Milwaukee Bucks: What’s trending in the third week of the season

The Milwaukee Bucks’ 3-point defense has been a falling trend.

Over the Mike Budenholzer era, the Bucks have built an elite defense that stood atop of the league in each of the last two seasons. Yet, their defending of the 3-point line has been their Achilles’ heel along the way.

Whether it’s been allowing a league-leading triples or seeing how they’ve fallen in their last two playoff runs, the Bucks’ 3-point defense has been regularly exploited and this week was certainly no different. Not after allowing a franchise-record 25 threes to the Utah Jazz in the Bucks’ 131-118 loss from Friday night.

Even an inferior team like the Pistons had no trouble in the Bucks’ 125-115 win over Detroit where they hit 17 of their 40 threes, good for 42.5 percent. They followed it up by going 13-for-41 from downtown on Wednesday night.

Based on how they have defended under Budenholzer historically, this new-look Bucks squad are growing in their ability to understand the principles and tenets that make up their system. While they haven’t lacked effort, they’re consistently out of position to limit this volume of looks from their opponents.

A team like the Jazz who are littered with many above-average shooters and ball handlers had no trouble being able to manipulate the Bucks’ defense to the point where Budenholzer changed up tactics and coverages to slow down their offense that night. Being able to stay disciplined and fight through screens is huge as much as being more versatile will be down the line for the Bucks.

I have a feeling we’ll be talking plenty about the Bucks’ 3-point defense as the season goes along.