Can Michael Carter-Williams Start Next Season For The Milwaukee Bucks?

Michael Carter-Williams is a talented player, but can he start alongside Point Giannis Antetokounmpo next season for the Milwaukee Bucks?

Michael Carter-Williams is starting a lot of conversation. That’s nothing new for the controversially-acquired point guard, but this time it’s what MCW said, not what he did, that has Bucks fans in a flurry.

In his exit interview, Carter-Williams finally addressed his future role with the team now that Giannis Antetokounmpo runs the offense in Milwaukee.

Unlike many of his teammates, MCW did not bite his tongue. He was quite open and honest, and a little bit irritated, to have his role questioned.

"I think this Giannis playing point guard next year got a little out of hand. I think he’s definitely going to control the ball a lot more, but as far as, he’s not going to guard a point guard. I’ll be guarding the point guard. I think we’re just going to be playing through Giannis a lot more. I watch Draymond Green, he handles the ball a lot and gets a lot of assists and I wouldn’t say he’s a point guard. Or LeBron or someone like that. So I think the whole “what am I going to do now because Giannis is the point guard” is a little out of proportion."

Although he doesn’t expressly say it, it sure sounds like Carter-Williams expects to start next season. A lineup where Giannis runs the floor and MCW guards point guards would probably work pretty well–the Bucks best lineup in terms of defensive rating last season had Carter-Williams guarding point guards and Giannis guarding forwards.

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Unfortunately, their worst defensive lineup had both of them in it as well. Literally the only difference made was flipping Greg Monroe for John Henson, and the defense went from horrible to damn good.

Considering MCW, Giannis, Henson, Khris Middleton and Jabari Parker will all likely be around next year, the Bucks could stick with that lineup.

On the defensive end, everything would be golden. There are two sides to basketball though, and the offense that lineup provides would look a lot different next season than it did this year.

With Giannis running the point on offense, MCW will need to work off of the ball a lot more. That’s simply what has to happen–taking the ball out of Giannis’ hands seems like an automatic mistake, so whoever starts with him needs to work off ball.

That works for most of the Bucks starting lineup. Parker’s catch-and-shoot field goal percentage is a bit low, but only because most of his field goal attempts come from within the paint, which is counted separately to catch-and-shoot.

Still, Jabari made 34.7 percent of his 173 catch-and-shoot attempts this season as opposed to 59.4 percent of his 535 shots within ten feet. ‘Bari needs to be around the rim to be effective, for the most part.

Henson does too, as over 90 percent of his shot attempts come from within 10 feet. Although both of those two don’t make many catch-and-shoot jumpers, they’re both off-ball players. Both Henson and Parker make over 70 percent of their shots on assists from somebody else.

Middleton can and does live outside of the paint, making 43.6 percent of his catch-and-shoot threes to provide all the spacing he can to the offense. Middleton often scores in isolation despite his catch-and-shoot three-point accuracy, with 41.5 percent of his field goals coming off of assists.

Michael Carter-Williams is not an off-ball player. Just 36 percent of his field goals were assisted last season, which is second-lowest to only Tyler Ennis. MCW made just 30.3 percent of his catch-and-shoot jumpers and 25.6 percent of his catch-and-shoot threes last year, meaning he won’t provide spacing on offense.

Since Henson and Parker–and Giannis, for that matter–all need to get into the paint to score, their defenders can often sag off of them. Adding MCW into that lineup means that only two defenders–whoever is guarding Giannis, when he’s holding the ball, and whoever is guarding Khris Middleton–need to follow their man outside of the paint.

MCW is efficient within 10 feet, making 52 percent of his field goals there, but a modern offense cannot survive with so many non-shooters starting together on offense.

This article, from last year’s playoffs, explains why. As Jason Patt writes there, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr had four of his players play typical on-ball defense, but assigned Andrew Bogut to Tony Allen.

Bogut has no chance of keeping up with Allen on the perimeter continuously, so he didn’t try to. He essentially played free safety and let Allen do whatever he wanted to on offense, while Bogut guarded the rim against Memphis’ paint-based offense.

Since Allen is an inefficient shooter he had literally nothing to do on offense without the ball in his hands. He tanked the Grizzlies’ offense, which made him unplayable in the series.

Memphis got noticeably worse without him on defense, since the Grizzlies were used to having their All-Defensive First Teamer out there.

The Warriors would go on to win out that series after dropping two games before making the switch.

Why bring that up here? Tony Allen was a better catch-and-shoot player last year than MCW was this year, making 31.4 percent of his field goals and 34.5 of his three-point attempts.

If Kerr could leave Allen wide open to flounder, what’s stopping teams from doing the same to Michael Carter-Williams? Allen is better on defense and a better shooter than MCW from both two- and three-point territory, and the Warriors made him virtually unplayable.

Carter-Williams still has a spot in the NBA, because you can’t leave him unattended with the ball in his hands. He’s a dangerous slasher and a capable defender.

Next: It's Important That Jabari Hates Losing

With the advent of Point Giannis, the ball will not be in his hands in the Milwaukee Bucks offense. He would likely thrive as a second-unit leader, but the Bucks offense will be easily stifled if he’s in the starting lineup without the ball.