Milwaukee Bucks: Bench can continue to make difference throughout season
By Adam McGee
The Milwaukee Bucks benefited from strong bench play against the Lakers on Thursday, and that can continue to be an advantage for them as the season goes on.
With Giannis Antetokounmpo at the forefront of everything the Milwaukee Bucks do, it’s frequently all too easy to look past what sets the Bucks apart, as a team, from so many others around the NBA.
On Thursday night against the Lakers, Giannis delivered an outstanding individual performance, but with Anthony Davis and LeBron James offering counters, the Bucks still needed something else to make up the difference.
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That something came from the bench, as Milwaukee’s second unit players outscored the Lakers by 34-4. Those sorry four points mustered up by L.A.’s bench made for the lowest single game points total of any bench unit in the NBA this year.
This might have been a particularly extreme example of the Bucks’ bench unit dominating their counterparts, but it’s by no means an uncommon occurrence either.
Quite simply, the Bucks have one of the very best bench units in the NBA, in part because of how incredibly well-rounded their performances tend to be. In part, that can likely be attributed to the Bucks’ pass, dribble, shoot mantra of both player development and free agency/draft strategy.
That approach of picking up and developing well-rounded contributors certainly pays off in helping the Bucks to rank in the upper echelons of bench contributions in a wide variety of major stat categories.
In considering all 30 teams in terms of their bench output, the Bucks rank in the top-10 in each of minutes, points, rebounds, assists, and steals on a per game basis, as well as field goal, three-point, and free throw percentage, in addition to plus/minus.
Even to simply take scoring, comparing the Bucks to four of the teams behind them in the Eastern Conference race makes for a stark contrast. Milwaukee ranks eighth in bench points per game with 41.8, while the Indiana Pacers (23rd), Toronto Raptors (24th), Brooklyn Nets (25th), and Philadelphia 76ers (26th) all languish in the bottom 10. Only the Miami Heat make for an exception to that among Milwaukee’s Eastern rivals, ranking sixth.
It doesn’t just apply to Eastern teams either, with the Nuggets (21st), Lakers (22nd), Jazz (29th), and Rockets (30th) among the top-tier Western Conference teams mired near the bottom of the NBA in terms of bench scoring.
Of course, being able to get that additional push from the bench is a great advantage in its own right, but it should also greatly benefit the Bucks when it comes to preserving their starters for the most important moments in the playoffs.
Only the Clippers get more minutes per game from their bench players, and perhaps the significance of that could become even clearer if Milwaukee ends up pitted against them in June.
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It takes roster construction and rotation management both being handled incredibly well, but arriving in a place where the bench can really actively contribute to winning, such as it is for the Bucks now, shouldn’t be underestimated in terms of its value.