Milwaukee Bucks: What’s trending through the fourth week of the season

Brook Lopez has been a falling trend.

Over his time with the Bucks, Brook Lopez has been instrumental to the team’s success and overall identity on both ends of the floor.

By being able to shoot triples at a high volume and block off the basket to the opposition, Lopez has been an incredibly value role player. Now as the Bucks’ system is changing, his role will only be affected and it’s played a part in the quiet start to the season he’s had.

Lopez is still off to a better start offensively than he was a year ago as he’s up to shooting 36.4 percent from three, 1.6 blocks per game and is averaging a mere 9.3 points per game on the season.

Still, Lopez is averaging the fewest minutes per game (26.6) in Milwaukee by a very slim margin. While that has been affected by the Bucks having some blowout wins, the Bucks’ personnel changes have been reflected in the role he’s had to start the season.

We saw the Bucks and Budenholzer turn to utilizing Lopez more in the post during their win over Dallas, but that did little in getting him going as he scored 11 points on 4-for-12 shooting over 33-and-a-half minutes of run.

With all this said, Lopez’s value to the Bucks hasn’t changed, even as the team has and is changing before our eyes. Lopez gives Milwaukee a true rim protector that they don’t otherwise have and his floor spacing and steady sharpshooting has been a nice sight to see, especially after his prolonged shooting slump last season.

Whether his production grows on both sides of the ball remains to be seen, but Lopez will have to adjust with the Bucks’ new ways just as everyone else is right now.

We’ll be back next week to see how the Milwaukee Bucks will fare with marquee clashes against the new-look Brooklyn Nets, the reigning champions, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Washington Wizards.