Bucks using 'tall ball' to counter league-wide trend of going small

NEW YORK – Because they have a giant with arms and legs so preposterous, it’s as if an arachnid snuck into the lab to alter his creation; because they have an interchangeable forward who is proving, once and for all, that players formerly known as “tweeners” have won; and because they have a coach crazy enough to experiment with and extract the bounds of their talents, the Milwaukee Bucks are in a unique position to challenge the way the NBA game is currently played.

The Bucks aren’t ready to necessarily gyro step into contention – in one of those land-gobbling swoops from Milwaukee’s rising star from Greece, Giannis Antetokounmpo – with a still-developing core, but they are getting closer to becoming relevant in a league in which three-point proficiency leads to prominence and small ball can result in dominance. Milwaukee has decided that the best way to zag while every other team zigs is to go bigger. But not go bigger in a pounding, plodding way. Bigger with Antetokounmpo, a 6-foot-11 primary facilitator grabbing rebounds and beating the little guys down the floor for violent dunks, and bigger with versatile wings like 6-8 Jabari Parker, who would rather punish smaller foes inside than force them to come out to the perimeter.

General manager John Hammond won’t attempt to act as if the Bucks had some grand vision to build in this manner, but drafting Antetokounmpo and long-armed center John Henson, dealing for trade throw-in-turned-building block Khris Middleton and then stumbling into Parker after an unplanned tanking season made it easier to take a different approach. Last summer, the Bucks decided to add another tweener in Michael Beasley and drafted a 7-footer with wide-ranging talents when it took Thon Maker with the 10th pick. The Bucks are bringing Maker along slowly, but the organization is high on his potential to follow Antetokounmpo’s path from international mystery to reliable contributor.

“We all do the best we can, and try to put the best players we can on our roster and hopefully it fits into a workable team,” Hammond told The Vertical. “Every team is hoping to have those kind of players that you can build around. We’re hoping that that’s what a player like [Giannis] can become and Jabari can become. I think they’re continuing to improve and our team is continuing to improve.”

Bucks reserve Jason Terry, an 18-year veteran who has experienced almost everything – including recently having J.R. Smith surrender a dunk so that he could give Terry some dap on the bench – hasn’t seen a team assembled with so much length and versatility since the Detroit Pistons overwhelmed the league to win the 2004 NBA title. But he also notes a significant difference with the Bucks that should have the rest of the league intrigued and worried the next few years. “You’ve got a guy who plays one through five in Giannis,” Terry told The Vertical with a laugh. “Who has that? Nobody has ever had that.”

Terry’s not quite sure what to call a style of play that utilizes such a towering figure in the role of playmaker – other than reaching for “tall ball.”

“Really no name for it,” Terry told The Vertical. “It’s length, and it’s aggressive. That’s all I know.”

Tall ball wouldn’t have a chance to be implemented nor succeed without Antetokounmpo, whose passing, improving jumper, gambling defense and violent encounters with the rim have already led to a $100 million extension and should soon yield an All-Star appearance.

Coach Jason Kidd has trusted Antetokounmpo with the ball the way no other coach has with someone that height. Kidd called Antetokounmpo “one of those rare birds” who could potentially change the game like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. Only four years removed from his Hall of Fame career as a point guard, Kidd understands what it takes to run a team and also why it is a waste of time trying to attach a title such as point center, point forward or even point guard to such an unorthodox player as Antetokounmpo.

“He’s a real basketball player,” Kidd told The Vertical. “I don’t like to label. When you do that, you tend to fall into, ‘This is who I am.’ He wants to be good. He puts a lot of time into it. For me, my job is to help him get to where he wants to go. I want him to be the best at what he does. He fills up the stat sheet as well as anyone, on both ends of the floor. And I feel he has a ways to get to his ceiling. He’s just starting the process.”

Antetokounmpo has steadily polished his raw abilities and is finally turning his immense potential into staggering production, with season averages – 22.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 2.2 steals and 2.2 blocks – that have never been matched for a full season. “I don’t even think about it,” Antetokounmpo said. “My game is so versatile that just playing hard and just being in the right spot I’m filling up the sheet. That’s what I’m trying to do. I have the ball in my hands a lot, so no matter what happens, stats are going to be there. We cannot hide that. My main focus is just to play hard and get a win, because I know the stats are going to be there.”

Antetokounmpo’s work ethic made Kidd a believer, but the fourth-year player is also a student of the game who toils over film with assistant Sean Sweeney and a quick learner who responds well to criticism. “The coachable ones usually do,” Terry told The Vertical.

Terry recalled how coaches jumped on Antetokounmpo after a game earlier this season because he was unwilling to make the extra pass and hell-bent on getting to the basket. “He had his blinders on, and that’s what was on his mind,” Terry told The Vertical. “The coaching staff told him, you’re going to have the ball plenty of times, and there are going to be plenty of times you can score. Your job is to facilitate and make everybody around you better. He really took it hard. That next day in practice, he was making passes that literally you have to be him to make. It carried over to the next game and he’s been doing a good job of it since.”

While Antetokounmpo is settling in as a franchise cornerstone, Parker is beginning to resemble – without much fanfare or hype – the player the Bucks hoped they were getting when they selected him second overall in 2014. Parker’s game is more straightforward and less jaw-dropping than Antetokounmpo’s despite racking up his share of highlight dunks. Parker, averaging 18.6 points per game on 46.4 percent shooting, and Antetokounmpo have many of the same skills, but their games are complementary and they have learned to play off each other while taking advantage of their respective mismatches.

“It’s going good so far. We always try to expand our game and the more we get on the floor together, the better for us,” Parker told The Vertical.

Though he is taking more three-pointers this season, Parker is thriving as a slasher with the explosiveness to blow by defenders and finish. He also enjoys the times when opponents place smaller players on him.

“The more that teams play small, the more that we’ll be able to defend, using our size. And the easier it is on offense to interchange guys in spots on the post. Because we’ll take two, an easy two, than a less percentage on a three-point shot,” Parker told The Vertical.

Parker lost most of his rookie season to a torn left anterior cruciate ligament in his knee but bristles at the suggestion that he somehow isn’t a third-year player. “That counts. I can’t get it back, so …” he told The Vertical with a shrug. Sitting out, rehabbing, and recovering taught Parker plenty about himself and the attitude he would need to have when he returned. “It’s just to have confidence in yourself because, in essence, you are alone. You have guys that want your spot. You have to take advantage of what’s there in the moment. You’ve got to earn everything,” Parker told The Vertical.

One of six teams to defeat both Golden State and Cleveland last season, the Bucks this year were in a one-possession game in the closing seconds in a loss to the Warriors and overwhelmed the Cavaliers with their wingspans and boundless energy. Middleton has been sidelined since September while recovering from a major hamstring injury, but the Bucks are optimistic that he will return before the end of this season, giving Milwaukee a 6-foot-8 shooting guard to make “tall ball” even more difficult to handle. The Bucks added Greg Monroe, Matthew Dellavedova and Mirza Teletovic in free agency the past two offseasons, but the team has struggled to find consistency.

Terry is a believer that Milwaukee needs to be taken seriously in the near future, if not now, because of Antetokounmpo and Parker, both 21. “Multi-dimensional players with great skill sets, it’s phenomenal,” Terry told The Vertical. “And then they’re young. At this age is when you want to try to get guys like that, because they don’t know what their ceiling is and they’re only going to get better.”

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