Milwaukee Bucks: Experimenting with small ball lineups would be worthwhile

With the Milwaukee Bucks having been a bit inconsistent on both ends of the court to start the season, should they consider using small ball lineups more frequently to maximize their talent?

The Milwaukee Bucks have gotten off to a solid 10-3 start to open the 2019-20 season.

Beyond that good record, they also find themselves near the top of the league in several advanced stats. Milwaukee currently has the second best net rating (9.0), the seventh best offensive rating (109.7), and the third best defensive rating (100.7) in the NBA entering Monday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls.

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There is, however, room for this team to improve on both ends of the court.

One way they could try and bolster their team would be to experiment with using more small ball lineups. Specifically, the Bucks should consider using Giannis Antetokounmpo at center while surrounding him with shooters to see how such a lineup can play.

Milwaukee hasn’t experimented much with going small so far this season. Prior to Monday’s win over the Bulls, the Bucks had played at least one of Brook Lopez or Robin Lopez in all of their five man lineups who had played at least five minutes on the floor together.

Against Chicago, Budenholzer played 11 minutes without either Lopez brother on the floor, though, leading to some intriguing results in small samples.

Though some of those lineups have been among the best the Bucks have fielded when it comes to net rating, they’ve also found themselves to be a bit vulnerable against certain matchups, especially on defense. This is something I discussed in this recent article I wrote about the Lopez twins’ play to open the season.

Playing a small ball lineup with Antetokounmpo at the 5 could be very advantageous for the team. It could open the court on offense, and provide the Bucks with more flexibility on defense.

The first thing it would enable the Bucks to do is to surround Antetokounmpo with four players who are capable of stretching the floor at any given time. Brook has struggled with his three-point shot in major way so far this season. That’s meant that the Bucks haven’t been able to rely on him to provide the same kind of spacing that he gave them when he was hitting those shots a season ago. That’s allowed defenses to sag off of him and focus on clogging the paint whenever Antetokounmpo touches the ball. Unless Antetokoumpo is hitting threes himself, which he has been showing signs of improvement with, the Bucks lack a clear way to combat this with either Lopez twin on the floor.

Going smaller would allow the Bucks to use some of their better shooters from deep. This, in turn, should create better spacing for them in their half-court possessions, and generate more 1-on-1 matchups for Antetokounmpo to exploit.

The other positive that a small ball line-up could bring is that it would allow the team to guard the two man pick-and-roll game much better than they have so far this season. Several teams have attacked the Lopez twins in the half-court this way to create space for their shooters. Though it hasn’t always worked, it has made a difference in Milwaukee’s losses, especially against Utah and Boston.

Given that Antetokounmpo can protect the rim and rebound like an elite center, the Bucks would be wise to experiment with using him at the 5 on defense when teams try to do this to them. A smaller lineup would be much better suited to guard against the pick-and-roll as they can either get through screens better (because they have the athleticism and speed to do so), or they can rotate without leaving an obvious mismatch for the opposing team to go after.

Playing a smaller lineup proved fruitful in the limited instances they used it last season. Of the five man lineups they used for at least 15 minutes last season, their third best line-up in terms of net rating was a small ball group that featured Eric Bledsoe, Malcolm Brogdon, Pat Connaughton, Khris Middleton, and Antetokoumpo. That particular line-up, in their 19 regular season minutes together, posted an absurd 118.4 offensive rating, 63.9 defensive rating, and 54.5 net rating. Similar lineups featuring Ersan Ilyasova posted a net rating of 32.7 in their 20 minutes on the floor.

Playing small isn’t necessarily something the Bucks should lean on too heavily. After all, playing Antetokounmpo at the 5 could mean more physical punishment for their him to endure on both ends of the court. However, they should be open to experimenting with such a lineup more than they have so far, especially given how things have started for the Lopez twins.

Adding an effective small ball lineup would give the Bucks a different look to throw at teams on both ends of the court. Seeing if such a lineup can excel now would give them something new to keep in their back pocket come next Spring. That may be the difference between them winning a title or coming up short yet again.

It’s time for Coach Mike Budenholzer to see if such a lineup can be viable.