The Milwaukee Bucks have leaned hard into the 3-point line to open the season, but the results haven’t matched the volume.
In their latest game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Milwaukee launched 51 3-pointers among its 100 field-goal attempts. The Bucks made 17 of them and finished at 33% from deep, which is respectable in a vacuum but not enough when that many possessions are built around the shot.
That has been the story of Milwaukee’s start. The Bucks are taking 42.8 3-pointers per game, good for No. 4 in the NBA, and they’re making 14.5 per game, which ranks No.
- The problem is the efficiency.
Milwaukee sits No. 21 in 3-point percentage at 33.9%, a sharp drop from last season, when the team ranked No. 10 in attempts, No. 4 in makes and No. 2 in percentage.
That downturn stands out even more after the Bucks added Tyler Herro, Kasparas Jakučionis and Kel'el Ware in the trade, with all three coming off seasons in which they shot better than 37% from 3. On paper, it looked like a foundation head coach Taylor Jenkins could build on.
The Bucks have clearly bought into the aggressive approach, but the shots haven’t consistently gone down. Four players are shooting above 40% from deep and have appeared in at least three games, but there’s a noticeable drop after Herro, AJ Green, Nate Ament and Jaime Jaquez Jr. The rest of the roster has not provided the same kind of shooting punch.
Myles Turner has been one of the biggest examples of that struggle. Before this season, Turner had shot 36.5% from 3 over 11 NBA seasons, including 38.3% last year with Milwaukee. This year, he’s down to 19.2% from beyond the arc, including a three-game stretch in which he went 0-for-10.
Even so, Turner isn’t changing his approach.
“I’ve been in this league for quite a long time. I've made 1,000-some 3-pointers; I have confidence I'll make 1,000 more," Turner said after the loss to the Cavaliers on Saturday.
"I mean, I'm not gonna stop shooting because I miss a couple of shots, and I'd be remiss if I became a shadow of myself. So, the shots have to keep going up.”
The Bucks’ issue isn’t just missing shots. It’s when the misses come. When the 3-ball stops falling, the offense can go cold in bunches, and those stretches have helped bury Milwaukee in games.
That was on display in the 32-point loss to the Houston Rockets, when the Bucks went 12-for-41 from 3-point range, or 29.25%. Jenkins said he liked most of the looks his team generated, while also pointing to the kind of attempts he wants trimmed.
"I love a lot of the looks that we're getting, some I want to eliminate, some of the early clock ones, the no pass shots, we're one of the top 10 teams in shot quality right now but bottom 10 in efficiency... our assists early in the season were great but it's been down the last few games... nature of the early part of the season."
Milwaukee has embraced the 3-point-heavy identity, and the volume is there. But until the shots start falling more consistently, the Bucks are going to keep living with the same problem: plenty of attempts, not enough payoff.
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