Milwaukee Bucks: Making Tony Snell a featured three-point shooter

While the bulk of his offensive repertoire is based in his effectiveness from beyond the arc, the Milwaukee Bucks would be wise to help make Tony Snell an even greater three-point specialist.

Since he arrived to the Milwaukee Bucks a week-and-a-half before the start of the 2016-17 season, there has been no mistaking the kind of role Tony Snell is responsible for playing on the offensive end.

Under the watch of former Bucks head coaches, Jason Kidd and Joe Prunty, Snell stood as a rare, exclusive floor spacer designed to help light an offensive spark from three-point range within the team’s starting lineup.

With that, Snell has responded by putting up his best three-point shooting seasons to date in his five-year career as he knocked down 40.6 percent of his 355 three-point attempts in the 2016-17 campaign and 40.3 percent of his 268 attempts from long range last year.

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As much as that has been a great return on the whole for the former Lobo, it should be noted Snell’s shooting consistency over that span hasn’t been immaculate by any means as we saw at the beginning of his tenure in Milwaukee as well as at times during the second half of last season.

Now with the arrival of new head coach Mike Budenholzer, the Bucks are due to undergo an offensive reinvention, based on the 48-year-old’s modern sensibilities and the personnel changes they’ve made this offseason.

However, Snell may be excluded from the incoming three-point overhaul under Budenholzer and his staff, considering how much of that element has already been established within his game.

If anything, Snell’s three-point specialty will likely be displayed more frequently under Coach Bud, provided Snell’s role is restored back in the starting lineup.

The biggest thing hanging over that aspect for Snell is whether he will bounce back after the diminished shooting confidence he displayed down the stretch in the regular season and into the playoffs last year. That, of course, stemmed from Kidd marginalizing Snell’s role in the starting unit at the end of his reign, which bled into Prunty’s three-month stint at the helm for the Bucks.

Regarding his usage on the court, though, the dimensions to which Snell may be deployed as a marksman under his new coach is an interesting topic of discussion.

To this point in his stint in Milwaukee, Snell has been predominantly used to capitalize on spot up opportunities from long distance. He’s obviously been effective doing so, as evidenced by the fact that he ranked in the 87th percentile of players around the league in that capacity, per NBA.com/stats.

While that facet of his three-point shooting stands as his bread and butter, Snell’s range as an off-ball threat stands as something he may look to improve under the new coaching staff.

Whether that’s something that can be viably expanded upon is the bigger question, seeing that Snell has never been particularly active in his movement to free up even scoring opportunities for himself. In fact, Snell’s average offensive speed last season topped out at 4.18 miles per hour, according to Second Spectrum’s player tracking data.

The combination of that and Snell’s lack of shot creation looms large in any discussion regarding his ability to broaden his three-point capabilities (fun fact, Snell has only made one pull-up three during his two years with the Bucks, which came during the 2016-17 season).

Nonetheless, there’s definitive value in what Snell brings to the table as a three-point shooter and although it’s tough to envision him going beyond his comfort zone, that doesn’t he’d be any less effective doing so.

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Above all else, the clean slate Snell has been given with Budenholzer now in the mix may just be enough for him to experience a much needed rejuvenation to help him return back to form.

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