Hitting up another of our TrueHoop partners for a look at the upcoming season. This time we hit up a city that is on my short list of places to visit: Milwaukee. These guys have the best name for a fan site: Bucksketball and those of you with a Rudolph fetish might enjoy their banner.
Last season we beat them in their home gym to go 3-0 on the young season and everything was coming up roses. Then, early in the new year we sucked eggs during one game and Bosh thought the ball had the cooties the next time we faced them. Marion arrived and we kicked their asses in the second game of our glorious 6 game win streak. So, a split.
Predicted starting 5:
For the love of god I hope Brandon Jennings is the starting point guard and not Luke Ridnour. But, I’m not optimistic. Ridnour/Redd/Delfino/Warrick/Bogut (fingers crossed on Bogut, hoping he’s over the injury by opening night.
Best offensive player:
For all the problems people have with Redd, he’s still the Bucks most efficient scorer, and it’s not even close. Offense, for the first time in about twenty years, will be the Bucks biggest problem.
Best defensive player:
Andrew Bogut is the team’s defensive heartbeat. If he’s in, they can control the glass and hold their own against most big men. If he’s not, then Dan Gadzuric and Francisco Elson are in charge. If we could somehow combine them into one man they might have the girth to stand up to centers in the NBA, but alone they are too small to deal with the pounding for more than 15 minutes each.
Best new player:
Jennings is the man everyone wants to see. He’s already close to Redd as the Bucks most recognizable player, and judging from his strong summer league performance, he’s closing in on being their most important player on the court too.
Player that will be missed:
Richard Jefferson wasn’t all that pretty on the court, but he delivered offense when Redd and Bogut were out. He also at least was a body on defense, which is more than can be said about Charlie Villanueva. As much as I liked Charlie V. from January on last year, Jefferson’s absence will be most notable.
Weakest link in your top 8 rotation players:
The small forward position provides virtually no offense. Fans still don’t know what to make of Joe Alexander, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute is a terrific defensive player that can fill in anywhere, but offers little in the form of offensive capabilities and Carlos Delfino has been underwhelming in his previous few years in the NBA.
greatest weakness as a team:
Offense. Where will it come from if Redd cannot round into form after ACL surgery last season?
Biggest question heading into the season:
Can Andrew Bogut and Michael Redd stay healthy and improve on last year’s record?
If I was GM for a day, I would…
Have kept Ramon Sessions.
Your opinion of the Raptors:
If the Raptors have finally shored up their swingman position they could make some playoff noise. I’m just not sure that Hedo Turkoglu and Demar Derozan qualify as "shoring up" the position.
If you had to assign a "movie title" to your expectations of the season,
what would it be?:
Groundhog Day. (The Bucks miss the playoffs again)
w/l prediction for your team:
37-45
Our thanks to the guys at Bucksketball. Grab a look at their Media Day recap, their glossary of terms (jacker!), and a great piece on something near and dear to Raptors fans hearts: theme music.
11 Raps
If the Raps have a chance at anything good this season they’ll have to beat teams like these 4-0 or at worst 3-1. Splitting season series against “weaker” opposition is going to kill us because you know we’ll at best play .500 against teams in our tier and be under .500 against the elite. We got to feast on Milwaukee, Bobcats, Knicks, Nets etc to come close to 43 wins.
Dave Berri has written about Milwaukee’s chances and If memory serves, he thinks that they could be pretty good.
I believe they underperformed their pythagorean record last year and got rid of Charlie V (who is vastly overrated).
So I think he is more bullish than these people are. I like Dave Berri’s work and I tend to trust him so I’m looking for Milwaukee to make some noise at the 7th,8th seed.
Of course, as a Raps fan I hope they falter.
If Ridnour is still starting after Christmas then Skiles needs to get fired.
I think the bucks will be better than everyone expects, they could be in a fight for the 8th place. I think this recap is very ignorant of the talent of ersan ilyasova. He’s starting in the preseason and is younger and more talented than warrick, i see ersan being the starting PF and Delfino de SF. Both are better than jennings a much more proved so, saying that jennings is their best adittion in my opinion is wrong. Jennings played only one season in a subpar europe team while Ilyasova was the best player in one of the top four teams in europe and he’s only 23.
+1
Ilyasova is going to have a breaout season. He’s outstanding rebounding the ball…
Hey Arsenalist (or anyone else from RR), this may be slightly off topic but I’d like an brutally honest answer to a question that has been bothering me. What is your honest opinion on Jose Calderon? Where would you rate him compared to the EAST and the NBA in general?
Had a big argument with some friends today, they feel “stat” wise he’s a top 10 PG, with his low turn over ratio, assists blah blah blah… however when I see him play, I don’t see the impact he can bring. I’ll be honest I’m not his biggest fan, he’s not bad but he’s not someone I would tout as a key core to the franchise.
My logic is based on the fact that not all the stats are equal in my opinion. When a guy goes for a rebound and he’s surrounded by his teammates with no opposition (that’s not really a rebound), when Rasho tapped the ball 3+times on his missed layups (cause he can’t dunk for the life of him) those aren’t “real rebounds”.
When Jose brings the ball up court and passes the ball left to right until the shot clock expires and we chuck a shot (that happens to go in) that’s not a real assist. To me, a PG need to either break a defense (with sheer athleticism by his first step), or have the ability to recognize a defense and be able to break it by sheer craftiness. I just don’t see what part of his game that people love.
A lot of it is just people reading the boxscore imo, I’d love to know your thoughts thanks.
You haven’t been reading this site long enough or you’d know our opinion on Jose. I think my reviews of him would be fairly negative because of his defense, conservative nature, lack of quickness, inability to create for himself, lack of drive ‘n kick game and need to play with Bosh.
However, he was unhealthy last year so any argument I make will be countered with that (as it should be). Let’s reserve judgment on Jose till he has a full year as a healthy starter, something he hasn’t done yet. It’s only fair, but I’m with you.
Not sure what to make of the Bucks. It felt like they were in cost saving mode for most of the summer, but maybe I was wrong? Anyway didn’t get the impression they were trying to make any noise this year.
Note on Toronto point guards. Since CB4 found his mid-range jump shot, Toronto has been juicing PG stats for everyone who started here. Take a look at James’, Ford’s numbers drop after they left. CB4 might add 2-3 assists per game, points too!
Still have more faith in Jose’s game as he seems to be able to work in something other than a P&R with Bosh and still be effective. This is a big year for Jose.
Interesting fact steve and I have to agree. Jose has a big year ahead of him. We have to believe that he will control the offensive flow of this team. Quite frankly, he has no other option. We are relying on him very heavily and if he is to fail us.. well.. goodbye 09/10.
Ah.. I guess 4Ever works better :D
Actually, nevermind.