Milwaukee Bucks: 4 lessons learned for the defending champs

With the 2020-21 NBA season all but over, all eyes are on the world champion Milwaukee Bucks to defend their title in the forthcoming year. The Eastern Conference as a whole has gotten significantly more formidable in just one offseason, and there should be no doubt that rival teams and new contenders alike will come chasing after the defending champions with newfound vigor.

The criticisms over the luck that went into their “hospital ring” still (incorrectly) hang over the team, but if there’s one thing they should take away from their Cinderella run, it’s the experiences they’ve racked up and how they’ve grown as players. No championship team is the same, after all, and this version of the Bucks looks more mature and cohesive than they’ve ever been in the era of Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Make no mistake: the Milwaukee Bucks can absolutely win another world title. A few things need to go their way, to be sure, but the lessons learned from last year should put them in a prime position to defend their throne. From there on out, it’s all a question of who wants it more.

Here are a few takeaways from the year that was, and how these can contribute to the cause and help the Bucks’ chances at another Larry O’Brien trophy in Wisconsin.

The NBA’s vaunted “Giannis Wall” is no longer a threat to the Milwaukee Bucks

After the Milwaukee Bucks suffered a backdoor sweep at the hands of a historic defensive unit in the Toronto Raptors, Mike Budenholzer and Jon Horst decided to double down on the formula that had eked them immense regular-season success in just the former’s first year with the team. For many, the series was decided by the shooters surrounding Giannis just not making their shots.

It was a sound point at the time. If Nikola Mirotic couldn’t do it, then perhaps Kyle Korver should work. (To that point, you could make the argument that it did for a while until it didn’t.) The Bucks invested in ostensibly better personnel to run the same system that earned them a historic regular-season performance. So the five-out spread offense and drop coverage to maximize the skills of Giannis, both the best interior force and the best help defender in the world, was there to stay for another year. For all intents and purposes, the 2019-20 campaign was a “run it back” season that had all the potential in the world but fell flat in its stubborn self-belief.

We all know how the story ends. The Bucks faced the same defense that, just as Nick Nurse did alongside his box-and-one scheme, threw a litany of strong, versatile defenders at Giannis to arrest his relentless forays into the shaded area. For a big man whose jump shot mechanics are (still) gawky at best, that was all it took.

It’s the sincerest form of flattery. Jordan faced the Jordan Rules, Shaq had to power through Hack-A-Shaq, and Giannis had to topple the Giannis Wall. In this league, having defenses focus solely on stopping your offensive production is a rite of passage that any legitimate superstar will have to face at one point.

To be frank, it would be intellectually dishonest to say that Antetokounmpo “broke through” the Giannis Wall, because the adjustment was as much a matter of scheme and coaching as it was of personal growth. The Giannis Wall, after all, doesn’t need breaking if the ball isn’t in Giannis’ hands at the top of the key. When such is the case, more often than not, it’s rarely even built to begin with.

And that was perhaps the biggest blessing of last season: the Bucks figured it out. Their fatal flaw, their hamartia, and their Achilles heel is no more. The demons that haunted them crumbled when the Great Wall of Versatile Defenders did.

Now the Bucks have Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton taking up playmaking duties when Giannis has to pass it out. Then they had Bryn Forbes to make opposing defenses pay for leaving him open to go play aggressive help defense on the Bucks’ interior minister. But more than anything else, they trot out a new four-out-one-in scheme that planted Giannis in the post where a wall was useless to build. When it is built, they have the consistency from the perimeter to make defenses pay for doubling the Greek Freak.