After winning the title in 2020-21, Milwaukee went to last year’s regular season not as focused as they were in previous seasons. They had a subpar record (24-25) in games against teams with 0.500 records or above with the main reason for that being their defensive decline. Milwaukee was coming from three seasons in a row where they were a top 10 defense (#2, #1 and #10) but last season they were just an average unit.
Brook Lopez played only 13 games in the regular season and his absence was visibly noted as Milwaukee went from being ranked #1, #1 and #4 at defending the rim in the previous three seasons to being just #13 last year. Bobby Portis was the team’s main Center replacing Lopez and the defensive downgrade was clear.
Lopez returned late last season and Milwaukee seemed ready to try to defend their title. Unfortunately for them, Khris Middleton got injured in their playoff series against Chicago, missing the whole series against Boston where the Bucks lost in 7 games. The team really missed Middleton on offense in that series as it forced Jrue Holiday to have a bigger role on offense, something that isn’t his main strength. After winning G5 at Boston, Milwaukee lost the remaining two games of the series while scoring only 95 and 81 points.
Milwaukee’s defensive scheme is built to force teams to shoot three points and they were ranked #29 at allowing 3pts vol%. However, in the last two games of the series against Boston, the Celtics managed to make those shots by shooting 17-43 and 22-55 behind the arc…
2022/23 Outlook:
Milwaukee returns this season practically with the same team and same coach, so they should allow a lot of three pointers again. Joe Ingles was their most notable signing. He is coming from a serious injury and it seems like he’ll only be ready to play in either December or January. His shooting and passing abilities should help lift Milwaukee’s second unit that was one of the worst in the league last season. Also Middleton won’t probably be available in the beginning of the season after undergoing left wrist surgery this summer.
It will be interesting to see if Milwaukee will try to push for the #1 seed, something that they didn’t care about last season. The Bucks seem to be flying under the radar more than usual this year in comparison to previous years when it comes to title contenders, however they still have a great Big Three as shown last season: when Giannis, Holiday and Middleton played together, the Bucks had a great +12.6 net rating.