Milwaukee Bucks: Building an ideal rotation without Khris Middleton

The wing rotation

With the starting lineup established, I had to decide which players should receive more playing time and when. The wing rotation was the most difficult to decide with the massive void Middleton has left compounded with the wealth of viable options available to soak up his minutes.

Matthews, Connaughton, DiVincenzo, Korver, and Brown all present fine cases to receive playing time, and realistically with the way rotations can fluctuate from game to game, I’d expect Coach Budenholzer to roll with whoever has the hot hand on a given night.

For the purposes of formulating a rotation template, however, I analyzed how each duo has performed together so far this season as well as how each player has fared individually. Here is some of their two-man lineup data:

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Now, here are each of those players paired with Antetokounmpo and Bledsoe:

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As a general rule, I attempted to pair the wing duos who have played well together and stay away from combinations that have not in my rotation, all while keeping in mind how they’ve fared with the Bucks’ stars.

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At the six minute mark, the first two wings I have coming off the bench are Donte DiVincenzo and Sterling Brown. Both players have provided a significant energy boost off the bench this season in their limited minutes.

DiVincenzo is beginning to find his stroke while Brown has shown his own signs of improvement on pull up jumpers. Both players have given admirable defensive effort, while Brown has been particularly good at crashing the glass.

In just 35 minutes together this year, the duo of DiVincenzo and Brown is a staggering +41.1, though much of this data is skewed from the game in Orlando when the duo played a major role in a Bucks run that turned the tide in the Bucks’ favor midway through the first half. Last season the duo was a +6.9 in just 30 minutes.

Though the sample together is small, both players have earned some additional playing time for the time being and should provide some nice energy off the bench. An expanded role should aid in their development as well as allow the Bucks to determine what exactly they have in the two young wings.

Kyle Korver has shown flashes of why the Bucks sought him out this offseason with some fantastic three point shooting: currently 48.6 percent from deep. He is still struggling a bit to build chemistry with his new teammates, however, with just a +3.8 net rating that drops to -2.3 when he shares the floor with Giannis.

It is still early in the season with plenty of time for that chemistry to grow, so Korver should still see a healthy dose of minutes moving forward. Since he seems to have some chemistry issues next to Connaughton, I avoided playing them together at all in my rotation while giving Korver the majority of his minutes next to Matthews since they seem to gel a bit better.

The final notable piece of the wing rotation is my decision to close the game with George Hill and Pat Connaughton. Though Matthews starts, Hill is clearly a better player for Milwaukee right now, and Matthews’ shooting struggles could hurt the Bucks at the end of games, particularly when he’s failed to manufacture offense in other ways consistently.

Hill has been lights out from three at 57.7 percent and can get to the basket as well. His chemistry with Bledsoe has also been good historically, with the duo sharing a +13.3 net rating last year. Connaughton may be struggling with his outside shot, but his cutting ability and chemistry with Giannis gives him a leg up over other options in my opinion.