Milwaukee may consider changing their logo this pre-season to something more appropriate.

The body count keeps rising in Milwaukee and the Bucks significant depth is getting an early test.  Of course, it’s still pre-season, so if the injuries are going to come, let’s go ahead and get them all out of the way now.

Milwaukee was able to beat the Bobcats Saturday night, 86-78, despite playing without Jon Brockman who joined the list of the walking wounded with an ankle sprain in Friday night’s loss at Detroit.  Since things are going as they are right now, Larry Sanders sprained an ankle himself in Saturday’s game, playing only nine minutes before leaving the game for good and Brandon Jennings suffered a scare himself, coming down funny on his ankle in the third quarter.

I’d expect all of the Bucks players to find a way to be ready when things get started for real in a few weeks, but this has certainly been a health challenged squad thus far.  Six different Bucks players have missed games or parts of games due to injuries … THROUGH THREE PRE-SEASON GAMES.

All health problems aside, it’s nice to see Milwaukee back in the win column and some key players playing well again. Read more…

Box Score / Recap

Larry Sanders is busy when he's not playing on the Bucks.

First things first: the Bucks beat the Bulls to open the pre-season Tuesday night, 92-83.

Good, that’s out of the way.  Now we move on.

I can’t stress the importance of not blowing things out of proportion after one pre-season game.  Part of me feels like I shouldn’t even be posting reactions to such a meaningless exhibition.  But they put the games on, so they must mean something, right?  Naturally, that means we’ll all take something out of it, be it great news, bad news or no news at all.  What’s important is that we remain grounded in reality and remember that this was just the first game out of hopefully over 90 some this season.

That being said, I decided to associate words with a few key players performances on Tuesday night.  Enjoy.

Brandon Jennings: Out of sync.

Jennings didn’t have a strong game and didn’t even look good struggling.  He had a nice feed to a streaking Carlos Delfino early, but his night was captured more vividly by a play that took place not long after.  Jennings made a nice move to shake free of Derrick Rose and get himself an open look from three, but then faded ever so slightly and air-balled.  He generally looked rough most of the night, and got blocked by Joakim Noah at the rim at one point, reminding me of his struggles last year.  It’s only one night though, and multiple key Bucks weren’t playing.  So really, we shouldn’t care very much at all. Read more…

In a seemingly impossible turn of events, it has become even more crowded inside for the Milwaukee Bucks. When Milwaukee left for Vegas Summer League last Sunday, they did so with Darnell Jackson seemingly in line to split the majority of minutes at the power forward position for the week in Vegas. Of course, Jackson was fighting an uphill battle to stay on the roster come October, much less earn any minutes. But it seemed he’d be in line to prove himself in Vegas.

And after his first game, Jackson seemed like he was heading for a bright week. He scored 17 points, grabbed seven rebounds and looked like Milwaukee’s most polished player. Yet still, as good as Jackson looked, he was still low man on the totem pole that’s become the Bucks power forward situation. He was the most likely to move, and moved he will be in the coming days … for another power forward?

What’s interesting about the Bucks upcoming acquisition of Jon Brockman is that they are getting a player more talented than Jackson and with more of a rotation player ceiling. Brockman could step in and give the Bucks a solid rebounding, hustling power forward for 15 minutes-per-game starting tomorrow if need be. He’s without question better than Darnell Jackson.

And that only leaves things more complicated today than they were yesterday when it comes to the Bucks big man rotation. But not necessarily in a bad way. The depth the Bucks have merely gives them a variety of options for the time being. I’ll go through each of the Bucks options at power forward and attempt to make their probable role a bit more clear. Read more…

Muddied may be a good description for the Milwaukee Bucks current power forward situation. It’s not like there isn’t some talent there. The Bucks have everything they could ever ask for in their power forward position. Athleticism, rebounding, length, 3-point shooting, speed, power and defense. Except those skills are spread amongst five players. And for a team that had trouble splitting minutes between three power forwards for the first half of last season, splitting time between five power forwards should prove impossible, not to mention impractical.

It’s probably safe to assume that the glut of forwards could be relieved to a degree by making the most of the flexibility of some. Drew Gooden for example, can moonlight as a backup center. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute has played small forward on occasion in his two years in Milwaukee, though with less success that he’s had at the four. Still, it’s not like the Bucks are stuck with five plodders who can’t move anywhere else.

Yet still, it seems a possibility that the Bucks may move one of their forwards in order to obtain more flexibility at the guard position. Gery Woelful has recently reported that A. the Bucks have gotten feelers on Mbah a Moute and Ersan Ilyasova and B. that the Bucks likely will bid farewell to Luke Ridnour.

Could the Bucks be looking to lighten their load at the four and bring in someone who could take some minutes backing up Brandon Jennings at the same time? It’s possible. But moving Ilyasova or Mbah a Moute may be a big mistake. Read more…

I reviewed the 2009-10 Milwaukee Bucks centers on Monday, today we knock out the forwards.

Darnell Jackson

A D-League terror,
Minutes in a useless game.
May have a future

A late season waiver wire acquisition, the Bucks thought enough of Jackson to claim him even though he could not be on the playoff roster. This was before Andrew Bogut’s injury, but they could have used another end of the rotation big for the playoffs even then. This indicated at the time that the Bucks would likely be interested in seeing if he could contribute going forward and reports that he’ll be in Vegas with the Bucks summer league team would confirm that suspicion. In two D-League games this season, he averaged 33 points and 11.5 rebounds, so there must be at least SOMETHING to Jackson’s game. Brandon Jennings also Tweeted about his dance moves, which is fun to hear about. Read more…