Milwaukee Bucks: Malcolm Brogdon’s taste for the big moment

While injury meant he likely wasn’t quite at his best, Milwaukee Bucks guard Malcolm Brogdon still showed his appetite for the big moment in the playoffs.

If you cast your mind back to the final stages of the 2016-17 regular season, you’ll probably remember there was a strange and contentious Rookie of the Year race going on with a Milwaukee Bucks guard at the center of it all.

Malcolm Brogdon would, of course, go on to win the award and become the first non first rounder to do so since Woody Sauldsberry back in 1958, but there was one game more than any other that likely secured him the winning votes.

With the season winding down and the Bucks jostling for playoff position behind a late season surge in the East, Milwaukee visited the Eastern Conference leading Boston Celtics in a game that gave them an opportunity to really lay down their postseason credentials.

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It was a competitive, back-and-forth game that seemed destined to be decided by the finest of margins, and it ultimately was.

The Bucks managed to come away with a three-point win thanks to an outstanding closing two-and-a-half minutes from Brogdon.

Most notably, that coincided with a nerveless game-winner with 3.9 seconds remaining, but it included a host of incisive plays and flawless decision-making that allowed the then rookie to create points for himself and his teammates.

With that game, at least for those paying attention, Brogdon went from being just a great story of an overachiever in an underwhelming draft class to a player with some kind of X-factor. You know, something a little bit different.

Not every player can elevate their play and seize control with the game on the line, but Brogdon showed his first glimpse in the NBA of being able to do so.

In an injury truncated second season as a pro, unfortunately the Georgia native didn’t have quite as many chances to follow up with more late-game heroics, but he still kept something special in store for the post-season.

Without truly playing all that well having only just returned from injury, Brogdon was still able to muster up some of his very best play when his team needed him most.

In the chaos of the Bucks’ series with the Celtics, and up against the brilliance of his own teammates, some of Brogdon’s shot-making arguably got overlooked. Yet as second round series move toward their surprisingly speedy conclusions, Brogdon’s name still stands out among the very best of the league’s post-season shot-makers this year.

For starters, in clutch moments — defined as a game with a margin of five points or less with five minutes or less remaining — during the Bucks’ series with Boston, Brogdon shot 57.1 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from deep. Considering Brogdon shot just 40 percent from the field and 47.6 percent from deep for the series overall, that’s an impressive jump under pressure.

To provide an even greater sense of how good that is, it takes a look at the competition, though. In spite of the Bucks playing just seven games and Brogdon playing in just three games that qualified as clutch minutes, only five players have made more than the four clutch field goals he knocked down in this year’s playoffs.

LeBron James, Terry Rozier, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown all rank above Brogdon with the benefit of greater opportunity having progressed to the second round, while the only player eliminated in the first round to rank above him is a teammate, Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Brogdon’s makes keep him in the company of Donovan Mitchell, Al Horford, Kyle Korver and Jrue Holiday, who’ve all received plenty of attention for their late game exploits over the last three weeks or so.

On the three-point front, Brogdon’s two clutch long balls can only be bettered by Korver, Rozier and James, who again have all had the benefit of a second round series.

So, why did Brogdon not get more praise for these shots? Why just a couple of weeks later might you be reading this struggling to remember his big-time makes?

The reason is simple.

With the game on the line, the Bucks were not calling Brogdon’s number. Game-winning or tying efforts fell to Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton, but they were only relevant to begin with thanks to the shots Brogdon made to get his team into that position.

Take Game 1 as an example. Everyone remembers Khris Middleton’s Hail Mary heave that sent the game to overtime, but the only reason the game wasn’t already over was because Brogdon had made a crucial triple to tie the game up with just over 10 seconds remaining.

The Bledsoe defensive meltdown, Middleton heroics and deflating overtime loss that followed meant Brogdon’s shot didn’t get the shine it deserved, but his quick trigger under that pressure, on the road in Game 1, is far from a run of the mill NBA play.

Brogdon’s other clutch three-point make came in an even more pressurized setting.

With the Bucks already trailing 2-1 in the series, they were down by a single point in Game 4 at the Bradley Center with just 36 seconds remaining. Antetokounmpo found Brogdon open in the corner, and he knocked down a three with no hesitation to give his team the lead.

The Bucks would go on to win off of an Antetokounmpo tip-in, again stealing much of the limelight away from Brogdon. It’s worth noting that game-winner even came from a rebound on a  Brogdon drive, though, as he worked his way toward the rim with the shot clock winding down.

In many ways, Brogdon’s season wasn’t what he or his team would have hoped it would be. Still, Brogdon built on a great rookie year by showing a continued desire and ability to rise to the occasion and make decisive plays.

After posting a net rating of 7.0 in clutch minutes during the regular season, Brogdon still proved he had another gear. Very simply, he’s the kind of player you want on the court with a game in the balance.

Next: Milwaukee Bucks: Jabari Parker’s future remains muddled

Even in defeat, a lot can be learned about a team and their players in the postseason. This year, Malcolm Brogdon again showed that he’s not afraid of the moment.