Milwaukee Bucks: Thon Maker 2017-18 season preview

How does Maker fit in?

This season Maker can improve his production simply by providing the team with more minutes. Last year, toward the end of the season Maker showed the ability to play  20-25 minutes per game. This year he will need to do so for the entire 82 game season.

While on the floor his role should not change too much. Per 36 minutes Maker averaged 14.5 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks. Providing those numbers over a larger sample size would be an impressive step by itself.

At this point in his career, offensively, Maker is still a complementary player. The offense will likely not run many plays for him and a majority of his points will come from catch-and-shoot or catch-and-finish opportunities.

This doesn’t mean Maker won’t impact the team’s overall offense. Maker’s three-point shooting, particularly on the pick-and-pop, opens the lane for guard penetration. This spacing and penetration has a huge effect on a team’s offense, and can be just as important to the ability to score.

While Maker does provide Milwaukee with a unique skill-set on offense, his most important contribution for the starting unit, is his defense.

Last season, Milwaukee ranked 22nd in points allowed. It’s hard to be an elite team with a bottom third defense. This year, if Milwaukee wants to take the next step, their defensive ranking will need to improve. As the starting center, Maker can have a bigger impact on this number than anyone else on the team.