Bucks’ ascent this season similar to Warriors’ rise four years ago
Three-for-all offense embraced by team
OAKLAND, Calif. - As the defending NBA champions and winners of three of the past four titles, the Golden State Warriors are undeniably the envy of the league. Every other team wants to both be and beat the Warriors any chance they get.
While the NBA may be a copycat league, no team can perfectly emulate the Warriors’ rise to power. However, the Milwaukee Bucks, which visited Oracle Arena on Thursday night for a matchup with the Warriors, share some intriguing similarities with the Golden State team that leapt to the top of the league in 2014-’15.
“I can definitely see that,” Bucks wing Khris Middleton said when asked about the similarities between the two teams Thursday during a shootaround in San Francisco. “Hopefully it works out.”
That was the year coach Steve Kerr took over in Golden State, replacing Mark Jackson who had the Warriors moving on an upward trajectory over his three seasons but couldn’t translate that to deep playoff runs. Kerr inherited a strong core with lottery picks Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes flanked by second-round pick Draymond Green and outside acquisitions Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and Andrew Bogut among others.
Something clicked in a major way as the 2014-’15 Warriors won 67 games while putting up some of the best offen-
sive and defensive numbers in the league. They then rolled through the playoffs to claim their first NBA title since 1975.
The Bucks may or may not be a title contender this year, but at least on paper they share some similarities with that Warriors team. After 31⁄2 seasons with Jason Kidd as coach, an era defined by the team cultivating talent but generally underperforming its own expectations, the Bucks hired Mike Budenholzer this off-season. In 10 games under Budenholzer, the Bucks have opened the season as one of the top offensive and defensive teams in the league and are playing with a pace-and-space style that fits their roster.
Giannis Antetokounmpo has blossomed into a homegrown MVP-level talent and the Bucks have surrounded him with a solid core. Milwaukee brought Middleton in via a trade in 2013 and he’s developed into an all-star-caliber wing. Malcolm Brogdon, as a second-round pick, was the 2016-’17 rookie of the year and rookie guard Donte DiVincenzo is off to a good start.
Add in Eric Bledsoe, added via a trade a year ago, free-agent additions Brook Lopez and Ersan Ilyasova and center John Henson developing into more than just a lefty hook artist and the Bucks have a nucleus to build around and a style that fits them.
“We’ve been together for four or five years now trying to put runs together,” Middleton said. “To have a coach come in and assess the talent and figure out what he can do with the team is tough. I think they’ve been doing a great job of trying to figure out everybody’s role and try to put everybody in a position to succeed.”
From afar, Curry sees the threads that connect this year’s Bucks and his Warriors of 2014-’15.
“Very similar to four years ago here,” Curry told a media gaggle at practice Wednesday. “A change of scenery sometimes helps. You get a little boost of energy, a little shift of focus and perspective, and that little bit of difference can unlock something.
“It’s still early, but they’re taking care of business like they should. It’s important when you have that much potential to get off to a good start, but the season will shape out as it’s supposed to.”
As much as the Bucks want to be like the Warriors – specifically, they want to be champions – they’re also interested in playing like them in certain ways. Curry and Golden State’s 2014-’15 team ushered in a three-point boom in the NBA, one that the Bucks are just now starting to embrace.
Heading into Thursday’s game, the Bucks – perennially near the bottom of the league in three-point attempts – are one of the NBA’s top three-point shooting teams. They make more per game (15.6) than anyone else and only the Houston Rockets (41.9) attempt more threes per game than the Bucks (41.1). Those numbers put the Bucks at 38.0%, which ranks fifth in the league, though it pales in comparison to the Warriors’ 42.3% proficiency from deep.
Milwaukee is starting to catch up to Golden State, particularly when it comes to long-range shooting, but that’s not the only area the Bucks hope to imitate and make up ground. Though his team and the Warriors are inherently different in certain ways, Budenholzer hopes the Bucks can aim to resemble Golden State in key, winning ways.
“I think the way they move without the ball, the way they share the ball, their unselfishness, their willingness to shoot and shoot with tons of confidence and play fast and then be good defensively, too, – I think that’s sometimes underrated,” Budenholzer said. “There’s a little piece of them that I think a lot of teams, including us, would aspire to assimilate.”
Seeking relief: Wednesday marked one year since Mirza Teletovic played his final game with the Bucks before retiring due to a bout with pulmonary emboli last season.
With that anniversary passed, the Bucks took the next step in the process by petitioning the league for salary-cap relief for the remainder of Teletovic’s contract, a league source confirmed to the Journal Sentinel. Teletovic, who is now the president of the Bosnian basketball federation, had one year and $10.5 million left on his deal when the Bucks waived him March, though they used the league’s stretch provision to extend those payments over three years at $3.5 million annually.
If the petition is granted – an outcome that is expected – the Bucks will continue to pay Teletovic’s salary but that money will not count against their salary cap. In order for the NBA to grant this exclusion, an independent medical examination will need to take place and conclude that Teletovic is medically unable to resume his basketball career.