Doc Rivers decided to move Kyle Kuzma into the starting lineup and drop Gary Trent Jr. to the bench. Kuzma has shown flashes of brilliance, but his lack of consistency is hurting the Bucks and Rivers' gamble to start the forward.
Bucks need Kuzma consistency for him to stick in the starting five
Nothing has summed up Milwaukee's season more than Kuzma's performances in the back-to-back games this weekend.
In an overtime win over the Charlotte Hornets, he dropped a season-high 29 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, four steals, and a block on shooting splits of .647/.500/.714. Everyone's hopes were up. He then followed that up on Saturday night, against his former team, the Los Angeles Lakers, by scoring just a single point and missing all six of his field goals.
Shooting from 3-point range has never been a strength of the 30-year-old forward, but he has never shied away from taking those opportunities. In his 13 games this season, he is shooting a lowly 27.9 percent on 3.3 shots from deep per game. The sample size is still relatively small, but his 0-for-5 outing against the Lakers on Saturday drastically dropped his percentage quite a bit.
Rivers and the Bucks aren't expecting him to be at AJ Green's level from range, but they need some consistency as teams are willing to leave him open beyond the arc.
Taurean Prince's injury has increased Kuzma's playing time on the wing, and Prince was a more than steady shooter off the bench for the Bucks. Amir Coffey is yet to have the impact that Bucks fans were hoping for, and that puts even more pressure on Kuzma in what is a pretty shallow wing position for Milwaukee.
Rivers is in a tough position as Kuzma found a great rhythm off the bench and was a more complementary piece to the roster that we didn't see from him last season. Friday's stellar performance against the Hornets showed what he can bring to the starting lineup, and Saturday's defeat showed that perhaps more flexibility is needed in the starting lineup depending on the opponent.
Off the bench, Kuzma found a good spot taking on bigs and was having a much better impact defensively than what Bobby Portis was offering.
It is still very early in the season, and it has been a positive start from Kuzma and the Bucks as a whole. There are still plenty of question marks around the starting lineup and rotations, but Kuzma needs to show a level of consistency to maintain that starting spot alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo and Myles Turner.