Milwaukee Bucks: Could we see a return of supersized lineups?

In light of the addition of veteran forward Marvin Williams, we very well could see the Milwaukee Bucks turning to larger lineups for small spurts following the All-Star break.

When the Milwaukee Bucks brought in Marvin Williams on the buyout market a little more than a week ago, it was clear the added experience and production was worth bolstering a team that prides itself on its depth.

And we certainly saw some of that on display in what was a rare loss for the Bucks in their defeat to the Indiana Pacers for the last game before the ongoing All-Star break.

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But Williams’ arrival may give Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer license to once again explore playing jumbo sized lineups with Williams sharing the floor with superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Brook Lopez.

Take the comments from Budenholzer, for example, when he was asked by Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about how Williams can come in and make his mark within the Bucks’ established foundation:

"“Certainly, Marvin is a very, very good player in a lot of different regards,” Budenholzer said. “I think what he brings defensively stands out to us as someone who can guard multiple positions, brings a physicality, a strength to his game, in our minds where we can maybe stay bigger against teams that are playing smaller.“Offensively, his ability to make threes and kind of play pick-and-pop game and then drive and (his) IQ and just understanding – I think he’s a high, high IQ guy. We feel like he’s a great fit on both sides of the ball with us.”"

Whether the reigning NBA Coach of the Year meant to tip his hand by wanting to use Williams as a way for the Bucks to play bigger against small ball lineups, but it would only be a continuation of something we saw from them following last year’s trade deadline when they made the big acquisition of Nikola Mirotic from the New Orleans Pelicans.

Who could forget how delighted Budenholzer was in being able to play such supersized lineups, as was immortalized in a feature written on him by Sports Illustrated’s Chris Ballard late last season:

"“Even so, just the promise of Giannis becoming a wing shooter allows Bud to experiment. Against the Kings he rolls out the team’s newest acquisition, 6’10” Nikola Mirotic, another tall sniper who allows Budenholzer to go, as he says “counterculture,” combating smallball lineups with Lopez, Giannis, Mirotic and the 6’8″ Middleton. Once, Bud went even bigger. When (Malcolm) Brogdon and (Eric) Bledsoe were out against the Jazz, he says he “channeled my inner Nellie” and ran out a lineup that stood 7 feet, 6’11”, 6’10”, 6’10” and 6’8″. It’s not something he plans to do often—they’ve only been together 22 possessions—but the results were intriguing: Their point differential per 100 possessions was 119.6. “It was f—— beautiful!” says Bud. “I just love that we can go so many different directions.” Of course, he notes, this only works because of Giannis.”"

Now, comparing Williams to Mirotic isn’t a like-for-like replacement in many aspects, most notably in their respective physical and athletic profiles. But their shared skill of spacing the floor makes such a configuration possible.

And it may come as a shock that Williams rates as the better career 3-point shooter (36.2 percent) in the NBA by a slim margin compared to Mirotic (35.9 percent) before the Montenegrin made the stunning decision to return to Europe to play for Barcelona, spurring a potential big payday in the NBA last summer.

Where the difference lies is on the defensive side of the ball where Williams, even at his age and declining athleticism, could offer the Bucks more savvy and foot speed to offer Budenholzer and his staff a little more versatility. And it was that weakness, combined with his shooting struggles all throughout last postseason, that served as the basis to Mirotic ultimately flaming out in the NBA for the time being.

Of course, exploring such supersized lineups hasn’t just been limited to Mirotic as Budenholzer has toyed with similar looks with veteran forward Ersan Ilyasova over the last two seasons.

So far this year, Ilyasova hasn’t seen many minutes with both Antetokounmpo and Lopez. When he has, though, that trio has an incredible +82.1 net rating over 17 minutes, which stands as the biggest net rating for the Bucks for three-man combinations, per NBA.com/stats.

Loading up with so much size certain borders on novelty for Budenholzer to trot out this year, but the Bucks have boasted their positional and lineup versatility under his tenure, all in the name of fully maximizing Antetokounmpo’s incredible talents on both sides of the ball.

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Considering the road out of the East is littered with opponents that offer similar flexibility with their own personnel, we may see the mad scientist don his lab coat and experiment to find ways to outsmart and outmaneuver the opposition as the Bucks dig into their championship pursuit in the coming weeks and months.

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