Milwaukee Bucks: Grading their new additions one month into 2020-21 season
Grading Sam Merrill’s growing stint with the Milwaukee Bucks
The 60th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, Sam Merrill has made a point of not being ‘Mr. Irrelevant’ with the Bucks.
To this point in the season, Merrill’s 43 total minutes have largely come with games in hand. But he still has some promising flashes over his limited minutes on the floor. After all, it was the 24-year-old who knocked down the Bucks’ record-breaking 28th triple in their blowout win over the Miami Heat last month and he has shown off his surefire sharpshooting.
On the flip side, the concerns about how the Utah State product would hold up against NBA-level defenders hasn’t been erased. Merrill added injury to insult when Bulls two-way player Adam Mokoka poked away the ball from Merrill when coming up the court that left Merrill with a sprained ankle that kept him out of a few tilts.
Watched Bulls-Bucks this morning. Master class in drop coverage by Brook Lopez. Coby White never found the rhythm against him coming off screen.
— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger) January 2, 2021
Also, Adam Mokoka might be miles away offensively, but dude is an NBA-caliber defender: pic.twitter.com/1Cs4lATSoc
That didn’t paint Merrill in glory and the athletic deficiencies that Merrill has offers a big learning curve for him to master in his quest to get regular minutes with the Bucks.