Will The Milwaukee Bucks Play Big?

Who knows what new Milwaukee Bucks’ head coach Adrian Griffin will do in his first season at the helm. He’s never been a head coach before, leaving us desperate to read in between the lines to fill this gap before the NBA season begins.

When trying to read the tea leaves, one intriguing avenue is to analyze the Bucks’ roster construction and ponder how they might deploy their players in the upcoming season. And in this exercise, it’s quite tempting to envision the Bucks uncaging some monster lineups.

The way general manager Jon Horst has put together the team might provide a lot of context clues about how Griffin wants to employ his players this season. Under Nick Nurse in Toronto, the Raptors used their size to pressure the ball and force the opposing team into a ton of turnovers. The Raptors ranked first in opponent turnover percentage in each of the last three years, according to Cleaning the Glass.

Forcing turnovers wasn’t enough, however, as they then generated those into easy points at the other end of the court. Toronto ranked in the top five in points added per 100 possessions from 2018-19 to 2022-23, including in the top three in points added off live-ball turnovers in each of the last two years, again, according to Cleaning the Glass.

The signs are adding up to a similar plan this year in Milwaukee.

The Bucks currently lack a backup point guard behind Jrue Holiday, an unusual omission for such a critical position. They finished last year with three players at the spot, including Holiday, Jevon Carter and Goran Dragic. However, with a full roster, they will only be able to fill that gap via a trade or by cutting someone.

Without a true backup point guard, a lot of the ball-handling duties will fall on Holiday, Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks’ Big Three are the only proven ball-handlers on the roster and should be expected to carry a heavy load.

That trio won’t be able to handle all of the responsibilities, leading Milwaukee to lean on one-to-two more players to fill the need. Andre Jackson could be a natural fit, but hasn’t proven he can play at this level. Grayson Allen might be next in line, but that seems like a skill that is out of his wheelhouse. There are no other natural options on the roster to fill this void.

As Milwaukee sorts out that question mark, their roster construction is built so that they’ll have a ton of size on the court, regardless of who they play. Holiday and AJ Green are the shortest players on the team with an NBA contract and they stand 6-foot-4. They have a whopping nine players between 6-foot-5 and 6-foot-7, and four players who are 6-foot-10 and taller. Now, that’s size.

Griffin will have the opportunity to use that size to his advantage, either by rolling out jump lineups or by playing “small ball”. A five-man unit with Antetokounmpo at center could feature strength and size at the other four positions. Jae Crowder, Khris Middleton or even Pat Connaughton could assume the 4, while they trot out some combination of Holiday, Jackson, Allen, Green, Malik Beasley or MarJon Beauchamp to join them.

On the flip side, they could slide Giannis down to the three, play him with Bobby Portis and Brook Lopez in the frontcourt, and trot out some shooting and wings to fill out the lineup. Both units could be effective against the right teams.

At the end of the day, we’ll have to deploy some patience to see how Griffin will employ the weapons on his roster. He’ll have several options to play with and see how they mesh throughout the regular season. The only choice he does have, as of now, is to play a bunch of guys with size and strength.