Milwaukee Bucks: Death by 1,000 floaters

By Jordan Treske | Nov 1, 2019

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - OCTOBER 28: (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images) /

As the Milwaukee Bucks try to find their collective balance early on in the 2019-20 season, their opponents so far have drawn up counters to take advantage of their established defensive scheme.

Through one week into their 2019-20 season, very little has been in sync for the Milwaukee Bucks.

That’s been quite clear with the Bucks enduring two second half meltdowns to both the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics, which has accounted for their two losses so far this year. The Bucks’ offense has been especially three-point happy to start the season, even more so than the lofty standards they set for themselves after the arrival of head coach Mike Budenholzer nearly 18 months ago.

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But as they continue to let it fly to a greater degree, their attacking of the basket and overall shot diversity has taken quite a tumble as they navigate through such an inconsistent start.

Defensively, the Bucks have been out of character so far in the lack of discipline they’ve shown when defending opposing teams, as evidenced by them ranking 19th in opponent free throw attempt rate, per NBA.com/stats.

But there’s been one defensive adjustment the Bucks haven’t accounted for so far with the opposing teams they’ve faced to start their 2019-20 run and it’s one worth monitoring as we move forward throughout the year.

Under Budenholzer, the Bucks have been steadfast in their drop-back defensive scheme that’s designed to limit high quality looks at the basket, something the Bucks did impeccably well all throughout last season. By doing so, the Bucks welcomed opponents to take shots from either low efficiency areas such as the mid-range and from well beyond the three-point line

All of those features have largely held early on in the Bucks’ season so far, but opposing teams have found a wrinkle to take advantage of the space the Bucks have been willing to cede in their defensive scheme and they have done so by throwing up endless floaters upon floaters.

Case in point, Bucks opponents have attempted 19.3 shots in the paint outside of the restricted area a.k.a the floater zone, the second-highest amount of looks for any team in the league behind the Brooklyn Nets. And the Bucks’ four opponents thus far have connected on 41.6 percent of those looks, which comes in at 10th in the league heading into the Bucks’ Friday night clash with the Orlando Magic.

Of course, if you ask any Bucks player, coach or official, it’s a shot that the team will happily give up, in part due to giving up fewer quality looks elsewhere on the floor and the law of diminishing returns kicking in when the volume of attempts grows higher and higher as the season goes on.

However, it’s the sort of thing that very well could cause teams to test the Bucks’ defensive mettle and overall principles, especially as they search for last year’s form on that side of the ball, as they currently rank 15th in defensive efficiency through their first four games. What’s even more interesting to watch is how the Bucks look to adjust to extend their presence, that is if they even do so to begin with.

While some may question adjusting to this wrinkle, the Bucks’ ability to contest shots from almost all over the paint makes them more susceptible to shots beyond floaters as we’ve seen athletic lob threats such as Clint Capela and Tristan Thompson be able to do damage against the Bucks above the rim for point-blank scores.

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There are a whole bunch of questions that the Bucks are seeking answers to after experiencing such a feast or famine start to the season and how they react to the adjustments that opposing teams will continue to throw at them could define when they’re able to climb out of their early inconsistencies.

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