Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways From Win Over Los Angeles Clippers
By Adam McGee
Three Point Guard Success
An interesting lineup that emerged to help the Bucks pull themselves back to some degree of respectability against the Nuggets on Wednesday, resurfaced again in much happier circumstances against the Clippers on Friday.
Although the Bucks had briefly (and successfully) experimented with some non-traditional center, small ball type lineups earlier in the season, they hadn’t loaded up with ball-handlers quite like they’ve done in their last two outings.
Jason Kidd turned to the trio of Malcolm Brogdon, Matthew Dellavedova and Jason Terry for significant minutes together for a second straight game, and the results were incredibly positive.
As a three-man lineup in those two games, Brogdon, Dellavedova and Terry have played 20 minutes together, and posted an offensive rating of 131.1 and a net rating of 12.8. While they’ve all been on the floor together, the Bucks have shot 62.9 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from deep, averaging a three-point attempt once every 100 seconds or so.
Although that lineup certainly originated as a forced adjustment due to the absence of forwards like Jabari Parker and Michael Beasley, the Bucks may have found something worth sticking with among that corps.
Greg Monroe has anchored that group at center on both occasions to date, with Khris Middleton accompanying them for most of the minutes against Denver and Giannis Antetokounmpo getting the call against the Clippers.
It’s never going to be Milwaukee’s best defensive lineup, but it gives Kidd a chance to find Monroe more space to work inside, surrounds the traditional low-post big with four skilled ball-handlers, and provides three to four shooters to space out the floor too.
It’s a pretty funky group to have out there all at once, but for a team that has desperately lacked reliable scoring groups when the rotation is fluid in-game, it’s important that it’s at least something Kidd continues to look at.