54+12, 42+13!The playoffs were questioned last season, and now the offense and defense are integrated, and the Bucks can only rely on him

In 2020, in order to win the championship, the Bucks formed a triumvirate of Brother Alphabet, Middleton, and Holiday lineup, and this decision also helped them win the second championship trophy in team history.

However, since winning the championship, the Bucks have failed to meet expectations for two consecutive seasons, and they lost to the Celtics in the 2022 playoffs due to Middleton's injury, but that is not the worst. In the 2023 playoffs, the Bucks entered the playoffs as the league's No. 1, and then they were eliminated in the first round, facing the bitter enemy Heat, the Bucks were almost powerless, they only won one victory in the entire series, and the opposite Heat still lost the two big players Herro and Oladipo, and this loss also directly made the Bucks' reputation fall to the bottom.

As the star of the Bucks, he has naturally been questioned a lot, and I have to say that he did play very badly in this series, averaging 30+10+5 per game in the regular season, but in the playoffs, his average data per game shrank to only 23.3 points, 11 rebounds and 5.3 assists, and the offensive efficiency also declined seriously, not only did the shooting rate drop to 52.8%, but the most important thing is that he didn't even make a three-point shot in three games, and the free throw shooting rate was as low as 45.2%, the lowest in his playoff career , from this, it can also be seen that the mentality of Brother Alphabet at that time has completely exploded, and he can no longer maintain stability on the field.

And what is more concerning is the entire series, obviously the star Butler on the opposite side has beaten Holiday out, but even so, Brother Alphabet still did not choose him to defend Butler, which is not in line with everyone's opinion of him, you must know that he has not only won MVP before, but he has also won DPOY. So when the Bucks were eliminated, Brother Alphabet also fell into the focus of public opinion, and being blacked out will also become a label in his career, and even some fans who are a little more extreme directly call Brother Alphabet cowardly and soft, and it is better to retire like this.

However, in the offseason, he didn't pay much attention to the rumors about him, he should train when he should train, he should go to China, and he is about to usher in the 11th season of his NBA career. But before the start of the new season, the Bucks also made some changes in order to strengthen them, they used the championship hero Holiday that year, plus Allen and other chips in exchange for Lillard, which is definitely a strengthening for the team's offense, and not long after the team traded Lillard, Brother Alphabet also successfully reached an early contract extension with the Bucks.

Before the start of the season, people began to expect what kind of sparks Antetokounmpo and Lillard could collide, neither of them had ever worked together with such a strong star as each other in their careers, even Middleton and Holiday in the year of the championship, they were obviously one or two notches lower than Lillard in terms of individual strength. And conventionally, Lillard and Brother Alphabet's style of play does not conflict, the former has a strong offensive with the ball and also has a little organizational ability, while Brother Alphabet can not only break through with the ball, but also block and dismantle Lillard, so fans think they have a chance to become one of the best duos in the league.

It's been a while since the start of the new season, but the run-in between Brother Alphabet and Lillard has not been as smooth as expected, but fortunately, the strength of these two people is excellent, and they still played well. As the face of the team, he is still averaging 30.1 points, 10.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.3 blocks per game, shooting 59.9% from the field. Although he has made some sacrifices on the ball on the offensive end, he has become more efficient and has been able to contribute 30+10 stats consistently.

Now in his prime, he remains one of the league's most disruptive stars, and once he's on the ball, there are few teams that can stop him. And this season, Brother Alphabet is completely aware of his strengths and weaknesses, since his three-point is not accurate, then he simply does not shoot, so far he has averaged only 1.9 three-pointers per game, which is also a new low since he became the absolute core of the team, he is like James after the loss in the 2011 Finals, when James completely played his advantages.

However, although the performance of Brother Alphabet has been good enough this season, the current state of the team is not as inexplicable as imagined, and the Bucks are now ranked second in the East with a record of 13 wins and 5 losses, and they seem to have no problem just looking at the record, but if you look at the following sets of data, you can know that the Bucks are now far from becoming a real strong team There are still many problems to solve.

So far, the Bucks have only 115.5 defensive efficiency, which is only 21st in the league, 19th in the league with 13 turnovers per game, and 25th in the league with 24.4 assists per game. On the whole, the Bucks' current offense is basically to watch the two-person rotation of Brother Alphabet and Lillard, especially in the case of Middleton's poor recovery, the team's offensive pressure is all pinned on the two of them, but fortunately, the performance of Brother Alphabet and Lillard did not disappoint, and the team can play at the current offensive level under their leadership.

But it can also be seen that the biggest problem of the Bucks now is in defense, as a team rushing to compete for the championship, their offense and defense are a bit seriously unbalanced, and this is still a performance that Brother Alphabet has put more energy into the defensive end than last season, not to mention that they also have Da Luo who is also DPOY-level on the inside. At present, the Bucks' defense has declined so badly because their outside defense has completely collapsed, and the team's original best defensive Holiday and Allen have all been sent away.

Now the Bucks' outside defenders are Lillard and Beasley, these two players' entire career style of play and defense is basically not touched, and even before the opponent will chase the two of them, and now the Bucks often let these two people be on the court at the same time, but this also leads to Brother Alphabet can't make up for it on the court, although he has worked defense, but still can't change the fact that the team's defense is not good now, but now the Bucks can only rely on Brother Alphabet, otherwise they may not even be able to keep the top three records in the East。