Milwaukee Bucks: Players who could benefit most from Mike Budenholzer
By Ben Rauman
The Bigs: D.J. Wilson and Thon Maker
Wilson and Maker were both major disappointments this past season for largely different reasons.
D.J. Wilson
After being drafted 17th overall by the Bucks in last year’s draft, Wilson played in just 22 games for the Bucks in mostly garbage time while spending a large portion of his time with the Wisconsin Herd in the G League.
While he didn’t show much at the NBA level and his G League numbers don’t exactly jump off the page, it’s hard to fault Wilson entirely for his poor rookie season as he simply wasn’t given the opportunity to prove himself despite the Bucks’ shallow depth at power forward.
With pressure to win now, the Bucks’ staff must have felt that the rookie simply wasn’t far enough along in his development to play in close games.
Thon Maker
On the flipside, Thon Maker had plenty of opportunities and still underwhelmed for most of the year until the playoffs.
The development of Maker was something Bucks fans were eager to see at the beginning of this past season. However, his play this year was a major disappointment.
Between all of his bulking propaganda and Kevin Garnett prematurely crowning him a future MVP, expectations may have been a bit too high for the young center.
His confidence was clearly shaken by his poor performance early on in the season as a starter as well as by Jason Kidd’s refusal to give him the green light to take open threes for some time afterward.
Perhaps Thon spent too much time focusing on bulking up and tried too hard to become a paint player last summer while neglecting to hone the skills that made him so valuable in the first place.
Spreading the floor
With Budenholzer replacing Kidd as coach, neither player should find themselves discouraged to shoot from beyond the arc. Coach Bud has a history of utilizing his stretch bigs when he can.
Both Paul Millsap and Al Horford spread the floor for Bud in his offense in Atlanta, while more recently Mike Muscala and even Dewayne Dedmon have stepped out beyond the arc to knock down open looks.
Much of Wilson’s appeal on draft night was his potential to become both a solid defensive player and a stretch big. Thon has similar skills but with far greater potential.
With Bud’s arrival, look for Thon to spend less time down low and at the elbow and more time behind the three-point line spreading the floor on offense. Maker simply doesn’t have the body type to bang with NBA bigs in the paint.
If Wilson can earn more minutes under Budenholzer’s tutelage, he could become an extremely valuable rotation piece at a very thin position for Milwaukee, allowing the Bucks to go bigger in many situations without having to play Khris Middleton at the four as often.
Hopefully a full summer of training with Bud’s coaching staff can increase both players’ confidence and the right system can begin maximizing their skill sets rather than forcing their weaknesses.