(Part I was an extremely defeatist, pessimistic view of how the 2010-2011 Bucks season will play out. In this episode, we're all about positivity. Full Disclosure: This post is a lot closer to how I really feel. If the season goes badly, I'll delete this preface I'm currently writing and pretend I believed more in the DOOM AND GLOOM portion. In other words, I'm weak and a front runner. Let's do this!)
YEAH, WE ARE THAT GOOD
The future looks so bright, I gotta wear two pairs of shades! The 2010-2011 Milwaukee Bucks are 2 Legit 2 Quit. Maybe Hammer won't hurt 'em, but Yung Buck will. No more Timbuk 3 or MC Hammer references, I promise (maybe). Honestly though, this Bucks team has more going for it than anything the early 2000s Karl, Big Dog, Ray Ray, Cassell era ever had to offer. We're talking about a team that can potentially exceed what the Bucks did in 2001 when they won the Eastern Conference Finals and lost to the Lakers in a hard-fought 7 game series (Wait, the 76ers won the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals?! There must've been a scandal! The referees must've been terrible! Oh yeah, that's right it was fixed in order to get Allen Iverson into the Finals. Tim Donaghy, if you read this, don't get whiplash from nodding your head too vigorously). The current Bucks have the ability to match up with anybody, including the Miami MommasBoys and the Los Angeles Kobes. Here's somethings to consider while you clear your May/June 2011 schedule in anticipation for the Bucks playoff run:
2010 Rookie of the Year, Brandon Jennings*: I think by law I have to put an asterisk next to phrases that are false, even if they are complete fact. Brandon WAS and IS and forever WILL BE the rightful owner of the 2010 Rookie of the Year award. You can say whatever you want negatively about this guy; he shoots a low percentage, he gambles too much, he doesn't create for teammates enough, he's too slight...blah, blah, blah it's all inconsequential. Yeah, his shooting percentage left a lot to be desired (37% aka YIKES) but really think about that. Was Jennings forced to try and create offense and take questionable shots because his team was the most offensively challenged team in the league? YES, OF COURSE! He should be lauded actually, regardless of the low percentage, because he showed GRAPEFRUITS being THE GUY on his team.
Look at a guy like Nick Anderson, talented as the day is long, destined to be a perennial All-Star at worst. He misses a few free throws in a clutch playoff situation...he becomes Cameron from 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' in the pool scene and never recovers and is never heard from again. Anderson lacked what Jennings has in spades; a little thing called confidence in himself. Jennings knows he can ball, believes it to his core and can't be dissuaded. He can miss 100 shots in a row but it won't affect his confidence; he has the kind of short term memory that champions are made of. He shot poorly yes, but he is capable of making those shots and he knows it. It's only a matter of time when the bad luck ends, the heartbreaking layups go in and the midrange jumper falls (Seriously, a simple mathematical formula suggests that had Jennings made just 42% by having some bounces go his way, he would have scored 26 a game. Ok, so it's a biased formula I developed but still, you have to admit if his shots were getting the right bounces and momentum kicked in, he easily could've scored 26 a game). The point is, this guy is built in a mold of guys like Jordan, Bird and Magic (with less talent; don't freak out purists! I meant in mindset, that is all). He has the sheer will to improve and push himself to another level and I believe he will.
Did I mention he isn't old enough to drink? HE'S 20! At the age of 20, he lead a team of role players and castoffs (with Bogut injured) to the playoffs, not to mention a Game 7 against a heavily favored Atlanta Hawks team. How does a team lose their franchise center, have a team of castoffs and role players and still make the playoffs and make noise? BRANDON JENNINGS! That's how! Don't look too closely at the stats (look at Monta Ellis and his great stats for crying out loud; where did his team finish?); stats are misleading. Jennings was more than essential to the Bucks' success. There hasn't been a rookie PG that's had that kind of effect on a team's success (given the lack of talent) since Magic Johnson. Yeah, I went there. The Bucks played 89 games including the playoffs last season; Jennings started 89 games including the playoffs last season. He's an absolute warrior and the Bucks miss the playoffs without him. Can you imagine what this guy could do if his shots were falling? He was the number one option on a solid playoff team (a guy who couldn't even ORDER shots at a bar let alone have them fall in the hoop). This guy has no true ceiling. He could reinvent what it means to be a point guard.
Jennings finished third in ROY voting to Tyreke Evans and Stephen Curry. Jennings: 7 playoff games on a less than stellar team > Evans & Curry: watching Jennings run a playoff team on TV from their sofas. 'Nuff said.
Bo-gutty: Andrew Bogut is coming back. We won't need to watch Bogut hyping the team during the playoffs again while wearing a Brother Love style suit because he'll be too busy dominating the competition. Bogut was an all-star over Al Horford regardless of what the history books say. He's unquestionably a top 3 center when healthy (only Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol can be considered better than him). Coming out of Utah, he was the most electrifying offensive center that the league had seen in a long time and Milwaukee rewarded him with the number 1 pick in 2005. He's seen as somewhat of a disappointment for a number 1 pick (ridiculous, Kwame Brown anybody?) but a person who truly understands basketball paints a different picture. Outside of the 08-09 season where he was constantly hobbled, he has improved every year:
05-06: 9.4 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 0.8 BPG
06-07: 12.3 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 0.5 BPG
07-08: 14.3 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 1.7 BPG
09-10: 15.9 PPG, 10.2 RPG, 2.5 BPG
That's a pretty steady and encouraging incline. Centers, historically, take longer to develop and become what they should be. Just looking at these stats makes me giddy. He's improved markedly in every healthy season quite convincingly. I mean look at his blocks! He went from a guy who couldn't block shots (0.8 per game, 0.5 per game respectively in his first two seasons) to the second best shot blocker in the league last season! After his arm exploded and he missed the last part of the season, he STILL finished second in the league in blocked shots with 175. He's the second best defensive center in the league in 2010 (not just measuring blocked shots but his defense in general) and he couldn't block shots just 4 years ago. The guy is improvement personified. If he continues his pace of improvement he'll average 22.3 PPG, 13.4 RPG and 4.2 BPG before he hits 30 years old (and I don't think that these stats, outside of maybe the blocks, are a stretch). Oh yeah, HE'S ONLY 25! This guy is young and he's only improving, yet he's already the third best center in the league. So he's arguably the 2nd best defensive center in the league, a good low post scorer who has a bit of range to boot, an extremely effective passer and is probably a top 5 shot blocker. He has 20-12-5-3 written all over him as in...uh...errrr...I'm not sure we've seen a center like this before outside of flashes from Arvydas Sabonis after his knees stopped functioning and he finally made it to the NBA. I'm salivating. Not to mention, he's the unquestioned leader of this team, paired with Jennings, and he completely buys into Scott Skiles system. Skiles is an extremely good coach when his team believes in his defensive minded schemes. If Bogut continues to improve and buy into Skiles, the rest of the team follows suit.
John Hammond did and has done WORK!: Let's break down the offseason additions;
Corey Maggette: He makes me cringe. He makes everybody cringe given his past. He's an under performer and a coach killer for crying out loud! Can you blame him? Honestly, look at his former coaches: A pre-championship Doc Rivers (who won the Coach of the Year award while having Maggette but only for a his rookie year), Alvin Gentry, Dennis Johnson, Mike Dunleavy and the Artist Formerly Known as Don Nelson. Outside of a raw Rivers, Maggette had nothing from a good coaching standpoint. He spent the majority of his NBA career in the Dunleavy realm. I'm not sure how I'd act in that situation. Maggette's situation in LA was so bad, he signed with the Warriors. Fault him, if you will, for chasing money but after working under Mike Dunleavy that long you must lose a lot mentally (not irrevocably though, I believe). $9 million and Don Nelson's corpse is better than Mike Dunleavy, even if you know it's still bad. My point is the guy never had a good shot or a good situation or a good coach (outside of Mike Krzyzyzxcgvqbnrxcqnsky from Duke over a decade ago). Maggette is a prolific scorer (19.8 PPG last year) who gets to the line (a perennial weakness for Milwaukee) and can shoot 80% from the charity stripe. He's long, athletic and can basically fly on offense. If anybody can make him play defense (which he is completely built/designed to do) it's Scott Skiles and his Kool-Aid drinkin' minions.
If he doesn't pan out, we can bury him ala Starbury. His contract sucks, but it's nothing compared to Michael Redd's (nearly double Maggette's contract and at least Maggette can still play the game). He isn't exactly necessary to what we do, but he has potential to be a HUGE part of what we do. There isn't much to lose, but a fu...err...buck-ton to gain from this pickup.
The other pickups are what really gets me excited. First and foremost, Larry Sanders the Bucks first round pick. When this guy's NBA career is finished, I'd believe at this point that it turned out the way anybody can predict; energy bench guy who stuck around for 10+ years, a high flying 10/10 guy who played insanely good defense for a dynasty (fingers crossed), a guy who redefined the athletic, defensive minded, shot blocking/rebounding power forward position by hitting 40% from 3, or another Haislip. I don't know what to make of this guy, but I do know this; he could be REALLY good...like "I've never seen anybody like this!" good. If he can develop a solid post scoring game and be able to hit the 3 consistently...WOW. He'd be Rasheed Wallace with the athleticism of Shawn Kemp...wait those names don't exactly bode well unless you add the personality of Kevin Durant...if only. Even I think the previous bit I wrote is ridiculous, but a guy can dream. All nonsense aside, the guy can be damn good.
Drew Gooden has gotten a bad rap. The guy is actually pretty damn good. He can really score and rebound, which is something not exactly commonplace in recent Bucks history short of Bogut. He brings experience and ability to a team that has lacked those qualities in a PF in longer than I care to remember. How is he not a good fit? He can even play the center position (with a drop off in defense I have to admit). Not to mention the guy has spectacular facial hair, that's gotta count for something.
CDR is interesting. He was the dominant player on a dominant Final Four team (not exactly something to hang one's hat on, considering the immortal Sean May), he showed flashes on a ridiculously bad Nets team before he had fallen out of favor with Kiki Vandeweghe for his attitude (seriously, how would you act if Kiki became your coach and you were on the historically bad Nets team from 2009-10?), and has the ability to be the scoring guard off the bench we've lacked since...well...Michael Redd came off the bench. He's not a slam dunk but he's intriguing.
Keyon Dooling has been signed to replace Luke Ridnour as Jennings' backup and as you may have guessed from the (overly and sometimes ridiculously) gushy nature of this post, I love him in this position. He's a veteran who can slash and hit the 3 and basically pick up exactly where Jennings leaves off when going to the bench. Ridnour played admirably in his backup role but I think Dooling can exceed his production. Plain and simple, Dooling is and plays bigger than Ridnour against other PGs, so it's a step up defensively (Ridnour was as good at defense as Chevy Chase was at hosting a late night talk show; terrible doesn't begin to describe it).
Wait...we added and didn't subtract much of anything?: Yer Damn Right! John Salmons, Carlos Delfino, Ersan Ilyasova (gained invaluable experience/confidence in the WBC regardless of how badly he played in the final), and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute are all back and ready to be just as indispensable as last season. We gained Corey Maggette, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Drew Gooden, Keyon Dooling, Larry Sanders and EARL FREAKING BOYKINS (I would've had a paragraph for Boykins but I thought the hyperbole might get out of hand, if it hasn't already)! The right pieces are there, they really are. I don't see a weakness in this roster barring injury. We can match up big and small, we're fast, we're athletic, we're dedicated to Scott Skiles defense (Scott Skiles defense = we'll kick your ass because we work harder than you do), we have some extremely good blue chippers, Brandon Jennings is THE NEW TRUTH, and Andrew Bogut is a top 3 big man (the other two top big men played in the Finals less than two years ago, by the way). What's not to love? The Bucks are ready to make the rest of the NBA Ned Beatty in 'Deliverance'. FEAR THE DEER!
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