Eric Nehm points out how little we went there under Bud, as well as Connaughton’s potential importance to a switch everything defensive lineup.
That could also impact the Bobby vs Pat calculus in trade scenarios if we decide to give up 1 + Grayson.
As far as using Antetokounmpo at center, the lineup listed above provides an interesting “small-ball” option, but it remains a total mystery, despite it being a possibility last season.
According to Cleaning the Glass, last season the “Big Three plus Connaughton and Crowder” lineup never saw the floor during the regular season or the playoffs. There were injuries to Antetokounmpo, Crowder and Middleton that limited the overall opportunities to play that lineup, but it was still a shock, considering Budenholzer used a “Big Three plus Connaughton and P.J. Tucker” lineup for nearly 10 percent of the team’s postseason possessions during the Bucks’ 2021 championship run.
Overall, this lineup is interesting to me because, while it is technically a “small-ball” look, it features great size. While Budenholzer deployed Crowder at small forward for 37 percent of his possessions last season, the 6-foot-6 forward spent 97 percent of his time on the floor as a power forward in two seasons with the Suns. In Milwaukee, Connaughton has regularly shown an ability to go up the ladder and defend bigger players as well, which would help the Bucks put together a stout unit to handle teams with more size than the Bucks.
Defensively, this unit might need to rely on more switching because of an overall lack of elite quickness, but that would seem like a welcome feature of such a unit after years of watching the Bucks play man-to-man with drop coverage. Offensively, Antetokounmpo would be surrounded by capable shooters, and the team’s three best playmakers would be on the floor to make up for the fact that Connaughton and Crowder tend to be used as stationary shooters.
https://theathletic.com/4744710/2023/08/07/three-milwaukee-bucks-lineups/?source=dailyemail&campaign=601983
