Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
The Milwaukee Bucks had a dismal run last week. They played five games and lost all of them. Through the struggles three players played well enough to earn some recognition.
Week 13 put five games onto the Milwaukee Bucks’ plate. The Bucks were unable to win a single one. It sounds bad but it might even be worse than what is seen at first glance. Three of those losses were to teams with a losing record.
Milwaukee dropped games to the Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers, Houston Rockets, Orlando Magic and Miami Heat. It was a really tough stretch for the Bucks, one that dropped them under .500 and out of the top eight in the East.
The team stunk. In a perfect world, this will simply be a one week blip from the Bucks and they will get back to their above average ways soon. Sometimes the world is not perfect, however. Luckily for us, we are here to examine individual performances and not team performance.
When the team struggles mightily, highlighting the better individuals can become a crap-shoot. It appears that their were four Bucks who performed somewhat admirably amid the losing. Two of the players who make the rankings will not surprise even the most causal Bucks observers.
So it is up to third best Buck of the week to add some variety into all of our lives. The race for third was quite close between one guard and one center. It was so close that the final decision came down to one statistic, plus/minus. The player who ended up getting the face-time was one of the only Bucks to have a positive plus/minus this week.
Let’s get to it already and find out who this mystery man is!
Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Milwaukee Bucks Player of the Week Rankings
J-Hook played in all five games this week and averaged 20.9 minutes, 7.0 points (on 53.8 percent shooting from the field), 5.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.0 block per game. He was second on the team in blocks and third in rebounds. Additionally, he had the second best plus/minus on the team with +1.4.
This was definitely not John Henson’s best week as a pro, but he did quite a few things well when the world outside him was falling apart. His defense, rebounding, and scoring efficiency were all things that helped the Bucks keep the losses a bit more competitive.
One of Henson’s biggest contributions this week was his scoring efficiency. He made over 53 percent of his field goals and over 87 percent of his free throws. He didn’t attempt many of either, 5.2 and 1.6 respectively, but when he did he made them count.
Defensively, Henson did his thing. He collected blocks at a semi-impressive rate. For another player on the Bucks, besides Giannis, his block total for the week would have been impressive. But for Henson it was simply just another day in the office. Nothing special beyond how much it impacts the opposing offense.
Rebounding has been a problem area for Henson throughout his career. So much so, that this was one of his better rebounding weeks, with only 5.8 per game. However, looking at his numbers through a per-36 minute lens, Henson averaged exactly 10 rebounds per game. That number paced the Milwaukee Bucks in rebounds per 36.
In a week so marred by poor performances, Henson can confidently say he was not one of them. In fact, he turned in one of his better weeks of this season. Hopefully he can keep it up.
Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Milwaukee Bucks Player of the Week Rankings
Major Cat played in all five games and averaged 33.8 minutes, 17.4 points (on 43.4 percent shooting from the field), 7.0 rebounds, and 4.4 assists. He tied for first on the team with assists and was second in both points and rebounds.
This was a pretty poor week for the things Jabari Parker does well, yet a pretty good week for the things he has yet to master. He also played below average defense, which is about what we’ve come to expect from him so far over his young career.
Parker scored at subpar rate this week. He scored over 17 per game but he did it while shooting 43 percent from the field and just 26 percent from three, on 16 attempts and four attempts respectively. This poor shooting efficiency was a big reason why the Bucks were not successful when Parker was on the court.
On the other hand, Jabari was a solid rebounder and excellent passer this week. He averaged 1.8 offensive rebounds and 5.2 defensive rebounds per game. His effort on the glass reduced the number of second chance opportunities for the opposition while increasing the number of second chance opportunities for the Bucks. It was one of the better rebounding weeks of the season for Jabari.
The best contribution from Parker this week came in the form of facilitation. This is the second week in a row where Parker has found a way to average a notable assist total for a player at the forward position. Last week he did it almost entirely without Giannis so for him to continue doing it in multiple games where Giannis was playing shows it is something he really is improving at.
Parker’s improvement in assists is a testament to his unselfishness and basketball IQ, specifically on the offensive end. He understands the Bucks’ offense and knows what to do to get his teammates easy buckets. As we noted last week, if Parker can keep this up it will add another layer to his polished offensive game and take him that much closer to being an elite offensive weapon.
If Jabari can get it all going at the same time, passing and scoring, then the Bucks will have very few weeks like this for the remainder of this season and in the seasons to come. Jabari is still growing into his game and there is no rush for him to find out exactly what kind of player he can be. That seems like a good thing and something that helps the Bucks as an organization to ensure their young stars tap into their full potential.
Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Milwaukee Bucks Player of the Week Rankings
The Alphabet played in all five games this week and averaged 35.9 minutes, 25.8 points (on 51.5 percent shooting from the field), 9.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.8 blocks per game. He led the team in points, rebounds, steals, and blocks and was tied for the lead in assists.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was the only Buck who actually performed well overall this week. He seemed to have totally recovered from the illness that impacted his availability in games in the previous week.
As always, let’s start with comparing Giannis to his NBA peers over their past five games:
Giannis is the only player who appears on all of the above bullets. Kevin Durant is the non-Giannis player in bullet five and DeMarcus Cousins is the non-Giannis player in bullet six. Other notable NBA players who pop up in some of these brackets include Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, and Jimmy Butler.
The Greek Freak is freaky. In the worst week of the Bucks season he stood out. He was in a class of his own and unfortunately his teammates and coaches couldn’t help him out. It was really hard watching the Bucks as a team this week, yet it was really enjoyable to watch Giannis.
He impacts every aspect of the game while providing relentless energy, selflessness, intelligence, and a positive attitude to boot. I mean he morphed the word freak into a incredible compliment.
The basketball world notices when Antetokounmpo plays like this. His recognition is so big and his play is so outstanding that he was one of the highest vote getters in the recent All-Star fan vote. He is the fifth Buck in history to be voted in as a starter for the All Star team. That is almost as cool as being recognized as the Bucks player of the week. Almost.
Whoever developed the phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none,” never saw Giannis play basketball. There is nothing this kid cannot do. And right now he might only be scratching the surface of what he can become.
Milwaukee Bucks fans have to realize that regardless of the outcome of this season the future is fantastically bright. Antetokounmpo has convinced many that he is worthy of being an All-Star starter as a 22 year old. Imagine what he’ll make us think when he hits his athletic prime…
It’s going to be a beautiful dream for the Bucks and dreadful nightmare for the rest of the NBA.
Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Week 13 Wrap Up
The Milwaukee Bucks’ week 13 performance can be summed up in one word: underwhelming. They under-performed at a bad time and lost three games to teams they really should have beaten.
This season is far from over though. The team is only one game out of the eighth spot in the East and just a few games behind the fifth seed. A few good weeks would probably vault the Bucks right back into the mix.
With the return of Khris Middleton fast approaching things could turn the corner for the team. Middleton may not be his usual self for the first few weeks of his return but his veteran savvy and three-point shooting prowess will benefit the Bucks in meaningful ways from the moment he sees playing time. Mixing Middleton into the rotation certainly won’t make for weeks worse than the one the team just went through.
If the Bucks can scrap and claw their way into a playoff series their opponent could be in a lot of trouble. Middleton would hopefully be close to his old self at that point and would have gotten at least one good month of play with his teammates to feel out where he fits in. That would only help Jabari and Giannis play well as the opposing defense would have one more good player to focus on stopping.
As much as this week won’t define the Bucks season, the next few weeks definitely will. The Bucks need to continue to hover around .500 and will probably need a record of at least 41-41 to make it into the playoffs. One more week like this one in the near future could sink Milwaukee’s playoff chances by drowning the team’s momentum. If the Bucks want to play in the post-season they will need to prove they belong. They better start proving it very soon or they might have to try again next year.
Tune in next week to see if the Bucks can get it done.
Player of the Week Rankings over the course of the season
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