Milwaukee Bucks: 3 Goals for the Upcoming 2018-19 Season

Goal 2. Finish Top 10 in Defensive Rating & Defensive Rebounding Percentage

For all the size and length the Milwaukee Bucks have, they’ve struggled on defense. Last season, they ranked just outside the bottom ten in defensive rating, per NBA.com. Although they ranked in the top five in both steals and blocks per the number of times they were burned far outweighed the benefit of those splash plays.

Playing more sound in their coverages, and not relying on double-teaming the ball way outside would be a nice start. Jonathan Tjarks of The Ringer touched on how much of a difference Budenholzer could make in regards to improving Milwaukee’s coverage of corner 3s. In Atlanta, that was strongly emphasized.

“Both teams gave up a similar number of corner 3s relative to the total number of 3s they allowed, but teams significantly worse on those shots against the Hawks (21st in the league) than the Bucks (sixth). The latter was giving up more open shots than the former despite having significantly more talent.”

That was very telling. With Budenholzer’s ability to adjust to fit his personnel, which is loaded with length, Milwaukee won’t be that inept at defending corner triples. Other than layups, that’s the most efficient shot in the NBA. They have to get better at defending that. With Antetokounmpo’s plethora of defensive abilities, and Bledsoe, Brown and Snell defending drivers and spot-up threats effectively, Budenholzer will figure it out. Not having Parker’s lackluster defense should be a plus, too.

Although Thon Maker is not the most physically imposing rim protector, his length and long strides to make up ground well. On the weak side and in isolation against small-ball bigs, he can be a terror. Between him, Henson, Lopez and Antetokounmpo, they should concede less shots in the restricted area.

Rebounding is a bit of a question mark still. Although Lopez is a big man, he’s only averaged 6.8 rebounds in 31.2 minutes per game for his career. The Bucks will need their perimeter defenders (such as Brown, Snell, Bledsoe, Matthew Dellavedova, DiVincenzo and Brogdon) cleaning the defensive glass on a number of defensive possessions.

Only the Orlando Magic had a worse defensive rebounding percentage than Milwaukee last season, per NBA.com. Not coincidentally, only four teams had more fouls per game than the Bucks. If they clean up their defensive mishaps and give up less putbacks, it will pay dividends in the transition scoring department.

If the Bucks offensive and defensive goals are met, they’ll have a good chance to complete the third goal.