Dishing and Swishing: The hype around the Milwaukee Bucks needs to simmer down

The Milwaukee Bucks finished the shortened 2019-20 regular season winning more than 75% of their games. In a top-heavy Eastern Conference, they finished out on top by 2.5 games. They lost only five games at home, and they did it all with the reigning MVP, current Defensive Player of the Year and four-time All-Star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Here’s the problem, though: The Bucks — and Giannis — don’t pass the eye test. At all. To put it bluntly, they are boring to watch.

Milwaukee is already down 2-0 to the Miami Heat — a fifth seed in the east — in the Conference Semifinals. And to be honest, I’m not sure if I would be too surprised if they go down 3-0 Friday.

This isn’t to say that the Bucks are not a good team, because of course they’re good. For the regular season, the Bucks finished first in points and rebounds per game, third in field goal percentage and sixth in assists per game. Good offensive teams perform well in those categories.

But haven’t you noticed that they don’t lead any particular offensive category?

The Los Angeles Clippers, Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Toronto Raptors, Houston Rockets and Boston Celtics lead the NBA in points, field goal percentage, three point percentage, free throw percentage, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks per game respectively.

Although OKC and Utah are already eliminated from the playoffs, Milwaukee isn’t at the top of any single offensive statistic. The Bucks’ power lies in their defense.

Yes, Milwaukee is a defensive juggernaut: They lead the NBA in defensive rating, defensive rebounds and opponent points in the paint. Likewise, Giannis led the league in defensive rebounds and defensive win shares, which helped the Bucks win games.

However, this shouldn’t automatically warrant winning Defensive Player of the Year. Giannis finished No. 40 in the league in blocks per game and No. 98 in steals per game. His 6-foot-11 stature, 7-foot-3 wingspan and unreal athleticism clearly help him out, but why wasn’t Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis considered more, since he finished No. 16 in steals per game and third in blocks per game and helped the Lakers to the top seed in their conference? For the record, he was still in the top-22 in defensive rebounds and defensive win shares.

I just spit out a bunch of stats and names, but here’s what I’m really trying to get at: As spectacular of a defensive team the Bucks are, their offense isn’t good enough to outplay other defenses in the playoffs, including Miami’s. It’s not electrifying, and Giannis and shooting guard Khris Middleton take virtually every single shot as they are the only two Bucks to score more than 20 points per game this season.

Miami’s young guards and wings, which include Jimmy Butler, Goran Dragic and Tyler Herro, are outrunning and outshooting Milwaukee’s guards. They’re doing it by continuously finding and taking open shots, whereas the Bucks seem to try to force everything through Giannis.

An easy start to fixing this problem is to get more points off turnovers; Milwaukee finished just 10th in that category this season despite its stellar defense. This standing is also behind the other three remaining Eastern Conference teams (Toronto, Boston and Miami), so forget about winning the Finals for a second. If they want to even get there in the first place to compete against a team like the Clippers or Lakers, they need to capitalize on forcing an eighth-best average of 14 turnovers per game.

Here’s what might be another problem, as proposed by former NBA forward Richard Jefferson: What if Giannis is more of a Scottie Pippen than a Michael Jordan? Does he need that extra superior star power to take him over Milwaukee’s playoff bumps?

The answer to this question is thought provoking because although Jefferson could very well be right, the debate gets more complicated when you start to mull over options for Giannis. The Greek Freak is expected to test free agency after the playoffs, and Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports reported Thursday that it’s an “open secret” that Miami and Toronto are the leading candidates to land Giannis.

You know what they say: If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Isn’t that right, Kevin Durant?

Anyway, Milwaukee needs to perform better this series (and the next if they make it, somehow), and by better, I mean they need to be more exciting to watch. If they’re not going to play well through better ball movement and more points in transition, they’ll be in trouble sooner than they’d like.

Shawn Farhadian is a sophomore writing about the NBA and social justice. His column, “Dishing and Swishing,” runs every other Friday.