The Raptors have taken five of six on their current home stand, which wraps up on Friday against the Milwaukee Bucks at 7:30 p.m. on TSN.
The Bucks may be rebuilding and have bottomed out a season go, but make no mistake, this isn’t just a speed bump on the way to Cleveland on Saturday. Milwaukee is decent, maybe even good, and they pose a handful of interesting problems with their ridiculous length all around the court.
| Comparison | TOR | MIL |
| Record | 9-2 | 7-5 |
| O-Rtg | 113.4 | 102.1 |
| Rank | 2 | 25 |
| D-Rtg | 103.6 | 102.1 |
| Rank | 9 | 5 |
| Net Rtg | 9.7 | 0.1 |
| Rank | 3 | 15 |
To help set the stage, I reached out to good friend James Herbert of Eye on Basketball, who was beating the Bucks drum during the offseason. If anyone expected this team to compete, it was Big Herbz.
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Blake: The Bucks have started the season an impressive 7-5. Nobody saw this coming. Not a single person I know – coworker, friend, someone I’m following – not a single one thought the Bucks would win more than, oh, 25 games. I had them for 24. If anyone even predicted 32 wins, they would have been called crazy. An idiot. A lunatic. A troll. Since no person exists, it’s hard to retroactively think like them, but say you were such a nutjob, what is it about this team that would have had you thinking 30-plus wins?
James: If I was the president of the Milwaukee Bucks Nutjobbery Society, I would have pointed to (a) the development of second-year phenom Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has as much potential as anyone in the NBA and showcased significant signs of offensive improvement at summer league, (b) the possibility of bounceback seasons for Larry Sanders O.J. Mayo, Ersan Ilyasova and Jared Dudley, (c) the Jason Kidd new coach bump and (d) the addition of passing supergenius Kendall Marshall.In retrospect, had I nutted that job or jobbed that nut, I’d be in a position to be gloat about some of this. Now, excuse me while I step into the garden, drink iced tea and eat some peanuts.
Blake: The “Young Bucks” nickname…yay or nay? I get that Young Buck was the best part of G-Unit, and it’s kind of clever, but all I can think of is the Ring of Honor/Dragon Gate USA tag team.
James: Yay! I prefer it very much to the other options: Buckyouths, Mini-Bucks and the Bucks of Little Experience.
Blake: The Bucks are 25th in offense but #TheyTheFourth in team defense. The latter seems, if not real, then close to it. They were a top defense in 2012-13, have length for days, Larry Sanders is back, and Jason Kidd appears to be a pretty good coach, when given length to work with. Are you buying in to this team as, say, a top-eight defense, and is that enough for them to win 35?
James: I’ll buy top-10, at least. Milwaukee hasn’t played many good offensive teams, but Kidd has these guys playing hard and the length is real. That’s enough to win 35 if we’re assuming the offense will improve throughout the season and the East remains mostly terrible.
Blake: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s numbers are up dramatically – per game, per-36 minutes, by efficiency metrics – and he’s looking like a good bet to be in the Most Improved Player discussion. Other than raw numbers, what’s better about his game? Why, with everything else improving, are his assists the only thing trending downward?
| Giannis | 2013-14 | 2014-15 |
| Pts/36 | 10.0 | 16.7 |
| Rbs/36 | 6.4 | 8.2 |
| Ast/36 | 2.8 | 2.0 |
| TS% | 51.8% | 58.2% |
| PER | 10.8 | 17.2 |
James: He’s awesome. The Bucks are really having him attack the basket lately. They’re going to him late in games. The numbers are cool, but the real difference is in how confident and comfortable he is. Antetokounmpo grew — literally and figuratively, ha! — from the beginning to the end of his rookie season, and he’s made an even larger leap now. The assists declining is actually a good thing; naturally a distributor, he has to be reprogrammed a bit to take advantage of the matchup nightmare he presents as a scorer.
Blake: Jabari Parker’s numbers are a little south of where some expected them, but to me he’s looked pretty solid on the offensive end. Maybe not as NBA-ready as he was touted, but he’s still the best scoring rookie. What’s your impression of Parker so far?
James: Parker is fine. He was always only “NBA ready” as a scorer, and there was no reason to expect anything different. Kidd’s done a good job in alternating him between forward spots depending on the matchup, and he’s capable of doing good things with the ball. There are some questionable habits in terms of defense and shot selection, but he’ll put up numbers as long as he keeps getting these minutes.
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The Raptors are 8.5-point favorites, which seems a little steep considering how spry the Bucks have looked and how close the Raptors have been playing lesser teams. Maybe they look ahead to Cleveland, maybe they don’t, but in either case I think Milwaukee represents a tough challenge, mentally and strategically.
I’d go into more detail but it’s late and I’m tired and, really, everyone is just going to sleep on the Bucks until half when it’s like “whoa, the Bucks are pretty good,” and then the Raptors will have to hustle their way through a second half that’s harder than it should be. For a five-point win.
