New Milwaukee Bucks forward Marvin Williams has quickly found a role within his new surroundings and is making his mark on the league’s best squad.
A little more than two weeks after officially arriving to join the Milwaukee Bucks, Marvin Williams has wasted no time in finding his place within his new team.
To say the 33-year-old has been thrown to the fire under head coach Mike Budenholzer would be a little bit of a stretch, but Williams has been Budenholzer’s go-to reserve forward behind superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, especially in the Bucks’ high-profile wins over the Philadelphia 76ers and the Toronto Raptors.
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That has subsequently downsized the role of fellow veteran forward Ersan Ilyasova, who logged DNP-CD’s in each of those games.
From that standpoint, it hasn’t been hard to see why Bud has gravitated towards Williams’ services, given how quickly he’s been able to make his mark on the defensive side of the ball.
The combination of Williams’ defensive intelligence, size and foot speed has popped out on the screen and Budenholzer hasn’t shied away from tasking the North Carolina product with taking on big defensive assignments, such as checking Raptors All-Star forward Pascal Siakam Tuesday night.
Siakam certainly made the Bucks pay from the outside as his 22 points was fueled by his 5-of-9 shooting from 3-point range. But Williams did his part in walling off driving lanes for Siakam and he limited the reigning Most Improved Player to just six points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field (3-for-4 shooting from the foul line), two turnovers across 14.2 partial possessions, per NBA.com/stats.
The two shooting fouls Williams did pick up over the three minutes and 12 seconds he logged guarding Siakam does highlight the slip ups he does have occasionally when defending in space as he does have a habit of tripping over his feet. That speaks to Williams’ current athleticism at this stage and he has tallied 11 personal fouls over his 86 minutes in a Bucks uniform, which equates to a foul every 7.8 minutes he’s on the floor.
Still, the Bucks haven’t lost much of anything with Williams on the floor defensively as they have allowed 102.6 points per 100 possessions over those minutes, up from the 101.1 defensive rating they’ve posted in 207 minutes without the former Tar Heel since his arrival. Small sample size, but that first mark would still lead the league by a healthy margin over the Raptors in defensive efficiency this year.
While Williams has stepped right in and kept the Bucks’ defense humming, his offense has certainly been going through an adjustment period in his new NBA home.
That has centered around the 15-year veteran’s ability to knock down 3-pointers, something he thankfully corrected facing against the Raptors where all nine of his points came from his 3-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc in that 11-point win. Williams has gone 5-of-15 from long distance since arriving to Milwaukee earlier this month and four of his five triples have come from both corner spots.
The former Tar Heel’s offensive role has streamlined to set up shop in the corner and knock down shots at this point, though we’ve seen a few flashes of Williams’ off the bounce game where he knocked down a floater against the 76ers and occasionally setting screens in the pick-and-roll.
Budenholzer and his staff won’t ask Williams to step outside of that 3-and-D box, and there really is no need for him to, given the versatility and floor spacing he can deliver in his reserve role. And Williams knows exactly that, as he talked about following the Bucks’ thrilling victory over the Raptors:
"“That’s my job, period. That’s why they brought me here, to play defense to knock down the shot when I get the opportunity. But that’s always been the player I’ve been my entire career. If you’ve watched me, I’ve always guarded the best guy. I take pride in that. That’s my job here, that’s what coach expects of me, what my teammates expect of me. And I’ll go out there and do that every night.”"
There is room to grow for Williams, especially as he looks to iron out his shooting stroke. But the early returns have largely been positive and there’s plenty of reason that Williams will continue to play an integral role as the Bucks’ season progresses.