The Milwaukee Bucks received a dose of miraculous news Thursday with the announcement that Damian Lillard is off blood thinners, used to treat deep vein thrombosis in his right calf, and has been cleared to ramp up for in-game action. Of course, he will need time to get back into basketball shape and is set to miss the start of the Bucks’ first round series with the Indiana Pacers.
Having played their last 14 games without Lillard, the Bucks will now need to navigate his absence for the duration of a 7-game series, where the opponent can find and expose weaknesses more easily than in one-off regular season games. What weapons can they use to offset the loss of the team’s star point guard?
Milwaukee Bucks Have Found Success with Atypical Starting 5
What the Bucks have been doing is working. Doc Rivers has employed some unusual but effective lineups down the stretch. The Bucks closed on an 8-game win streak running out a starting five of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kyle Kuzma, Brook Lopez, Taurean Prince and Ryan Rollins. The latter is the only guard among them. Outside of Giannis, it isn’t exactly a group of names to strike fear in foes.
But keeping players like Prince and Rollins in the starting unit gives the team deceptive depth. Back from a 25-game suspension, sixth man Bobby Portis averaged 16.3 points and 8.7 rebounds in three games after returning.
Kevin Porter Jr. has become the Swiss Army-knife floor general of the second unit. In a five-game stretch to end his season, he put up 20.2 points per contest to go with 6.6 rebounds and 6.2 assists while notching 5 steals in back-to-back games.
Gary Trent Jr. and AJ Green provide deadly marksmanship off the bench; they are two of the four Bucks, along with Prince and Porter Jr., shooting above 40% from deep this season. As a team, Milwaukee led the league in three-point percentage (38.7%). Especially without Lillard, they have embraced an offensive identity based on Giannis playing point-forward and spraying out to shooters from double teams and traps.
It is unlikely Rivers will rock the boat in Game 1. Why should he? But it is also very possible that Lillard misses more than one game–perhaps the entire series. And it is possible that the Pacers defense, 14th in defensive rating but playing with playoff intensity, might effectively swarm Antetokounmpo and stalemate the Milwaukee offense. By tip off at 1 PM ET on Saturday, Indiana will have had five full days to digest the Bucks’ scheme in film sessions. Rivers might be forced to switch it up.
Lineup Tweak To Compensate if Lack of Damian Lillard Becomes a Problem
If Dame can’t come back–soon–the team may find itself desperate for shot creation. Rivers should not hesitate to jumpstart a stagnant offense by inserting one of his bench guards–Trent, preferably or Porter–into the lineup. It would not be ideal, as Rivers prefers Porter handling the second unit and Trent is a pure two-guard. But with limited options, the mere fact that Trent can manufacture his own shot could carry tremendous value.
Back in Toronto, he scored over 16 PPG every season from 2021-23. None of the current starters is capable of pulling off a smooth step-back three. Trent can do that and he can do it in bunches.
Alternatively, although Porter is working so well off the bench, if the Bucks find themselves gasping for a facilitator, he could be a lifesaver as the roster’s only active point guard.
Indeed aside from Giannis, no one else in the starting five is anywhere near the facilitating type. Kuzma can facilitate to an extent, but he is no point guard and a mediocre scorer; he works better as a slasher than a shot creator. Trent is probably the better fit, but Rivers could end up pairing Porter Jr. with Giannis from the opening whistle to give the team more juice out of the gate and ease his star’s workload.
Recently, Porter has at times been playing a starter’s minutes, anyway, logging thirty or more in three of his last five games. And with Portis playing a reserve role as well, swapping Prince for Trent or Porter would not deplete Milwaukee’s reservoir of bench scoring.
The best case scenario is that Lillard returns after just a game or two. How realistic that is remains uncertain, but given his stunning turnaround, anything is believable. If he can’t come back soon, though, and things go wrong, Bucks fans should take comfort in the fact that they have the guys to slap on a Band-Aid, stop the bleeding and win some games.
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