Milwaukee Bucks: Grayson Allen’s mini-slump coming at the wrong time

For the first time this season, the Milwaukee Bucks are at near-100 percent health. They’ve got almost all 17 players available, with Brook Lopez being the lone player being out (and expected to be that way for the foreseeable future) but with that full health, comes a slew of rotation questions.

Perhaps the biggest of those is who will become the starting shooting guard for the remainder of the season? Grayson Allen has held the fort for all but one game that he has played so far this season. However, with the return of Donte DiVincenzo, some pressure could be applied to Allen.

Unfortunately for Allen, he is going through somewhat of a miniature slump and it couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Milwaukee Bucks guard Grayson Allen’s slump is coming at a bad time for his starting role

Allen missed a game on December 2nd against the Miami Heat at home due to an illness. It wasn’t COVID-related and only caused Allen to miss the one game. Since then, Allen has played seven games (and missed two) and it’s clear he is not himself.

Across those seven games, Allen is averaging 9.1 points and shooting 33.3 percent from 3-point range as well as a 47.3 percent true shooting. He has played over 28 minutes per game in that stretch, so when he’s playing, he’s been getting minutes (aside from his first game back after missing two straight where he played fewer than 20 minutes).

Allen was active for the two games he missed, but he didn’t play. When head coach Mike Budenholzer was asked about Allen’s status, he acknowledged that the guard wasn’t quite 100 percent yet in regards to his illness.

Although it’s only seven games (with a 25-point, seven-made-3 effort mixed in), it has come at a poor time for him regarding his starting role. DiVincenzo made his return on Christmas Day and looked surprisingly ready to go (especially on defense), making it known that he is already close to the player we remember him being from last year.

The two share similar athletic profiles but have strikingly different skill sets. Allen has been a 3-point sniper throughout the season. Before his first missed game, Allen was shooting over 42 percent from 3 and had stepped up while the Bucks were being ravaged by various injuries and illnesses.

Even when you take this mini-slump into account, his is still over 40 percent for the season, but it’s been a tough few games. Although he’s not a bad defender by any means, Allen’s value comes from his offensive game and when the Bucks are fully healthy, he turns into a spot-up shooter primarily. So if the shots aren’t falling, it’s hard for him to impact the game.

If DiVincenzo’s shots aren’t falling, he can still hang his hat on his superior defense and rebounding. You could make the argument that, because of this, he is the safer option to start. But DiVincenzo hasn’t played in a long time leading up to that first game and played under 16 minutes, so he’ll be brought along slowly, giving Allen time to regain his form.

That being said, slumps happen with shooters. The best of the best go through slumps and a lot of this is likely due to the illness that he’s dealing with as well. It would be short-sighted to take the starting job away from Allen due to a seven-game slump (or however long this lasts).

We’ve seen Allen’s track record as a shooter this season and his off-ball movement has been a great fit alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo, so Budenholzer will likely be patient with Allen. It also helps that he has a contract extension under his belt, so there’s the financial incentive as well.

However, DiVincenzo is lurking behind Allen and if his debut game is any indication, he will be coming to regain his starting role very soon.