This season's record is still the third in the league, the second in the East Bucks, yesterday there was a change of coach, but in less than 24 hours has been decided, Adrian Griffin, who has coached only 43 games, is in a hurry, and the former 76ers coach Doc Rivers, who has been hired as an informal consultant to assist Griffin, is about to take over, why should the Bucks still insist on replacing the new coach in just over half the season when the record is not bad, I also have to pay the salaries of the three former and former coaches at the same time, let us analyze it for you by integrating foreign news reports and data analysis.
First, the two main forces on the offensive end are not running in smoothly
The preseason Bucks made a big move to trade Lillard, plus the extension of the contract, the team has absolute pressure to succeed and not fail, so even if Milwaukee still ranks second in the league in offensive efficiency so far, it is still difficult not to attract criticism when Lillard is not playing as expected or even struggling.
Lillard's offensive performance and record on the offensive end of this season are of course still a plus, averaging 25 per game3 points plus Clutch Time points per game is still the 5th in the league, and he is still the key man, but the influence has obviously slipped, which is also a fact.
Ball possession usage rate increased from 33 percent last year1 slumped to 269, which is understandable, after all, to a new team where he is not the boss, but the efficiency has declined. The shooting percentage and three-point shooting percentage fell in tandem, both of which were career low, and in January they even slipped to an average of only 23 per game5 points, shooting percentage and three-point shooting percentage is a miserable 394% vs. 277%, and 8 per cent on three-point attempts3 times, these are not problems that can be covered up by a wonderful lore, and they are definitely one of the alarm bells that ring griffin**.
Further analysis, the key is that the Bucks have not yet found a solution to how to play Lillard's blocking power. As you know, throughout the Trail Blazers, Lillard has been playing pick-and-rolls, averaging 12 pick-and-rolls per game last year5 points are the highest in the league, and this year it has slipped to 10Although 2 points is still in 7th place, the range cannot be said to be only a small amount.
Let's take a look at one of his most usual offensive methods in the past, pulling up the pull-up jumper, which averaged 106 points, which also fell sharply to 7 this year7 points, which is completely in line with the recent criticism of the Bucks on the offensive end: more allocation of the ball to role players, too little letting Lillard and Brother Alphabet play blocking and pick-and-roll, especially the latter, which is certainly the most exciting part of the original Milwaukee trade to Lillard. But when the original expectation of the two superstars joining forces is unstoppable, it becomes the most frequently used blocking and pick-and-roll combination in the team, and the coach will naturally be criticized.
Griffin's choice is not entirely incomprehensible. In the past few years, Brother Alphabet's best blocking and dismantling partner is Middleton, a forward and a guard are naturally different, this year's two main players are not high in the frequency of blocking and dismantling, is that they have not yet found the appropriate way to cooperate, resulting in unstable efficiency, such as the opponent often uses the short but long-range Lillard to attack in advance on the periphery, and at the same time adopt a regional joint defense strategy for Brother Alphabet, in the case of the tacit understanding between the two has yet to run in, the results are good.
Griffin's response was to let the ball be distributed to other teammates, which led to the fact that even if Lillard's three-point shooting percentage dropped, the team's three-point shooting percentage was still better than last year, and it is no wonder that the offensive efficiency is still among the best.
But it's also natural for fans and players who are desperate to maximize their star investment, prove that the team has the right management options for a trade, and have higher expectations for Lillard and Antetokounmpo connection.
After all, the success of the regular season is just a floating cloud, the playoffs are still a battlefield led by stars, and the connection of the duo is not as expected, shouldn't it be more time to try drills? But they chose to use it passively, and they did not actively look for a breakthrough solution, so that although the team's offense seemed good, it seemed inconsistent, and the players also complained privately about positioning and tactics.
Second, the defensive end from top to broken
Defense is a bigger problem than offense. Entering the era of Brother Alphabet, the Bucks have always been defensive heroes, although they have been relatively unstable due to injuries in recent years, and last year they still ranked fourth in the league.
Although last year's playoffs were eaten on the offensive end, which led to the summer choosing to weaken the defense in order to gain more firepower, the backcourt lost Holiday and Allen, and the domino effect can foresee a definite regression on the defensive end, but the avalanche fell to 21st, and in January it fell to 28th, which is tolerable, which is unbearable, and it is simply discarded the signature and pride of the Bucks in the past few years.
One of the most controversial schedules is Lopez. In the face of the decline in defensive intensity in the backfield, Griffin's solution at the beginning of the season was to let the penalty area group change defense and defend to the periphery, which seems logical and reasonable, but the actual implementation has fallen into the dilemma of taking care of one and losing the other, and the inside and outside are not pleased, even after the strong struggle of the players, the coach began to allow Lopez to keep the drop and retreat, and the team has not yet returned to the balanced track, which also led to the fact that Lopez was still the second top defensive player voted by DPOY last year, and the shooting rate of opposing defenders has increased significantly this season. The chance of being pulled out for a roll call has also increased, which has affected the overall team defense.
Two indicators. The first is the proportion of opponents attacking the Bucks penalty area, from the top three in previous years, to about 10, although it is still excellent, but it is obviously not as good as in the past, which means that the opponent is more daring to challenge the Bucks penalty area.
Secondly, the defensive rebounding rate has gone from 2nd to 8th, and the opponent's secondary offensive score has dropped from the 12th front class to the 23rd back class, which is generally considered to be related to Lopez's very different frame protection strategy, although he has not been the leader in defensive rebounding statistics, but it is recognized that his solid card position is the main reason why teammates can always easily grab defensive rebounds. At the same time, even Brother Alphabet needs to defend more frequently in the restricted area under Griffin's defensive strategy, which of course further weakens the effectiveness of frame protection and defensive rebounding.
In addition, the main defensive problems criticized by the foreign media are, requiring the guard to frequently guard outside the three-point line to follow the defense, and asking the marker not to assist in defense, but when these strategies have generally not been effective, and after swallowing a number of defeats recently, Griffin is still not flexible, especially recently, according to ** statistics, Brother Alphabet has publicly criticized the team's poor defense at least 6 times after the game, but has not received an obvious response and change from the coach, and it is difficult not to become an arrow target inside and outside the team.
Third, the most important loss of people
In fact, this is also the most critical crux of Griffin's expulsion. Before the start of the season, Lillard's mentor to the Trail Blazers for many years left in a bad mood, despite this, Lillard, who has struggled on the offensive end all season, is still a relatively patient player, but the veteran players who were already in the Bucks lost trust earlier.
After losing to the Pacers in the midseason tournament, Griffin convened a meeting of the main players to discuss, but it turned into a one-sided shut-off reprimand meeting, severely criticizing the lack of several main players, which may be true, but in this era of early change and player first, it is undoubtedly a big taboo, especially since he has a lot of problems of his own, which is why the team asked Rivers, who is good at pouring chicken soup for the soul, to help.
But then he still stubbornly asked the players to adapt to his offensive and defensive system, rather than tailoring the players to a certain extent, which led to the team and players, less and less patience with Griffin, originally thought that as the season progressed, he could continue to improve, but now led by Brother Alphabet, it is rumored that many players have lost the confidence that Griffin can lead the team to the championship, and the change came in an instant.
But at least this time Griffin's people and did a good job, and in the face of the dismissal visit, he had this to say: "I'm grateful for what the Bucks gave me, but you can't control everything. "If you really want to talk about it, he doesn't seem to be bad enough to be changed in the middle of the season or so, but the time is also fate, and the team traded to Lillard to win the present, which leads to a heavy pressure on the record, and perhaps it is the reason why he is so stubborn, and he can't afford to take the risk of going in a bad direction after a big change.
And a relatively young rookie coach, at this time in a group of senior veterans, it is easy to disagree with his team, which compresses his time and space for mistakes, but including Middleton's injury and degradation, is not what he can expect. Paradoxically, during the preseason selection, it was Brother Alphabet who chose the junior Griffin over the more experienced Nas, who became the head coach of the 76ers, and although he is slightly behind the third place in the East, his coaching this season has been generally praised.
The next thing to see is how Rivers can change the Bucks, which also seems to be a fate, the candidate who was rejected by the Bucks became the coach of the 76ers, and the veteran who was just fired by the 76ers in the summer became the firefighter who took over the Bucks.
From the current situation, the always eight-sided rivers should be able to appease the Milwaukee generals again, but in the past, he was most criticized for leading the team to the season and then falling in the key playoff game, so it attracted considerable questions from the outside world: Is he really the one who can make the Bucks go to the next level?
Even the current situation is not optimistic, the Bucks' offensive and defensive disparity this season has always been surprising that the record can be so good, but part of the truth is that according to foreign data, Milwaukee's schedule so far is one of the easiest in the league, in other words, the follow-up is one of the most difficult, it is not easy to keep the current position, whether Rivers can turn the tide in the middle of the season this time, and sweep away the stigma of the past in the playoffs, the outside world is waiting to see!