I'm feeling schizophrenic about the 2010 Milwaukee Bucks; with that being said I'd like both sides to weigh in.
DOOM AND GLOOM
The Milwaukee Bucks are fu...ahem...bucked up. It takes some kind of optimist to look at this roster, the ascension of the Eastern Conference as a dominant conference and the lingering questions from a promising (misleading) finish to the 2009-2010 season to even dream that these Milwaukee Bucks can make ANY playoff noise, let alone be a contender. It's going to be a cold and snowy winter in Wisconsin, so I can't blame fans for pretending that the Bucks are going to be more than a fringe playoff team at best (we need something to look forward to in this town!). However, the Bucks bandwagon lacks the four wheel drive to get anywhere in the southeastern Wisconsin snow and we'll see people leaping off en masse when the Bucks are in the Central Division cellar come February. Don't get your hopes up Brew City; the winter is long enough so don't heap more misery on yourself by thinking this Bucks team will make you proud to wear red and green. Consider this:
Overexposed/Overvalued aka HypeMachine Victims: Milwaukee finished very respectably last season. Too respectably. Think about Golden State as an 8th seed taking down the 1st seed in Dallas back in 2007. People forget that Golden State was trendy that year, they weren't elite but you had to plan for their style of play, Baron Davis was a homegrown darling, they were fun to watch and they had a perfectly constructed Don Nelson team that was designed to exploit every weakness of an overrated Dallas Mavericks team (that Nelson had constructed as well) and probably no other playoff team. Fun underdogs... it doesn't get more trendy and despite the United States' dominance in everything, true or perceived, we love an underdog! The Warriors flamed out in the next round but were still a huge success story, we've never seen a first round series play out that way. Of course after that, Golden State is highly overrated the next season, Don Nelson dies (although he manages to still move and speak), Baron's ego grows and he takes a step back and all the momentum the Warriors built in the playoffs just makes the target on their backs bigger. Do they sniff the playoffs the next year? No. The years after, up to this one? NO! They regressed every season and have comfortably been returned to turd sandwich status.
The Bucks are a bit different, but also the same. Lots of hype to end their season, trendy underdogs, a few fun young players, a small market and constructed perfectly to take down the Atlanta Hawks but probably no other playoff team. Different styles of play completely, but otherwise a similar makeup to a spunky 2007 Golden State Warriors team. They take the full strength Atlanta Hawks (overrated on a similar level to Dallas in 2007) to seven games! Next season looks as bright as 2008 did for G-State. Bologna sausage. Turd sandwich.
Atlanta was/is a pathetic team. They crapped the bed something fierce against the Magic in the second round, hell they set records with how bad they rolled over. Those Atlanta Hawks that the Bucks COULDN'T beat in seven games, have permanent handprints on their ankles from their Orlando Magic prison shower beating in round 2. In the Conference Finals, Orlando proceeded to get manhandled by a Boston Celtics team that is closer to getting AARP cards than they are to their primes.
In a nutshell, the Bucks weren't that good and they were dismissed by a bad team that was destroyed by a team that rolled over for a team that has dinner at 4pm while looking at Del Boca Vista brochures as their Jitterbug phones vibrate next to them. The Bucks only succeeded in making themselves more of a target in a conference and division that they, frankly, can't handle. Hype doesn't win basketball games. Ball don't lie.
Superstars?: Yeah, yeah, yeah things would've been different in the playoffs had Andrew Bogut been healthy. Even my pessimist side has to admit Bogut looked GREAT before his arm EXPLODED during that fateful fastbreak against the Suns. He should've been an all-star and I can type that with complete conviction. Two things really strike me though; first off why hasn't Bogut played like a beasty top 5 center in any other season outside of last? Secondly, HIS ARM EXPLODED!!! Who knows if he can come back and pick up where he left off right before the injury? The prognosis isn't exactly stellar; the Bucks front office won't give any real details on the big Aussie's recovery or lack thereof (if he was progressing nicely, the front office would mention it, they have to sell tickets but they haven't said squat). Even if he does come back, we've seen centers in this league look dominant (anybody remember Jamaal Magloire? Sigh) and turn into oatmeal the following season. Where is it written that Bogut was actually turning the corner and becoming an elite center before his injury and it wasn't just a really good stretch/season ala Magloire, Erick Dampier, Tyson Chandler, Sam Dalembert? Sigh.
Before you put Brandon Jennings on a throne, maybe you should sit on your La-Z-Boy and really think beyond the hype. Look at how Jennings started his rookie season compared to how he finished it:
November '09: 22.1 PPG (including 55 against Golden State), 42% FG, 49% 3FG, 5.6 APG, 3.8 RPG
April '10: 13.8 PPG, 37% FG, 28% 3FG, 4.5 APG, 2.6 RPG
So, he came in under the radar and nobody expected him to do anything. They let him play and didn't account for him. He scores 55 points against the defensively challenged Warriors, people start talking about him, he gets hooked up to the HypeMachine and teams plan for him. Jennings, after the Golden State game, immediately became average at best. He shot less than 36% from the field for the rest of the season...ahem...HE SHOT LESS THAN 36% FROM THE FIELD FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON!
Jennings is quick and can get to the rim without much of a problem. Great, right? WRONG! For the season he actually shot better from 3 point land than anywhere else on the floor (37.0% overall, 37.4% from 3). While 37.4% is respectable from 3, it's not exactly lights out. Consider that while you're digesting the fact that Jennings shot LESS THAN 37% within the three point arc. So, logically speaking, the closer and more high percentage Jennings' shots were, the more likely he was to miss. Couple that with the ease that he can get to the rim and the stats are quite alarming. Seriously, outside of porn, nobody has ever exceeded Brandon Jennings' ability to get to the hole without finishing.
(Last point: In his first NBA game he lead everyone to believe he was a triple-double threat with the 17-9-9 he laid on a pathetic 76ers squad. His season averages: 15-3-6...not exactly Jason Kidd. Somewhere, Kenny Anderson is feeling a little bit less lonely in this world.)
The top of the East is STRONG: Miami, Boston, Orlando, Chicago. Think they Fear the Deer? I think not.
Offseason Moves: There's no denying Milwaukee was a defensive minded team that possesed great chemistry at the end of last season. Everybody picked their spots, played good defense and worked together on both ends of the floor. Apparently, that wasn't fun. John Hammond decides, since it's the reality TV/Kardashian/trainwrecks are fun era, that we should use solid trade chips to acquire Corey Maggette. Corey "No Defense, All Offense, Bad Locker Room Presence, Coach Killer, Low Basketball IQ, $%#$&" Maggette! Genius. Are we sure Hammond isn't still working for division rival Detroit Pistons? Come on! If there was a list of 10 guys the Bucks should not acquire in the interest of team chemistry/harmony, Maggette would probably get some first place votes. Well I guess he fills a position of need being a wing with scoring ability. Oh damn it! That's right, we resigned John Salmons to be exactly that guy. Yeah, Maggette will be content taking a backseat like he was content in Golden State and Los Angeles. Yeah, and Shawn Bradley didn't get dunked on spectacularly over the course of his career. Well at least he has a reasonable contract. Wait, he's making $9 million next year?! He's a bench player that makes virtually the same as our franchise center?! Hang on, at least he's been successful elsewhere. His last two teams are teams that haven't been successful or relevant since before any current NBA player was born...and he's a bench player. Did the Bucks front office call the Magic, the Clippers or the Warriors (or Duke for that matter) to inquire about this basketball Ben Affleck? Well, at least he's athletic and can score. He's also in his 30s, injury prone and a complete ball stopper on offense. If it doesn't work out, at least he won't be around for long. What? He has three years (increases in salary every season by the way) left on his contract?! Seriously, go to Google and make sure the scrollbox pops up under the area where you type that tries to guess what your search will be and all you have to type is "Corey Ma" and the third most likely option is "Corey Maggette contract." How is he not Richard Jefferson 2.0 (minus the playoff/Finals experience and sweet tattoo that may or may not have been done by a 7 year old girl)? Horrid.
Larry Sanders, Tiny Gallon, Darington Hobson. That's our 2010 draft class. An HBO sitcom talk show host (Garry Shandling, anybody?), a guy that has a completely misleading name ("Tiny" doesn't equal huge and out of shape) and an injured guy whose name makes him sound like either a butler or an 80's B-movie response to James Bond.
Let's start with Hobson; by all accounts it sounds like this guy has the same ceiling as Al Thornton with less talent. He could be Tayshaun Prince without any of the skills that make Prince good. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com:
"[about Hobson] A 6-7 combo forward with long arms and average athleticism by NBA standards,"
Wow! Dime a dozen? Yes.
All the prognosticators believe Tiny Gallon has a lot of "upside." My cousin is addicted to cocaine and can't function in society but can play a mean guitar. He has "upside." The guy showed virtually nothing in college considering his hype, regardless of how bad his college team was sans anything named Griffin. Then there was that wee little scandal that forced the guy to jump to the NBA Draft early and not develop in college like he really needed to. Certain guys out there need college; Gallon is one of them. Scott Nadler of Draftexpress.com:
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