NBA: 5 Biggest and most telling pre-season takeaways

Milwaukee mayhem

The Milwaukee Bucks are obviously a much different team post-Damian Lillard trade and that has raised some questions about how the team’s point-of-attack defense will look like. Damian Lillard has struggled on the defensive end throughout his career, which led to questions about how the Bucks’ defense will be affected. Could Damian Lillard become at least a neutral on defense?

Under new head coach Adrain Griffin, the Bucks have switched up their defensive approach a little bit. Already in pre-season, we’ve seen a bit of 2-3 zone and at-the-level pick-and-roll defense, a massive change from last year’s completely drop coverage scheme. Now the Bucks still mostly play drop coverage with the Lopez twins and Giannis on the court, but they have switched it up at times.

The offense has struggled, which could be expected given that Dame and Giannis have played very little together. Friday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies was the first time we saw Khris Middleton in the preseason so expect some growing pains as the season starts.

The Bucks have generated a ton of open looks with Lillard and Antetokounmpo on the floor and they haven’t fallen so it’s best to not overreact to the slow start on offense.