Champions in 2021, the Bucks failed to retain their title last season, stopping at the conference semi-final stage against the Celtics (3-4). It must be said that Khris Middleton was injured in the previous round but, overall, Milwaukee had to manage a lot of absences from his “Big Three”, already in the regular season.
Forced to spare his knees, Giannis Antetokounmpo had thus missed 15 games, Khris Middleton had missed 16 games while Jrue Holiday had missed 18. And since these were not the same games, the three men had not finally played only 47 games together. With a Brook Lopez limited to 13 games, Mike Budenholzer’s squad was very dependent on his “Big Three”, with a record of 37 wins and 10 losses when he was aligned, against 14 wins and 21 losses when one of his limbs was missing.
For GM Jon Horst, it was therefore necessary to densify the workforce, to avoid reliving such a scenario.
“Although I was very proud of our team last year – and it’s sincere – it’s very difficult to defend a title”, he confided. “I think our group did their best. We were quite close. We had a chance. And that’s all we ask for every year. We entered the summer and the off-season telling ourselves that we had to improve. These teams are good. Boston is strong. Philadelphia is strong. Golden State is strong. Denver is amazing this year. I have a lot of respect for these teams in the league, and I probably forgot other very good teams. Memphis is really strong too. These teams are good and we say to ourselves: ‘We have to improve, we have to get denser’. So, what we did, we became denser”.
Relieve the “Big Three”
The Bucks have thus managed to keep their main “free agent” (Bobby Portis, Jevon Carter and Wesley Matthews) while recovering Joe Ingles, Jae Crowder but also now Goran Dragic.
“I think our team has two major fives”assures Bobby Portis. “I think our second team could be in 8th place (from the East). We are simply connected. We have a lot of talented guys. We can do a lot of different things with the ball. When someone is missing, we have other guys who can fill that void. It’s a unique aspect of our team.”
Clearly, with the return to form of Brook Lopez and the densification of the workforce, especially on the wings, the Bucks are making up for the absences much better this season. They are thus at 8 wins and 5 losses without Giannis Antetokounmpo (6-9 last year), or even at 7 wins and 5 losses without Jrue Holiday (4-11).
” It’s good to see “thus confirms the “Greek Freak”, relieved by this improved density. “It’s a great feeling, because you understand that you just have to do your job. For me, a game like this (against the Magic, which the team won without him) makes you realize even more what a great team we have, and that we just have to do our job. We don’t have to do more than our job. We don’t have to outdo ourselves for the team to be successful. »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 52 | 32.5 | 53.9 | 28.0 | 65.4 | 2.3 | 9.7 | 11.9 | 5.5 | 3.9 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 3.3 | 31.2 |
| Jrue Holiday | 53 | 32.9 | 47.7 | 38.6 | 86.8 | 1.2 | 3.9 | 5.1 | 7.3 | 2.8 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 19.9 |
| Brook Lopez | 64 | 30.3 | 51.4 | 38.2 | 76.6 | 2.0 | 4.6 | 6.6 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 2.4 | 2.5 | 15.1 |
| Khris Middleton | 22 | 22.2 | 42.3 | 29.4 | 91.2 | 0.7 | 3.4 | 4.1 | 4.4 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 2.1 | 13.7 |
| Bobby Portis | 54 | 25.9 | 49.7 | 33.3 | 82.5 | 2.4 | 7.3 | 9.7 | 1.7 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 13.7 |
| Grayson Allen | 61 | 27.7 | 44.8 | 41.2 | 89.9 | 0.9 | 2.4 | 3.3 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 10.6 |
| Pat Connaughton | 47 | 24.8 | 38.4 | 34.1 | 65.7 | 0.8 | 4.2 | 5.0 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 8.1 |
| Jevon Carter | 65 | 22.6 | 43.7 | 42.9 | 80.6 | 0.5 | 2.2 | 2.7 | 2.5 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 8.0 |
| Joe Ingles | 32 | 22.5 | 41.9 | 37.1 | 82.4 | 0.3 | 2.6 | 2.9 | 3.0 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 6.8 |
| Jae Crowder | 7 | 18.2 | 48.4 | 38.1 | 71.4 | 0.7 | 2.6 | 3.3 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 2.0 | 6.1 |
| Jordan Nwora | 38 | 15.7 | 38.6 | 39.2 | 86.0 | 0.8 | 2.3 | 3.1 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 6.0 |
| Marjon Beauchamp | 41 | 14.0 | 39.0 | 31.7 | 72.4 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 2.2 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 5.3 |
| george hill | 35 | 19.1 | 44.7 | 31.1 | 73.9 | 0.4 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 2.5 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 5.0 |
| Aj Green | 30 | 9.7 | 44.4 | 43.3 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 4.6 |
| Serge Ibaka | 16 | 11.6 | 48.1 | 33.3 | 61.5 | 0.9 | 1.8 | 2.8 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 4.1 |
| Wesley Matthews | 39 | 15.6 | 33.1 | 32.6 | 85.0 | 0.8 | 1.5 | 2.2 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 3.2 |
| Leonard Meyers | 5 | 6.9 | 40.0 | 44.4 | 100.0 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 2.8 |
| Sandro Mamukelashvili | 24 | 9.1 | 32.8 | 21.9 | 66.7 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 2.3 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 2.4 |
| Thanasis Antetokounmpo | 28 | 4.0 | 27.3 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.6 |
| Lindell Wigginton | 1 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
