Milwaukee Bucks: Evaluating Grayson Allen’s first game with starters

For the first time in the preseason, and potentially the last time, we saw the full Milwaukee Bucks projected starting lineup against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Bucks rolled the Thunder rather easily, as was to be expected from the defending champs against a team full of very young players that has no expectations to win this season. However, it gave us an insight into what head coach Mike Budenholzer is going to do on opening night and going forward in the regular season.

As Donte DiVincenzo continues to rehab from ankle surgery, it was offseason acquisition and shiny new toy Grayson Allen who stepped in and did a wonderful job. He finished with 13 points, four rebounds, and one hell of a block. He shot 5-for-10 from the field and hit three 3s, really showing his scoring versatility for the Bucks.

His strong performance with the starters created a large debate among Bucks fans for who they believe should be the starter once DiVincenzo is fully healthy. It’s something we’ve debated as to who will fill that vacant shooting guard role once everything is equal and everyone is healthy. It appears clear now that Allen will be the one to fill in with DiVincenzo unavailable and recovering.

Although it was only one game, there is still lots of insight that can be taken away in regards to his early fit with the starters and how he’ll play around them. Again, it’s only preseason and it was against a Thunder team that isn’t very good, but let’s see how he looked.

Evaluating Grayson Allen’s first game with the Milwaukee Bucks starters

A lot of what Allen did against the Thunder came from a scoring perspective, as he wasn’t asked to facilitate as much, which isn’t a strength of his and something DiVincenzo does better. In the role he was asked to fill, he did a fantastic job. He helped provide a lot of early offense, hitting 3s before the Thunder could fully set up their defense.

The Bucks have embraced the “let it fly” approach since Budenholzer took over a few years ago and it seems Allen has no issues doing just that. He showed off his range with this 3 from near the Fiserv Forum logo and a great job to be ready for the drop-off from Holiday who provided just enough of a decoy to gibe Allen room to fire away.

The shooting is what is going to be the biggest difference between Allen and DiVincenzo, where Allen has been a consistent nearly 40 percent 3-point shooter the last two seasons. Meanwhile, DiVincenzo was right near 38 percent last season but struggled in his first two seasons before that. If Allen can hit shots like that consistently, it will make decisions very difficult on who could take over that final starting spot.

One of the aspects where Allen shone was playing off of Giannis Antetokounmpo, who hasn’t had a consistent shooter like this that could stay on the floor defensively. Allen was able to find his spots for open 3s and if he can quickly earn the trust of the Bucks superstar, we’ll see more moments like this in transition.

Allen immediately knew to sprint to the corner in transition and once the defense focused on Antetokounmpo, the two-time MVP knew exactly where to go with the ball. Having someone who can make the defense pay for focusing too much on Antetokounmpo will be huge and something DiVincenzo wasn’t able to do consistently enough last season.

Perhaps the most impressive play of the night for Allen was his big dunk that got everyone, including the Bucks bench, on their feet. It was a great display of his athleticism but also a good peek at what Budenholzer can do with him in lineups with Antetokounmpo to weaponize Allen’s shooting and Antetokounmpo’s gravity on rolls to the basket.

It’s similar to what we’ve seen the Bucks run with handoffs to shooters like Kyle Korver and Bryn Forbes, only this time the player taking the handoff is also a reliable dribbler who can put the ball on the floor. Allen can probably chuck up a 3 right after the handoff but decides he has more space on a drive. He hesitates to see if he can hit Antetokounmpo on the roll, but once he realizes he doesn’t have a passing lane, does it himself. It looked like Antetokounmpo was ready to go up to catch a lob from Allen, but quickly saw that his new teammate was going to throw it down instead.

That’s a play that DiVincenzo could also be involved in, but doesn’t garner the same respect from 3 that Allen does at the moment. I still believe that DiVincenzo should be the starter once he’s fully healthy as he’s a more reliable ball-handler and an overall better defender than Allen. Sure he isn’t as good of a shooter, but if he can continue to hit around 38 percent from deep, that more than makes up the gap where his other skill advantages make him a better player.

What this first game, well the first half of a game, shows us is that Allen will be a very valuable contributor once the Bucks have a fully healthy roster and should very much be a factor come playoff time. He showed good chemistry and feel for playing with the Bucks big three and that was always going to be his biggest hurdle coming into a new team.

The battle for the final shooting guard spot is only just beginning but Allen certainly showed why the Milwaukee Bucks value him so highly and gave fans a preview for what they can expect during the regular season and playoffs.