Milwaukee Bucks: Diving into Marvin Williams’ brief shooting woes

During his brief time with the Milwaukee Bucks, Marvin Williams has yet to find his shot, continuing an unsettling trend for Bucks reserve floor spacers.

Milwaukee Bucks fans were only getting acquainted with Marvin Williams before the 2019-20 NBA season came to a halt due to everything going on in the world at the moment.

Williams came to the Bucks by way of a midseason buyout not long after this year’s trade deadline in February and came into the rotation to fulfill a largely straightforward role behind superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo and occupying either the 4 or 5 spots.

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The former Tar Heel isn’t the athletic specimen that he was upon entering the league, but he’s gladly traded that off with a savvy role playing skill-set that has made him one of the most experienced players standing in the NBA at this stage.

Of course, the only glaring omission seen in Williams’ brief stint in Milwaukee so far was his shooting struggles from beyond the arc. Small sample size alert, but Williams went 8-for-27 from long range, a 29.6 percent clip, through his 11 appearances in a Bucks uniform.

That’s obviously well below the mark that Williams has accomplished as he’s fashioned himself into a better knockdown shooter from the 3-point line as his career has progressed. For example, Williams finished out his six-and-a half year stint in Charlotte hitting 37.8 percent of his 1,801 3-point attempts.

Being able to not just space the floor, but develop into an effective, high-volume range shooter has been the key to Williams’ career longevity and aforementioned role player transformation. And to the limited amount of minutes we’ve seen of Williams with the Bucks, it’s his long range shooting that will largely make up the scoring opportunities that do come his way.

Given his very low-usage role and being so dependent on others to create 3-point looks, the key to Williams regaining his shooting stroke in the Cream City comes down to where he attempts his threes and the quality of his shots.

In regard to the former, Williams has largely set up shop at either corner spots where he’s historically been a great shooter. Just last year, 52 of Williams’ 140 made triples for the year came from the corners and he hit such attempts at a 40.9 percent clip, per NBA.com/stats.

This season, 24 of Williams’ 52 made threes have come from the corner and he’s knocked in such shots 44.4 percent of the time. But in Milwaukee, Williams is currently 5-for-14 when attempting a three from either corner spot, good for 35.7 percent.

With that representing such a large sample of Williams’ overall shot profile, being able to find his touch from one of the highest percentage spots on the floor is critical to really kicking on during his Bucks stint, especially with the playoffs soon to follow after the season restart.

And as far as the quality of Williams’ looks are concerned, that will be far from the problem, especially with one of the most prolific 3-point creators in Antetokounmpo. Yet Williams is just 5-for-18 on 3-point shots deemed wide-open, with the nearest defender six-plus feet away, since coming to Milwaukee.

Again, we’re drawing from a very small sample size as Williams has just played 203 total minutes with the Bucks and under head coach Mike Budenholzer. But as we’ll see shortly, the season restart and each and every playoff series will essentially be a small sample size for the Bucks and all involved going to Orlando.

For how brief his offensive struggles were before the season shutdown, Williams’ woes have been an unsettling trend for the Bucks as they have attempted to boost their floor spacing and marksmanship all along the roster in recent years.

Whether it’s been adding 3-point gunners like Mirza Teletovic or Nikola Mirotic, the Bucks have spent plenty of time and money trying to find viable floor spacers behind Antetokounmpo. Only Ersan Ilyasova has been able to find his mark on the Bucks in this regard, but all Bucks fans are certainly aware of his streakiness shooting the ball, which, in part, may have led to Williams’ arrival to Milwaukee in the first place.

Whether or not all of this time off has helped or hurt Williams and Bucks players as a whole remains to be seen. But there’s not a whole lot of time for the veteran forward to find his shot again, especially when it will matter the most.