage time minutes? Let’s take a look at some of his statistics and try to figure it out.

Season	Age	Tm	G	MP	FGA	FG%	FTA	FT%	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS	ORtg	DRtg
2012-13	24	IND	14	55	20.3	.238	3.9	.750	21.3	1.9	0.0	2.9	2.9	4.8	12.6	82	100
2013-14	25	PHO	80	1964	14.1	.517	3.4	.561	16.0	1.1	1.3	2.3	2.8	4.7	16.5	104	104
2014-15	26	TOT	73	1194	10.6	.535	1.9	.478	13.4	1.4	1.7	2.8	2.1	4.7	12.3	107	103
2014-15	26	PHO	54	1005	9.7	.549	1.9	.500	13.6	1.3	1.7	2.7	2.2	4.9	11.6	108	103
2014-15	26	MIL	19	189	15.9	.492	2.2	.375	12.4	1.9	1.6	3.0	1.6	3.2	16.5	103	100
Career			167	3213	12.9	.516	2.8	.544	15.1	1.2	1.4	2.5	2.6	4.7	14.9	105	103

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/29/2015.

There’s a lot to go over here in Plumlee’s career per 100 possessions, so we’ll work from left to right. He’s still fairly young, and could still get better seeing as he’s only 26. He’s been around the NBA a bit, and has gotten significant minutes in his most recent two NBA seasons, which means he should have no trouble dealing with an expanded role in Milwaukee.

Aside from a rough showing his rookie year with the Pacers (in which he only attempted 21 shots) Plumlee has been a consistently accurate scorer, converting over 50 percent of his shots in his last two full seasons. Those aren’t crazy numbers for someone with limited range like Plumlee (he’s never even bothered to shoot an NBA three), but they’re certainly not bad.

He has not been a good free-throw shooter. This is the first troubling bit of information on this table, and it really is a bad sign for Plumlee if he wants to potentially see playoff minutes. Hopefully he can get back to his great numbers from his rookie season, because shooting under 60 percent from the charity stripe is just embarrassing.

His passing has been very meh, especially compared to new frontcourt mate Monroe who averages 3.8 assists per 100 possessions for his career and averaged an astounding 5.5 assists per 100 possessions in 2013. His steal numbers don’t jump off of the page either, but his blocks do.

Mar 24, 2015; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Milwaukee Bucks center Miles Plumlee (21) grabs a rebound during the second quarter against the Miami Heat at BMO Harris Bradley Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

He’s not the shot-blocker John Henson is, but he’s still a decent swatter in his own right, especially with the Bucks, where he averaged three blocks per 100 possessions. His turnovers per 100 possessions have steadily improved throughout his career, which indicates he takes good care of the basketball–an invaluable skill for a player with a bench role (or any player, really).

He does foul a lot, which isn’t ideal but also not crippling in the reserve role Plumlee should occupy this season. He’s not going to see enough time to foul out very often, and although adding team fouls helps the other team get into the bonus faster it’s not a massive problem with Miles.

Although in his short tenure with Milwaukee his offensive rating took a dip, it had been steadily improving leading up to him being traded to the Bucks and would probably jump back to his former level with more minutes. He’s always been a good defender according to his defensive rating–100 is a great mark, and anything under 105 is at the very least decent.

From his advanced numbers, it appears as though Plumlee is indeed good enough to occupy a key reserve role for the Bucks. Especially when Jabari Parker comes back healthy and can eat up some significant minutes himself, having Plumlee and Henson available to relieve Parker and Monroe seems like a strong big man rotation.

Plumlee isn’t good enough to start in the NBA despite his tenure in Phoenix. His game isn’t varied, and he doesn’t really do any one thing great. But he’s a very solid all-around player, and more than good enough to be Milwaukee’s fourth-best big man.

He’s probably good enough to be the Bucks’ third best big in Parker’s absence too, although that is rightly only going to be a temporary solution. No championship team would bring Miles off of the bench as their first replacement big, although he could be used as the second or third center off of the bench on a good team.

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Can Miles Plumlee Be A Solid Rotation Player?

By Ti Windisch | Jul 29, 2015

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