Following the Wisconsin Herd’s, shall we say, ‘less than ideal’ start to their 2018-19 NBA G League campaign, Jordan Treske and Tim Wray sat down to discuss some of the major threads unfolding in Oshkosh this season.
Tim Wray (@TimRWray): Let’s not sugarcoat it, the ‘almighty’ Wisconsin Herd have been awful through 17 games with a 3-14 record, and hold the worst net rating in the G League at -9.9 (for uncorrelated reference, the Bucks’ +8.6 leads the NBA). To start off, what are your general impressions of their lackluster season to date?
Jordan Treske (@JordanTreske): Well, for starters, it’s certainly a stark contrast to the magical start the Herd had last year. Going 11 games and 35 days without securing a victory pretty much says it all in that regard. But aside from that lowlight, I think the change in how they constructed their roster has led to the obvious growing pains they have dealt with throughout the year so far.
Rotation players like Jordan Barnett, Trevon Duval, Robert Johnson, Brandon McCoy are all rookies and instead of building around proven G League players such as Xavier Munford or James Young last year, prioritizing youth and development has informed some of their struggles in some shape or form.
TW: I think that’s definitely a significant part of their struggles, and not necessarily all that negative in a broader sense. Now that the franchise has a full-year of G League experience under their belt (and let’s face it, the Bucks have historically been one of the worst teams in the NBA at recognising the true value of assignments and call-ups), and with the hiring of Mike Budenholzer, Milwaukee’s approach to the G League appears to have shifted to more of, like you noted, a development focus.
JT: I totally agree with all of that, so I guess I’m agreeing with myself in a way. But seriously, the change in philosophy has given a better platform for the Bucks’ assignment players to shine and while it’s not that big of a bar to clear, given their struggling start, that has certainly been the best part of the Herd’s season to this point.
Initial holes in the Herd’s roster at the start of the season, the biggest being the shallow big man depth, don’t look as obvious as they once did, given how often Christian Wood has been sent up to Oshkosh over the last few weeks. So while there haven’t been many positive results as it relates to the Herd in the short-term, it’s obviously proved to be a successful way to utilize the Bucks’ pair of second-year players, Wood, and now, Donte DiVincenzo, who was on assignment with the Herd in Las Vegas for this year’s G League Showcase (and potentially longer).
TW: Without a doubt, the Bucks have used assignments much more frequently, and effectively under the Budenholzer regime, as we have seen a contracted Bucks player (being either Sterling Brown, Donte DiVincenzo, D.J. Wilson or Christian Wood) with the Herd for almost every game of the season thus far. To me, I love it, and this should be the primary objective of an NBA team which is forking out operating expenses for a G League affiliate, rather than purely to win games (although, some would be nice!), or a championship (per se, granted that would be amazing!).
Whilst this is a major positive, as it has given the most inexperienced guys on the Bucks bench an outlet to receive invaluable court time against a decent caliber (are G League starters necessarily that far off NBA ‘garbage time’ lineups?) of competition, I feel the need to play devil’s advocate here, and ask the question of just how productive continuing this strategy may be, though.
As we’ve seen, the Herd have somewhat employed the #BlueSquares system (I feel this is where the talent gap is most visible), but can sustained assignments really help the younger Bucks role players, when they’re essentially forced to play a completely different (larger) role in Oshkosh, than when they return to Milwaukee as rotation guys, filling spot minutes?
Clearly, this did not affect Sterling, who broke into the Bucks rotation upon his return to Milwaukee after a short two-game assignment, and has provided extremely valuable minutes throughout December, boasting a +7.9 net rating, and canning 44 percent from behind the arc.
Notwithstanding, I think Wood is more relevant here, having consistently dominated with the Herd, putting up 27.9 points, 12.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 2.3 blocks and 1.1 steals per contest, shooting 52.5 percent from the field…is he ‘too good’ for the G League?