(We’re counting down the best 20 Bucks since 1991 over the next few weeks. It’s something to do with the lockout sucking the life out of NBA fans. We continue with number 18. TJ Ford, the only Bucks player I’ve ever owned the replica jersey of. – Jeremy)

About midway through the 2003-04 NBA season, TJ Ford was exhibiting massive potential. For a 20-year-old rookie fresh from his sophomore season at Texas, dishing 6.5 assists per game was no small feat. Combine the assists with exceptional quickness and a bevy of accolades from his last season in Austin, and Ford had the potential to be the Bucks starting point guard for the next decade.

However, potential can be dangerous. It seems no word gets thrown around more in today’s NBA. Teams spend high draft picks on international players or college freshmen because they have the potential to be the next big thing. Teams trade established players for guys that haven’t proved much, but have the potential to be great.

Unfortunately, for every player that lives up to the hype, there are seemingly 100 that never rise past mediocrity. Some players lack the killer instinct. Others never had the skill in the first place. Then there are those unfortunate ones bitten by the injury bug.

Read more…

Fall behind early, battle back admirably, close the lead to an obtainable amount in the fourth quarter and then turn the ball over and stall offensively at key moments, preventing a seemingly waiting to be had game.

Happened again against Orlando, as it has so many times this season.  Milwaukee dropped a tough to watch professional version of Monday night’s not-so-classic UConn-Butler battle for the national title, 78-72.

Tuesday was the lowest of lows for the Bucks starting five.  Coach Scott Skiles took the drastic measure of inserting an entirely new five man group after Milwaukee’s first unit failed to score for the first 6:39 of the game.  Facing a 14-0 deficit, Milwaukee didn’t have just have a hole to dig itself out of, the Bucks were more like the child trapped at the bottom of the well.  And, as they so often do, the Bucks worked hard at getting out of that predicament.

From the moment the Bucks starters made their mass exit until just 2:01 remained in the game, Milwaukee out-scored Orlando 58-44.  Consecutive rather wacky baskets from Drew Gooden (is there anyone else on the Bucks whose shots are ever described as wacky?) left the Bucks even with Orlando, 72-72.  But the Bucks would out-cold their opponent once again, missing their final four shots, while mixing in a costly and completely avoidable turnover.  The Magic capitalized on the Bucks misfortune and put to bed a game they really had no business winning.

Fortunately for Orlando, Milwaukee had even less business winning it.

Read more…

Recap/Box Score/Enemy

In Orlando Wednesday night, Milwaukee made a run in the fourth quarter to make things look respectable, but trailed by double digits virtually the entire game.  The culprit?  A shooting percentage that hovered under 33% again for the majority of the evening.

It was the same story that’s played out so many times before for the Bucks this season.  Shoot so horribly throughout the majority of the game, then try and furiously scramble back into the game once a few shots finally fall.  The Bucks made exactly one third of their shots before the fourth quarter, and then shot 12 of 21 in the final period.  They pulled within five at one point, but after Hedo Turkoglu answered with a three, they failed to get inside of eight points the rest of the way.  They got close enough in the fourth that it seemed feasible and really made you damn their 15 of 32 outing from the free throw line.

But an offense like the Bucks holds them back so dearly.

If Milwaukee was just bad offensively, and by that I mean a steady 40% shooting team through the first three quarters, they would have kept the game close enough for their final run to possibly put them over the top.  Milwaukee’s rarely just bad offensively though.  They’re more frequently historically bad offensively.

Their outing dropped their offensive rating to 99.7 for the season.  No team since the pre-Chris Paul New Orleans Hornets of 2004-05 has been so bad.  Those Hornets are the ones that were held hostage by Baron Davis and suited up 22 different players that season while starting 19 different faces.  Starters on that team include: Casey Jacobson, Lee Nailon, Jackson Vroman, Bostjan Nachbar and Junior Harrington. That’s the team the Bucks are playing like offensively.

The season before though, two teams finished with an offensive rating lower than 99.7.  The Toronto Raptors and … Scott Skiles’ Chicago Bulls.  Skiles was fired after 66 games, but the team continued to play horribly after his exit.  That scenario likely won’t play out this season, as Milwaukee is still one of the league’s premier defensive squads and firing Skiles hardly seems like an offensive solution for this team, but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless.  The last time a Skiles team performed this poorly offensively, he ended up out of a job. Read more…

Enemy: MagicBasketball.net

Point Guard
Keyon Dooling vs. Jameer Nelson

Nelson is a good matchup for Dooling.  He’s small and not overwhelmingly fast, so Dooling should be able to put lots of pressure on him using his length advantage.  Nelson knows this offense very well though and always keeps spacing on the court.  He’s a very good shooter and certainly someone who Dooling cannot leave to double team Howard should the Bucks choose to do so.  Historically, Milwaukee wants to prevent the Magic from getting many open looks outside, so look for Dooling to rarely stray from Nelson.

Advantage: Magic Read more…

Recap/Box Score/Enemy

Depleted opponent be damned, this game was about the Milwaukee Bucks.  No one in the home locker room Saturday night was feeling bad for their flu-stricken counterparts from Orlando.  Only 19 games into this young season, the Bucks have seen Andrew Bogut, Carlos Delfino, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Corey Maggette and Drew Gooden all miss games with injury.  They’ve been out of sync on offense, sometimes incapable on defense and one of the league’s biggest disappointments.

Milwaukee was sorely in need of a performance that could give them some hope going forward.  I’m not talking about one of those hollow wins like they got against the Warriors or the short-handed but more impressive win against the Bobcats.  Milwaukee needed a win that gave them a formula they could replicate.  With a lineup that’s as healthy as it’s been since the seventh game of the season, something needed to happen for the Bucks on Saturday night that would allow them to believe they could be the team everyone expected them to be before this season began.

Essentially, the Bucks needed the old Andrew Bogut back.

That wasn’t exactly what they got, but they’ll take the one who scored 31 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in their 96-85 victory over the Orlando Magic.

For as much as Milwauke’s offensive struggles fall on the shoulders of John Salmons and their off-season acquisitions, they fall on Bogut’s too.  Not only the center, he’s the centerpiece of the franchise.  Milwaukee didn’t add the Gooden’s and Maggette’s of the world to carry the load offensively this summer, they brought them on to complement their go-to-guy: Bogut.  If The Elbow Explosion left Bogut incapable of progressing and being the all-star everyone hoped he’d be this year, Milwaukee’s offense wasn’t ever going anywhere, not for more than a game or two at a time at least.

Saturday though, Bogut was all he used to be and more.  He started the game with his patented left-handed hook shot, and followed that up with a running layup at the hoop.  After one more lefty hook came the moment of truth.  He established deep position against Marcin Gortat on the right block and turned towards the baseline rather than towards the center of the court.  It was time to give it a go with his right hand on a hook.  Previously this season, never was it more evident that Bout was in pain than when he tried this move.  He’d fail and fail, eventually shelving it and relying just on his left.  Saturday though, he brought it back out and hit hit first one against Gortat, dropping the ball in gently without it touching the rim. 

Bogut’s fourth quarter free throw troubles should still give fans pause, he was 5-16 in the game from the line thanks largely to a fourth quarter in which he shot just three for 10 when Magic coach Stan Van Gundy employed a foul strategy.  Going forward that could be a problem that won’t go away so easily, as he’s now shooting just 42.1% on the season.

It’s a concern, but tonight is not a night for concerns.  Just one for hope. Read more…