Over the weekend, the Milwaukee Bucks’ trio of guards — Kevin Porter Jr., Ryan Rollins and Cam Thomas — made it clear that this is their team right now. They are going to have the greatest amount of influence on the proceedings.

With all three being 25 years old or younger, that’s exciting for a Bucks team that has struggled to develop young talent over the years. The weekend’s performances highlighted the group’s potential, but also introduced the pitfalls that could hold them back over the final 27 games of the season.

Friday night in New Orleans, the trio combined for 79 points on 31-of-47 shooting (66 percent) in a 139-118 win over the Pelicans:

Rollins: 27 points (10-of-15), six assists
Thomas: 27 points (11-of-17 ), one assist
Porter: 25 points (10-of-15), seven assists

Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee, the Bucks struggled with the Toronto Raptors’ physicality in a 122-94 loss, but the trio once again served as the Bucks’ three leading scorers:

Porter: 21 points (8-of-11), 10 assists
Rollins: 21 points (6-of-17), one assist
Thomas: 15 points (5-of-9), one assist

For the Bucks (24-31) to be successful the rest of the season, they will need significant contributions from all three players — but they will also need to see significant growth from them.

Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers gives instruction to Ryan Rollins (13) and Kevin Porter Jr. in a recent game. (Geoff Burke / Imagn Images)

The trio’s greatest collective strength is its scoring ability. They are going to find their most success when they can hunt mismatches and attack overmatched defenders like they did in New Orleans.

“We’re just being aggressive, looking for our shots on all of our three-level scorers,” Rollins said after Friday’s game. “Being aggressive, some situations where you may feel like it’s an advantage that they have on a defender that’s guarding them. We just call a quick boomerang or just give them space and let them work out, so it’s literally that.”

Following Friday’s game, Rivers was quick to point out how well the Bucks identified a matchup they liked and put one of their three guards in a position to attack that mismatch. On Sunday, those matchups were more difficult to find as they went from playing against the Pelicans’ porous defense (27th in defensive rating) to the Raptors’ physical and aggressive unit (fifth in defensive rating).

Porter and Thomas managed to find their spots and score efficiently on Sunday, despite taking fewer shots than they did against the Pelicans in roughly the same amount of time on the floor, but Rollins struggled. The youngest of the trio at 23, Rollins often got sped up and tried to force drives against Toronto, something he has grappled with at times this season.

“I thought their physicality completely took us out of the game,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said after Sunday’s game. “We stopped moving the ball and playing the way we’ve been. … It’s a good lesson for us, especially for our young guards. They got into (the guards) and then, instead of playing right and playing the same way, it made them go one-on-one back at (the defense), and then the game turned into a one-on-one game.”

Rivers said before the season that neither Porter nor Rollins is necessarily a true point guard. He also claimed that Porter is closer to being able to fill the traditional responsibilities expected of an NBA point guard. That has borne itself out.

Using his deft handle, Porter has averaged 7.7 assists across his 30 appearances this season. While it can lead to occasional bouts of overdribbling, Porter’s ballhandling ability allows him to probe the midrange area to create for himself and teammates. Rollins, on the other hand, has largely built his offensive repertoire around straight, downhill attacks towards the rim.

While he remained sidelined with a right calf strain, Giannis Antetokounmpo went through a pregame shooting workout on Sunday. That came on the heels of an on-court session Saturday in which Rivers said the two-time NBA MVP participated in full-contact three-on-three and four-on-four action. While Rivers didn’t lay out a specific timeline, he confirmed that playing five-on-five on the practice court would be next for Antetokounmpo.

An impending return of the 10-time All-Star would drastically change what the Bucks need from their talented trio of guards, and their skills might not fit all that well with their best player. Even with injuries limiting his minutes and shot attempts this season, Antetokounmpo has still averaged 28 points on 16.2 field-goal attempts per game, while also adding 5.6 assists per game and carrying a 36.2 percent usage rate, per Cleaning the Glass.

Throughout January, Antetokounmpo regularly criticized Rivers’ game plan for putting him into a role that featured more possessions with him as a roll man for Porter and Rollins and fewer opportunities to serve as a playmaker. He also criticized his teammates for selfish play, as he saw his shots per game dwindle during his last few weeks on the floor. Three guards who are best suited for scoring roles might not be the best match to assuage Antetokounmpo’s criticisms and concerns.

While it seemed obvious heading into the post-All-Star-break portion of the schedule, this weekend only further solidified the biggest question facing the Bucks the rest of this season: How do they get the most out of their roster with Antetokounmpo on the floor?

Before the season, Bucks general manager Jon Horst believed he had built a roster to maximize Antetokounmpo, featuring players whom Antetokounmpo could enhance with his skills. But that was before the emergence of Rollins and the addition of Thomas, as well as the injury to Taurean Prince, the demotion of Gary Trent Jr. and a general inability to optimize Myles Turner. The Bucks might not have as much talent as other teams, but there is enough on the roster to compete for the Play-In Tournament.