Milwaukee Bucks: Ranking the 6 best passers on the 2021-22 roster

Ranking the best passers on the Milwaukee Bucks: No. 2 – Giannis Antetokounmpo

You could easily have Giannis Antetokounmpo as the best passer on the Bucks, especially as he has gone over five assists per game in four of the last five seasons and nearly hitting six assists in two of them.

Passing is one of the most improved parts of Antetokounmpo’s game since he came into the league. He’s become an incredibly skilled passer who is not only able to make the right pass but also adjust and make pretty insane passes on the fly, like so.

Giannis really took a big step forward as a passer this past season, even if his assist rate wasn’t the highest of his career. He can still get into the habit of having tunnel vision and not always passing when he needs to, but it’s slowly becoming less of a problem.

As we all know, Antetokounmpo didn’t start playing basketball until his teen years, and he showed immense flashes as a passer early on in his NBA career. In a couple of seasons, we’re going to see a fully-developed Giannis as a passer, and I’m very excited for it.

Ranking the best passers on the Milwaukee Bucks: No. 1 – Khris Middleton

I’m going to die on the hill that Khris Middleton is the best passer on the Bucks and this past season was a big reason why I’ve always believed in his ability as a playmaker. He has his limitations, and as I said with Giannis, he’ll be usurped soon as the best passer soon, but for now, I have Middleton as the best passer on the team.

He does have some of the limitations that Holiday can fall into sometimes, where Middleton is more of a premeditated passer as opposed to someone who can adjust as the play is developing and it leads to turnovers. However, Middleton did such a good job with the added playmaking duties he was given in the 2020-21 season.

He’s the best transition passer on the team and why I love when he’s the one starting the fast breaks is because he consistently makes the right play and finds guys ahead in transition. In the half-court, you saw him take on more as a ball-handler in pick and rolls with Antetokounmpo and that became a deadly combo for the Bucks in the playoffs, especially when nothing else was working. I’ve really come to appreciate Middleton as a half-court playmaker more and more.

He averaged career-highs in assists per game and assist rate, showing he was more than up to the task of being a more primary playmaker this season. I’m looking forward to seeing Middleton get more comfortable in that role next season.

Again, you could rank any of the Bucks three stars in some order and I’d be fine with it. They all have their strengths and weaknesses as passers but are clearly the best on the team.