With a snazzy cover at the beginning and diagrams near the end that show referees the hand signals to be used for each call, the NBA’s official rulebook for the 2022-23 season takes up 74 pages.
Inside those pages are 14 rules, and within each of the rules there are multiple sections that explain, clarify and delineate the specifics of each larger idea. The fifth rule is titled “Scoring and Timing” and the sixth section of that rule is titled “Timeouts — Mandatory/Team.”
While that section may seem unimportant, it has taken on a life of its own in Milwaukee with Mike Budenholzer as head coach, especially the last sentence.
The very first bullet point of Rule No. 5, Section VI reads:
“Each team is entitled to seven (7) charged timeouts during regulation play. Each team is limited to no more than four (4) timeouts in the fourth period. Each team will be limited to two (2) team timeouts after the later of (i) the three-minute mark of the fourth period or (ii) the conclusion of the second mandatory timeout of the fourth period.”
As the Bucks approach the three-minute mark in most games, Budenholzer often has three (or more) timeouts remaining. And because teams can only take two timeouts in the final three minutes of regulation, he is often left with a simple, binary choice.
Would he like to use the timeout before the three-minute mark or would he prefer to lose the timeout?
“Pretty much, the players know I want to use it,” Budenholzer told The Athletic. “I think the whole team pretty much knows I’m going to use it. I would say, almost habitually, that’s what we’re going to do.”
Associate head coach Charles Lee laughs about it now, but he will always remember the mistake he made on Nov. 21, 2019, in the Bucks’ 137-129 win over the Portland Trail Blazers at Fiserv Forum.
Before the 2019-20 season, Lee, then just one of Budenholzer’s front-of-bench assistant coaches, was given a new responsibility. Budenholzer tasked him with keeping him prepared and informed of the timeout situation during games and helping with the strategy surrounding those timeouts.
As Lee learned, his responsibility was more than just knowing how many timeouts were left and which team would be forced to take the next mandatory timeout. He also needed to have a feel for the game and suggest when to take a timeout at the right time, based on that particular game and situation.
So when Wesley Matthews fouled Carmelo Anthony in that November 2019 game and the veteran forward went to the free-throw line with three minutes remaining, Lee saw an opportunity. Knowing that the Bucks had an extra timeout left to take before the final three minutes, he suggested taking one between Anthony’s free throw attempts.
“I was like, ‘We have a use-it-or-lose-it ’till three,'” Lee recalled. “And we took it right at three.”
(Splitting” a free throw with a timeout has been shown to decrease free throw percentage by roughly three to four percent because it is believed to eliminate any benefit of rhythm or “range-finding” gained by standing at the line for consecutive free throws.)
“Come to find out, we ended up losing an extra timeout too,” Lee said.
After Budenholzer called a timeout with 3:00 on the clock to split up Anthony’s free throws, an official walked over and told him the Bucks had only one timeout remaining for the rest of the game. To have used the extra one, the Bucks needed to have called a timeout at 3:01 or earlier.
“Luckily, the game wasn’t close,” Lee said. “Otherwise I know I would have been in some hot water. So now when I stand up, I just want him to recognize that it’s 3:01 and don’t forget. Just be mindful of it as we’re coming back down the floor (with the ball).”
Honestly, that reminder is probably a bit superfluous at this point because no one in the NBA is more mindful of that specific moment than Budenholzer. In fact, no coach called more timeouts in the 45th minute of the game (between 3:01 and 4:00 left on the game clock) this season.
“It didn’t take long to figure it out,” Holiday said, when asked about how many games it took him to realize his coach’s timeout tendency upon arriving in Milwaukee in 2020. “He wants to use it. He usually always wants to use it and I understand why because I’m a point guard and I understand how the timeouts work, but sometimes, if we’re in a groove, I’d rather play.”
But given the chance, Budenholzer is almost always going to take the use-it-or-lose-it timeout, which is also sometimes called “the extra” or “the floater” by coaches around the league. And he’s not alone.
“I don’t have a name for it,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, the second most frequent user of the use-it-or-lose-it timeout, told The Athletic. “But I know Quinny (Heat assistant coach Chris Quinn) is always yelling at me to take it.”
This is the second consecutive season Budenholzer has led the league in the usage of timeouts called in the 45th minute of the game. Since getting to Milwaukee, Budenholzer has never finished lower than fourth in the category, according to statistics pulled by The Athletic’s Seth Partnow.
Why?
“I think, hopefully, it gives you a chance to get organized,” Budenholzer told The Athletic. “I’d be curious to hear how we rank in execution or our side out-of-bounds efficiency after it. If it’s bad, don’t write this story. (laughs)
“But yeah, just get organized, get a good shot.”
Before the examination of the Bucks’ effectiveness on use-it-or-lose-it timeouts, let’s delve a little deeper into the intentions of the coach who has taken use-it-or-lose-it timeouts at a higher rate than any other coach in the NBA over the last five seasons.
“Before you even ask, I do think we tend to have a timeout — or I tend to not burn as many early in games as other coaches,” Budenholzer said. “So I also think we tend to have them more than other coaches. There are some coaches that just — and it’s not always a positive — but there are some coaches when there’s a run and, man, they’re the quickest to take a timeout.
“And there are times where I wish I was quicker,” he added. “But I would say habitually, or traditionally, I’m not the quickest to use them during the game, so I would guess we have them more often than a lot of coaches or teams do. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but I think there are other guys that are quicker to use them.”
While other coaches, including Budenholzer’s mentor, Gregg Popovich, are quick to call a “run-stopping” timeout, Budenholzer often lets his teams play through an opponent’s run and steady themselves out on the floor. But that is far from the only reason Budenholzer uses it far more than he loses it.
“I would say, I know that it’s a different thing, but there is a little bit of an obsession of being sure we have all of our timeouts going into that last three minutes,” Budenholzer said. “So, the obsession of having them all leads to you actually having an extra.”
If Budenholzer has two timeouts heading into the final three minutes, that means he has timeouts available if he needs to challenge a call — Budenholzer also tends to save his challenge for the final few minutes — or advance the basketball if the Bucks trail in the closing seconds of a game. Also, part of his philosophy has to do with the players on his roster, specifically his best player.
Giannis Antetokounmpo plays hard. He doesn’t tend to pace himself during a game by taking possessions “off” on either end of the floor. So to help Antetokounmpo get extra rest late in games, Budenholzer has found a timeout around the 3-minute mark particularly useful.
“I would say, the other thing is giving Giannis a break, giving the entire team a break,” Budenholzer said. “Lots of times, that fourth quarter, you just need to catch your breath again. If we can play (Antetokounmpo) more in the fourth quarter and we have those timeouts, it’s another way for us to kind of rest the whole group, but especially him down the stretch. Like for Giannis, when we need to get through a fourth quarter and he’s gotta play 10 or 12 minutes, I think part of it is to save it for those situations.”
In the end, it’s clear that Budenholzer’s prolific use of the use-it-or-lose-it timeout is far more about circumstance than functionality. Because if it was about the effectiveness of offense after a timeout, he would use timeouts more often in the final minute of games.
During the Budenholzer era in Milwaukee, the Bucks are the only team to call timeouts more frequently during the 45th minute of a game than the final minute of a game.
The Bucks have blown a lot of teams out over the last five seasons, largely avoiding being in close games late, but things might still play out the same way even if they only played close games. In the final minute, Budenholzer believes it is better to trust his players and let them create something without using a timeout. Here’s why.
“There was a game very, very early in my career where the Spurs won a game basically doing that. And it was powerful,” Budenholzer said while politely declining to say which game exactly. When pestered a few days later, Budenholzer, who is notoriously secretive when asked to give anecdotes and examples, relented.
He didn’t know the exact date of the game, but quickly rattled off five details that would help identify it.
“Avery Johnson. Detroit. 15 feet. Right side baseline. Alamodome,” Budenholzer said.
The game — a 95-94 Spurs’ victory over the Pistons on Feb. 17, 1998 — featured a steal by Johnson that ultimately led to a game-winning jumper from Johnson with four seconds remaining.
— Video courtesy of the Milwaukee Bucks and NBA
“I just think you generate better shots trusting your players against a somewhat less organized or a somewhat random environment,” Budenholzer said. “I think playing against a defense that’s not organized, not set, and maybe cannot substitute, and trusting your players and letting them play and the shots you can generate in that environment, to me, I actually would argue are better than what happens lots of times if you give the opposing coaches, the opposing defenses and everything a chance to get organized and set.”
Knowing that it will be more difficult to score against a set defense following a timeout, Budenholzer and the Bucks are particular about the details when calling a use-it-or-lose-it timeout. For example, watch Jrue Holiday on this play:
It may look like he just dribbled the ball up the floor and called a timeout while Budenholzer waved him forward from the sideline, but he actually executed an important detail along the way.
“Did you notice Jrue dribbled the ball to the middle of the court and called the timeout around the top of the key there?” Bucks assistant coach Patrick St. Andrews asked. “That allows you to take the ball on either side of the court after the timeout. If you dribble up the left side and call a timeout, you have to take the ball on the left side. If you dribble up the right side and call a timeout, you have to take the ball on the right side.”
That detail is important because it gives the Bucks the freedom to call more plays. And that is particularly important to St. Andrews because he is in charge of putting together the Bucks’ after-timeout notes —”ATO Card” — for every game. It’s a responsibility he took over at the start of the 2020-21 season when former assistant coach Josh Longstaff left to join the Chicago Bulls.
If you see Budenholzer take a sheet of paper out of his pocket during a timeout, it is most likely the ATO Card that St. Andrews put together with the assistance of Jack Herum, a player development and video assistant.
“It is a card of end-of-game or situational stuff that we have, that we can quickly reference at the timeout,” Budenholzer explained. “I mean, it is a huge job.”
“It is basically our play call menu for the night,” St. Andrews said.
And the ATO Card is fresh every game.
Certain types of plays will always be on the card, but different sections of the card are tailored for each specific game. If Antetokounmpo is out for the night, plays for him are off the card and more plays for different players get added. If the opponent frequently plays zone defense, the card needs to have more plays to combat that. If the Bucks have been playing more small-ball lineups recently, the card needs to have a few plays that can take advantage.
“There’s a lot of thought that goes into why which plays are on the card for that night,” St. Andrews said. “Because if you’re printing a card, you can only fit so much. So, space, at the end of the day, on this card is probably the most valuable thing.
“We try to pick our best few plays that we like for that night and try to do different lineups. You gotta have at least one with no Giannis on the court. You got to have something for Khris (Middleton), something for Jrue, something for Joe (Ingles), to try to have a good balance with it. You try to think about what lineups are, who plays with who. Sometimes that’s tricky, but you just try to figure all that out and narrow it all down into one beautiful final product.”
In the end, Budenholzer has the final say of what goes on the card and he talks through that with St. Andrews before each game, but “Saint” is the one responsible for filtering things down to get the best of the best. If an assistant coach sees an interesting play while putting together the scouting report of an opponent, that gets sent to St. Andrews. If someone in the video room comes across an interesting clip, he’ll make sure Herum or St. Andrews sees it as well.
“We’ve gone back and watched Euroleague stuff, championship teams of the past, (Michael) Jordan’s Bulls, you name it, we’ve tried pretty much everything,” said head video coordinator Sidney Dobner, who served as St. Andrew’s assistant on the ATO Card before getting promoted to head video coordinator this season.
“The use of Second Spectrum is big. Being able to filter quickly and look at successful out-of-timeout plays, you get in a rhythm of each night just looking at what other teams ran. And yeah, you steal stuff — concepts, I would say — from other teams and make them our own because we’re a unique team.”
The collaborative process definitely means people throughout the coaching staff, from the video room to the bench, can take pride in what the Bucks do out on the floor.
“If you see one of your plays get ran and executed correctly, you’re like, ‘Oh man, I just scored,'” Dobner said. “That’s what it feels like.”
So, with so much care put into the ATO Card and making sure the Bucks are perfectly prepared for these moments, are the Bucks any good in these situations? Are they actually successful when taking use-it-or-lose-it timeouts?
Under Budenholzer, the Bucks have been one of the league’s most efficient ATO offenses, finishing in the top 10 in four of his five seasons in Milwaukee.
| ATO points per poss. | League Rank | |
|---|---|---|
And while Synergy does not track the offensive efficiency of each team following timeouts taken during the 45th minute of a game, The Athletic compiled those stats for the Bucks this season.
Budenholzer took a league-leading 47 timeouts during the 45th minute of the game this season with 10 of those timeouts taken in blowouts to get the regulars off the floor. On the 37 plays that came after a timeout during the 45th minute and featured the Bucks’ rotation players, a true use-it-or-lose-it timeout, the Bucks scored 38 points, which means they scored 1.027 points per possession.
“I think it’s just evolved to become part of Bud’s process,” St. Andrews said of Budenholzer’s utilization of the use-it-or-lose-it timeout. “I think he’s comfortable with all the preparation we put into it. I think he’s comfortable drawing up plays and special things toward the end of games. I think he likes giving our guys a break late in games to catch their breath.
“And then, we get to make sure we get something good that we know and that we like that is simple for our guys to run on that next possession.”
As long as the results remain positive, when the 3-minute mark of the fourth quarter comes around, get ready for Budenholzer to use that timeout because, for now, he has no interest in losing it.
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