Tracking the larger sentiments of Bucks fans week by week.
At the beginning of the second and fourth quarters—even spilling into the late first and third—over the last three games, Doc Rivers has trotted out this lineup: Jericho Sims, Kyle Kuzma, Gary Trent Jr., AJ Green, and Kevin Porter Jr. Three newcomers and the Bucks’ best options at the two playing together; a group that is short on height beyond its frontcourt, but has at least average defenders at all positions (I didn’t see that coming from KPJ) and a decent amount of creation from Kuz, Porter, and Trent (who creates his own shot, while the others can create for themselves and others). Only two credible long-range threats, which seems bad for the modern NBA, but four guys who can score in a variety of ways.
In 83 possessions, this lineup is +2.5 with a 101.2 defensive rating. That matches the eye test, even to start the fourth quarter in the Houston game: they struggled mightily to score, but the Rockets’ group of Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr., Jeff Green, Amen Thompson, and Aaron Holiday couldn’t either. In the three minutes-and-change those ten guys were on the floor, it was only 3-0 Rockets from just a putback dunk and a free throw. Houston had two misses in the restricted area and three turnovers, one on a shot clock violation. On the flip side, the Bucks coughed it up three times themselves and had three shots blocked from three different areas of the floor.
The next two nights, it was more successful in the second half, which is where this group has done its best. It turned the tide somewhat against Denver, improbably taking what was a three-point lead entering the fourth into a nine-point advantage in just under three minutes. In Dallas, the game was well in hand when KPJ entered for Damian Lillard as the third quarter wound down, and while it grew the Bucks’ edge briefly to 23, the team was up 19 when the second unit minutes began and 18 when Giannis and Dame checked back in 3:47 into the fourth.
Kuzma sprained his ankle early on Saturday and is doubtful for tonight, though the MRI is clean. It seems likely he’ll be out for at least one game in the coming days with two back-to-backs ahead, perhaps more. The obvious candidates to take over at the four in these lineups are a minute-restricted Giannis (which probably won’t happen given the restriction) and Taurean Prince. Replacing Green with TP in these Kuz+bench lineups hasn’t gone too well in limited action (-25.0 net in 12 possessions) and while Green is the team’s plus-minus darling, I don’t have high hopes a Prince+bench lineup will have similar success. But this time last week, I would have said Kuz+bench was a liability, and here we are.
In this week’s Tuesday Tracker, we’ll look at short-term options the Bucks have while Bobby Portis is out until April 8th and revisit Giannis’ minute restriction. We also want to know if Doc is playing with fire here in the early second and fourth quarters.
As always, this poll will be open until midnight Central on Friday, and we’ll post the results later that day. Thanks for voting!