Milwaukee Bucks: Panic or patience for 3 concerning stats so far

The Milwaukee Bucks’ assist numbers are down in the early part of the season

Over the last couple of seasons, the Bucks haven’t been known for putting up the high assist numbers that a team like the Golden State Warriors would produce, but they’re still a team that moves the ball around and has some strong passers on the team.

The Bucks assist rate is in the bottom third of the league and they’re averaging a couple of assists fewer per game compared to last year when they took a bit of a drop-off from the previous year. Some of that could be attributed to the fact that the Bucks had very inconsistent backup point guard play, so it forced Antetokounmpo and Middleton to do more facilitating because there weren’t enough reliable passers on the team.

This year they re-added George Hill, who is a good passer in his own right, and someone who gets them into their offense but the numbers are even worse than last year when they had a combination of D.J. Augustin and Jeff Teague playing behind Holiday.

A big factor for their lack of assists this year comes from Holiday missing four of their first six games and that they’re without Donte DiVincenzo in addition to their starting point guard. This has led to a player like Justin Robinson being asked to do more than he should and while he’s a crafty passer, he’s not ready to run an NBA offense.

Players like Jordan Nwora and Grayson Allen show flashes of their passing feel, but it isn’t consistent enough and they aren’t consistently great playmakers. Antetokounmpo is holding up a lot of their passing numbers with a near 40 percent assist rate on his own. The only other player with a double-digit assist rate outside of the big three is Hill.

This isn’t a huge worry for the Bucks as it should improve once Holiday returns and they get settled in with their normal roles and rotations once again. That being said, one of the keys to the Bucks finding their rhythm in their half-court offense this year will be moving the ball to get good looks as opposed to relying on their stars to create looks for themselves constantly.

Verdict: Anxious patience

As it turns out, not having two of your four best players hampers how good a team can be, even if they have arguably the best player in the world!