The Milwaukee Bucks are standing tall at the top of the NBA standings, but tightening up on their turnovers could still allow them to improve.
With a record of 18-3, the Milwaukee Bucks have enjoyed a great start to their 2019-20 NBA campaign.
That record positions them as not just the best team in the Eastern Conference, but also places Milwaukee at the very forefront of the wider conversation for the league’s very best team, just as they were for close to the entirety of last season.
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Having said that, those who’ve watched the Bucks very closely this year will be under no illusions that much of that record has been built on play that wasn’t quite the best they have to offer.
Milwaukee has ramped things up of late, as evidenced not just by their 12-game winning streak, but also their back-to-back 40-point wins, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still plenty of ways in which they could improve.
One such area that could see the Bucks step their play up to new heights would be to become even tidier when it comes to taking care of the ball.
The Bucks are by no means among the NBA’s worst offenders when it comes to committing turnovers, ranking 11th among all NBA teams with a mark of 14.8 giveaways per game.
This is a Milwaukee squad that under Mike Budenholzer has shown an immensely impressive capacity for ranking in the top-5 in most key categories, and simply building themselves as one of the most well-rounded and professional teams in the NBA.
The Bucks’ current mark of 14.8 turnovers per game is up slightly from the 13.9 per contest they averaged en route to 60 wins last year, which likely isn’t something that Budenholzer and the coaching staff will be thrilled about.
Interestingly, over the Bucks’ current 12-game winning streak, their turnover tally has shifted in the wrong direction too, ratcheting up to 15.3 per game during that span.
That perhaps can be attributed to some elements of looseness that have come from what has been a softer stretch in the schedule by comparison to the gauntlet that Milwaukee faced to start the year, while an increase in garbage time in recent games can’t be dismissed either.
Still, that may also point to the advantages of aggressiveness for the Bucks, even if they have to find a careful balance when it comes to some of the pitfalls that can accompany being looser with the ball.
If the Bucks are to reduce their turnover tally, the onus will largely fall on Giannis Antetokounmpo and Eric Bledsoe. For Antetokounmpo, that may mean avoiding as many offensive foul calls as he’s been called for to this point in the season, as opposed to anything he’s doing with the ball in his hands. For Bledsoe, it simply boils down to remaining locked in and avoiding carelessness.
A close examination of something such as the Bucks’ turnovers may seem like nitpicking at present, but with teams such as the Clippers, Mavericks, and Lakers coming up on the schedule very soon, Milwaukee will be in for some sterner tests that will undoubtedly require them to be at their best.