Milwaukee Bucks: Shooting alone couldn’t solve larger issues

The Milwaukee Bucks’ need to surround Giannis Antetokounmpo with shooters is obvious, but doing that alone isn’t enough to solve their larger issues.

With the 2019-20 season having come to an end in disastrous fashion against the Miami Heat last week, the Milwaukee Bucks find themselves in a spot where all they can do is reflect on what went wrong, and try to come up with solutions that prevent history from repeating itself for them going forward.

In that regard, there’s no shortage of lessons to be learned for the Bucks, but the reality is that some may prove more difficult to swallow than others.

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One of those will center around the idealized notion of how the Bucks could best build a roster around Giannis Antetokounmpo, mainly the notion of surrounding him with shooters and believing that the spacing would largely take care of itself from there.

It’s still possible for the Bucks to upgrade their shooting compared to what they had at their disposal this year, but it’s increasingly unlikely that it’s possible to do so to an extent that single-handedly eliminates other issues.

The Bucks’ starting lineup, particularly with Brook Lopez having found his shooting stroke again in the playoffs, consisted of three high quality shooters out of a possible four at the non-Giannis spots.

Beyond that, the bench boasted a couple of truly elite shooters in Kyle Korver and George Hill, the latter of whom led the NBA in 3-point percentage this year, along with someone like Marvin Williams offering quality support (at least in theory if not practice).

Highlighting the Heat’s Duncan Robinson ahead of the start of Tuesday’s Conference Finals, ESPN’s Kirk Goldsberry shared a graphic that shows just how efficient some of the Bucks’ jump shooters were over the course of the season.

Of course, the likes of Korver and Hill provide value with their shooting, but those players also stand as examples of two very different types of shooters, and it’s a distinction that the Bucks will almost certainly need to start to acknowledge.

Hill’s game is much more well-rounded, which is part of why his playmaking and defense also provide great value for the Bucks even beyond his shooting performance on a given night. Someone like Korver is considerably more limited, though. Even a player such as Wesley Matthews is relatively limited in terms of simply slotting into the 3-and-D archetype.

The Bucks find themselves in a very tough spot due to their salary cap outlook, and shopping among the pool of specialist veterans is almost certainly going to be an ongoing reality for them. Having more George Hill types would be great, but simply isn’t all that feasible.

But for the second year running, the reality is the Bucks have had a roster with plenty of good shooters, and have still managed to post underwhelming overall percentages as a team. Part of that is a reflection on how the shot selection of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Eric Bledsoe can bring things down, but another element looks to be how it’s not simply enough for a player to be a good shooter to stay on the floor, help the team, and contribute positively in the postseason.

There may not be an easy answer to that outside of wider roster overhaul, but the past two postseasons should certainly give the Bucks food for thought on that front.