Season Preview Bucks

[KG-MVP21]

I don't quite get where Milwaukee is coming from. Last season, they overachieved, nabbed the eighth spot in the East to make the playoffs, and while they were drubbed by the Pistons in the first round, they got to blow them out once before going home.

All in all, they looked like a team on the rise. They had good young talent that knew how to win games, an outstanding rookie big man in Andrew Bogut who was no worse for wear playing out of position at power forward all season, and Michael Redd came and justified his rather large contract by leading the team in scoring and keeping them afloat in the East. A lot of teams in the league would be envious of the position that the Bucks had found themselves in.

Apparently, though, the Bucks weren't. After a miraculous comeback season, point guard T.J. Ford was shipped to Toronto for forward Charlie Villanueva. The plan was to grab a player who could start alongside Bogut, while allowing him to return to his natural position at centre. Well, technically they did that, but I'm not sure that they took the best route to get there. Ford may not have been the ideal point guard for their walk-it-up, halfcourt offense, but then neither is Villanueva the ideal forward for that system either.

Last season Villanueva he was often lost when the Raptors offense bogged down into a halfcourt scheme, and began to drift out to the three-point line more and more as the season wore on. In Milwaukee, they're going to need him to play a bigger role in the paint, which should help alleviate some of his defensive issues, not having to keep up with quicker small forwards, but it will truly test his offense having to go against other teams' number one option at the four every night, and do so without the advantage of a set-up point guard helping him out.

The reason for that is that even though T.J. Ford wasn't the perfect guard for the Bucks offense, he was the best playmaker the team had by far. With him gone, the Bucks are going with a three-headed point guard attack led by Mo Williams, and backed up by Steve Blake and Charlie Bell. None of these players has ever run an effective offense, and while Williams was often called in to finish off games during last season, it had more to do with his ability to hit the three ball and keep defenders from collapsing in the paint than it did with his ability to run the team.

Such a deliberate offense, with no players who can create their own shot, needs a good point guard who can get players the ball where they need it to be most effective. I'm not saying these three can't do it, but the last time the Bucks tried to replace Ford with a point guard-by-committee (when Ford missed the 04-05 season due to back surgery), they had eleven fewer wins than the year before and easily missed the playoffs.

These decisions just seemed to defy logic when one considers that they still had Jamaal Magloire to peddle off to a team for a solid power forward to roam the paint. Would they have gotten someone with the ceiling of Villanueva? Probably not, but keep in mind this team already had a fairly solid core of players, and while Villanueva has oodles of talent to work with, he might not be the best option for this team.

The other major trade for the Bucks this off-season involved Magloire, when the Bucks sent him to Portland for Blake, Ha Sung-Jin and former Buck Brian Skinner. While I still don't entirely understand this trade for Portland, I like what the Bucks got out of it.

Blake and Skinner are two players who will really help solidify this team's bench that also includes Ruben Patterson and Charlie Bell. Blake may not be the best playmaker, but he rarely makes mistakes with the ball and he can keep defenses honest with his shot. As a backup point guard to a better starter, he'd be ideal. In Milwaukee, he may be called on to do more than he is capable of, but the added motivation of a contract year has helped many players before him elevate their games to previously unknown heights.

Skinner is the player the Bucks were really excited to get back. In his first stint with he Bucks he was fantastic, averaging 10 and 7 for the season as a starter. He can play both the centre and power forward positions, and he'll be looked to often throughout the season to bring some veteran savvy to a talented, but very young, front line.

The Bucks, as built today, are something of a toss-up for me. They could surprise and find a groove early that they can ride into the playoffs, but just the same they might not. They've made some unexpected moves considering that they really got it together as a team last year, and looked to have plenty to build on going into this season. While they only lost two important pieces from last year's team, when those pieces are a 12 and 7 point guard and a 10 and 10 centre, that can be a lot to replace for a team that eked into the playoffs the year before.

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUP

PG - Mo Williams

I just don't believe this guy has what it takes to be a starting point guard in the NBA. I'm sorry, but Williams is a perfect backup with his scoring ability and defense. As a starter, he put up good statistics, but he doesn't win. When Ford went down with an injury, Williams filled in admirably on the stat sheet, but a 30-win season is not a great point on any r?sum?. I just don't believe he is enough of a playmaker to help players like Bobby Simmons or Charlie Villanueva get their offense going.

SG - Michael Redd

Redd is a superb shooting guard that works best in an offense that focuses on him but doesn't ask him to dominate. The difference is that the Bucks offense is designed to get Redd his shots, knowing that he works best out on the perimeter, rather than getting the ball and asking him to create. This works perfectly in Milwaukee because the team doesn't ask him to do more than he can, nor does he demand any more touches than he gets. He's a true professional who will have a lot to say about this team's success this season.

SF - Bobby Simmons

Last season he didn't quite have the impact that people had hoped he would coming off of a Most Improved Player award, but he was nonetheless steady and his year was probably more reflective of his actual game than the one he demonstrated in his contract year with the Clippers. Simmons has a very good all-around game that can see him hit the outside shot as well as drive the ball. He is by far the best defender in the starting line-up, and his inside-out game allows Redd to stay primarily on the perimeter. While he may not have given the Bucks what they were hoping last season, his consistency will do lots to help this team adjust to their new personnel.

PF - Charlie Villanueva

Gobs of talent dripped off of this guy in Toronto last season, and now the trick for Villanueva is to prove he can make use of it on a far more consistent basis. His stats of 13 and 6 do not accurately represent his year, because he would often put up far better numbers one night and follow them up with a disappearing act the next. He had excuses galore last season for that disparity; the youth of the team, learning a new position, etc. But this year, for the team to have success, he's going to need to ditch the excuses and perform, especially on the glass. Now that's he's starting at his natural position, Villanueva is going to have to assert himself on the boards, because Bogut was only giving the team seven a game last year, and is going need Villanueva to put up starters numbers in that category to help out this team's weak defense but not allowing second-shot opportunities.

C - Andrew Bogut

Aside from Chris Paul, Bogut is probably going to have the best career of any of last season's rookies. He displayed maturity on the court last year that defied his age by playing out of position most of the time in a front court with about as selfish a player as there is in the NBA. Bogut is a steady centre who isn't going to electrify anyone with his play, but his ability to score in the paint and get on the glass will be featured even more this year with the disappearance of Magloire. What Bogut is going to have to do this year, though, as well as Villanueva, is improve his defense. Last year Bogut found himself in foul trouble way too often, and his increased role on the team this year will make that tendency that much more devastating. He has to learn to guard his position if he wants to take his game to the next level, or else he'll be spending too much time on the pine saddled with fouls to make any difference one way or another.

Very nice preview man, nothing I really disagree with.