I think the Bucks need to move Jennings now while his value is at an all time high (disregarding the last three games) and start the rebuilding project now. Should be able to get a decent lottery pick for him at this point (lousy career shooting % but showing improvement, he’s an ok distributor and plays solid D due to his tutelage under Skiles. Young and probably fairly marketable in a larger city – too bad NYK and LAL have nothing to trade, they’d be perfect in this scenario) in a loaded draft and hopefully have a high pick of our own if we were to trade him soon and get to the business of losing and procuring better draft position. We get a Harrison Barnes/Perry Jones (for example) haul out of this draft and we’re back to being an exciting up and coming team that I think would excite casual fans far more than this one. Bring Bogut back next year and if he stays healthy for the first couple months of the year sell high on him as well. I think we can get another lottery pick if he’s playing well (big men who can chew and walk at the same time, even when they’re injury prone, are rare commodities. I know we’d have to take back salary but hopefully those would be inconsequential expiring contracts which we don’t need to go through here) In this scenario the Bucks would again have two picks in the lottery (their own after losing a lot but getting our 2012 picks valuable experience and the one for bogut). Two top ten picks in this year’s draft and the next at least give the Bucks a chance at being relevant at some point in the next five years.

The Sixers and Nuggets are similar to the Bucks in the fact that they are deep with above average players and no year in year out All Star players but the difference between those teams and the Bucks is that they run. I think the Bucks need to run and gun and use their depth to their advantage, you know Jennings wants to play uptempo and even if they don’t end up doing much (or anything at all) in the postseason at least they’ll be fun to watch and inflated numbers for guys like Jennings could raise some eyebrows (works for Golden State and Phoenix)

I don’t feel like he’s as crazy and erratic as it seems like most people do. I think he’s a really good coach. He doesn’t get too high or too low and he never seems to throw his players under a bus. He sticks with guys who deserve sticking with. Think about it: Is anyone on this team outside of Jennings and Bogut really worth playing under any circumstance for 30+ minutes every night? There’s a reason he has such an ever changing rotation. It’s because he doesn’t have any players that really deserve consistent minutes. They aren’t that good.

The Leuer thing I know stands out, but I think Leuer is a bad defender. I need to look more into it, but there has to be a reason he isn’t playing. Skiles isn’t holding him out just to hold him out. Same with Tobias Harris, who I am CERTAIN is a bad defender.

The Jackson thing is strange, but we have virtually no idea what is going on behind the scenes. We hear both sides saying what seems like the right things, but there must be some reason he isn’t playing. Maybe that’s a fault of Skiles and maybe he needs to work on dealing with players like Jackson or Maggette, but maybe the Bucks simply shouldn’t acquire those kinds of players. I don’t have the answers.

Just my thoughts.

Sadly, I was amazed when we were able to find a team to take Corey Magette from us. I was even MORE amazed that we found a team to inherit the huge salary we gave John Salmons. But there’s no way anyone (especially after another injury this year) would take Andrew Bogut from us. Again, we gave him too much money on the contract. If he only made$10 million a year, maybe, but not $14 and certainly not $16. Thats what really screws us, we have him on the books for a ridiculous amount for the next couple.

Perhaps the SJax experiment failed, but I hope if they decide to trade him by March 15th, let’s get something decent in return for him. Maybe not even someone who is a household name, but someone with a lot of promise (the more I think about it, maybe Anthony Morrow, his 42 point game certainly helped too).

You’re right though, I think for the next year or two, it’ll be Hammond swapping a mid-level talent (John Salmons, Maggette, Jackson, etc) with another and hoping something will mesh. I think we could become title contenders with players like Brandon Jennings, Moute’s Defense, Drew Gooden, & Dunleavy…the constant question remains…Who’s the missing piece?

(btw, did anyone else’s appreciation of Gooden slightly rise on Saturday? I really admired a player like him who refused to give up and tried to take back the game scoring. I really think he’s 100% on board with us. Random thought.)