Take Your Pick!

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I also think a Parker Monroe frontcourt could prove problematic for them defensively moving forward.

Milwaukee had last year 2nd ranked defense in whole NBA with Parker/Ilyasova and Pachulia playing majority of minutes as their bigs. I don't see that Parker/Monroe combination would be worse than that in future. Having rim protecting small forward in Giannis helps a lot. Similar way than Kirilenko helped to cover sub-par defense of Okur/Boozer front court in Utah. I see still outside shooting as most critical problem with Milwaukee's current players. They have just Middleton, Mayo and Vasquez whom have reliable 3-point shot.

Jabari only played in 25 games last year so I hardly think you can give him any credit for their number 2 defense. Who replaced a good chunk of Jabari's minutes? John Henson who is a very good defender and shot blocker (averaged two blocks in just 18 MPG's last year). Monroe is also a worse defender than Pachulia. Giannis averaged less than a block per game so his rim protection isn't enough to cover for a bad defensive frontcourt. Kirilenko for comparison had over 3 blocks per game in 2 consecutive seasons and averaged 2 per game during his time in Utah. Milwaukee's defense was second because they had the versatility to switch everything and not get burned. When you can do that you shut off virtually any means of penetration for the other team and they can't get good looks at the rim.

[Monster]

Someone last year broke down how Montoe was actually a solid defender especially on pick and roll plays and Grantland said that as well in this article

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nba-all-star-team-eastern-western-conference/

[MikkeMan]

Jabari only played in 25 games last year so I hardly think you can give him any credit for their number 2 defense. Who replaced a good chunk of Jabari's minutes? John Henson who is a very good defender and shot blocker (averaged two blocks in just 18 MPG's last year). Monroe is also a worse defender than Pachulia. Giannis averaged less than a block per game so his rim protection isn't enough to cover for a bad defensive frontcourt. Kirilenko for comparison had over 3 blocks per game in 2 consecutive seasons and averaged 2 per game during his time in Utah. Milwaukee's defense was second because they had the versatility to switch everything and not get burned. When you can do that you shut off virtually any means of penetration for the other team and they can't get good looks at the rim.

Khans, John Henson played only 3% of his minutes as a forward last season. That is equal to total of 36 minutes. So Jabari is not going to take minutes from Henson. Henson was used mainly as a backup for Zaza and he will be getting minutes as a backup of Monroe next season. If he will have injury free season, it will be likely that Henson will play more minutes than last year. Bucks just traded Ilyasova who played more than 1300 minutes as a combo forward last season. If Parker will play whole next season, he is mainly replacing Ilyasova's minutes and Ersan has been only once net positive as defender during last 4 years. And that was 2013-14 season when Bucks ranked dead last in defense. So even if Jabari's defense wouldn't ever be much better than Ersan's has been, Bucks should be fine with him.

It is true that Zaza was pretty good in defense last year. Bucks had Drtg 99.3 with him and 104.3 without him. But it was first time for five years when he was net positive as a defender. I cannot see that Kidd and his coaching staff wouldn't be able to turn Monroe similar way to net positive as a defender. Zaza's value for Bucks team in defense was pretty similar than Pek's value for Wolves defense. He is a big guy that takes some space in defense and thus improves their defensive rebounding. Monroe is pretty equal in terms of size and he is even better rebounder, so I see that he will be able to pretty easily take similar role in Bucks defense than Zaza had last year.

I agree that Bucks were terrific in pick and roll defense last year (allowed least pick and roll points) and Giannis was also big part of that. But they allowed also least transition points in whole NBA and unlike Atlanta they were able to do that without sacrificing offensive rebounding. Giannis with his incredible mobility for his length was the main reason for that. They also allowed least points per possession in isolation plays. That was mainly because Giannis and Middleton were exceptional in help defense and still being also able recover to defend their man so that double team didn't result open spot-up opportunity.

Giannis per 36 minutes block numbers are not nearly as impressive as Kirilenko's rookie season numbers (1.2 vs 2.7) but we have to remember that at same age than Giannis was last year, Kirilenko was still playing in Europe. There is also lot of other rim protection than blocked shots, quite often just altering the shot can result missed shot. Garnett won defensive player of the year award in Boston while he averaged just 1.1 blocks per 36 minutes. I'm not saying that Giannis would be nearly as effective defender than KG was that year but it is just an example that you can provide elite rim protection without elite blocked shot stats.

[MikkeMan]

Wiggins was the best jump shooting prospect when compared to guys like Lebron, etc. at one point last year. In January at his peak he shot 46/34/79 on 16 shots and almost 3 three's a game. His 36 MPG's (38+ from January on) took his legs away from him. Look at his 3pt percentages by month. 100/42/33/34/18/19/11. Wiggins played 438 more minutes than Giannis last year. That's an extra 9 full 48 minute games for a guy who only played in 30 something games the year before in college. I think a dialed back Wiggins in terms of minutes is a much better jump shooter than Giannis through the course of a season. When you factor in Wiggins' slow start and exhausted finish I think his true numbers occurred from December-February and then he was done because of the minutes load. It's probably not likely to be found, but those are the numbers I'd want to see compared to Giannis and that's around the time I remember him receiving the praise for being the best jump shooting prospect of top young rookie players of the past like Lebron.

Wiggins was having at one point of January in terms of TS% better shooting month than any that LeBron or Durant had had at same point in their rookie seasons. But he cooled little bit in the end of January and had TS% .546 for the whole month. That was pretty good and better than any of months that LeBron had but Durant had actually much better month in his rookie year by having TS% .606 in March. Wiggins efficiency in January was mainly result of his great fouls drawn rate. His jump shooting FG% was just .339 in that month.

While Wiggins 3P% was bad in last couple of months, his best jump shooting FG% months were actually February and April with .355 and .351 FG%. That is promising but not elite level even for a rookie. Durant had FG% .367 for whole rookie season and in his best month March he shot with .453 FG% in jump shots. Other notable 19- or 20 old wing rookies with clearly better jump shot are Bradley Beal with .373 FG% in jump shots, Gordon Hayward with .413, DeMar DeRozan with .391, James Harden with .372, Eric Gordon with .393, Mike Miller with .396, Mike Beasley with .425 and Kawhi Leonard with .391.

Since Wiggins was just 19 years old in the beginning of last year and his numbers came while he was most of the season as teams 1st option in offense, I think his overall jump shooting numbers were still really promising. But so far he has mainly potential as jump shooter same way than Lavine has and his ceiling in that area depends on mainly how well he develops. Same can be said about Giannis.