3 Milwaukee Bucks who need to have a strong 2024

3- Damian Lillard

A little leeway was given to Damian Lillard because he was a franchise player for a team that wanted out, and while Milwaukee wasn't his first option, he's glad to be in a winning culture.

Now this is where Dame Time shows up. In recent games, Lillard has stuffed the stat sheet with points but hasn't been as efficient from the field. There were times in the first three months in Milwaukee when it felt like he was hunting for his vintage moment in Milwaukee.

Lillard is still averaging nearly 27 points a game, but his field percentage has dropped off slightly so far, as well as his 2-point percentage, which is 49 percent.

While the biggest factor for that is there's not one player taking control of the offense. It felt like Giannis to ingratiate Lillard to Milwaukee, he deferred too much to him early in the season, and the same could be said for Lillard. Which wasn't a bad thing, but it took a while for Milwaukee to find a flow offensively.

The other reason was the departure of Terry Stotts. Stotts would have run the Lillard and Giannis pick-and-rolls with more frequency. During his time in Portland, Stotts' teams were in the top-half in the league in pick-and-roll frequency, while Milwaukee, with Jason Kidd and Joe Prunty at the helm, was middle-of-the-pack.

Hopefully, Dame and Giannis can find each other more on easy scoring opportunities, and Lillard's first season in Milwaukee ends similarly to Jrue Holiday's first season in Milwaukee: with a championship.

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