The Bucks are currently 29th in defensive rating this season

Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that The Bucks are currently 29th in defensive rating this season.

The Bucks were dominant on both sides of the floor to start the season. But ever since December 15th, they have dropped to 29th in point differential, 29th in offensive rating, and 30th in defensive rating.

When the game slows down and there are plays to be made in the halfcourt, everything falls on Giannis Antetokounmpo to make something happen, while the 4 four other guys on the court spread the floor. 

The Milwaukee Bucks are dominating an area of the basketball court.

It’s been a while since that statement was even imagined, let alone made with confidence. The good Bucks teams in recent years struggled to hit anything above mediocrity, and the bad ones were downright brutal.

Last season, Milwaukee had trouble scoring, defending and, not coincidentally, winning. The team suffered through an NBA-worst 67 losses, finished 29th in defensive efficiency and held the 26th spot on the opposite side.

The Bucks looked awful. Even more troubling was how they seemed to be playing with no real sense of direction.

“There’s no staple to what we’re doing,” O.J. Mayo said in January, per Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel. “… If you don’t have a backbone to what you do, whether it’s going to be a defensive thing, an up-tempo thing, a pound-it-in-the-paint thing, a drive-kick thing. We’ve got to find a staple as a team.”

It’s hard to make any definitive observations this early into the season, but the Bucks seem to have found their identity. With a roster littered with long-limbed athletes and a new coach in Jason Kidd who earned All-Defensive honors nine times during his 19-year NBA playing career, Milwaukee has started carving its niche as a dominant defense.

Giannis’ usage has been sky-high, ranking third in the entire NBA only behind Luka Doncic and Ja Morant. The superstar is also getting double-teamed at a record rate, and being the willing passer he is, Antetokounmpo has created a lot of good looks for his teammates. The only problem is that they haven’t been knocking them down consistently.