Well things did not go exactly as planned for the Bucks this week. The injury bug reared its creepy little head again claiming Bogut for all but one game. This led to extended stretches of Gadz and Fransisco Elson manning the middle. Giving those two playing time in the middle is like giving a 5 year old a can of gas and some matches, and telling him to watch your house while your gone. When you get back, the house is going to be up in flames. Fortunately Bogut returned before the whole house had gone up, but the kids were still pouring gas everywhere. Redd rounded back into form this week going on a scoring tear, averaging almost 28 points per game this week. Alas the Bucks rounded back into the defensive form that has kept them at the cellar of the Central Division the last few years, as they allowed an average of 103.25 points per game this week. Were it not for late game heroics twice by Luke Ridnour they could have finished the week without a win. On the other hand were it not for a MIRACULOUS three by Andre Miller on Wednesday they could have went 3-1, so whatever. (I can’t stress enough how lucky that shot was by Miller. I recognize that he took it just like any other shot, but anytime a guy like that hits a three at any point, its an act of god. And while I’m thinking of it, how were him and Royal Ivey canning everything they shot on Wednesday? I almost wanted to walk out of the BC and into traffic after that madness.) Add it all up and the Bucks remain at 18-21 three games under .500.
January 12th @ Washington (7-29)
Looks can be deceiving. It’s easy to look at a Washington team at 22 games under .500 and think the Bucks should win in a laugher, but upon analyzing who the Wizards have beat, things get confusing. With wins over Utah, Houston, Detroit, and Cleveland, the Wizards have shown they can at time be frisky. There really is no reason that this team should be as bad as their record. Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler are two physical, tough players that should alone be worth 20 wins. The rest of the cast is playing horrible basketball, led by the reliable underachiever Andray Blatche. When your trading FOR Mike James you know things are bad. Mike James and Damon Jones should have plenty to talk about after the game though, between them they have been on 19 teams (I’m considering each season a different team for each franchise) in 19 seasons. Speaking of James...he was on Supernanny! Watch at the 45 second mark, you will not regret it. He knows his math. If the Bucks can contain Butler and Jamison, they should be able to come away with one here, having already beat Washington once at home using that plan. Much like Homer Simpson, the Bucks will be trying to leave those two saying "Can’t someone else do it!?"
January 14th vs. Miami (19-16)
Sure to be one of the Bucks chief competitors for a back end playoff spot, the Dwyane Wades come to town on Wednesday. The Marquette alum is sure to draw a larger crowd than usual for the home team, which will hopefully work out in Milwaukee’s favor. Hell, even I have broken my 5 dollar rule for this game and bought lower level seats. (The 5 dollar Rule is basically my plan on getting cheap tickets. Every game arrive minutes before the game starts and negotiate with scalpers from a position of power. The most I’ve paid is 5 dollars. The best I’ve done this year is 3 tickets for 10 dollars, I implore all of you to do the same). Wade has been incredible this year, but is doing everything practically by himself. Shawn Marion was a product of SSOL in Phoenix and former college double double machine Mike Beasley has been underwhelming, averaging just 13 points and 5 rebounds per game. There isn’t a center on the roster, unless you count Joel Anthony or Jamal Magloire, and personally I don’t count either. Obviously stopping Wade will be the priority, but the Bucks need to do a better job of defending the three when a guy like him drives. Why do Charlie Bell, Michael Redd, and Richard Jefferson insist on helping out off their man? Your not really helping guys. Your not stopping the drive, your not defending the post, and your giving up an open three. Pretty soon I think Skiles will pop off the bench and show them what he wants, like one of those high school scrimmages between teams where coaches could manipulate the action.
January16th @ Sacramento (8-29)
The stretch of winnable games continues with a trip toward the left coast to face the worst they have to offer. Sacramento has Beno Udrih starting at point guard. Another classic case of a team over valuing a player because he is there player and they’ve had good times together. Udrih got 8 million a year this off season after not getting 8 minutes when he was in San Antonio. If a guy is given up on by San Antonio, doesn’t that mean he probably isn’t very good? Isn’t it clear that they have a pretty good idea what they are doing there? Regardless, Sacramento has perpetually underrated Kevin Martin and his disgusting jump shot. Speaking of Martin, is he the worst player to play with in a video game? He’s so good and it’s so tempting to shoot with him, but you know it’s going to get blocked because it looks like he shoots from his knees. His shot is the exact opposite of Redd’s slingshot. Anyway, the Kings suck.
January 17th @ Los Angeles Clippers (8-29)
The Clip show is a show no one wants to watch. They made moves this off season that many people thought would make them competitive. Why they thought that I’ll never know. I might be the biggest Baron Davis fan on the planet, but he was surrounded with guys who simply aren’t a good fit. Not to mention he has played like garbage, to be kind. Zach Randolph brought a spark for a couple weeks, but the Clips continue to lose games like its their job. They did that job very well when Milwaukee laughed them off the court near the end of December. The noose around Mike Dunleavy’s neck continues to tighten.
It’s always tough to go out west, but these are the kinds of games that playoff teams win. This is the second week of a two week stretch where the Bucks had a good chance to make up some ground on the .500 mark and put themselves in good position for the playoffs. Week one did not go great, week two awaits.
Showing posts with label Jamal Magloire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jamal Magloire. Show all posts
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
How the Bucks Came to Be Irrelevant...A Two Part Series
Part 2
The Summer of 2005
When I was younger one of my favorite cartoons was Scooby Doo. The music wasn’t bad, the characters were funny, and Daphne was kind of hot. I remind you these are the thoughts of a 7 year old. What may have been most appealing about the show was how the guy who would end up being the villain in the end was going to show up pretty early in the show, so there was always the opportunity to figure it all out right away. When I was able to pick out that creepy janitor, or owner of the company trying to drive the price down by being a ghost, I always felt pretty smart. It was set up to be the last person you expected. Last year the Bucks finally took the mask off the ghost, and it was the person you’d least expect...Larry Harris. Granted Likable Larry did not have a mask on, or pretend to be a ghost, but when his reign began, he was the last person I’d thought would set the Bucks back years. He had grown up with the franchise, his dad assuming coaching duties in 1987 after time as an assistant. Larry himself came on as scout and video coordinator in 1990 before working his way up to GM in 2003. This is a guy who truly was a Milwaukee Buck. And it all came crashing down with the Summer of 2005.
Harris made some shrewd moves early in his tenure, signing Mo Williams, trading a useless pick for Zaza Pachulia. Mike James and Damon Jones put in serviceable time in Milwaukee. Dumping Tim Thomas for Keith Van Horn...who pretty much was Tim Thomas also. All minor moves but nothing damaging, and in the cases of Williams and Pachulia he acquired 2 young guys who were up and coming. In 2005 the Bucks one year removed from a playoff appearance where they were destroyed in round 1 by Detroit. With their point guard out all year and a rash of other injuries the Bucks fell to 30-52. This 2005 was a crucial summer for them. After landing the #1 pick in the draft the Bucks had to make decisions on their own free agents. Michael Redd was coming off a career high 23 points per game, Dan Gadzuric and Zaza Pachulia were both restricted free agents, and the Bucks had enough cap room to make plays at multiple other free agents. Every move they made would have to follow the philosophy that they were good enough to compete and just needed to add pieces, or this team wasn’t built to contend and they needed to make significant changes.
With a team that hadn’t been over .500 in either of the previous two seasons and finished last the season before, Larry Harris believed they just needed a piece or two and would be a factor. What caused him to think this no one will ever know. There was no evidence to suggest the Bucks were any good at all, but Harris had cap room to play with and made the assumption that he had a good team on his hands.
August 6th Bucks decline to match Hawks offer sheet for Zaza Pachulia.
August 12th Bucks resign Dan Gadzuric 6 years 36 million.
Pachulia was 20 years old at the time, and coming off a decent season for the Bucks. He had served as the backup to Gadz in the 2004-2005 season and appeared to have some serious potential, not to mention he was 6 years younger than Gadz. The Hawks offered him 16 million over 4 seasons running through this year. The Bucks declined to match and then signed Gadzuric for 2 more years and 20 more million...to be their backup. They knew they had drafted Bogut, they knew he’d be their starter, so why in the world would anyone throw that much more money at a guy who was too undersized to be an NBA center and was 6 years older than a guy they could have had for 20 million less!! This is the shining moment of awful in the Larry Harris era. When it comes down to it, Gadz was a crowd favorite at the time and this was probably one of those "Hey maybe we’ll sell more tickets because people like this guy" moves. The only real way to sell tickets is to win, not waste money on crappy players. Ironically Gadz ended up be the most hated player on the Bucks because of this contract. This contract pays Gadz until he is 32. Pachulia will be a free agent this off season, at age 24. Sigh.
August 8th Bucks sign Bobby Simmons to 5 years 47 million.
Any time Milwaukee gets a free agent they have to overpay, I know this. Milwaukee is cold as hell, snowy, the nightlife is lame, and the women are big. I know all of this I’ve lived here my whole life. But why overpay a guy with no track record when you have someone who already plays his position as well as him. The Bucks had Desmond Mason, who by all means is not a solution to any problems, but is as good a player as Bobby Simmons. He was then, he is now. All along this was clear, but the Bucks insisted on spending their money just because they had it. Simmons was a flashy signing who had just come off a Most Improved Player year, and made the Bucks name show up in a lot of places. To this day I still don’t know what Bobby Simmons does well, if anyone else does, please fill me in.
August 13th Bucks sign Michael Redd 6 years 91 million.
It’s easy to look at this signing today and say what were they thinking. Everyone gripes about how Redd doesn’t pass or play defense. These are logical concerns and hindsight is 20/20. The problem is that if you’re giving Michael Redd a maximum deal to lead your team, then you probably aren’t getting what a superstar is. Redd is a great scorer and a great guy, but he had appeared to have maxed out his potential before this signing. Granted he did improve even further as a scorer in the years coming, but did little to get better at everything else. This falls right in line with the thinking that Larry Harris demonstrated through this whole summer, that the Bucks were about to explode. They imploded starting the next season, and are only now cleaning up the rubbish.
October 26th Bucks trade Desmond Mason and 2006 first round pick for Jamal Magloire
With Bogut and Gadz already manning the center position the Bucks felt like they needed to address it further by acquiring a "former all star" in Magloire. They had overbought at the wing positions with Simmons, Mason, Bell, Redd and Kukoc and knew they wouldn’t have enough playing time to go around. So to solve the bumblefuck they created a new one at the center position...and gave away a pick for good measure. Magloire sulked through the season and was later traded for more crap.
That summer led to three long hard years of suffering for Bucks fans, with probably 2 more on the horizon. Harris never wanted to blow it all up and start over. Few general managers ever do. Fans don’t always have the patience to sit through something like that. People get antsy and complain how the team sucks. Larry Harris attempted to put together a team that would, at best, be a first round exit playoff team. Playoffs are suppose to make cities happy. To win a championship sometimes bold steps are required, like a destruction of a team that sucks. Larry Harris could not push that button and he paid for it with his job last summer. And he could have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for us pesky fans. Hopefully John Hammond was paying attention.
The Summer of 2005
When I was younger one of my favorite cartoons was Scooby Doo. The music wasn’t bad, the characters were funny, and Daphne was kind of hot. I remind you these are the thoughts of a 7 year old. What may have been most appealing about the show was how the guy who would end up being the villain in the end was going to show up pretty early in the show, so there was always the opportunity to figure it all out right away. When I was able to pick out that creepy janitor, or owner of the company trying to drive the price down by being a ghost, I always felt pretty smart. It was set up to be the last person you expected. Last year the Bucks finally took the mask off the ghost, and it was the person you’d least expect...Larry Harris. Granted Likable Larry did not have a mask on, or pretend to be a ghost, but when his reign began, he was the last person I’d thought would set the Bucks back years. He had grown up with the franchise, his dad assuming coaching duties in 1987 after time as an assistant. Larry himself came on as scout and video coordinator in 1990 before working his way up to GM in 2003. This is a guy who truly was a Milwaukee Buck. And it all came crashing down with the Summer of 2005.
Harris made some shrewd moves early in his tenure, signing Mo Williams, trading a useless pick for Zaza Pachulia. Mike James and Damon Jones put in serviceable time in Milwaukee. Dumping Tim Thomas for Keith Van Horn...who pretty much was Tim Thomas also. All minor moves but nothing damaging, and in the cases of Williams and Pachulia he acquired 2 young guys who were up and coming. In 2005 the Bucks one year removed from a playoff appearance where they were destroyed in round 1 by Detroit. With their point guard out all year and a rash of other injuries the Bucks fell to 30-52. This 2005 was a crucial summer for them. After landing the #1 pick in the draft the Bucks had to make decisions on their own free agents. Michael Redd was coming off a career high 23 points per game, Dan Gadzuric and Zaza Pachulia were both restricted free agents, and the Bucks had enough cap room to make plays at multiple other free agents. Every move they made would have to follow the philosophy that they were good enough to compete and just needed to add pieces, or this team wasn’t built to contend and they needed to make significant changes.
With a team that hadn’t been over .500 in either of the previous two seasons and finished last the season before, Larry Harris believed they just needed a piece or two and would be a factor. What caused him to think this no one will ever know. There was no evidence to suggest the Bucks were any good at all, but Harris had cap room to play with and made the assumption that he had a good team on his hands.
August 6th Bucks decline to match Hawks offer sheet for Zaza Pachulia.
August 12th Bucks resign Dan Gadzuric 6 years 36 million.
Pachulia was 20 years old at the time, and coming off a decent season for the Bucks. He had served as the backup to Gadz in the 2004-2005 season and appeared to have some serious potential, not to mention he was 6 years younger than Gadz. The Hawks offered him 16 million over 4 seasons running through this year. The Bucks declined to match and then signed Gadzuric for 2 more years and 20 more million...to be their backup. They knew they had drafted Bogut, they knew he’d be their starter, so why in the world would anyone throw that much more money at a guy who was too undersized to be an NBA center and was 6 years older than a guy they could have had for 20 million less!! This is the shining moment of awful in the Larry Harris era. When it comes down to it, Gadz was a crowd favorite at the time and this was probably one of those "Hey maybe we’ll sell more tickets because people like this guy" moves. The only real way to sell tickets is to win, not waste money on crappy players. Ironically Gadz ended up be the most hated player on the Bucks because of this contract. This contract pays Gadz until he is 32. Pachulia will be a free agent this off season, at age 24. Sigh.
August 8th Bucks sign Bobby Simmons to 5 years 47 million.
Any time Milwaukee gets a free agent they have to overpay, I know this. Milwaukee is cold as hell, snowy, the nightlife is lame, and the women are big. I know all of this I’ve lived here my whole life. But why overpay a guy with no track record when you have someone who already plays his position as well as him. The Bucks had Desmond Mason, who by all means is not a solution to any problems, but is as good a player as Bobby Simmons. He was then, he is now. All along this was clear, but the Bucks insisted on spending their money just because they had it. Simmons was a flashy signing who had just come off a Most Improved Player year, and made the Bucks name show up in a lot of places. To this day I still don’t know what Bobby Simmons does well, if anyone else does, please fill me in.
August 13th Bucks sign Michael Redd 6 years 91 million.
It’s easy to look at this signing today and say what were they thinking. Everyone gripes about how Redd doesn’t pass or play defense. These are logical concerns and hindsight is 20/20. The problem is that if you’re giving Michael Redd a maximum deal to lead your team, then you probably aren’t getting what a superstar is. Redd is a great scorer and a great guy, but he had appeared to have maxed out his potential before this signing. Granted he did improve even further as a scorer in the years coming, but did little to get better at everything else. This falls right in line with the thinking that Larry Harris demonstrated through this whole summer, that the Bucks were about to explode. They imploded starting the next season, and are only now cleaning up the rubbish.
October 26th Bucks trade Desmond Mason and 2006 first round pick for Jamal Magloire
With Bogut and Gadz already manning the center position the Bucks felt like they needed to address it further by acquiring a "former all star" in Magloire. They had overbought at the wing positions with Simmons, Mason, Bell, Redd and Kukoc and knew they wouldn’t have enough playing time to go around. So to solve the bumblefuck they created a new one at the center position...and gave away a pick for good measure. Magloire sulked through the season and was later traded for more crap.
That summer led to three long hard years of suffering for Bucks fans, with probably 2 more on the horizon. Harris never wanted to blow it all up and start over. Few general managers ever do. Fans don’t always have the patience to sit through something like that. People get antsy and complain how the team sucks. Larry Harris attempted to put together a team that would, at best, be a first round exit playoff team. Playoffs are suppose to make cities happy. To win a championship sometimes bold steps are required, like a destruction of a team that sucks. Larry Harris could not push that button and he paid for it with his job last summer. And he could have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for us pesky fans. Hopefully John Hammond was paying attention.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
How the Bucks Came to Be Irrelevant...A Two Part Series
Part 1
The Inexact Science of the NBA Draft
Oldest Teams in the NBA (As of Opening Day)
1. Spurs
2. New Orleans
3. Denver
4. Dallas
5. Houston
6. Milwaukee
This is a very telling statistic. With the exception of Dallas, who traded Devin Harris I remind you, every team ahead of Milwaukee will make noise in the playoffs this year. They have been building their teams for years, using wise draft decisions and smart free agent pickups to bolster their respective lineups. The Bucks are out of place in this group. They are a team rebuilding and trying to change their style. While they have made great strides this year on both sides of the ball, they have another year or two of smart decision making before they will be ready to reenter the atmosphere of playoff success. With no success achieved in the past 6 years, how have the Bucks become one of the oldest teams in the league?
Answer: Dismal draft picks. And it is those picks, not their ill advised free agent spending sprees that have left the Bucks on the outside looking in over the past 6 years. First round draft mistakes, by both Ernie Grunfeld and Larry Harris, have proven to be difficult for a team that will never be a major player for free agents to overcome. Since 2003, the Bucks have not been a better than average basketball team, ideally leaving them with a plethora of draft picks to increase their depth and re-energize the franchise. Let’s take a look at what exactly the Bucks have done with their draft picks since 2003.
2003 Draft
8. TJ Ford
Sadly, TJ Ford was probably the best selection that the Bucks have made in the past 10 years. I rank him higher than Bogut only because they showed courage and home run capability with this pick. Ford had a huge upside coming out of college after being named Naismith Player of the Year. The knock on Ford was that his slight stature would lead to injuries and word of a possible spinal cord problem...which all came to fruition on February 25th of his rookie year when he bruised his spinal cord. Ford continued to struggle with health problems, and he now appears to have a severe mental problem; he thinks he is a man with a jump shot. Reggie Miller he is not.
2004 Draft
No Picks
Surely the Bucks gave up 2 picks in this draft with good reason right? Right??? Not so much. Shortly before the 2001-2002 season, also known as The Anthony Mason Debacle, to make room for everyone’s favorite point forward, the Bucks shipped off lovable forward Scott Williams and a conditional first round pick which ended up being this one. In return, the Bucks got legendary Ohio State center Aleksander Radojevic and a 2002 second round pick which resulted in Dan Gadzuric. This obviously could not have worked out any worse as Anthony Mason proved to be a more destructive force than 90% of the natural disasters I have ever heard of. To make things a little bit worse, this pick was used on Josh Smith. Whoops. They were able to pry away promising big man Zaza Pachulia with their second round pick via the Bobcats. But he was allowed to walk during the legendary week in August of 2005 when the Larry Harris did everything he could to ruin their future cap flexibility...and then was given an extention and raise. Yikes.
2005 Draft
1. Andrew Bogut
Bogut was the safe choice. For everything Chris Paul and to a lesser extent Deron Williams have gone on to do since this draft, the choice was really between Andrew Bogut and Marvin Williams. TJ Ford was still seen as the point guard of the future and Mo Williams had proven to be a more than capable backup. Marvin Williams had tantalizing potential, but it seemed that he was a few years away from being the player they needed. The theory at the time (and maybe still??) Is that a player as talented as Bogut with that much size cannot be passed on. Bogut has gone on to a solid and still promising career. As a pick at the time it did not have the ceiling of the other players although would provide much quicker results, and with the ship sinking a little more each year, that was what appealed to the Bucks in the end.
2006 Draft
No First Round Pick
This pick was dumped along with Desmond Mason for Jamal Magloire so the Bucks could clear up the logjam they had mysteriously created at small forward. Of course this came weeks after Larry Harris had assured Mason he was not being shopped and months after telling coach Terry Porter, "We’re going to sink or swim together on this." Porter was of course fired less than a month later. But hey, when a Terry Stotts becomes available, moves need to be made. This pick can be chalked up as another casualty of the Summer of 2005.
2007 Draft
6. Yi Jianlian
Can we just forget this whole thing happened? The Bucks left at least 3 future all stars on the board to take a guy who did not want to play here, whose agents did not want him here, whose family did not want him here, whose WHOLE COUNTRY DID NOT WANT HIM HERE!! This was an act of complete arrogance. Picking Yi was like throwing a middle finger up at all Bucks fans, and that is before even discussing that he was 3 years older than he claimed to be. Sorry Bucks fans, no Brandon Wright, no Thaddeus Young, no Rodney Stuckey, just Easy Yi. The only thing Yi will be remembered for, aside from making the whole Bucks delegation fly to China to beg him to show up and not embarrass them, will be that he was the vehicle which took away the awfulness known as Bobby Simmons.
2008 Draft
8. Joe Alexander
"Joey" doesn’t look so promising as of yet, but judgment must be withheld on him. It takes at least a season to see what a team really has with someone they drafted, although it does appear that Luc Richard Mbah ah Moute has kept alive the Bucks tradition of finding gems in round 2, as he has already become the Bucks primary defensive stopper. I do realize that the Bucks have had unusual success in the second round of many of these drafts, appearing to target players who have the work ethic to succeed in unlikely scenarios. Michael Redd, Dan Gadzuric, Flip Murray, and now Ramon Sessions, all were great finds in round 2. But for a team to truly pull themselves out of the depths of the league, they have to hit home runs in round 1. Portland landed Brandon Roy, Lamarcus Aldridge, Martell Webster, Travis Outlaw and famously Greg Oden in either draft day deals or smart early round choices. These are the kinds of guys the Bucks have not been securing.
John Hammond has a very strong track record going back to strong drafts when he worked with the Clippers of the early 2000s. The Bucks have a track record just as strong against drafting anyone with superstar potential, so something will have to give.Part Two will focus largely on the Summer of 2005, why the Bucks are where they are now, and what they can do to regain credibility in the NBA again.
The Inexact Science of the NBA Draft
Oldest Teams in the NBA (As of Opening Day)
1. Spurs
2. New Orleans
3. Denver
4. Dallas
5. Houston
6. Milwaukee
This is a very telling statistic. With the exception of Dallas, who traded Devin Harris I remind you, every team ahead of Milwaukee will make noise in the playoffs this year. They have been building their teams for years, using wise draft decisions and smart free agent pickups to bolster their respective lineups. The Bucks are out of place in this group. They are a team rebuilding and trying to change their style. While they have made great strides this year on both sides of the ball, they have another year or two of smart decision making before they will be ready to reenter the atmosphere of playoff success. With no success achieved in the past 6 years, how have the Bucks become one of the oldest teams in the league?
Answer: Dismal draft picks. And it is those picks, not their ill advised free agent spending sprees that have left the Bucks on the outside looking in over the past 6 years. First round draft mistakes, by both Ernie Grunfeld and Larry Harris, have proven to be difficult for a team that will never be a major player for free agents to overcome. Since 2003, the Bucks have not been a better than average basketball team, ideally leaving them with a plethora of draft picks to increase their depth and re-energize the franchise. Let’s take a look at what exactly the Bucks have done with their draft picks since 2003.
2003 Draft
8. TJ Ford
Sadly, TJ Ford was probably the best selection that the Bucks have made in the past 10 years. I rank him higher than Bogut only because they showed courage and home run capability with this pick. Ford had a huge upside coming out of college after being named Naismith Player of the Year. The knock on Ford was that his slight stature would lead to injuries and word of a possible spinal cord problem...which all came to fruition on February 25th of his rookie year when he bruised his spinal cord. Ford continued to struggle with health problems, and he now appears to have a severe mental problem; he thinks he is a man with a jump shot. Reggie Miller he is not.
2004 Draft
No Picks
Surely the Bucks gave up 2 picks in this draft with good reason right? Right??? Not so much. Shortly before the 2001-2002 season, also known as The Anthony Mason Debacle, to make room for everyone’s favorite point forward, the Bucks shipped off lovable forward Scott Williams and a conditional first round pick which ended up being this one. In return, the Bucks got legendary Ohio State center Aleksander Radojevic and a 2002 second round pick which resulted in Dan Gadzuric. This obviously could not have worked out any worse as Anthony Mason proved to be a more destructive force than 90% of the natural disasters I have ever heard of. To make things a little bit worse, this pick was used on Josh Smith. Whoops. They were able to pry away promising big man Zaza Pachulia with their second round pick via the Bobcats. But he was allowed to walk during the legendary week in August of 2005 when the Larry Harris did everything he could to ruin their future cap flexibility...and then was given an extention and raise. Yikes.
2005 Draft
1. Andrew Bogut
Bogut was the safe choice. For everything Chris Paul and to a lesser extent Deron Williams have gone on to do since this draft, the choice was really between Andrew Bogut and Marvin Williams. TJ Ford was still seen as the point guard of the future and Mo Williams had proven to be a more than capable backup. Marvin Williams had tantalizing potential, but it seemed that he was a few years away from being the player they needed. The theory at the time (and maybe still??) Is that a player as talented as Bogut with that much size cannot be passed on. Bogut has gone on to a solid and still promising career. As a pick at the time it did not have the ceiling of the other players although would provide much quicker results, and with the ship sinking a little more each year, that was what appealed to the Bucks in the end.
2006 Draft
No First Round Pick
This pick was dumped along with Desmond Mason for Jamal Magloire so the Bucks could clear up the logjam they had mysteriously created at small forward. Of course this came weeks after Larry Harris had assured Mason he was not being shopped and months after telling coach Terry Porter, "We’re going to sink or swim together on this." Porter was of course fired less than a month later. But hey, when a Terry Stotts becomes available, moves need to be made. This pick can be chalked up as another casualty of the Summer of 2005.
2007 Draft
6. Yi Jianlian
Can we just forget this whole thing happened? The Bucks left at least 3 future all stars on the board to take a guy who did not want to play here, whose agents did not want him here, whose family did not want him here, whose WHOLE COUNTRY DID NOT WANT HIM HERE!! This was an act of complete arrogance. Picking Yi was like throwing a middle finger up at all Bucks fans, and that is before even discussing that he was 3 years older than he claimed to be. Sorry Bucks fans, no Brandon Wright, no Thaddeus Young, no Rodney Stuckey, just Easy Yi. The only thing Yi will be remembered for, aside from making the whole Bucks delegation fly to China to beg him to show up and not embarrass them, will be that he was the vehicle which took away the awfulness known as Bobby Simmons.
2008 Draft
8. Joe Alexander
"Joey" doesn’t look so promising as of yet, but judgment must be withheld on him. It takes at least a season to see what a team really has with someone they drafted, although it does appear that Luc Richard Mbah ah Moute has kept alive the Bucks tradition of finding gems in round 2, as he has already become the Bucks primary defensive stopper. I do realize that the Bucks have had unusual success in the second round of many of these drafts, appearing to target players who have the work ethic to succeed in unlikely scenarios. Michael Redd, Dan Gadzuric, Flip Murray, and now Ramon Sessions, all were great finds in round 2. But for a team to truly pull themselves out of the depths of the league, they have to hit home runs in round 1. Portland landed Brandon Roy, Lamarcus Aldridge, Martell Webster, Travis Outlaw and famously Greg Oden in either draft day deals or smart early round choices. These are the kinds of guys the Bucks have not been securing.
John Hammond has a very strong track record going back to strong drafts when he worked with the Clippers of the early 2000s. The Bucks have a track record just as strong against drafting anyone with superstar potential, so something will have to give.Part Two will focus largely on the Summer of 2005, why the Bucks are where they are now, and what they can do to regain credibility in the NBA again.
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