And we’re off.
Draft day begins with a bang for Milwaukee Bucks fans. All week we heard the Bucks were itching to make a move, but not necessarily just dump salary. So that’s how we got here. Milwaukee is bringing in the talented, but volatile, Stephen Jackson along with Shaun Livingston and Beno Udrih and the number 19 pick in today’s draft. Out the door head Corey Maggette and John Salmons (much to the delight of Bucks fans I’m sure).
The salary info:
| Team | Players | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 |
| Bucks | Stephen Jackson | 9,256,500 | 10,059,750 | | |
| Shaun Livingston | 3,500,000 | 1,000,000 | | |
| Beno Udrih | 6,925,400 | 7,372,200 | | |
| 19th pick | | | | |
| | | | | |
| Bobcats | Corey Maggette | 10,262,069 | 10,924,138 | | |
| 7th pick | | | | |
| | | | | |
| Kings | John Salmons | $8,500,000 | 8,083,000 | 7,583,000 | 1,000,000 |
| 10th pick | | | | |
Over the length of all of the deals involved, the Bucks will save $8,238,357 and the difference between the salaries of the 19 and 10 picks.
But this isn’t just a salary dump.
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He’s the latest chunk of Milwaukee Bucks information floating in the sea of trade rumors.
Chad Ford with the apparently final information on a crazy deal:
Bucks get Beno, Stephen Jackson, Shaun Livingston & 19. Bobcats get pick 7 & Maggette. Kings get 10 & John Salmons.
Whoa … again.
***
Minutes after Gery Woelfel’s tweet on the Bucks and the Kings, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! tweeted the Bobcats would be involved in a three way deal. He’s now updated involving players:
Partial of deal: The Bucks get Stephen Jackson, Shaun Livingston, sources say. Charlotte gets the 7th pick and Corey Maggette.
Whoa.
***
First the Observer, and then this. Gery Woelfel has Tweeted a rather big piece of news:
Bucks appear to have deal with Sacamento for No. 7
No word yet on who is involved or the specifics.
***
Here’s an old one (and by old, I mean I added this and started this page roughly two minutes ago and it’s already irrelevant). This one’s from the Charlotte Observer:
There are definitely serious talks going on between the Charlotte Bobcats and Milwaukee Bucks. Don’t know all the particulars yet, but it sounds like the Bobcats could end with the 10th pick and maybe send No. 19 to Milwaukee.
The article goes on to mention the similarities in the contracts of Corey Maggette and Stephen Jackson. Do with that what you will.
Jeremy Schmidt writes the Milwaukee Bucks blog Bucksketball.com. Follow him on Twitter.
We’ve been having something of a meeting of the minds over the past week here at Bucksketball.com regarding where the Milwaukee Bucks decision makers may want to direct their attention this coming off-season. We’ll get the discussion rolling in part one and close it out in part two. – JS
Jeremy
What needs addressing this off-season the most? I’d say shooting guard, and then I’d say it’s not even all that close.
82games.com makes the strongest empirical argument here, as Milwaukee’s collective PER at the shooting guard position this season was 11.4, while opponents managed a 13.5 PER against the Bucks at that position, leaving them with a net -2.1. But anyone who has watched the Bucks over the past two years knows the importance of the two guard position and how much trouble it has caused the Bucks.
Before John Salmons arrival in the 2009-10 season, Charlie Bell logged the majority of the minutes there and could do little aside from harmlessly parade into the lane, representing no true threat to score or create. He was a spot-up shooter being asked to do far too much. And while we all forget it because the Bucks post-Samons trade impressed so much, Milwaukee’s offense was brutal for the first half of that season. Virtually the only difference between that offense and the one that mucked up this past season was that team’s ability to hit some threes
Once Salmons arrived though, the onetime point guard brought to life the Bucks offense. He drove as a threat: he could pass or finish equally as well. The Bucks had shooters all around him, ready to capitalize off his drive and kick game. With him dropping assists and scoring 20 points regularly, the Bucks offense flourished for the first time under Coach Scott Skiles.
So much of the Bucks offense starts out of the wing that it’s crucial they have someone creative and adept at scoring logging heavy minutes there
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Part One of Ian Segovia’s first post here at Bucksketball was posted earlier today. It addressed the positive aspects of Bucks guards this season. Now, for part two.
Negatives
Let’s keep this short because Salmons is going to be mentioned a lot while going through the rest of the negatives.
Many people like to point to his contract as a cause for his laziness. I will do no such thing. The reason there’s so much negativity towards the effort Salmons put forth is that the general public believes far too much in itself. Everyone believes that if they were handed millions of dollars to play basketball, they’d always play hard, do the little things and be the perfect teammate. This is bullshit. If it was, you wouldn’t have an office feud with Tammy in accounting. You wouldn’t be on the internet right now. You’d be working, spending time with your kids, looking for a job or trying to make humanity better.
Here’s a less cynical explanation for Salmons season.
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It is the dawn of a new era at Bucksketball. Today’s post is the very first from one of two new contributors, Ian Segovia. Ian was once one of the finest 12-year-old spellers Wisconsin has ever known, and has turned that innate ability to spell words like “Parallel” into the ability to construct sentences about his favorite basketball team, the Milwaukee Bucks. As he hopes and prays Brandon Jennings can turn into some sort of Kevin Johnson clone, he’ll deliver his Bucks related thoughts here at Bucksketball.
We’re rolling out a three part series today reviewing Milwaukee’s pluses and minuses this season at guard forward and center. Ian starts today with guards. Up first, the positives. Later, the negatives. Next week we’ll look forward to the off-season and figure where the Bucks most pressing needs will be.
- Jeremy Schmidt
It was a tough year for the Bucks guards. Since the Bucks are such a perimeter-oriented offense, the guards deserve much of the blame for the team’s offensive struggles. Plus, it isn’t clear how much credit they deserve for the team’s stellar defense. The defensive standouts for the team were located in center and forward spots. And often the best defense against a great opposing guard was to funnel them to Andrew Bogut. Yet, the guards still had their silver lining.
John Hollinger’s PER rankings has Earl Boykins at 17.62, best among the bucks and good for fourteenth among all point guards. Obviously, this is ridiculous, but what PER does show is that Boykins was the perfect deep bench role player.
He dropped thirteen in the fourth quarter against the Lakers. He rang in the New Year with twenty-six against the Mavericks and then ran around like a chicken with its head cut off to drop in the game-tying bucket against the Heat. I haven’t kept track of anyone else’s third-string point guards, but I highly doubt any can boast as much.
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