National Basketball Association

Milwaukee Bucks: Grades From 107-96 Loss To Charlotte Hornets

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 10:55 p.m. ET

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The Milwaukee Bucks fell to the Charlotte Hornets on opening night, but how did the players, coach and opposition grade?

Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Having waited all summer for real Milwaukee Bucks basketball to return, Wednesday night’s loss to the Charlotte Hornets was not what any Bucks fan had in mind.

With a nice mix of offseason additions leaving some cause for optimism that things could at least look different in spite of Khris Middleton’s injury, a performance that could have slotted in seamlessly among the games of the 2015-16 season was certainly disheartening.

Still, it’s just one game, and with 81 to go, there’s a need for perspective.

Giannis Antetokounmpo put up a trademark gaudy stat-line, with 31 points likely to turn heads among many observers around the wider NBA. Malcolm Brogdon also impressed in his regular season debut.

On the negative side of the board, although rotations (particularly among the big men), shooting and defense remain problems, it would seem like a better idea to get them out of the way and resolved early in the season. Let’s be optimistic and assume that’s what was happening!

How did the game play out overall though, and what grades do we give to Milwaukee’s players, Jason Kidd and the Charlotte Hornets? Let’s take a closer look at the action and find out!

Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Starters

Matthew Dellavedova

G, Milwaukee Bucks

B-The kind of solid regular season debut that every Bucks fan likely expected from Dellavedova at this point. Made five of his 10 field goal attempts, and although the hope would be for him to make more than a single triple, the fact that we know he’s a player capable of that is a good start to begin with. The Bucks will need more than the three assists he had if he’s going to have the ball as much as he did in this one, and relative to that less than two turnovers would be nice. Harried Kemba Walker with his usual defensive energy.

Giannis Antetokounmpo

G/F, Milwaukee Bucks

A-This was something of a weird game from Giannis. He certainly wasn’t at his best, but considering where his final numbers ended up, perhaps that’s the most exciting aspect of his opening night performance. At least in terms of numbers, this is exactly where Bucks fans want to see Giannis. He not only scored in volume but he did so with efficiency, 13-21 is always going to be a good night. Two three-point attempts, including a make is cause for optimism, as is the fact that his assist numbers went up and turnover numbers went down from the preseason. The best is yet to come from Giannis, but if he can have a 31 point night without sole control of the game now, who knows what’s next?

Jabari Parker

F, Milwaukee Bucks

CAfter being the best of the Bucks by a long way in the preseason, Jabari Parker didn’t bed into regular season basketball quite like everyone would have hoped. The combination of guarding the sharp-shooting Marvin Williams and being guarded by the lengthy Michael Kidd-Gilchrist certainly didn’t help, but overall, Jabari just never really got into any kind of meaningful rhythm. Much like Giannis, it was good to see him take and make a triple, but more cuts and more explosive dunks are certainly a necessity for Parker when the Bucks face the Nets on Saturday.

Mirza Teletovic

F, Milwaukee Bucks

DFor those who haven’t always followed Mirza Teletovic throughout his NBA career, at least you now know that he certainly isn’t shy when it comes to putting up shots. Teletovic put up 12 field goal attempts, which doesn’t reflect well on his final six point tally. Still, the Bucks need someone who can take and make shots from distance, and although he went 0-5 from deep, Teletovic could have completely swung the momentum of the game if a couple of his long range bombs had stayed in rather than rimming out. There will be nights when that it is the case, it just didn’t so happen to be this occasion.

Miles Plumlee

C, Milwaukee Bucks

FAfter an unquestionably sluggish series of displays in preseason, Miles Plumlee continued to underwhelm on Wednesday. Fresh off of a big money contract in the summer, the Bucks have invested in Plumlee to see him complement their starting group, so for him to only log eight minutes in total highlights just how ineffective he was when he did take to the court. Zero points and one rebound is not going to do it from Plumlee, particularly when he was getting bullied by Charlotte’s average corps of bigs. Not only the worst of Milwaukee’s three centers on the night, but the team’s worst performer overall.Next: Bench

Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Bench

Greg Monroe

C, Milwaukee Bucks

C+As is always the case with Greg Monroe, there’s a danger of being sucked in by what his final output looks like on the surface, but there’s much more to the story of his game than that. Admittedly one of Milwaukee’s better players against Charlotte, a double-double for Greg Monroe still isn’t enough to cover him in glory and celebrate his successful integration in a new role. Monroe was wasteful with his opportunities as he struggled to finish around the rim, as evidenced by his 5-14 from the field. On top of that, with Moose on the floor the offense continues to look stagnant, as it’s hard to help the feeling that it’s wasting Giannis’ talents and energy to have him on the floor while the strategy is to turn to Monroe time after time. If he makes a higher percentage, perhaps it could be easier justified, but this was an inefficient start to the season,

Malcolm Brogdon

G, Milwaukee Bucks

B+An assured, standout debut that should fill the rookie combo guard with confidence for the big role he’s guaranteed to play as this season goes on. Although many Bucks fans on social media seemed to bemoan Brogdon’s slow approach, his measured, deliberate and composed play was a welcome change to the frenetic stylings of Michael Carter-Williams in the past. It paid off for the Bucks too as Brogdon was one of the few Bucks to avoid a negative plus/minus, behind eight points, five rebounds, five assists and zero turnovers in 21 minutes of action. Three-point range isn’t there just yet for him, but if the rest of his game is anything to go by, it feels inevitable that it will come in time.

Michael Beasley

F, Milwaukee Bucks

C-Beas came in with his most recent interesting hairstyle and although he did a little bit of everything, he didn’t do what the Bucks really need him to do. In just under 20 minutes of action, Beasley only managed to go 1-5 from the field for two points, failing to provide the scoring punch off the bench that motivated Milwaukee to trade for him. On top of that, after some remarkable rebounding performances in the preseason, it was a little disappointing to only see Beasley with two boards to his name. As terrifying as this may sound, the Bucks need a lot more than this from Beasley.

Jason Terry

G, Milwaukee Bucks

C+Jet’s play was far from gaudy and didn’t necessarily catch the eye, but he was steady and efficient in helping out across the floor in his 18 minutes of action. Five points, two rebounds and an assist showed a workman like contribution, although the Bucks’ spacing is likely going to need Terry to go better than 0-1 from deep. Another noteworthy observation around Terry was his ability to pick his moments to campaign and somewhat work the refs. He’s a wily old vet, and before the season is out that will be worth its weight in gold to Milwaukee.

John Henson

C, Milwaukee Bucks

CNot as good as Greg Monroe, miles better than Miles Plumlee, and all in all fine for a John Henson performance. With only 10 minutes of action, Henson was always going to have a hard time in trying to turn the game on its head, but he gave solid contributions in that time. Four points and four rebounds was a good return for the time he spent on the court, particularly considering Hook’s rebounding has often let him down over the years.

Rashad Vaughn

G, Milwaukee Bucks

CYou know what, this wasn’t that bad! Although that’s easy to say when the expectations for a player have hit the floor, Vaughn made a nice lengthy two-point jump shot that was cause for great celebration among Bucks fans. Is he ready for a stand-in starting role like Jason Kidd seemed to feel as if he was? Absolutely not, but at least 1-3 from the field will help to bring his field goal percentage up, right?Next: Jason Kidd

Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Head Coach

Jason Kidd

Coach, Milwaukee Bucks

Although a healthy Tony Snell might have helped in giving his starting lineup a more natural feel, Kidd’s decisions throughout the game were head-scratching and there’s still clearly a lot of work for him to do on rotations. Although the Bucks eventually rallied to get briefly under double figures late in the second half, Kidd had burned Antetokounmpo out to bring the team back to that point. Riding Giannis the Bucks got to within eight, but looking tired on a night where he ended up playing just under 40 minutes, Kidd was forced to give his Greek star a brief rest for a 40 second period that saw the lead go back up to 12 points before he was re-inserted. As much as we all want to win the opening game, let’s not have reason to constantly talk about minutes management again, please.

The rotations will get a boost in terms of manpower with the return of Snell, but for the meantime, playing your core players for close to the entirety of the first quarter only to turn to an eclectically skilled second unit to start the second seemed far from ideal, and turned out that way in practice.

Post-game, Kidd pinned much of the blame on the Hornets wanting it more, which would seem like a horrible and unwise target to put on your players backs after just one game. It’s bad enough for the fans to see the team lose, but hearing that the players lacked effort provokes reactions, and I’m not sure it was even true in this case. This looked like the same old, same old, but after just one game there’s plenty of time for Kidd to find a way to put things right.

Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Opposition

Charlotte Hornets

Southeast, 48-34 (last year)

As you’d expect from a Steve Clifford team, the Hornets were well-drilled and well-organized defensively. The result of that was that the Bucks never really found too much that troubled them as Mirza Teletovic’s three-point chances didn’t fall.

The Charlotte offense looked unconvincing for the most part, with their final output certainly buoyed by some gifts from the Bucks, but most notable in the game was the strong showing from the Hornets’ bigs.

With the news that Frank Kaminsky was set to miss the game through injury and that Cody Zeller would be playing in spite of his own struggles, it appeared as if this would prove a great opportunity for Milwaukee’s overloaded frontcourt to get off to a good start. The Hornets had a rejuvenated performance from Roy Hibbert to thank when that never transpired, as the former All-Star had a host of putback dunks and swatted away five Bucks shots.

Are the Hornets going to be good this year? That’s hard to tell, but on this occasion they certainly had Milwaukee’s number.

Up next for the Bucks, it’s another home game on Saturday as they host the Brooklyn Nets.

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