Brandon. After Knight and O.J. Mayo were traded away, the Bucks also made some changes to their roster.

Oladipo replaced point guard from the shooting guard position, while Korver served as the team's starting shooting guard.

Oladipo also played point guard in college before, and although he has been playing point guard since entering the NBA, he is more than enough to play as a guest point guard, not to mention that the Bucks are not very dependent on the point guard position.

Even when Knight was still around, the ball was more often in the hands of Oladipo and Antetokounmpo.

Now that Knight is gone, the ball that belongs to him is divided between the two, which makes them more handy.

Korver belongs to the kind of traditional shooter, usually the basketball into his hands only two options, direct shooting and hand-to-hand passing, in terms of ball possession, he has no conflict with Oladipo and Antetokounmpo, and even their favorite type, after all, catching and shooting means that once the basketball is thrown in, it will also add an assist to their stats.

The duo who got more possession immediately went on to excel in the post-trade deadline game.

On February 20, the Bucks played at home against the Denver Nuggets, and Antetokounmpo was in an unstoppable state, shooting 9 of 20 from the field, 10 of 12 from the free throw line, scoring 28 points, 17 rebounds and 5 assists, 17 rebounds set a new record for the highest single-game rebounds in his career, and 7 of these 17 rebounds in the front court also set a new career record.

Under the unstoppable offense of Brother Alphabet, the Nuggets surrendered in only three quarters of the game and replaced the main lineup.

Then, in the away game against the Hawks on February 22, Oladipo shot 13-of-21 and 4-of-5 free throws to score 30 points and lead the team to win the game.

In this game, Knight and Mayo also played, but the performance was decent, both came off the bench, and the playing time in the Hawks' more neat lineup was also limited, one got eight players, and the other only scored three points in the game.

The Hawks traded for the two because they saw the potential of the two young players, and on the other hand, they also had the idea of trading them for better chips after the summer contract extension.

After all, although the two played mediocre, they also combined for 11 points, which is similar to Korver's efficiency with the Hawks, and Korver's tactical position in the Hawks itself is not particularly important, at least compared to the trade value it has.

……

Korver, who came to the Bucks, felt that he was playing more comfortably with the Bucks than with the Hawks.

The Eagles are a positional and defensive team. Budenholzer, a disciple of Popovich, was well versed in positional defense.

But positional defense also means playing steadily, you are stable and the opponent is also stable, and there are not many opportunities to break fast and play less.

Although the point guard of the Hawks is Jeff who is good at breaking. Teague, but Korver, who is basically in the bottom corner of the three-point position, can not get many shots, and only gets the opportunity to shoot when he is running tactics.

But with the Bucks, it's a different story.

The Bucks' style of play is somewhat similar to the Wizards' small-ball tactics, although the overall average height is almost crushing the Wizards, but the speed of offensive and defensive transitions on the court is not much inferior to the Wizards.

In this way, there are often quick offensive and defensive transition opportunities on the court, and whenever Oladipo or Brother Alphabet hits the basket with the ball, the opponent has to arrange more manpower to station under the basket, and Korver on the outside can easily get an open opportunity to shoot easily.

In the two games he came to the Bucks, Korver averaged more than 10 three-point shots per game, hitting an average of four shots, although the shooting rate was only 40%, which is much lower than the 49.2% three-point shooting rate he had with the Hawks before coming to the Bucks this season.

But it's normal for shots to increase and shoot percentages to decrease, and an average of four three-pointers per game has allowed Korver to score more than 15 points in both games, making it a very consistent scoring point for the Bucks.

Korver's play and the outstanding performances of Oladipo and Antetokounmpo also completely put down the anxiety of Bucks fans because the two players of the team were traded.

Now that the team has gotten stronger after the trade, what else is there to say?

As a hope for the rise of the team that was once regarded by Bucks fans, Knight who joined the league in 11 years has disappointed fans for three seasons, and it is good to go, anyway, they have Wang Xiao, so they are not afraid of the lack of excellent players in the team.

……

Then in the remaining four games at the end of February, the Bucks achieved a 3-1 record, with an overall record of 36 wins and 23 losses, successfully surpassing the Hawks in terms of record and officially stepping into the top half of the division.

After the game in February, there are only 23 games left in the entire regular season, including 15 games in March and 8 games in April, according to the record of the Boston Celtics, who are currently eighth in the East, theoretically as long as the Bucks can win 10 of these 23 games, they can be 100% guaranteed to advance to the playoffs.

In fact, as long as the Bucks win five more games, it is basically impossible to miss the playoffs.

Wang Xiao's promise before the start of the new season has been fulfilled in advance, and how good the Bucks can do is something that everyone is curious about.

In 15 games in March, the Bucks finally achieved a 7-8 record, with a winning rate of only 46.66%, which is completely within the acceptable range of Wang Xiao.

After all, in March, all teams have to go all out for playoff spots and rankings, even teams with weaker records than the Bucks are very difficult to deal with, such as the Heat, Knicks, Celtics, these have to fight for the eighth place in the East, and the Spurs, Grizzlies These Western teams are also competing for a higher ranking for home court advantage because of their close records.

In such a fierce competition, the Bucks can still win 7 games, which is already more satisfactory to Wang Xiao, after all, the Bucks players are still just a group of inexperienced rookies.

The Bucks' last seven games in April were against the Bulls, Magic, Cavaliers, Nets, 76ers, Celtics and Pacers.

The Bucks won four games against the Bulls, Magic, 76ers and Pacers, and lost three games against the Cavaliers, Nets and Celtics to settle their record at 48-34.