Shooting from Bobby Portis, Pat Connaughton will be key for the Bucks

Throughout their first 43 contests, the Milwaukee Bucks have had a 3-point shooting problem.

In that timeframe, they have shot 34.8 percent from behind the arc, which would be the lowest in the Mike Budenholzer coaching era. The Bucks have just six players shooting above 33.3 percent from 3-point range, and the best shooter on the team has been an undrafted rookie, A.J. Green. Milwaukee’s poor shooting has been one of the main reasons they have struggled to find a groove on the offensive end. The first step to fixing their offense is finding some consistency from behind the arc, and two players who must help in that regard are Bobby Portis and Pat Connaughton.

Shooting from Bobby Portis, Pat Connaughton will be key for the Bucks

In both 2020-21 and 2021-22, the Bucks ranked fifth in 3-point percentage in the regular season. They were one of the league’s best perimeter shooting teams in that timeframe but have failed to regain that sweet shooting this season. A big reason for that has been the struggles of Portis and Connaughton, who are the two most important role players on this Milwaukee roster.

One of the major reasons Portis elevated himself into the conversation as one of the best reserves in the business over the previous two years was his sweet outside shooting. In 2020-21, Portis hit an eye-catching 47.1 percent of his 3-point attempts. He followed that up with another good year in 2021-22 by shooting 39.3 percent from deep on a career-high 4.7 attempts per game. This year has been a different story, as Portis has shot 32.2 percent from three, which is ranked ninth on the roster. Given how reliable he was over the past two seasons, this decline has been problematic.

The same goes for Connaughton, who was also one of the team’s best shooters over the past two seasons. In 2020-21, he shot 37.1 percent from three and followed that up with his best shooting season in Milwaukee to date at 39.5 percent in 2021-22. This year, Connaughton has had a tough time finding a rhythm after he missed time to begin the year with a calf strain, as he has shot just 31.5 percent from three, which ranks 11th on Milwaukee’s roster. Connaughton has certainly tried to shoot his way out of this slump, as he has heaved a career-high six 3-point attempts per game, but the results just have not been there thus far.

Having two of the best shooters on the roster rank ninth and 11th in 3-point percentage has hurt the Bucks this season, to say the least. For Milwaukee to mend its long-range shooting issues, the pairing of Portis and Connaughton needs to regain its efficiency from long distance. Both B.P. and P.C. will look to shoot their way out of these slumps. The confidence is certainly there, the results just have not been, but they will not let that deter them. When these two are hitting their 3-point shots, it opens the floor significantly more for Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday, and others. With the team struggling as mightily as it has from 3-point range, these two could be X-factors.

When Connaughton is on, he’s on. After all, he was the most reliable shooter on the team during the title run less than two years ago. Among Bucks who appeared in more than 20 games during that run, Connaughton led all of them in 3-point percentage at 38.9 percent. P.C. also buried the second most 3-pointers in the NBA Finals versus the Phoenix Suns in that stretch. Portis has also proven to be one of the best-shooting big men in the league, as he is less than two years removed from ranking third in 3-point percentage league-wide, per StatMuse. This tandem has the skills, and the looks will be there, but Portis and Connaughton need to start cashing in.

Stay tuned to see if Portis and Connaughton can eradicate these pesky 3-point shooting slumps.