From Dusk til Thon: Maker is another basketball unicorn in the making
When the Bucks selected Thon Maker with the 10th pick of the 2016 NBA Draft, a lot of people were left wondering what exactly their front office was thinking. Maker was a late and somewhat controversial addition to the 2016 class. After finishing a prep year at Orangeville Prep, Maker was able to prove that he was 19 and a year removed from completing high school which allowed him to enter his name into the field.
Many thought this was a miscalculation by Maker and his team, but it seems that rest of us were the ones that had the numbers wrong because he has been one of the breakout stars of the 2017 NBA Playoffs.
With his time on the court doubling — he played 9.9 minutes per game in the regular season and is now at 20 minutes in the postseason — Maker has blossomed right before the basketball world’s very eyes. There were hints and signs over the course of the season. Praise from the likes of Jabari Parker, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Garnett was backed up by a 23-point explosion against the Pistons at the end of March.
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Most thought Maker would spend the majority of the season logging as many minutes as possible in the NBA D-League. However, the Bucks don’t have a direct affiliate, so instead of shipping him elsewhere — where he wouldn’t be running plays and schemes similar to Milwaukee’s — Jason Kidd decided that baptism by fire was the proper route to maximize Maker’s potential.
Through the first four games of his first playoff series, Maker is one of four 7-footers in NBA history to average more than 1.0 steals and 1.3 blocks per game while shooting 33.0 percent from 3-point range in the playoffs as a rookie. The other three: Arvydas Sabonis, Andrea Bargnani and Vlade Divac.
Maker’s ability to do a bit of everything is what makes him such a polarizing prospect. He has a smooth looking stroke that extends to the 3-point line. He’s not the strongest of players, but he has shown the ability to get to the rim and finish when aggressive.
An aggressive Maker is what the Bucks need both in the present and the future. Antetokounmpo has already made it known this season that Maker has the green light in his eyes.
The Greek Freak had the following to say after Maker’s career night against Detroit: “He brings energy. Rebound the ball. He runs the floor. He does a little bit of everything. But the most important thing is listening, and he’s learning. And I told him, ‘To play in this game, you don’t have to hesitate. If you hesitate’ — I told him, actually in the overtime I told him — ‘If you hesitate, I’m going to punch you. So, shoot the ball whenever you get it.’”
Where the international big man has made the biggest impact for this team is on defense. The Bucks play an aggressive style of defense and try to use their many long-limbed defenders to cause havoc and force turnovers on the perimeter. Yet it doesn’t always happen that way. When opponents get into the paint, Milwaukee has long looked for that interior defender and Maker has been a major presence inside.
Take a look at the jump in production Maker has made on defense in the playoffs:
- Regular Season D: 9.9 MPG 0.2 SPG, 0.5 BPG, 1.3 DRPG, 52.7 FG% allowed at rim on 2.9 attempts per game (via NBA.com)
Playoffs D: 20 MPG 1 SPG, 1.3 BPG, 1.5 DRPG, 34.6 FG% allowed at rim on 6.5 attempts per game (via NBA.com)
The visuals are ever more impressive than the numbers.
Extra strength will help him improve on his defensive rebounding (the only stat that hasn’t seen a drastic uptick with his increased role in the playoffs) and once that comes Maker will be well on his way to becoming a member of the Unicorn Club. As the saying goes, two unicorns in hand are worth more than the last 16 years of postseason irrelevancy.
The Bucks currently have their backs against the wall, down 3-2 to the Raptors with Game 6 coming on Thursday. Milwaukee fans will be out in full force to cheer their team on and it’s likely that this series will ultimately go seven games. If this team wants to be more than a blip on the radar screen of the playoffs, they will need more out of everyone. However, the biggest difference between the regular season Bucks and the ones we’ve seen in the postseason is the emergence of Maker. He has barely scratched the surface of what he could be.
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If Maker is able to string together two strong outings to close out this series, the world will likely be treated to a Milwaukee versus Cleveland second round series. Regardless of if that series stretches further than four games, that is something we as NBA fans need to see.