Milwaukee Bucks: Grading the reserves at the halfway mark of season
By Dalton Sell
Milwaukee Bucks: All-Star break grade for Torrey Craig
After signing with the team this offseason, many were excited to see what Torrey Craig would bring to the table in Milwaukee.
The forward had just finished a deep postseason run to the Western Conference Finals with the Denver Nuggets, serving as a defensive specialist and key rotational piece. The Bucks scooped him off the free agent market on a veteran minimum deal, seemingly landing one of the bigger offseason steals.
However, Craig has surprisingly been scraping the bottom of the barrel for minutes in the rotation for a large part of this season as he’s found himself in and out of the lineup. This has rubbed some Bucks fans the wrong way because of the 30-year-old’s defensive stature, something that the team could certainly use as their play on that side of the ball continues to highlight their struggles.
When he has stepped on the floor, the forward is not putting up the most impactful numbers, averaging just 2.5 points on a .395/.381/.500 slash line, 2.5 rebounds, and 0.8 assists in 11.4 minutes per game. He has failed to genuinely make his mark on the team, and his lack of steady playing time could be to blame for that.
Nevertheless, Craig is someone that this team will need down the road in the postseason when they come across All-Star wings like Kevin Durant, Jimmy Butler, or Jayson Tatum. That has always been the endgame many envisioned when the team signed him, and his time will come.
Still, with little time in the rotation and currently putting up highly inefficient numbers, Craig has some work to do, and hopefully he gets the opportunity to prove his worth.