Milwaukee Bucks: Depth offers crucial advantage against Toronto Raptors

The Milwaukee Bucks will hope to win many key battles against the Toronto Raptors, but superior depth stands as one of their greatest advantages heading into the Eastern Conference Finals.

As the Milwaukee Bucks and their fans had the luxury of a few days off to soak in the dramatic conclusion of an epic series between the Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers, minds inevitably drifted to how both teams would match up if they were to advance to the Conference Finals.

Perhaps with the Bucks’ exploits against the Celtics fresh in the mind, there was one area of weakness that particularly jumped out for both teams, and one that Milwaukee should be confident of exploiting now that Toronto is confirmed to be their Conference Finals opponent.

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As so much of the discourse surrounding the Raptors/76ers series focused on whether either coach had enough players they could trust to even stretch their rotation to a meager seven or eight players, Mike Budenholzer was talking to the media about increasing the returning Malcolm Brogdon‘s minutes starting from Wednesday’s Game 1.

The Bucks have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to their sheer volume of quality options, and through the first two rounds they’ve demonstrated how there’s still a place for utilizing depth when you reach the postseason.

The old playoff adages all suggest a dramatic tightening of the rotation is necessary once the postseason gets underway, but that doesn’t account for the sheer quality of depth Milwaukee has at its disposal.

Eric Bledsoe, Khris Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez make for locks in the starting lineup, while Brogdon is likely to rejoin them once he gets a couple more games under his belt. Beyond that group, Nikola Mirotic, George Hill, Pat Connaughton and Ersan Ilyasova have all enjoyed tremendous postseasons to date, and the Bucks could still turn to the likes of Sterling Brown, Tony Snell or D.J. Wilson beyond that group if the situation required it.

The Bucks own easily the most productive bench remaining in the playoffs, while the Raptors get less out of their bench than any of the final four teams. Even to view the Raptors’ bench contributions in a 16-team context reveals their 21.6 points per game to be the second worst mark of all playoff teams.

Adjusting production per 100 possessions, Milwaukee’s bench still has a clear advantage over Toronto’s in terms of points (45.4-36.8), rebounds (24.9-19.9), and assists (10.6-8.7), while shooting efficiency also leans heavily in Milwaukee’s favor (48.1-38.9 FG%, 36.0-25.8 3PT%).

For the Raptors, only Serge Ibaka and Norman Powell, who logged a DNP in Game 7, boast positive playoff net ratings among non-starters. On the Bucks’ side of things, Mirotic, Hill, Connaughton, Ilyasova and Brown are not only all positives by comparison, but they can all lay claim to a net rating of greater than 10.

Of course, while the bench is one of the most obvious ways where depth will factor into this series, it also does extend into the reliability of the teams’ respective starting groups.

Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard represent two bastions of consistency who seem almost guaranteed to deliver team-leading performances, but the question of what kind of support comes behind them could prove to be a turning point in the series.

Kyle Lowry continues to make winning plays that will keep his defenders loudly proclaiming just how positive his plus/minus is, but the reality is his team would win a lot more easily if he was remotely reliable when it came to shooting and scoring. An average of 13.1 points on 40.2 percent shooting against the Sixers doesn’t exactly point to major improvements being on the horizon considering how much he’s struggled against Bledsoe’s defense this season.

Pascal Siakam may well be Toronto’s second best and most reliable player at this point, but how he holds up under constant attention from Antetokounmpo certainly remains to be seen.

Milwaukee’s tendency to drop has certainly benefited Serge Ibaka in the past, but unless he has a scorching series, Danny Green and Marc Gasol will almost certainly be required to deliver more than their eight point per game postseason averages so far.

On the Bucks’ side of the equation, Middleton and Bledsoe can be prone to their own bouts of inconsistency, yet in Brogdon, Mirotic, Hill and Lopez, they are not short of players capable of turning the screw if needed.

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There are certainly other elements of this matchup that will prove crucial in its ultimate outcome, but if there’s any sense of Antetokounmpo and Leonard canceling each other out, it certainly seems like the Bucks have significantly more firepower and all-around contributors beyond their superstar.

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