The 24th week of the NBA season was a gruesome, winless one for the Milwaukee Bucks. Through the poor team play, three Bucks players stood out from the rest to earn spots in the player of the week rankings.
What do the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Boston Celtics all have in common? They are all better teams than the Milwaukee Bucks and they all beat the Bucks this week.
Unfortunately for the Bucks fans who are still watching games, Milwaukee only had a real shot to win the Chicago game. Missing Khris Middleton for all three games was a significant issue for the Bucks. The absence of his solid impact and floor spacing put Milwaukee at a huge disadvantage in each contest.
Since Middleton was unable to play it is hard to tell exactly what the Bucks motives were this week. Some of the play looked like an actual tank job. However, missing one of the most important players on the team and going against three of the toughest teams in the Eastern Conference would cause any team, sans the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs, to have a tough time and potentially lose all three games.
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Regardless of whether or not this is tanking, I appreciate what the Bucks and coach Jason Kidd are doing. They are giving Jabari Parker and Giannis Antetokounmpo a lot of minutes and letting them lead the team. Additionally, they are letting guys like Rashad Vaughn, Johnny O’Bryant, and Tyler Ennis get significantly more playing time than in weeks past.
When the youngins get all the minutes, typically NBA teams struggle. The Bucks certainly struggled this week. Poor team performance does not always indicate poor individual performances on the team, however.
Three Bucks players performed well despite the losing this week. They outshone their teammates by sheer impact on the games. Certainly that impact did not lead to wins but, I don’t believe it was the reason for the defeats either.
Let’s get to the Milwaukee Bucks player of the week rankings and see who these three were!
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