Who is the fifth starter for the Milwaukee Bucks next season?

Who is the fifth starter for the Milwaukee Bucks next season?

today’s lock on bucks is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account and use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase terms apply on today’s show who’s the starting shooting guard for the Milwaukee Bucks there’s a couple of internal candidates is there one externally we get into that conversation next you are locked on bucks your daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome into locked on bucks I am Justin Garcia joined by Camille Davis and we thank you for making locked on bucks your first listen every day free and available wherever you get your podcasts and you can find us on YouTube as well part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day uh Camille we’re I suppose at this point left to assume there are going to be no major changes by way of Trades to the Bucks roster so let’s assume there’s no Brook Lopez trade we’ve already gone over that ad nauseum and you feel pretty good about you got four guys locked into the starting lineup that leads us to the big question who starts at shooting guard so there’s four internal candidates we’re going to spend some time looking at and then potential for One external um but let’s just rip the bandaid off we can get into the wise who makes the most sense to you at this point like it’s interesting because I’ve gone through it in my head a few times and I’ve landed on the line right which sounds weird when I say it out loud because when I saw the signing come through initially I was like what a great rotational piece like that’s going to be great depth for the bucks and that was my first thought like I mentioned before when we talked about uh his signing on lock on bucks a few weeks ago when it was first announced where I was like he has made a career of being a bench guy for the most part he’s had some spot starts and some stop along the way but for the most part throughout his career he has come off the bench he’s playing over 500 games and he started in 85 of them so like that’s just been his career so far so my initial thought was well that’s what he’s been doing that is what he will continue to do um but I think the more I thought about it the more I like he really actually might start here in Milwaukee because his skill set It just fits next to Dame of what we are looking for I shouldn’t say we and assume that you feel the same way but I love just to have at that starting two guard spot somebody who can take on that toughest you know offensive assignment so that Dame doesn’t have to be exerted in that way uh last season Malik Beasley was miscast in that role and I just feel like we’ve seen the tape on D right we know he can do that um and he shoots well enough where it’s like teams probably aren’t going to be terrified of him from three or anything like that but he can knock it down about six you know 36 37% last year so um he can shoot the ball well enough and I just think that he fits a lower usage player who can fit uh have the ball in his hands as well sometimes and then also you can you know do the Staggering maybe take him off the floor first bring him back in with the bench so on and so forth but just thinking about the options that are currently on the team now I think that the line right is actually where I’m leaning to which as I mentioned surprised me because when I first saw the signing I just thought of him as a bench guy but the more I think about it the more him starting next to Dame with Chris with Giannis and with Brook makes sense to me in terms of skill set I agree with you on that so would you say he’s the best fit of all those candidates and let’s just clear up any confusion the candidates that we’re referring to obviously Dylan Wright Maran Bo champ I think you have to throw out there even though you probably view more as more of a three uh Andre Jackson Jr AJ Green is one that picked up a lot of steam last year and then I suppose the Darkhorse ones that we could bring up everybody’s Pat H you read my mind and you and I talked about this the other day too Chris Middleton if you know if that technically meant that torian prince who is Now official by the way as a buck torian Prince starts and you slide Chris Middleton down to the two guard I don’t know about you I’m willing to cross those last two off the list I don’t think Pat Conan is going to start a two guard we went over it um you can find in the previous episode reasons why it might be not so wise to do that with Chris Middleton so those two I’m going to cross off the Delon Wright one he probably is the best fit for what his skill set is what you need that position to be I suppose the one area I would push back and say what about this does this give you any concern is I think we’re led to assume Damen Lillard is probably going to play all the first quarter the bulk of the first quarter I know Doc Rivers changed that a little bit but the bulk of the first quarter and you mentioned it too dlon Wright would theoretically be one of the first ones to leave the floor then you bring in a shooter or someone else my only hesitation with it is a couple of things number one I know it’s not quite as important because technically technically D Delon Wright would fill this role as well but who’s your backup point guard at that point so who’s going to run the offense dlan Wright could still do that um but also as crazy as it sounds I do wonder if you start dlon Wright if that doesn’t maximize the minutes that you have him with Damen Lillard if that makes sense so when you think about maximizing the fit with him is it more so about the which piece of it are you wondering like if it maximizes like the offense of him or like def more just the just the raw minutes on the floor with damee because if you do that he’s gonna leave the game before Damen Lillard I would assume and then he’ll come in to replace Damen Lillard um whereas if you started somebody else and let’s just say AJ Green I’m not advocating that but we’ll say AJ Green starts four minutes pass you bring in dlon Wright to take his spot and uh Damen Lillard plays with him for the remainder of the quarter or pretty close to it then Dame exits and dlon Wright stays out there he’s your point guard running the offense where you’re able to grab more of those minutes and it almost feels like if you started him it would be a little more spotty where it would be closer to one-on-one off that’s fair I think that’s fair and to your point I do think if they do go in this Direction with Delon Wright starting then we were like oh that’s a great backup combo guard to have now it’s like well now as you said who is that backup point guard do we see more Andre Jackson with ball handling like initiating offense we know that that was something he did in college didn’t see it as much in the NBA and that’s something that he mentioned himself of having to get used to of playing off ball uh quite a bit more is it a thing where it’s like when Dame’s off the floor now we start getting kind of funky in the sense of the offense is running through Chris or it’s running through Giannis and they’re initiating it more often and there’s like a nominal point guard on the floor just to kind of guard the other team’s point guard or also just have some secondary ball handling next to a Chris or a Giannis um and then to your point about just a staggering and then it’s could be like okay well the line right then you’re doing a little bit of both but I do think if you go that route then the Bucks probably should look to use that 15 spot on just another guard uh to bring in to kind of help with that Off the Bench production so like that would be one of the things for me where like it would actually change how I view what they should do with that 15 spot because I’ve been saying go for it big go for press cha bball Paul is gone now he got claimed by it’s just precious to just precious now so like if that’s the guy like that’s been the the big where I’m looking like okay let’s get him into the rotation but if Wright is starting the bugs then do have another need for another ball handler yeah and look it it may just be as simple as Supply demand and you know what’s out there what isn’t out there maybe the Bucks do need a big more than they would need another secondary Creator and ball handler but if there’s none out there that may just shift how their focus is for the remainder of a free agency however long that is there’s there’s two names we didn’t really get into too much about who could be starting at two guard the young guys so we’ll uh take a look at that coming up here after the break and then we mentioned is there an external candidate out there there’s some murmurs that have just refused to go away for one player that has some ties to Damen Lillard we will get into that conversation coming up next on lockdown bucks time to talk to you about our friends over at game time we all 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season the way John hon company spoke about him when he was drafted I I do think we should at least consider him in this spot um looking at Ajax let’s start with him last year we did get a chance to see him playing the two guard quite a bit and in those minutes where Andre Jackson Jr was on the floor at the two guard specifically would you believe if I told you the Bucks offense in those lineups was in the 99th percentile their defense was even worse with Andre Jackson Jr on the floor at two guard then it was their overall H full year defensive rating numbers all of it 134.5 defensive rating now granted it was about 250 lineups um possessions I should say that we saw him on the floor there but the exact opposite that I think most Bucks fans would have assumed of man the offense was even better the defense was even worse yeah you would have thought because of what Ajax projects as right we think of Andre Jackson dur as that defensive stopper that switchable versatile Defender who can come out there and make some things happen uh with the rebounding with the screening so on and so forth so I did not expect for that defensive rating you said 13 four while he was 34.7 now we should add this caveat the lineups that we saw him utilize the most as a two guard we with those other four names that we mentioned and asked who’s going to be the fifth starter uh so if the Bucks rolled that out as they’re starting five that was the grouping that that Ajax played in the most as a two guard and in those lineups with Brooke Giannis Chris Middleton and Damen Lillard offensive rating 136.6 defensive rating 13.8 so defensive number even better than their full season number and and look as as we talked about a bit last year 13.8 you’re right in that neighborhood of yeah that’s good enough so limited you know not the most but it was the most he played as a two guard and those numbers held up pretty well and that’s what I was gonna ask like what what’s what’s the lineup that was used with that because it was like you said super surprising to hear that but um I think there’s a case for Andre Jackson Jr as well especially if that that three-point shot that we were seeing again a real funky shot that he has it is it is not a work of art when you watch him shoot it but he was making it a bit more than I thought shooting 37% from three on a very very low volume not even a three-pointer a game type of low volume when we’re talking about that number but that’s something he’s going to have to do in that position as well like of course the defense is very important as I said that’s what I’m looking for as like the best type of player to SL next to Dame someone who can pick up that his offensive assignment on defense night in and night out but you have to also make sure that teams respect you enough from three so if that’s real even if it’s not 37% and he’s shooting 35% from three uh just if you’re open because you’re going to see a lot of open shots when you’re on the court with Dame and with Chris and with Giannis and Brooke too um just because that’s where the offense tension is going to be so if he can put that together along with the defense and for him defensively he just kind of has to continue to grow into that I think a lot of uh the fouling problems that he had last year uh were partly just rookie needing to learn a little bit overzealous understanding how the game is caught the pace of the game uh so on and so forth and some of the calls I thought they were just kind of like rookie calls like people who have a reputation of being good Defenders wouldn’t have gotten some of the calls that he got but you’re a rookie you got to earn that um so if he can also put that piece together I think there’s an argument for it but we’re talking about Andre Jackson Jr in like an ideal sense like we don’t know what the development looks like yet at this point which is why still would go right over Jackson at the moment but like I would love to hear in training camp that he’s just killing everything there’s no choice but to play him but uh there is some improvement that’s going to have to be made I think for him to slide into that spot conversely uh when we look at morjan he um in that same grouping again very limited it was only about 30 possessions that we saw Marjan Bo champ is the two guard with Brook Lopez Giannis Chris Middleton and Damen Lillard they had a 4.5 net rating in those lineups offense again still pretty good 135.5 but the defense a 140 defensive rating in those um situations where he actually shined the most and I think we’re gonna see a decent amount of these lineups this season was when he played alongside Andre Jackson and you had Brooke Yannis Ajax Damen Lillard and Marjan bamp on the floor together Maran was technically the two in those lineups and Ajax was the three they were a plus 37.6 net rating a 103 defensive rating and again the super large asterisk of look it was only about 40 possessions that this occurred but you know we talked about this a couple of times already in the off season in late last year there’s no denying whether it was just hey there’s another young guy that I get to play with there was just something there in those moments ranj Jack Jacks Jr and Maran Bo champ were on the floor together yeah it was like I can’t remember which 2K it was it’s an older 2K the one that had Michael B Jordan in it in the the my career storyline but it was like a orange juice Duo like when you were on the court with this Michael B Jordan character your stats went up like you just had the Synergy together you were Dynamic teammates um and that’s how it was for Maran and Ajax last year to your point they even said like we like playing together because like pretty much we go to war together know I have another young guy out here with me um in the same position as me fighting for the same things like they just kind of feed off of each other in that way but Maran is the guy of the group where he’s not talked about as much because last season was really strange for him and he had the back spasms to end the year so he didn’t get a chance as some of the other young guys AJ Green and Ajax to get on the court as much so limited Maran down the stretch under doc but uh I think of all the young guys he’s like the best blend of Def and projection wise like he just seems like he’d have the best blend of what you’re looking for from offense and on that defensive side it’s just that on court seeing the defense itself it hasn’t looked how I thought that it would necessarily but again this is if there is some internal Improvement here from Maran like he’s going to have a case for this as well because he’s somebody who shot 40% from three last year again the volume wasn’t super high for him a little under two three-point attempts a game but he was knocking it down at a higher clip than he was last in his rookie year although his rookie year he got up a couple more um still a smaller sample size 2.3 3o attempts his rookie year 1.6 uh in his sophomore season here but there’s potential with Maran here and I feel like we’re getting to year three of Maran so this is the year where it’s like if you don’t see it um got time to yeah yeah uh there’s one last name internally we didn’t spend too much time on maybe the most solid of those names and we talk about fit maybe upside sure there is some but I I think the previous two names we mentioned in Andre and Maran bring you the bigger piece of upside but maybe the most solid fit is that name that we’ve yet to address and again oh by the way is there an external candidate to join this team as the presumably starting two guard we’ll get into that into that conversation next on lock on bucks and as a reminder if you find yourself watching ESPN and Fox Sports all day but constantly having to turn down the volume because of all the shouting it means it’s time to make the switch to lock on sports today it’s a free 247 sports streaming channel that is programmed for you every day bringing you the biggest stories without all of the screaming lockon sports today brings you can’t miss analysis opinions and news and it streams 247 on YouTube or the free and Amazon Fire TV channels app part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day so Camille that last name is uh AJ Green and again it was about 500 to 600 possessions that we saw AJ Green out there as the two guard a lot of that came late in the season when he really seemed to win over Doc Rivers um trust I should say in that hey this guy’s holding up defensively and I think the numbers again we can’t emphasize this enough it’s an extremely small sample size for all of these guys so add that caveat and take that as you will but the numbers for AJ Green in those moments where he played the two guard to me really line up with the eye test as well and they’re probably the most solid where overall offensive rating better it was under a 130 just under a 130 a defensive rating again a 13.8 which same number or close to what we referenced with a Jax and this it should be good enough if you get that offense to where it is and I think that’s kind of been the story of of AJ Green you mentioned that Maran is probably the best blend of offense and defense Ajax is clearly the best defender um but the shooting of AJ Green is the single best trait of any of those guys as good as the defense is from Ajax the fowls piece is the big one if he can clean that up then it’s a conversation but that shooting is Elite and we saw the defense be good enough to keep him on the floor and I think that’s what those numbers tell us yeah yeah I mentioned the numbers of Maran and Andre Jackson Jr what they were shooting from three and you look at AJ Green and he shot 41% from three his first two years in the league on around I believe three attempts a game somewhere in there yeah three on the dot for AJ Green so even like the volume like we know AJ Green could probably get up more if he had more playing time because he is not gunshot when it comes getting that shot up uh we have seen him also start taking some of those really deep threes as well like the range for AJ Green the shooting is a real NBA talent that He Has there and the defense has been better than what we thought not saying he’s a lock down guy or anything like that but he’s not somebody who you’re on the floor like I we gotta hide him all over the place like he’s going to stay in front of his man he’s goingon to play pretty smart um and like you mentioned he just kind of he’s the more offensive guy so to speak when it comes to that skill set although I don’t feel like the creation is necessarily the same as am Maran where he kind of gets his shots although we were seeing AJ Green last year start taking a few more mid-range shots and I was really interested in that as part of his we saw shots inside the arc yeah that I think initially you thought well what are you doing here like we have you up there to shoot threes but he clearly got more comfortable with it and that’s a good trait to have because as you continue to build your reputation as a knock down three-point shooter the game plan is going to be run you off the line and if you get ran off the line what is your counter move so if you have a mid-range game that you feel comfortable with when you’re ran off the line you can pull up that’s going to be really beneficial and he’s also a smart player like he doesn’t have the shot he passes the ball um so AJ Green is somebody who I definitely see in the rotation as we have heard all summer so far that he will be part of the rotation but I think he has a case to start as well I’m still go with wri but like what AJ Green brings with his shooting ability uh that’s real and if he can still shoot 40% or high 30 perents on a higher volume of Threes like five six threes a game like that’s going to be really big for the bucks um yeah and I mean that’s just product of being a coach’s kid when you talk about if he doesn’t have the shot he passes and finds the right shot for his teammates I remember there was a game last year where he had a four-point play and afterwards he was our postgame interview and I jokingly asked him hey when’s the last time you had a fourpoint play and just immediately dismissively like I had him all the time in high school oh okay okay um I didn’t give my answer yet I would I would say Ajax at this point is who I would lean on and say you gotta win the job yeah but this is who I would put in position to say okay doors open let’s see if you can win this job to be our starting two guard just because I mean everybody called for it last year you could see there’s something there defensively with Andre Jackson also to your point of rookie fouls and things of that nature I don’t think they’re totally gonna go away because he is aggressive in nature but you do wonder how much that diminishes in year number two and he can certainly offset some of those issues um I don’t want to paint it in the bad light but he can offset some of those things you’d run into with Daman Lillard defensively and and pick up multiple positions and just the overall injection of energy and youth that we saw in those minutes he was on the floor I think you should your goal should be to get as many minutes for Andre Jackson J as you can this upcoming season and you know as we’ve talked about he’s almost like a Swiss army knife for the bucks he could be a backup point guard he was really one of the only guys especially the game so that Damen Lillard you felt comfortable handling the ball and bringing it up the floor in that Pacers series he can take on threes defensively we saw him technically almost playing like a four at times too so for me he’s the guy that I would say look all you guys these three young guys we focused on you got a chance to win this job but I really kind of hope it’s you Andre would be my Approach and and if I was Doc Rivers and the rest of the coaching staff as we wrap up here I mentioned there’s one external possibility so uh scale of one to 10 K how much stock do you put in all of those murmurs to hey Gary Trent Jr he’s got a relationship with Dame Dame’s reached out to him now shout out to Dame if that is true like do you’re doing your jobs or you a lot of work if he’s recruiting Haywood heith and Gary Trent Jr as and I’m happy to hear it I’m happy to hear it and Gary Trent like that situation with him is just so strange because it’s like uh the Raptors put out a offer for him that was like I think 15 million annually or something like that and then they pulled it off the table and he was looking to get like 25 million annually but now they’re not sure how the Market’s going to shake out for him so he could be a candidate of somebody who ends up playing for Less this year than what he was looking for and maybe less than what the Raptors were even offering him initially at this point in free agency I just don’t know if a guy who was looking for 25 million had 15 on the table uh if he is going to accept a vet Min even if that means like hey you can boost your your status we know all the things that come with taking a one-year bet on yourself and I would love for him take that bet here in Milwaukee if it happens I will be genuinely shocked um that he signed on a minimum contract just given what he was looking for and he’s probably the most talented guy that’s left on the market right now I would think that he would command more than a vet men at this point even for a one-year deal like we saw Malik Beasley at least get six million for the one year where it’s like all right you didn’t get a big big payday but you doubled your salary from last year at the very least this will be a pay cup for Gary Trent Jr though yeah other teams can offer more the Bucks just have the vet minimum available and we saw that’s what kind of bit them with the Haywood High Smith move um but you mentioned how strange the market has been and you know we briefly touched on this on yesterday’s show but I mean it’s it’s simple to me as man the Clippers really caused these seismic shifts in the NBA by just sticking in their heels and saying you know what we’ll pay James Harden we draw the line at paying you Paul George because we all assume Paul George was going to remain in Los Angeles and the Clippers did not have money to be Spenders in free agency with the assumption that Paul George was staying there Sixers did so if Paul George stayed in Los Angeles that opens up money for a number of other players Caleb Martin goes there on a cheap deal maybe he stays in Miami because the Sixers spend money on let’s say kcp who got it anyway ultimately um or even Gary Trent Jr but there was just so few teams that had money and when one of those got the biggest fish that was out there basically ended their big spending for them and just forced a lot of these guys to say okay do I take the deal with the Pistons do I take the deal with this team or do I take a prove it deal so that remains to be seen with Gary Trent Jr if that is what he would be open to taking one of those Pro it deals and then cashing in eventually a next season so you know teams like the Bucks hey even potentially teams like the Sixers who still have some assets to offload um as well but those are the types of teams that are probably going to be kicking the tires hardest now on Gary Trent Jr seeing that the market at least for what he was looking for has basically shrunk Y and if he did end up in a Milwaukee I think that he would come here as the starting shooting guard even though the defense isn’t there so on and so forth of what I was talking about what I’m looking and you know that’s interesting because yes I would largely agree but I you recall early in his career he was a pretty good two-way player and you know the last couple of years it shifted just towards Gary Trent Jr’s a chucker and he’s a guy that’s out there scoring but early on there was some defense there so it’s it would potentially be a matter of all right can we get some of that back here maybe maybe a situation where it’s like in where he’s been in with Toronto and what not it’s like I’ve had to be the offensive guy haven’t had you know chance to really even play defense because my my load is on offense so maybe it’s a situation where you do come to a team with Dame and he has some history of playing with Dame uh you play with Dame you have Chris you have yanis so on and so forth and you understand like I don’t have to carry this heavy and of offensive low let me focus a little bit more on this defense as well maybe that does happen and then the defense is better than what we’ve seen over the last few years but again if it is Trent starting then you do have right off the bench you have AJ like all the things that we’ve just talked about of why these other guys make good fits starting then you have them in the rotation as well coming into bent so you could have just change of pace plays like because you start a game doesn’t mean you have to finish a game however the game plays out can dictate that I if the matchups dictate a different you know change of pace then you could go that way as well but yeah if Trent signed here on the minimum again I’d be very shocked but I do think he would come in here as the starting shooting guard at that point yeah and I I think you know anybody that’s watched the two of them I don’t mean this as a slight or any sign of disrespect but but K Gary Trent Jr would be an upgrade from Malik Beasley too that it’s you know you could say well hey Malik did the same thing Gary Trent Jr is a more skilled offensive player um there’s more than just catch and shoot as it was with Malik anytime Malik put the ball on the floor it was always an adventure and I there is more defense there than there was um with Malik Beasley so remains to be seen and that’s really the last big question left out there for the bucks assuming there’s no major moves made and by Major I mean Brook Lopez especially um who starts to two guard and is there a chance that it could be Gary Trent Jr we are still waiting on the summer leag roster so I anticipate we’re going to get that within the next day or so once we do get that we’ll spend some time pouring over that and taking a look at the summer league slate for the bucks because it begins this weekend so that’ll be our next view on tomorrow’s show for Camille I’m Justin we’ll talk to you once again tomorrow on lock on bucks

Justin and Camille take a look at the Bucks backcourt and their current options to start next to Damian Lillard. Who is the best fit for the team, who has the most upside and is there a realistic external candidate at this stage of free agency? We dig into the fifth starter on the latest Locked on Bucks

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