The Milwaukee Bucks are 8-9 on the season, looking to get back to .500 when they take on the 7-7 Miami Heat on Tuesday night. It has truly been a roller coaster of a season thus far for the Bucks, who lost six games in a row after defeated the Philadelphia 76ers on opening night. However, winners for four consecutive games and seven of their last night, the Bucks are on the rise and not a team to be taken lightly.
Milwaukee Bucks Star Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard Have Played Extremely Well
Even when the Bucks were playing poorly during their six-game losing streak, it was impossible to point to their two superstar players and blame them for the team’s struggles.
During that losing streak, Giannis Antetokounmpo averaged 32.2 points, 12.0 rebounds, and 6.0 assists per game while shooting 62.4% from the floor. Damian Lillard averaged 27.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 6.8 assists per game.
While the two stars were still trying to perfect their craft of playing together and did not play as well as they are now during their recent run of success, it is also true that they did not get many consistent contributions from the role players on the team.
To his credit, head coach Doc Rivers has not had much patience with players that are not producing while holding key rotation spots. He has tinkered with the starting lineup and changed who comes off the bench first during games.
As a result, Pat Connaughton has been relegated to end-of-bench duties and one young third-year guard has used his increased playing time to surprise many people.
NBA Analyst Names AJ Green as the Biggest Surprise for the Milwaukee Bucks
As a result of Rivers shifting his rotations, third-year combo guard AJ Green has received more playing time. As everyone expected, Green has lit it up from beyond the arc, shooting an astounding 48.1% from three this season. He is averaging a career-high 7.8 points and 2.1 rebounds off the bench, but it is not his offense that has helped him continue to get regular minutes.
It is his defense.
Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report recently named Green the Bucks’ biggest surprise of the season, writing:
“Because the Milwaukee Bucks have often had limited resources with which to flesh out their supporting cast around Giannis Antetokounmpo, they have often resorted to finding one-way specialists. Think shooters who can’t defend or defenders who can’t shoot.
“It seemed like they might be getting the same with A.J. Green, who signed a two-way pact after the 2022 draft and spent the next two seasons as a part-time rotation player. Despite being a pure shooter (41.2 percent from range during those campaigns), he struggled to consistently find meaningful minutes.
“Over the last three weeks, though, it looks like that opportunity has finally knocked. And the 25-year-old can thank his defensive effort—along with that blistering outside shot—for that.
“Green may not be a lockdown defender (opponents shoot nearly the same against him than they do on average), but he is, as Giannis Antetokounmpo put it, ‘not a liability on defense.’
“That’s a quietly critical development for a team that has been hurting for two-way perimeter players.”
The national media hates it when the Bucks are playing well or when anything works out positively for them. Even in his praise for Green, one can tell that this analyst tried his best to minimize Green’s impact by taking Giannis’ quote out of context.
The full quote went like, “In my opinion, he’s a really, really good defender and he shows in practice. He shows it in games, you guys are seeing that. Like he’s not a liability on defense, he’s actually one of our better defenders on the team.”
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