Milwaukee Bucks: Trust in veterans was apparent on opening night

With the first look at the Milwaukee Bucks’ rotation arriving on Thursday night, Mike Budenholzer’s trust in veteran players was extremely apparent.

The Milwaukee Bucks boast one of the older rosters in the NBA in terms of average age this season, and judging by their rotation on opening night against the Houston Rockets, their rotation is going to skew heavily toward veteran players too.

It’s no secret at this point that Mike Budenholzer has a penchant for playing more experienced players, nor is that remotely unusual for any coach whose team are focused on winning rather than development.

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Even with that in mind, though, the makeup of Milwaukee’s 11-man rotation against the Rosters was somewhat striking.

The starting lineup offered no real surprises as 33-year-old Wesley Matthews joined last year’s starting core of Eric Bledsoe, 29, Khris Middleton, 28, Giannis Antetokounmpo, 24, and Brook Lopez, 31.

With Milwaukee’s formidable depth leading to six players seeing action off the bench, there was also playing time for George Hill, 33, Robin Lopez, 31, Ersan Ilyasova, 32, Kyle Korver, 37, Pat Connaughton, 26, and Sterling Brown, 24.

That left Donte DiVincenzo, 22, D.J. Wilson, 23, Dragan Bender, 21, and Thanasis Antetokounmpo, 27, all sitting out for the night.

That bias toward experience doesn’t have to be a bad thing and, in fact, there’s certainly a strong argument to be made that not only do many of those players have the advantage of added experience, but they’re also in an age range that traditionally falls much closer to a player’s prime.

The key question, though, is if that’s Budenholzer’s through first choice group this year, can they all be expected to hold up for 82 regular season games, and then deep into the postseason?

Certainly for some of the over-30s, the answer may well be no. Budenholzer will almost certainly have to turn to his group of younger reserves from time to time, simply to manage the workload for a group of players who already have considerable miles on the clock at this time of their careers.

It’s for that reason that, although the opening night rotation was certainly telling when it comes to players’ current standing on the Bucks’ roster, it shouldn’t be deemed as even close to a definitive picture.

Facing the challenge of juggling minutes, both to keep players happy and to keep them fresh, Budenholzer may well employ an approach similar to the one he implemented last year. That being frequent, rotating rest and random nights off for some of his bench players.

That could be a particularly common feature on the wing and at the power forward spot, two positions where the Bucks have something of a log-jam. In its own right, there’s merit and potential value to that approach too, as it keeps players on their toes, and opens up the possibility for big time performances to allow some of those younger players to gatecrash the rotation more permanently.

Wilson stands out as an example of a player who seized the opportunity that fell his way with both hands last season, and completely transformed the perception of his game in the process.

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At this point, it’s certainly worth noting that Bud hasn’t swayed from what most would have flagged up as his instinct. The Bucks are leaning on some of the most veteran-heavy lineups in the league to start the season. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t still room for that to change over the course of the year.

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