Analytics are tricky because they tell us undeniable truths about the sports we love, but without context or simple statistics like wins and losses, they can also be meaningless. So what are the Milwaukee Bucks supposed to do with the information that their starting lineup is one of the best in the NBA by Net Rating to start the year?
12 different lineups have accumulated 60 or more minutes together to begin the 2026-27 NBA season. Of those 12, the Milwaukee Bucks rank second in Net Rating (20.0), only behind the reigning Western Conference champion's three-guard lineup. That group of Ryan Rollins, Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kyle Kuzma, and Myles Turner has a 120 Offensive Rating and a 100 Defensive Rating in 75 minutes together, which is the fifth-most minutes of any lineup in the NBA right now.
However, the Bucks still sit at 14th in the Eastern Conference with a 1-6 record, which is tied with the other two teams in the bottom three, despite remaining competitive in almost every game they've played thus far. It places quite a conundrum on the lap of head coach Taylor Jenkins, who is trying to figure out how to stack some wins together with a loaded roster that hasn't quite figured out how to translate talent into winning just yet.
The Milwaukee Bucks have the potential to make some noise if they can just clean up some of their mistakes and play a more cohesive game.
At a baseline, every NBA team that wants to be successful needs to have a lineup they know they can rely on to start and close games. Jenkins clearly isn't satisfied with the early results, having recently benched Ryan Rollins for Brayden Burries to pull Rollins out of his shooting slump. This signals that the Bucks' head coach doesn't care what the data says if the eye test isn't up to par.
With that said, I'd expect that to only be a temporary measure, with Rollins shooting like he's wearing a backpack full of bricks to start the season. Rollins is too talented a shooter and scorer for this to last forever, and he will more than likely be back in the starting five before we know it.
Plus, that starting five has everything you could ask for — positional versatility, mobility on defense, floor spacing, slashing, playmaking, and several players who can take over a possession when nothing else is working out. It's absolutely something the Bucks will lean into as they find their identity as a group on the basketball court.
Until it translates into winning basketball games, the lineup data doesn't mean much. But it's too noticable of a footnote to the start of Milwaukee's season to let it pass by without noticing and stashing for later in the season, when this Bucks team is truly ready to start winning games.
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