The Milwaukee Bucks Defense Has A Type, And Not In A Good Way

The Milwaukee Bucks lack speed and quickness at the point of attack. They don’t hide from it. They want to get physical with opposing offenses by putting their hands on ball-handlers as much as is legally possible. But what happens when teams utilize a plethora of player and ball movement to offset the Bucks’ desired physicality? Well, it’s been a significant issue all season long.

The Bucks’ four worst defensive performances since February 6th (a 16-game span) have come against the Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves, Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings. On a basic level, the scores are strikingly similar. In order, they lost 105-129, 97-123, 90-125 and 94-129.

The Heat, Warriors and Kings all overlap in the player and ball movement they implement in their offense. They love running players all over the court, including off-ball screens, dribble-handoffs, and pindown screens.

That makes it difficult for Milwaukee’s physical defenders like Jae Crowder and Pat Connaughton to navigate while Malik Beasley and Damian Lillard die on the barrage of picks. Overall, it spells disaster for their defense.

The Kings and Warriors, who lead the NBA in screen assists and screen assists points per game, used their perimeter picks to not only free ball-handlers in the traditional pick-and-roll but also to trigger open looks for their shooters. The likes of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Huerter, De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk killed the Bucks with their non-stop movement and utilization of screens.

The floodgates opened from there. Milwaukee overcommitted to plugging the leaks on the three-point line and gave up wide-open lanes to the bucket.

If you want to know whether Milwaukee will struggle on defense against a given opponent, look up their average seconds per touch and dribbles per touch. Passes made is another strong indicator. The Kings, Warriors and Timberwolves rank in the top eight in passes made per game and top nine in touches per game. The Kings, Warriors and Heat rank in the top eight in average dribbles per touch and top ten in average seconds per touch. If their upcoming opposition ranks high in those categories, it’s a good indicator the Bucks will be in for a long night.

Doc Rivers knows his team struggles with these types of offenses, but what can he do to fix it?

One counter might be to rely on his younger guys against those teams. Players like Andre Jackson Jr., MarJon Beauchamp and AJ Green are theoretically more nimble to navigate the plethora of screens their assignments will see. However, they each have their warts, and Rivers has shown no indication of playing any of them—outside of Green—in any meaningful minutes this season. There’s no reason to think that will suddenly change with 16 games remaining.

Rivers and the Bucks could roll out more zone defense. That would prevent players like Crowder and Khris Middleton (when he returns) from chasing the Duncan Robinson’s of the world around screen after screen. That could be useful in small doses.

This is the cat-and-mouse game in the NBA. The Bucks might be fortunate enough to avoid it the rest of the season, but it’s highly likely they’ll see one of these teams in the playoffs. The Heat and Indiana Pacers are the most likely playoff opponents. Other teams will try incorporating this action to take advantage of the Bucks.

The blueprint exists, and the Bucks know it exists. How will they prepare for it in the postseason, when their playoff lives will depend on them getting stops?