Milwaukee Bucks: Playing the Youth is Wise
By Dan Larsen
With only a few games left this season, playing youthful line-ups should be a top priority for the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Milwaukee Bucks won’t be playing playoff basketball this year. However, if their form since the All-Star break is any indication, this team is more than capable of rebounding and becoming a force to be reckoned with next season.
There remains, however, much to play for for many on this team.
Many of the young guys like Tyler Ennis and Damien Inglis are playing to keep their spots on this roster. With the team in need of a major retooling of the bench this off-season, experimenting with the young guys is just what this team needs right now.
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One of the biggest hindrances to the Bucks success this season has been the lack of production from their bench.
A year ago, the Bucks had one of the best benches in the NBA. Guys like Jerryd Bayless, Jared Dudley, and Zaza Pachulia were only expected to feature 15 minutes a night. However, due to injuries and losing their starting center at mid-season to retirement, the entire second unit was asked to step up.
The results were impressive. Without the success of the Bucks relatively deep bench last season, the Bucks would have been nowhere near the Eastern Conference Playoffs. However, guys like Dudley and Pachulia stepped up and more than contributed their fair share on the court. This helped lead the Bucks to a six seed and their best regular season record since the Fear the Deer Campaign of 2009-10.
This season, however, has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster for the second unit. Whether it’s due to injuries, like what’s happened to O.J. Mayo and Greivis Vasquez, or just poor play on the court, the Bucks bench has been nowhere near good enough.
In recent games, Coach Jason Kidd has begun to experiment with different line-ups and rotations. As a result, some of the young guys like Tyler Ennis and Damien Inglis who rarely played earlier in the season are beginning to see more playing time.
Some of the results from this, even in a relatively small sample size, have been encouraging.
Last Thursday, Coach Kidd rolled with a makeshift second unit for nearly the entire fourth quarter against the playoff bound Memphis Grizzlies. The starting line-up was struggling to get going on the offensive end, and as a result, the team found itself trailing 73-68 at the end of third quarter.
As the fourth quarter started, Kidd decided to run with a line-up of Tyler Ennis, Rashad Vaughn, Damien Inglis, Miles Plumlee, and John Henson, a line-up that had never been used outside of garbage time. These guys caught fire and helped lead the team to a 28-13 fourth quarter and a 96-86 victory.
All five players helped contribute in their own way. Tyler Ennis, who had put up zero points prior the fourth, got hot and scored 13 points in the final period.
Damien Inglis, who had just recently been called up from the D-League, contributed 10 points, five boards, and three blocks while demonstrating solid defensive talent and athletic ability.
Even Plumlee and Henson, two guys who had rarely seen the floor together, also contributed their share, recording seven blocks, including an enthusiastic block from Henson that drew the ire of Matt Barnes and ultimately led to his ejection. It was one of the first opportunities these guys had to contribute and they made it matter.
Even prior to their more recent games, Jason Kidd has experimented with giving guys like Tyler Ennis and Miles Plumlee more minutes. Though some of his moves have been out of necessity, getting Ennis and Plumlee the volume of playtime that they have is paying off.
Just a few months ago, Plumlee was relegated to being third option center behind Greg Monroe and John Henson. His playing time was minimal, and as a result, the Bucks were reportedly looking to offload him at the trade deadline.
However, since the All-Star break, Plumlee has seen consistent playing time and he’s made the most of those opportunities. Plumlee has gone from being one of the last guys on the team to an efficient contributor who more than deserves to be a role player on this team beyond this year.
Ennis has also shown many improvements on the court since he became the de-facto back-up to Jerryd Bayless in the wake of Michael Carter-William’s injury. He’s played an average of 16 minutes a game, putting up 6.1 points and 2.6 assists on 46.9% shooting, all improvements over his season totals.
This is the benefit of experimenting with the young guys.
The veterans, like Bayless, Mayo, and Vasquez, are all free agents at the end of this year and will more than likely be playing elsewhere this November.
In addition, the big three of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, and Jabari Parker have more than shown over the past month that they can contribute to winning team and keeping them healthy for the remainder of the season should be the key focus.
How the team fills out the roster around them, however, will ultimately determine just how good this team can be.
Getting the young guys like Ennis, and Inglis more playing time over the remainder of the season will allow this team to better evaluate just how big of a reconstruction they face in their second unit.
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It’s been a small sample of games. However, both Ennis and Inglis have shown improvement over their limited opportunities earlier in the season. As a result, they may deserve to stick around while the rest of the roster is retooled this coming off-season. Continuing to get these guys more minutes over the remainder of this season, however, should be a high priority.