The Milwaukee Bucks have been through the ringer over the last few weeks. The one constant in the Bucks jambalaya of variables has been Giannis Antetokounmpo. We already know he is one of the three best players in the contemporary NBA. He’s also the best player in the league without a consistent outside jump shot. With Damian Lillard out, Giannis has continued to perform exactly as a 1A superstar should.
However, not much has gone as expected around him. Some of his teammates have stepped up down the stretch, while others have stepped back.
Kevin Porter Jr.
Kevin Porter Jr. has been thunderstruck in Lillard’s absence. As the most advanced offensive playmaking guard on the Bucks bench, he’s found his green light. In his last three games, KPJ has seen his role amplified. In his last three games, KPJ has scored 24, 21 and 20 points and dished 17 total assists.
KPJ’s dynamism was on display when he spun into the paint and flushed the Miami Heat down the drain in overtime. It was also apparent during Milwaukee’s comeback during their 34-3 run against the Minnesota Timberwolves when he contributed 21 points and five steals.
Porter Jr. was a steal that Milwaukee wrestled anyway from the Clippers in exchange for MarJon Beauchamp, and in that context he represents one of the few trades Jon Horst has won in the last five years.
Brook Lopez
Lopez was on the trading block through the trading deadline. However, when the Bucks needed another scoring hand, the 37 year-old picked up the slack in unexpected ways. Lopez has averaged 16.8 points per contest in Milwaukee's last 10 games. That excludes Thursday night's win over New Orleans when he and Antetokounmpo exited ealry to rest up for Detroit.
He might move a little stiffer, look a little more wooden, but he can still shoot that rock and understands how to utilize his size alongside Antetokounmpo. Lopez has an excellent basketball IQ. The key is to make sure he doesn’t get dragged outside of the paint on switches.
Kyle Kuzma
Don’t get him confused with the Emperor who got his groove back. Kuzma is no llama, he's playing like a deer in headlights. Over the last 10 games, Kuzma has averaged 15.1 points per contest, 4.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists at a time when they needed him to put a larger scoring load on his shoulders. While he's shot a modest 46 percent from the field, he's still hovering around just 30 percent from beyond the arc.
His team-low plus-minus of negative-6.7 points per 100 possessions is the mirror opposite of Antetokounmpo’s plus-6.9. It would be one thing if Kuzma were a knockdown shooter or a chloroform-level defender. Kuzma was targeted by Horst because of his perimeter-scoring prowess.
However, the 29-year-old Kuzma has been a drag on the Bucks. He expectations were high for whomever the Bucks would deputize on the wing in the void left behind by Khris Middleton. Kuzma has fallen well short of those expectations.