Yahoo Sports NBA reporter Dan Devine is joined by Meadowlark Media’s Tom Haberstroh to discuss the current state of the once vaunted Milwaukee defense and if the Bucks should be worried.
Hear the full conversation on “Devine Intervention” – part of the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
DAN DEVINE: Here are the Bucks finishes in defensive efficiency since 2018, according to Cleaning the Glass.
Second, first, 10th, 14th in a season that Brook Lopez only played 13 games with a back injury and fourth.
Right now, season one under Adrian Griffin, 27th. Yikes. On a scale of one to five Muggsies, the Bucks are bad at defense now.
TOM HABERSTROH: It’s a wait and see for me. Like, I do think Cam Thomas, in some ways, is drop coverage Kryptonite.
I don’t think it’s any coincidence that he went off for 45 points against that coverage. And the Bucks just had no answer for that.
So I think it was a little bit of an illusion to say that they are a mess defensively, because hey, the Brooklyn Nets just dropped– what was– how many points did they score last night?
DAN DEVINE: I think it was 125 and 101 possessions. It was a big number.
TOM HABERSTROH: I think it’s going to take some time with Damian Lillard getting acclimated.
It is a big red flag to me that Terry Stotts resigned in the pre-season from the assistant coaching ranks.
Dan, that must have, like, hit you a certain way, right? Wait a minute.
TOM HABERSTROH: Damian Lillard’s guy is just going to walk away from a championship-contending team? This doesn’t smell right over here.
DAN DEVINE: The offense bleeds into the defense a little bit because when they’ve been stagnant, or when they’ve taken bad shots or had bad turnovers, it kickstarts their– other teams out in transition.
And the Bucks have been awful in transition defense. Not getting back.
Some of it is off of live ball turnovers. Some of it’s just like you missed a shot, you’re not busting it back.
And other teams are running it down their throats. They’ve lost whatever made them special on it.
It’s not so much that they’ve lost it. It’s that they’re trying to find other things. And so, they know how good they are in drop coverage.
They know how good they can be when they go smaller with Giannis and Bobby Portis up front and they switch everything.
