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BDL 25: Greg Monroe's arrival, Jabari Parker's return and the weird, wild Bucks
The NBA offseason has brought many changes to rosters, coaching staffs and the list of championship contenders. As we draw closer to opening night, it's time to move our focus from the potential impact of each offseason event and onto the broader issues that figure to define this season. The BDL 25 takes stock of, uh, 25 key storylines to get you up to speed on where the most fascinating teams, players and people stand on the brink of 2015-16.
Most zoning ordinances limit single-family dwellings to 35 feet — as in, that’s as big as it gets, no matter how expensive the house — which puts the 7-foot average wingspan of Milwaukee’s starting lineup in perspective. Just standing arm to arm, the Bucks could cover 80 percent of the distance between corner 3-point lines.
That’s both weird and wild, which pretty much sums up Bucks basketball right now.
It seemed like things couldn’t get worse for a Milwaukee team that won a franchise low 15 games in 2013-14, and then they hired Jason Kidd, breaking every unwritten rule imaginable by courting one coach when they already had one under contract. The rest of us weren’t even sure the guy they were getting was any good at leading a team from the bench, but the Bucks were, and boy, were they right about coach Kidd.
The Bucks made bigger strides than anybody last season, winning nearly three times as many games as they did two years ago and capturing the sixth seed in the East. That was after their $44 million starting center walked away from the game, their No. 2 overall pick tore his ACL just 25 games into his rookie season, and they traded a point guard who was just coming into his own for another who hasn’t quite yet.
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Jabari Parker, whom Milwaukee supposedly would’ve taken with the No. 1 pick had the Cleveland Cavaliers not won the 2014 draft lottery, has been cleared for camp after undergoing knee surgery in January. Drafted as a wing, he’s added muscle to a 6-foot-8 frame that was doughy in the Paul Pierce sense — stronger than it looks — and, as Pierce did for the Washington Wizards in the playoffs last season, Parker plans to play major minutes as a stretch four. The NBA is changing, and Parker is built for it. In fact, the Bucks’ lineup is a prototype.
The weird get weirder and the wild get wilder when you consider Milwaukee’s de facto “shooting guard” (6-foot-7 Khris Middleton) and “small forward” (6-foot-11 Giannis Antetokounmpo) can also play anywhere from 2-4, which makes this experiment the definition of positionless basketball. That trio played just 86 minutes together last year — and actually weren’t all that great, being outscored by 12 points per 100 possessions — but their average age of 21.5 years old leaves endless possibilities. They can shrink the floor defensively and stretch it offensively, especially Middleton, who was one of the league’s best 3-point shooters last season, drilling 40.7 percent of his 268 attempts.
The deadline trade for Michael Carter-Williams complicated matters. Naturally, the 2013-14 NBA Rookie of the Year is three inches taller than the point guard he replaced, but Brandon Knight arguably deserved an All-Star bid last season, averaging 17.8 points (55.6 True Shooting percentage), 5.4 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game for what was the league’s second-best defense at the time of the deal.
Carter-Williams left Philadelphia with a high turnover rate and a worse 3-point percentage, and he wasn’t any better in Milwaukee. The Bucks’ defense stayed solid, but the offense suffered, and they went from outscoring opponents by 2.9 points-per-100 before the trade to being outscored by 1.2 points-per-100 after MCW joined the club. Their win percentage dipped, too, from 56.6 percent before to 37.5 percent following Carter-Williams' debut.
As our own Kelly Dwyer so wonderfully summarized this summer, the free-agent signing of Greg Monroe gives the Bucks at least one traditional starter this season. He isn’t the floor-stretching big man of basketball future, but his skill as a scorer and facilitator in the post will upgrade the offense, just as his defensive rebounding and outlet passing should benefit a team whose pace wasn’t matching its athleticism.
However, Monroe has never been considered a great defender, as lineups featuring him have allowed 109.1 points per 100 possessions over his career — a number that would’ve ranked ahead of only the 16-win Minnesota Timberwolves last year.
The presence of John Henson — whose block percentage (9.3 percent) dwarfed that of Rudy Gobert, albeit in 930 fewer minutes — gives Kidd another long, athletic option with which to play. How he juggles lineups with Greivis Vasquez, Chris Copeland and Miles Plumlee also in the mix in an attempt to replace the departed Zaza Pachulia, Ersan Ilyasova and Jared Dudley will be one of the season’s fascinating storylines.
And just imagine: We could see a lineup of Antetokounmpo, Middleton, Parker, Henson and Monroe — with the Greek Freak running point — at some point this season. That’s both weird and wild, and boy, is Bucks basketball gonna be fun.
Previously, on BDL 25:
Kevin Durant is back to score at will and dominate headlines
What the heck will the Dallas Mavericks even look like?
Paul George tries to reclaim stardom and Indiana's contender status
Will DeMarcus Cousins and the Kings even make it to January?
Can the Golden State Warriors be that perfect again?
Are the Cleveland Cavaliers going to price themselves into oblivion?
The Grizzlies know exactly who they are, and that might be enough
Are the Knicks building something or just biding time before a blow-up?
Russell Westbrook searches for an encore to an overwhelming season
Can the Atlanta Hawks do *that* again?
Kobe Bryant takes on what could be the last of his many battles
The rise of Rudy Gobert and the Utah Jazz
Just how *excellent* are these Miami Heat, anyhow?
Is Dwight Howard still a superstar?
The fun, probably still terrible, Timberwolves
Will Kevin Love 'fit in' better in Year 2 in Cleveland?
Is DeAndre Jordan and Chris Paul's relationship built to last?
Anthony Davis, nascent destroyer of worlds
How, exactly, will LaMarcus Aldridge fit in with the Spurs?
The rise of Brad Stevens and his starless Celtics
The perpetually aching Chicago Bulls
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is a contributor for Ball Don't Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
