Minutes management
Talk around the NBA has recently been dominated by how Tom Thibodeau is running his Timberwolves roster into the ground by over-playing his starters. Well, not so fun fact Milwaukee fans, the Bucks have two players inside the top five for minutes played this season. Khris Middleton with 36.9 minutes is fifth and Giannis Antetokounmpo with 37.7 minutes is first overall.
Factoring in Eric Bledsoe’s recent workload should have all Bucks fans worried about just how the Big Three are going to make it through the full season injury-free. Friday night was most concerning with Antetokounmpo (39 minutes), Middleton (42 minutes) and Bledsoe (34 minutes) all exceeding their season averages on the first night of a back-to-back
On the other end of the scale, DeAndre Liggins (two minutes), D.J. Wilson (four minutes) and Sterling Brown (six minutes) were all severely under-used in a game where their presence could have really been used to control the starters’ minutes.
Just what is going through Jason Kidd’s mind with the continued starting experiment of Gary Payton II is baffling to say the least. Payton provides very little on both ends of the floor and really hasn’t developed any chemistry with the starting unit in his time with Milwaukee this season. The sooner Tony Snell and Matthew Dellavedova can come back, the better.