Milwaukee Bucks: Wesley Matthews turning back the clock on defense

Wesley Matthews‘ homecoming with the Milwaukee Bucks has been a successful one this season and he’s been able to showcase the same defensive sturdiness that has defined his long-standing NBA career.

As the Milwaukee Bucks add to their lengthy winning streak with each passing game and co-lead the NBA with the best record at 24-3, no contribution, big or small, has gone unnoticed.

That’s increasingly been the case for veteran Bucks wing Wesley Matthews, who has been able to provide valuable minutes and adjusted to his new, yet all too familiar surroundings in his first season in Milwaukee.

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After a 2018-19 season that was filled with plenty of changes and moves around the league, Matthews has found a home with his hometown team where he’s been a fixture in the Bucks’ starting lineup this season through their first 27 games.

With that said, Matthews is enjoying a more limited role than he’s been used to having throughout his career, between averaging a career low 23.7 minutes per game and averaging just 6.1 shot attempts per game.

Combining all of that with his 12.4 usage percentage, Matthews has never been more of a 3-and-D wing specialist than he is for the Bucks this season.

As confining as that role may be for some, Matthews has taken to the streamlined role he’s carved out with the Bucks under head coach Mike Budenholzer, and it’s helped him to regain some of the defensive intensity that had been lost across his stops in Dallas, New York, and Indiana last season.

Of course, it’s important to note that none of those squads could hold a candle to the defensive foundation that the Bucks have built over the years and how Budenholzer has been able to construct a defensive scheme that helped them to finish with the best defensive efficiency last season, per NBA.com/stats.

For the second straight season, the Bucks stand atop the league in that department and have bettered the mark they set last year as they hold a 101.3 defensive rating, in no small part due to how Matthews has been able to provide some resistance defending the perimeter for the Bucks.

In the 641 minutes the 33-year-old Matthews has been on the floor this season, the Bucks have allowed just 97.9 points per 100 possessions. Without Matthews on the court, that mark drops to 102.7 points per 100 possessions, the fourth-largest drop off for any Bucks rotation player this season.

The impact of having Matthews on the floor is palpable beyond the glowing advanced numbers that he’s been able to post in his first year with the Bucks.

For example, take his work defending two-time NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard over the course of the first half during the Bucks’ rout over the L.A. Clippers earlier this month. Matthews shut down Leonard to 0-of-4 shooting from the field as well as a turnover across 21 partial possessions in five minutes and 36 seconds of run that night.

That win showcased the strengths of Matthews’ defending where checking opposing players by utilizing his size, speed, strength and fundamentals can bother and disrupt his assignment into contested shots in order to keep the Bucks’ defense in place.

Having always been a player that has played with a higher level of physicality and toughness than his size suggests, Matthews gives the Bucks a real asset on that side of the ball, should he be able to hold up when the Bucks stage their postseason run in a few months time.

The topic of Matthews regaining the defensive pedigree he held before his disastrous Achilles tear in his last season with the Portland Trail Blazers has been a popular one among Bucks fans this year and Spencer Davies of Basketball Insiders point-blank asked the former Golden Eagle for his assessment of whether his defensive services compare to his play then:

"“Yeah. Absolutely,” Matthews told Basketball Insiders. “I feel great. I feel like [I’m] defending like the old me, moving like the old me. Feel good.”"

Matthews isn’t the flashiest defender compared to some of his teammates in terms of being able to generate turnovers or make action plays. But playing fundamental, hard-nosed defense is something that still comes naturally to the 11-year vet and with the improved supporting cast of defenders around him, Matthews has functioned incredibly well in his simplified role, though his assignments are anything but simple on some nights.

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And as long as Matthews is able to hit shots at the degree he’s doing so far this season as he’s a 37.7 percent three-point shooter, the Madison native has done everything the Bucks’ front office envisioned when they brought him on board during the offseason.

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