Milwaukee Bucks guard Ryan Rollins is arguably having the biggest breakthrough of any player in the NBA this season, improving his scoring average from 6.2 points per game last season (his previous career-high) to a relatively remarkable 18.6 points per game as a key member of the Bucks’ starting lineup.

Rollins started just 19 games in his career before this season began, but he’s found his role as an everyday starter with the Bucks and has only come off the bench once in 18 appearances this season. Rollins has also tallied his three highest career scoring outputs, including a career-high 32 points in a win over the Warriors on Oct. 30 without Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Not to mention, Rollins also matched that 32-point against the Pistons last week. Unfortunately for Rollins and the Bucks, that outburst came in a 129-116 loss to the red-hot Detroit Pistons. 

Of course, with the added responsibility and the success that Rollins has had accepting it, he’s now become a centerpiece of opposing teams’ game plans. That added attention has resulted in quite a challenge for the breakthrough star.

“It’s been a big stress for me, honestly,” Rollins said. “Honestly, it's kind of hard for me to get the ball and just get in my rhythm in certain situations. We're just kind of making our offense stall out sometimes, making it start to play a little later in the shot clock. Kind of just trickle effect a little bit, but you got to do a better job of getting it and getting to our sets.”

Guarded Like A Legend

Bucks coach Doc Rivers drew parallels between the coverage Rollins is getting this year and the coverage that star Damian Lillard was receiving in his two years in Milwaukee, which is a pretty high compliment to pay to Rollins’ game and his drastic improvement this season, if anything. 

Rollins agreed with the assessment from Rivers and quickly came to his own conclusion that he should go back and watch some film of Lillard’s stint with the team to figure out how to better handle the coverage.

“Most of the time, it’s easier just to get off it and just let whoever brings the ball up to us into some sort of set, get some motion and get the ball moving,” Rollins said. “(Lillard) was guarded the same way here, So I honestly should watch a little bit more of how he was handling that and how he was getting off it and still getting to sets.”