Fantasy Review For 2018/19 Season:
Coach Budenholzer reshaped their playing style around Giannis Antetokounmpo, trying to make the most out of their young leader abilities. Judging on the results – best standing after a regular season and the MVP award for Giannis, it worked out pretty well. Their next step will be geting to the NBA Finals, as all of their imperfections got exposed last year by Kawhi Leonard and the Raptors in Conference Finals.
Changes in the offseason
Lost = Malcolm Brogodon, Nicola Mirotic
Added = Wesley Matthews, Robin Lopez, Frank Mason, Dragan Bender
The Brogdon loss must be painful for the Bucks, but they had obviously a walk away price and the Pacers offer just beat that. Same with Mirotic, I dont think anybody anticipated him coming back to Spain.
Projected Depth Chart:
| PG | SG | SF | PF | C |
| Eric Bledsoe | Wesley Matthews | Khris Middleton | Giannis Antetokounmpo | Brook Lopez |
| George Hill | Sterling Brown | Pat Connaughton | Ersan Ilyasova | Robin Lopez |
| Frank Mason | Donte DiVencenzo | Kyle Korver | Dragan Bender | DJ Wilson |
Positional Battles: SG
Its going to be a bloodbath. There are four players fighting for a rotation spot here, and even though Wesley Matthews projects as a starter he is definately not a lock for most minutes out of the group. Coach Bud loves all three of Brown, Connaughton and DiVincenzo and we should keep in mind, that from time to time, also Kyle Korver will appear in that rotation.
Fantasy Relevant in leagues with 12- to 15-teams:
In less than 33 mpg he was a sixth roto player last season (and obviously the MVP). This year, with further shooting progress and small improvements in 3s, FT% and TOs, he is bound to crack the top5 and has a legit chance of becoming best roto player of the year.
As predicted, last season his workload dropped from 36 to 31 minutes and, along with small but noticable declines in threes and steals it dropped him from top30 to top70 range. This year should be no different, maybe with a little bounce back in mentioned 3s and steals.
Bucks might be regreting that now because it effectively meant departure of Malcolm Brogdon, but they bet on Eric with a 70 mln extension last season and at the time it was considered a steal for them. He was finally healthy and playing with great ferocity, providing great steals and assists along with efficient shooting. Despite his traditional meltdown in playoffs there is no reason to think that he can’t repeat his last years top50 performance.
A Splash Mountain. Last year he provided 2.3 threes and 2.2 blocks per game, with some good efficiency, what was enough to top30 roto 9 cat finish. Due to his shooting ability and size and skill crucial to Budenholzer’s defense, he might has been second most important player on the Bucks team. This year he has a real chance of repeating what he achieved recently and maybe going further, to the levels of 5+ threes+blocks.
Could be useful with trades/injuries [or in deeper leagues than 15 teams]:
Ersan Ilyasova, Pat Connaughton, Sterling Brown, George Hill, Robin Lopez
Just don’t bother with:
Wesley Matthews, Donte DiVincenzo, Dragan Bender
Don’t forget to check the rest of the Milwaukee Bucks fantasy basketball projections..
Posted in Teams preview