Former three-time NBA champion Danny Green recently retired from the league. He was part of three championship teams: the 2014 San Antonio Spurs, the 2019 Toronto Raptors, and the 2020 Los Angeles Lakers. Green has plenty of experience playing on a championship roster, and recently he talked about what is troubling the Milwaukee Bucks who are currently 1-4. The former wing has been on a couple of podcasts, and in one of them, he talked at length about the Milwaukee Bucks, specifically the Giannis Antetokounmpo Damian Lillard chemistry.
Danny Green Knows What’s Behind the Bucks’ Early Struggles
According to the former champion, the Giannis Antetokounmpo Damian Lillard chemistry is an obvious reason why the Bucks are off to a slow start. To be fair, both players are averaging 23+ points, but something doesn’t seem right in Milwaukee.
Green says that the big reason they cannot piece it together is that they haven’t worked out together during the summer. Speaking on a podcast, he said,
“I don’t take too much on that. It could’ve been him being in Greece because he’s not from here. But some of the guys should’ve gotten together. Every winning team I’ve been on, we had some time together. San Antonio, we spent a lot of summers in San Antonio. In L.A., we would do some mini-camps in Vegas or something like that. Toronto, the same thing, we got a group together and worked out even in San Diego with Kawhi and Norm. I think it’s important”.
According to Green, it is not just Giannis Antetokounmpo Damian Lillard’s chemistry. The whole team looks like they are out of sync. While Dame and Giannis couldn’t work out together during the summer, the team should have worked out as a group. It is much different than just having conversations.
Is Giannis Antetokounmpo Damian Lillard Chemistry the Real Problem?
During Bucks media day, the Greek Freak admitted he and Dame didn’t get a chance to work out during the summer. He went home to Greece, but they were constantly communicating. Now, after a few games, Giannis said the team is still looking for its identity. While chemistry is one thing, the more haunting issue is their defense. Or more specifically, Dame’s defense. While Dame can easily score 30+ points, he is also allowing as many on the other end. So far, the Bucks have lost to teams that have young and fast guards that can penetrate and kick it out. One look at the box score, and we can easily see how guards are destroying the Bucks.
In their second game, a loss to the Chicago Bulls, Coby White had 35 points, and Zach LaVine had 25 points. White shot 7-13 from behind the arc, torching the Bucks from outside. Against the Nets, the Bucks surrendered 29 points to Dennis Schroder and 32 to Cam Thomas. Dennis shot 5 of 8 from behind the arc. Their last loss, against the Memphis Grizzlies, came on the heels of Ja Morant scoring 26 points in 29 minutes. The explosive guard was +29, while Dame was -29. Do you see a pattern there?
What Can the Bucks Do?
We can say that when Khris Middleton comes back, things will be better. Head Coach Doc Rivers recently spoke about it, saying Middleton is getting close. But he will not fix many of their issues. The two problems haunting the Bucks are defense against elite guards and turnovers.
They’ve had 18, 16, 14, 14, and 10 turnovers in their first five games. Their lowest, 10, was against the Memphis Grizzlies. If they do not cut on turnovers to reduce easy points, the Bucks will be in trouble. They are already giving up too many easy buckets against fast and explosive guards, so they need to reduce their turnovers.
