Milwaukee Bucks: Maximizing trips to the free throw line
The Milwaukee Bucks have increased their trips to the free throw line this season, though largely on the back of superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.
When it comes to their shot profile, the Milwaukee Bucks are as forward-thinking as an NBA team comes in this modern age.
The arrival of head coach Mike Budenholzer instituted a new day in terms of how the Bucks would generate their shots and embrace the 3-point line more than they had historically done before. While the Bucks have since chased high-percentage shots from long range and directly at the basket, getting to the free throw line with higher frequency has been more of a challenge for them, collectively.
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This season, though, the Bucks have compiled a 26.3 free throw attempt rate, a mark that currently ranks them 12th in the NBA at the time of the season suspension, per NBA.com/stats.
That’s a solid jump from last year when Milwaukee ranked 18th in free throw attempt rate (25.5 percent).
Of course, it helps having someone of the caliber of superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, who relentlessly seeks getting to the basket like a fish needs water. And as I recently wrote about, Antetokounmpo’s free throw volume this season has reached historic levels as he’s averaging 10 free throw attempts per game at just 30.9 minutes per contest.
If Giannis Antetokounmpo doesn’t get to the free throw line, the Milwaukee Bucks are significantly less likely to get to the charity stripe.
But beyond Antetokounmpo, the Bucks don’t have a player that can reasonably come into the realm of the Greek superstar’s ability to absorb contact and promptly draw trips to the foul line with a high frequency.
That’s certainly illustrated by the fact that when Antetokounmpo is on the floor, the Bucks have a free throw attempt rate of 29.8 percent. Without Antetokounmpo on the court, that number falls off precipitously, down to 21.9 percent. That’s the equivalent of ranking first league-wide in that department with Antetokounmpo, to being second-last in the minutes where Antetokounmpo is off the floor.
Bucks fans were certainly aware that the team’s ability to simply get to the free throw line was largely dependent on Antetokounmpo and his constant penetration of the paint against opposing defenses.
But to the point that the Bucks have such a disparity in creating free throw attempts with and without Antetokounmpo on the floor does offer an insight into how the Bucks’ offense can grow stagnant at times. Especially when their multi-pronged attack grows toothless and is reliant on attempting quick threes.
It’s no surprise that Antetokounmpo is at the center of creating such high-percentage of scoring opportunities, both for himself and for others, and he’s critical to the Bucks’ ethos and overall system. Milwaukee has managed to largely resemble the wrecking machine in the minutes or rare nights they have been without Antetokounmpo this season, which was a theme that has carried over from Budenholzer’s first year with the club.
But what the Bucks’ complementary stars and pieces have struggled to replicate is finding a way to muster up a respectable amount of foul calls to get to the free throw line that comes from getting into the heart of the opposing defense repeatedly. Of course, no one on the Bucks’ roster matches the driving aggression and star aura of Antetokounmpo, which may go on be an underlying theme for when the playoffs roll around in Orlando.