You know, for a coach that gets blasted daily for his inability to make adjustments, Coach Bud has kinda been going crazy with the amount of adjustments he’s thrown out this series. And while it’s arguable whether some were for better or for worse, you can see he’s learning.
I truly have no idea what goes through Bud’s head when it comes to his decision making process, but, seeing as how he’s been extremely flexible thus far, these are some cards I could see him playing.
The Milwaukee Bucks stick with Giannis at the 5
They’ve played Giannis at the 5 during select moments in this series, such as game 1 during the 4th quarter. And during those stretches it’s been proven to light up the offense a bit, getting more quickness out on the floor does wonders. But the improvements to the offense are definitely not the main benefits.
Seeing as how the Suns backcourt has abused every variation of pick and roll defense the Bucks have to offer. It makes sense to take the main points of attack off the floor and stick with a quicker more switchable lineup that won’t allow the Suns guards to put mismatches on notice.
The Milwaukee Bucks: prioritizing Middleton’s strengths
Middleton is an interesting offensive player because a lot of the times you can see he makes things more difficult than they need to be, often shooting very difficult shots with little separation as his main source of offense. Due to this he can be very streaky when he’s tasked with constantly creating on the ball. On top of this, He sometimes Ices himself out of games and straight up stops shooting.
Last night for example Jrue had more shots than he did despite how ridiculously cold he was. I think all of this means that Bud should prioritize Running Middleton off ball early on, getting him easier looks that hopefully send him into his “Klay Thompson mode,” that we’ve seen him enter in games past. This and making sure he’s the definitive 2nd option should allow him more consistency for the rest of the series.
Now just in terms of patterns, the true adjustment will be them finally playing at home. I don’t think the Bucks are gonna have another game in which the entire team shoots 29% from 3, and seeing as how their home record is ridiculous at 7-1. And in reality, most of the important adjustments Bud has made are likely set in stone. We’ve seen full switching,
We’ve seen Drop coverage, We’ve seen Jrue on CP3, We’ve even seen Bobby Portis on Guard island.
The Bucks are executing these adjustments as well as they can, but for now the personnel simply isn’t there and their two stars beside Giannis haven’t been producing up to their standards. We’ll just have to see.
Will Phoenix’s energy and consistency prevail? or will the Bucks hot & cold nature finally shift to warmer climates? Can’t wait to find out.