Mike Budenholzer earning his contract extension for the Milwaukee Bucks

To say the Milwaukee Bucks have had a tumultuous season in regards to injuries and illnesses would be an understatement. Every key member of the rotation, for the most part, has missed at least a game with some type of injury or illness, but the Bucks continue to chug along and are near the top of the Eastern Conference standings regardless.

That being said, there are no excuses in the NBA and every team has to go through these types of struggles with players going in and out of the lineup (especially the last two seasons with health and safety protocols ravaging teams).

It’s up to the players that are available to go out there and compete, for sure, but having a good head coach to help put them in positions to succeed is crucial as well. For all the hullabaloo in prior seasons for his lack of adjustments, the Bucks are lucky to have Mike Budenholzer at the helm this season.

Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer should be an early Coach of the Year candidate

Although the Bucks have lost their last two games, we’ve seen a masterclass in maneuvering through various injuries from Budenholzer this season, especially so as of late with players out due to health and safety protocols, long-term injuries, and even short-term injuries.

Much of the chatter around Budenholzer’s job security died down once the Bucks won the championship (rightfully so), but then he was faced with a rash of injuries to begin the season to players such as Jrue Holiday, Brook Lopez, and Bobby Portis. How would he handle the early adversity after not having to deal with much in the way of injuries in previous seasons?

Milwaukee has routinely been one of the healthiest teams in the league because of how relentless Budenholzer is at putting his player’s bodies first, whether that be in games or practices. So having to deal with as many injuries as they’ve had to endure, to key players, wasn’t going to be an easy task for anyone.

The Bucks have used 13 different starting lineups this season, the third-most in the league behind the Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers. They have still managed to keep their winning percentage around 60 percent and have the second-highest win percentage of any team that has used at least 10 different starting lineups this season.

Credit Budenholzer for being able to adapt with his personnel and be able to find lineup combinations that can work for stretches to get them through games. Before their game against the New Orleans Pelicans, the Bucks had only played two total possessions without any semblance of a big man on the floor, per Cleaning the Glass (subscription required).

In that game, they played 38 possessions without a big man and were plus-36.8 in those minutes. Their most used lineup (16 possessions) featured Jordan Nwora as the small-ball five who has shown the ability to be a solid rim protector in his first season and a half in the NBA. That unit, which also was rounded out by Pat Connaughton at the four, Grayson Allen at the three, George Hill as the shooting guard, and Jrue Holiday running the point, was plus-24.4 after not playing a single possession together all season.

It was those lineups that helped keep the Bucks in that game late and force overtime, despite the loss. But it hasn’t just been recently, we’ve seen Budenholzer adjusting since the beginning of the season.

The Bucks needed to adjust how they played defensively without Brook Lopez to anchor them at the rim. Giannis Antetokounmpo has played over half of his minutes at center this season, the most of his career, and shifted Portis into the starting unit to help with their abysmal rebounding at the time (and it sure did help).

But you can’t play the same pick-and-roll defense with Portis that you would with Lopez, so Budenholzer shifted the Bucks to play a more aggressive style, with Portis playing near the level of the screen to blitz the ball handler.

This has led to the Bucks once again allowing a bunch of corner 3s, but they’ve not only been able to survive without Lopez but thrive on defense. They had the fourth-best defensive rating (106.3) in the NBA since Portis started his first game back on November 7th until his last game against the Indiana Pacers, a sample of 21 games.

My biggest concern surrounding Portis was if they could continue to have him be a viable enough defender that he wouldn’t be played off the floor again like he was in the Brooklyn Nets series and so far, they’ve found a way to make it work.

That’s not to mention how he has integrated new players like Grayson Allen into the lineup and found ways to make DeMarcus Cousins successful early in his stint with the Bucks. Even being able to get good development minutes from young players like Javonte Smart and Sandro Mamukelashvili, Budenholzer has found a way to put all of his players in spots to succeed.

There’s not a lot that can be taken away from games where the starters consist of Smart and Mamukelashvili. No disrespect to those two, they’ve shown flashes and promise early in their career, but it’s not a lot for Budenholzer to work with.

What can be taken away from this season, however, is that we’re seeing Budenholzer pushing the right buttons and giving the team a chance to win on most nights when they have some semblance of an NBA roster available.

We’ll see where the Bucks end up in the standing at the end of the season, but right now he should be firmly in the running as a candidate for Coach of the Year.