The first few weeks of Doc Rivers' tenure as the Milwaukee Bucks' head coach did not go well. A brutal road trip and multiple injuries, combined with typical adjustment period that comes with a mid-season coaching change, resulted in a 3-7 start that made Rivers and the Bucks the talk of All-Star Weekend.
Since everyone returned from Indianapolis, however, the Bucks have looked like a different team. They went into Minneapolis and beat the Timberwolves in their first game back, held their next four opponents under 100 points, then pulled off a fourth-quarter comeback to stun the Clippers without Giannis Antetokounmpo.
During their six-game winning streak, they had a 102.6 defensive rating, which was the best in the league during that span. That was by far their most impressive defensive stretch of the season, and after five months they finally looked like the contender everyone predicted them to be ahead of the season.
Then, they started another West Coast road trip by getting destroyed by the Golden State Warriors, and their defense looked all out of sorts. All of which raises the question, are you buying or selling the Bucks' turnaround since the All-Star break? Has Rivers fixed their problems? Or did they mostly beat up on a soft schedule?
Ahead of their matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night, here's what our experts have to say:
Jack Maloney: I'm buying it, but only to an extent right now. They are so much more organized and professional under Doc Rivers than they were during Adrian Griffin's tenure that it's almost unbelievable. They finally look like they know what they're doing on defense and Damian Lillard is growing more comfortable thanks in part to the implementation of some of his favorite sets from Portland. In a little over a month, Rivers has turned them back into a serious team that can compete with anyone in the league.
That being said, I would like to see them keep this up for a longer stretch against better competition before I'm all the way back in. The win over the Timberwolves was impressive, as was the comeback to beat the Clippers. However, they seriously inflated some of their numbers, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, by beating up on terrible teams during their six-game winning streak. As we saw on Wednesday in the 35-point loss to the Warriors, they still have some issues when they play teams that move the ball and can shoot.
Colin Ward-Henninger: Jack gets a much closer look at the Bucks, but from the outside it's hard not to buy them as the biggest threat to Boston in the East. The first thing we need to realize is that, despite their obvious flaws, the Bucks still had a very good record under Griffin -- so they were never really a bad team. Now, with the defensive focus Rivers has engendered, they could become a great one.
When they were out in the Bay to play the Warriors, Rivers said that he wanted his team to use their size and "be big," which means utilizing the length of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez defensively, and even dropping Danilo Gallinari into some double-big lineups. They've also been changing up their defensive coverages as a means of disruption, surprising teams by switching one-through-five or going to zone out of a timeout. The experimentation makes me think that they'll figure out the right combination as the playoffs arrive, and if Khris Middleton is healthy there's no reason to think they can't give the Celtics a serious test in May.
Brad Botkin: I'm bearish on Milwaukee and have been from the start for the simple fact that they are not going to consistently contain penetration with their starting backcourt of Damian Lillard and Malik Beasley. Is Doc Rivers doing some logical things to play to their personnel? Sure. But that's baseline level stuff. He isn't going to design some scheme to actually cover for inherent holes in the defense, which, to Jack's point, has been statistically inflated of late thanks to a Bulls- and Hornets-heavy schedule. Minnesota is a bottom-10 offense. Philly doesn't have Embiid. Aside from one impressive showing against the Clippers, which was immediately balanced out by a Warriors beating, these recent results are not reasons to start buying a bunch of Milwaukee defensive stock.
All along, the question with Milwaukee has been whether it can be a great enough offense to not just make up for the loss of Jrue Holiday, which will look even bigger when we get to the postseason, but actually put them further ahead. The best chance of that is some of the higher, spread pick-and-rolls to get Damian Lillard going, which Rivers is utilizing more, but to this point I have just not seen enough evidence that Lillard is going to suddenly start going nuts on a consistent basis. It just hasn't been a good year for him, some of his numbers and highlight clutch performances notwithstanding.
This all sounds like I'm trashing the Bucks. I'm not. I just don't think they're in Boston's class and I think they could easily struggle with one of the second-tier East teams like Philly with Embiid, Miami or the fully healthy Knicks. A few good showings against some inferior offensive opponents doesn't change my mind about that.
