Milwaukee Bucks: Grading the interesting Grayson Allen trade

What is Grayson Allen’s fit on the Milwaukee Bucks?

There should be an interesting role for Grayson Allen, especially early on in his Bucks tenure. It is expected that Donte DiVincenzo won’t be ready at the beginning of the season as he recovers from ankle surgery, so there are minutes to be had on the wing.

The majority of Allen’s playing time has come at shooting guard in his career, but he has been able to play up a spot at small forward, despite his 6-foot-4, 198 pound frame. He and DiVincenzo have similar body types and athleticism, so there shouldn’t be too much overlap in that respect.

In terms of overall skill set, they bring slightly different things to the table. Offensively, Allen is the better overall shooter. He shot 39.1 percent from deep on a 66.2 percent 3 point rate this past season, while DiVincenzo shot 37.9 on a 57.4 percent 3 point rate in that same timeframe. Both Allen and DiVincenzo had similar volume as secondary pick-and-roll ball-handlers at around 19 percent, per NBA.com/stats. DiVincenzo was slightly more efficient as a ball-handler in those situations, and his assist rate was a couple of percentage points higher on similar usage.

Allen doesn’t bring the same value as a rebounder from the guard position as DiVincenzo either, but he did see his rebounding rate jump to double digits this past season, so there’s some similarity there as well. Overall, Allen profiles as a scaled version of DiVincenzo in most aspects but is a better shooter. I don’t think Allen should be considered the long-term starter at the position, but he’ll help fill in the gap before DiVincenzo comes back and then as he works himself back into game shape.