The Milwaukee Bucks are an elite offensive team. What play-types are fueling their success on that end of the floor?
There are few teams in the NBA right now that are as good as the Milwaukee Bucks are on the offensive end of the court.
Milwaukee currently sits at second in offensive rating, only behind the breakout Dallas Mavericks. In ESPN’s Hollinger NBA Team Stats, the Bucks are second in offensive efficiency as well.
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What’s fueling their success on that end of the floor? Let’s take a brief dive into play-type to see where the team is excelling.
One area where the red hot Bucks are excelling is in possessions where the pick-and-roll roll man is utilized. Those plays consist of 5.3 percent of their offensive possessions, and they’re scoring 1.21 points-per-possession on them, which ranks fourth in the league. That’s a significant improvement over their 1.10 points-per-possession on those plays last season, which put them at 11th (they made up 4.9 percent of their offensive possessions).
Milwaukee are also having a field-day on spot-up shots, as 20.3 percent of their possessions have seen them take a spot-up shot. The Bucks are averaging a league-leading 1.10 PPP on them. That represents a noticeable jump over last season as well, when they averaged 1.05 PPP on them (they consisted of 22.9 percent of their possessions).
The Bucks’ strongest play, at least when looking at PPP, is on putbacks. Milwaukee is averaging 1.26 points-per-possession on putbacks (consisting of 4.9 percent of their possessions).
The Bucks are also performing quite well on hand-offs and cuts. They’re seventh in the NBA in points-per-possession on hand-off plays (0.99 making up 4.8 percent of their possessions), and are fourth in PPP on cuts (1.39 making up 5.9 percent of their possessions).
Beyond these play-types, Milwaukee also find themselves in the top ten in PPP on post-ups (0.91 PPP on them which is tenth best on 5.8 percent of possessions), in the top ten on shots coming off screens (seventh at 1.07 PPP, 4.9 percent frequency), and in the top ten in PPP in shots where the pick-and-roll ball-handler shoots (eighth at 0.91 PPP, making up 13.4 percent of their possessions).
There’s only two areas on offense that stand out as potential problem spots: shots in transition and isolations. Though a lot of the Bucks plays are shots that occur in transition (they’re leading in the league in the frequency of shots taken in transition with a 21.2 percent frequency), they’re just 18th in PPP on those shots (1.07). A season ago, they led the league the frequency of shots they took in transition (21.5 percent), but were 10th in PPP on them (1.12).
On isolations, Milwaukee rank 15th in PPP (0.92) while utilizing them at the seventh highest rate in the league (7.7 percent).
These offensive stats tell us a few instructive things about the state of the team’s offense. One thing that jumps out is that the Bucks are performing quite well at a variety of different play-types, especially when compared to last season.
One of the biggest weaknesses they had, particularly in the playoffs this past spring, was their inability to diversify their offense if their core strengths were being neutralized. Given that the team is in the top ten in the league in nearly every play type right now, it suggests that they’re much better suited to deal with issues on that end of the court than they were just a few months ago.
Another thing that these offensive stats tell us is that Milwaukee may have room to get even better on the offensive end of the floor. The Bucks demonstrated that they can be a lethal team in transition last season. As their chemistry improves as a team in the coming weeks, they should be able to score much more efficiently in transition than they have so far.
One final thing to highlight in their stats is that they could stand to gain from acquiring a guard or forward who can create their own shot. Though Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo are capable of creating on their own, the team lacks a third player beyond them that can create in isolation, especially if plays break down. If the Bucks are going to avoid a repeat of their half-court woes from the Eastern Conference Finals, they may want to find someone who thrives even when defenses tighten things up.
There’s no doubt that the Bucks are a legitimate threat to win the NBA title this season. If they continue to refine their elite offense, they may just be the favorites to hold the Larry O’Brien Trophy in June.