Milwaukee Bucks: Analyzing Tony Snell/DeMar DeRozan Matchup

Offense

Well, this is kind of awkward. This isn’t necessarily a fair fight, but I’ll try my best. DeMar DeRozan is a mid-range and post-scoring guru a la Kobe Bryant, and Tony Snell, according to many Bucks broadcasts, was a better offensive player than Kawhi Leonard while playing together in high school. So there’s that.

It’s pretty simple: DeRozan is one of the best offensive talents in the NBA. He’s a three-time All-Star (2014, 2016 and 2017), and finished the year fifth in scoring with a career-high 27.3 points per game.

DeRozan excels from within the three-point line. His isolation game is elite, and he is outstanding at getting his shot regardless of how close he is blanketed.

For Milwaukee, the difference in these games could be shooting, and the Bucks don’t want to end up on the wrong end of a blow out. The Raptors can score like almost no one else. Remember when they started this season in historic fashion?

The best way for the Bucks to keep up is to shoot. The Bucks have actually been a pretty fantastic shooting team this year, shooting 47.4 percent as a team, which is good for fourth best in the NBA. And from behind the three-point line? 37 percent — two points off from the NBA-best Spurs’ 39.1 percent.

Crazy, right?

The problem is they don’t shoot enough. Tony Snell averages close to five three-pointers per game and shoots almost 41 percent. That three-point percentage gives him the right to shoot more. Please. Maybe eight-to-ten threes a game?

I wouldn’t have thought at the beginning of the year I’d be yelling at Tony Snell to shoot more, but it’s been a weird year. Did you see Russell Westbrook averaged a triple-double and might not be MVP? It’s barely being talked about.

Anyways…

I don’t want to make this seem like Tony Snell is some sort of offensive super hero. Far from it. But surrounded by guys with the abilities to make plays from the top of the key like Giannis and Brogdon, and Middleton drawing extra attention, it’s pretty easy for defenses to lose Snell.

At the end of the day, he’s an NBA player, and he’s going to hit a wide open jump shot a lot of the time.

One more thing. Have you seen Snell throw down like he’s trying to be Jabari or something? Since the All-Star break, Snell has had one game every few weeks where he makes it his mission to try and dunk on everyone in the building.

It isn’t always this pretty, but it’s an interesting development and certainly something I’ll be watching.