One of the oft-mentioned reasons why the Milwaukee Bucks were right to fire Adrian Griffin was their disappointing defense under him. Defense had been a calling card to success by the Bucks in several seasons prior to Griffin’s installment as Mike Budenholzer’s replacement, and if people want to use a player as an example to show how the Bucks’ defense had regressed when Griffin took over, Bobby Portis could be a perfect one.
The difference in how Portis was utilized on defense by Budenholzer and Griffin caught the attention of The Athletic’s Eric Nehm.
While Portis never truly felt comfortable playing drop coverage and preferred to try to be more aggressive, Budenholzer tended to keep him in drop coverage to make sure Portis could help the Bucks control the glass and keep their foul rate down. Griffin went in the opposite direction and asked Portis to blitz, trap, and double pick-and-rolls.
Will Bobby Portis Have More Impact Defensively Under New Milwaukee Bucks Head Coach Doc Rivers?
By being more aggressive in trying to pressure defensively, Portis saw his steals go up from 0.4 per game last season to 0.7 in the 2023-24 campaign. That’s really not much of an improvement, and it’s perhaps heavily contributed to the decline of his defensive rating. Last season, Portis posted a 110 defensive rating — the same average he had from the 2020-21 campaign to 2022-23. But through 44 games played this season, Portis has a 116 defensive rating.
While defensive rating isn’t an absolute stat that defines a player’s worth on defense, the six-point plunge in that area for Portis speaks volumes about how he’s being used this season. Will Doc Rivers change the course on that end of the floor for Portis? It remains to be seen but the head-coaching switch in Milwaukee offers hope that the former Arkansas Razorbacks star’s role on defense will improve.
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Call Mayfield Sports Marketing at 262-366-8188 to schedule Green Bay Packers players or alumni for your corporate appearance or product promotion. Our booking agents will work on your behalf to get you the best price for your desired sports speaker. Mayfield Sports Marketing has earned a reputation of being the one to call for booking top athletes to speak at events and trade shows. To learn more about Packers players or alumni appearance cost and booking fee, please call us today. www.MayfieldSports.com.
1 Comment
His change in defensive rating is due to the rotations. He’s typically the first off the bench for Giannis, while Brook exits 3 minutes later and Giannis returns. He loses out on being on the floor with the best player on earth. It’s also a weird chemistry with Brook since both of them are the drop player and Giannis is the rover/help defender in any scheme. At that point too when Giannis returns, it’s a line up with Pat and AJJ now.
However, you are absolutely wrong to say that’s a marginal increase in steals. It’s nearly DOUBLE. In 3 minutes fewer per game this year. In fact, he just reached his season total from last year of 29 and if he maintains that pace would be close to 60 and a career best. He’s pretty close to being on pace for reaching both STL and BLK totals from his best season in 21-22.
It’s in the half court game that he’s getting torched. He’s almost always one of the worst defenders on the floor because he’s giving up a very high percentage to his one on one opponents.
I don’t think anyone is going to return to form and a big trade needs to blow up the second unit.