Should the Milwaukee Bucks start Pat Connaughton over Grayson Allen in Game 4?
This isn’t so much a key, but it also is in a way. For as great as Grayson Allen was in the first round, this might not be the series for him.
It’s hard to justify sitting him with how good of a shooter he is and how much the Bucks need bodies without Khris Middleton but he is getting hunted on defense. It’s not necessarily all Allen’s fault, he just doesn’t have the size to deal with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown which was always going to be a problem for the Bucks without their only true wing-sized player.
We saw it last playoffs that Budenholzer had no problem taking out seemingly key rotation players in a tight second-round series with Bobby Portis and Bryn Forbes because they couldn’t hold up and Allen could be a casualty in this series.
I was a bit surprised they went with Allen as the Portis replacement in the starting lineup. Connaughton fits the need much better with his size, strength, and athleticism in combination with being a very good shooter as well.
They did close with Connaughton and he played over seven minutes more than Allen which is more important, but nearly 25 and a half is probably too much for Allen in this series.
Brown in particular has been a tough assignment for Allen as the wing has gone 5-of-7 from the field when defended by Allen. He’s also missed his last four 3s between Games 2 and 3 after starting 3-of-6 in Game 1. Connaughton is shooting nearly 43 percent on almost five 3-point attempts per game.
This isn’t a big knock on Allen, it’s his first time past the first round of the playoffs and he’s in a key rotation role. It’s similar to what we saw with Portis last playoffs. It just might be a tough matchup for him without Middleton to help take some of the defensive burdens off of him.
I don’t expect this to actually happen as teams don’t usually make big adjustments like this after a win but it’s something we could see happening later in the series.