Milwaukee Bucks: Improving efficiency out in the transition game

Over the last two seasons, no team has gotten out more in transition than the Milwaukee Bucks. Yet their efficiency on such possessions could stand to improve ahead of the 2019-20 season restarting.

For the Milwaukee Bucks, getting out in transition is quite literally a volume game.

Since the arrival of Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer, the Bucks’ embrace of pace and space has sent their volume of transition possessions into overdrive over the last two seasons.

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Per NBA.com/stats, the Bucks rank second in the highest frequency of transition possessions this season, coming just behind the reigning NBA champions, the Toronto Raptors.

That’s after standing atop the NBA in that same category for their 60-win campaign last year.

Of course, it helps to have a player like superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo whose wide-ranging talents are well suited for the open floor, despite the attention he brings on from opposing defenses every second he’s on the floor.

Antetokounmpo has recorded the second-highest and the most transition possessions in each of the last two seasons, respectively, all of which heightens the reigning MVP’s ability to bend defenses at will with how quickly he can get downhill in such few strides.

While the 25-year-old stands as one of the leading and fearsome forces out in the open court, Antetokounmpo’s efficiency on such possessions is indicative of the Bucks’ efficiency lagging behind on such plays.

For the 2018-19 season, Milwaukee compiled 1.12 points per transition possession, which placed them in the 69th percentile of teams. This year, that number has fallen down to 1.07 points per transition possession, ranking them in the 13th percentile in the league.

The Milwaukee Bucks have no problems getting out and running in transition, but they don’t always finish as efficiently as they might like.

Despite managing the same volume of transition possessions year over year, the drop-off the Bucks have experienced in capitalizing on such plays is a curious sight.

While generating such a large volume of run outs in the open floor can compromise the Bucks’ overall efficiency on such plays, there are arguments to counter that point. Take the Raptors, for example, who have the third-highest transition points per possession (1.17) with the league-leading frequency of transition possessions this season.

Milwaukee’s push to play at such a historic pace all throughout the year has been critical to their success and it’s all stemmed from their elite defending and historic defensive rebounding output. With such command on that side of the ball, getting out on the break comes very natural for the Bucks and is just an extension of what they have built under Budenholzer over the last two years.

With that said, that doesn’t mean the Bucks’ efficiency and scoring output on transition scoring chances can’t stand to improve either (the Bucks rank third with 18.6 fast break points per game this season).

After all, being able to capitalize on transition possessions will be even more critical to whatever they accomplish when the 2019-20 season restarts later this month and the playoffs following shortly thereafter. All opposing teams know slowing down the Bucks will be key to any game plan and strategy they’ll formulate over the coming weeks and months to slow down the Bucks and Antetokounmpo specifically.

That makes the transition game that much more important to the Bucks and provided they resume their total end-to-end identity after four-and-a-half months off the court, capitalizing on open floor opportunities goes a long way in Milwaukee following their template of success from here on out.