Milwaukee's hopes may rest on Drew Gooden's wacky game. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

We know Andrew Bogut is going to be out (UPDATE: We now know it will be 8-to-12 weeks too. Damn). His ankle won’t unfracture quickly. Whether or not this torpedoes Milwaukee’s already fragile season largely depends on who replaces the majority of Bogut’s 30 minutes each night.

The early candidate is Drew Gooden. He will likely get the start in Bogut’s spot against the Chicago Bulls on Friday and Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday. For the time being, he’s Milwaukee’s best option for big minutes.

That isn’t saying much.

Last season, Gooden’s PER while playing the center position was 13.6, roughly six points lower than his PER at the power forward position. The numbers have remained consistent to last season this season. Gooden’s PER as a center this year is 13, while his PER at the four is 29. The smaller sample size for this season makes me hesitate a bit, but since they are consistent with last season, it seems to be a pattern worth recognizing as far as Gooden’s role on the Bucks is concerned, although Gooden did post an 18 PER while playing center with the Mavericks three seasons ago.

The aggressive, athletic Gooden can occasionally thrill, but he often seems to make the most simple parts of the game difficult. Many passes become no look ones. Pump fakes turn into foul drawing exhibitions. Suddenly, Gooden has developed a taste for the outside shot too, which is probably better than him shooting 22-foot jump shots, but isn’t an ideal shot for a starting center that has never demonstrated that range before.

An apparent general lack of attention to detail seems to make Gooden a less than ideal candidate as a back line defender. Simply, he isn’t the guy who erases the mistakes of his teammates. But if Gooden isn’t a perfect fit offensively and isn’t the defender Milwaukee thrives with, is there a better internal option to replace Bogut?

Nope.

Read more…

Another trade has been made.

From TrueHoop:

The Milwaukee Bucks have agreed to a trade that will send Jodie Meeks and Francisco Elson to the Philadelphia 76ers for Primoz Brezec, Royal Ivey and a second-round draft pick, two league sources told ESPN.com NBA Insider Chad Ford.

Also, from the Milwaukee Bucks:

The Milwaukee Bucks have acquired guard/forward John Salmons (6-6, 207) from the Chicago Bulls in exchange for forward Hakim Warrick and forward Joe Alexander, General Manager John Hammond announced today. Additionally, the Bucks obtained Chicago’s second round draft pick in 2011 and 2012, as well as the option of switching first round draft picks in the 2010 NBA Draft, so long as Chicago’s first round pick is from number 11 through number 30.

So, for those of you keeping track at home the Bucks draft pick situation looks a lil’ something like this:

Nine picks in the next three drafts … for the Bucks!  Unheard of.

Essentially, the Bucks traded Jodie Meeks for a second round pick.  Yes, we all had high hopes for Jodie Meeks when he first arrived on the scene, hitting threes in summer league and looking okay during the pre-season.  But it hasn’t happened for him during the year and he’s currently hitting just 28 percent of his three-point attempts.  In other words, Meeks is a shooter who hasn’t proved he can shoot yet.  Maybe he will, he’s young and has plenty of time, but in the mean time, the Bucks get another second round pick that could have an impact or may get packaged in another move down the road.

Flexibility was the buzz word surrounding Hammond’s moves last summer and the word rings true again today.

UPDATE:  John Hammond will be having a press conference at 4 PM (CST).  I’ll have more information later in the evening (I’m going to the Marquette game after).

The Bucks have lost their backup’s backup’s backup center for at least six weeks.  Francisco Elson underwent successful surgery on Friday for a hernia.  From the Bucks:

Milwaukee Bucks General Manager John Hammond announced today that center Francisco Elson (7-0, 240) had successful surgery on Friday to repair a hernia.  Elson is expected to miss six weeks of action.

Elson, 33, has appeared in 11 games for the Bucks this season and averaged 1.2 rebounds in 5.6 minutes per game.

This means for the foreseeable future the Bucks inactive list will be: Elson (injury), Michael Redd (injury) and Joe Alexander (not good).

Recaps/Box Score

The most bizarre thing about the second half for the Bucks was that it took so long to happen.  I mean, we all know Michael Redd has been playing for appearances sake and with the hope that he’ll magically find his game and improve his trade value.  He certainly hasn’t been playing because he’s been doing so well, but everyone assumed the Bucks were stuck playing him, through thick and thin.   Then the Bucks-Bobcats first half happened.

It’s not often you’ll see a coach more at a loss for words and explanations than Kelvin Sampson was when he tried to explain what happened in the first half for the Milwaukee Bucks.  After looking off in the distance (possibly for someone who could figure out why the Bucks are playing so poorly) Sampson said something to the effect of, “Basketball is a simple game.  You just need to make your shots when you’re open.  We’re getting good looks, wide-open looks, and not hitting them.”

Sampson looked fed up and it’s logical to assume Scott Skiles was fed up too judging from his second half strategy.  The Bucks started the third with Brandon Jennings, Jodie Meeks, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Ersan Ilyasova and Kurt Thomas.  The first man off the bench?  Francisco Elson.  I’d say Skiles wasn’t so thrilled with his starters, as Michael Redd, Andrew Bogut and Carlos Delfino didn’t see one second of action in the second half.

And when his team is down 22 at half to a mediocre team, how can you disagree with his moves? Read more…

From Bucks.com Twitter:

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute will be out for tonight’s game against NJ w/ a left foot sprain. He is listed as day-to-day.

Mbah a Moute joins Joe Alexander (strained right hamstring – out) and Michael Redd (strained left patella tendon – out) on the Bucks injury report.

This is obviously troubling.  Hopefully Luc will be ready to go on Friday, but expect increased minutes for Carlos Delfino tonight in Luc’s absence.  The Nets typically go pretty small, which doesn’t favor Hakim Warrick. Delfino has only been averaging roughly 23 minutes per game, expect that to be closer to 30 this evening.

This should also lead to Francisco Elson’s first game on the active roster this year.  Congratulations to him.