It’s easy to slam the Bucks past off-season.

Richard Jefferson was a big name, possibly a bigger name than Michael Redd.  Jefferson led the Bucks in virtually every important offensive category last season.  Jefferson has loads of playoff experience, a tendency to get to the free throw line and convert and as much athleticism as nearly anyone on the team.  RJ has been a twenty point a night scorer (or thereabouts) for nearly his whole career, and the Bucks look to be short on scoring.  He even had his own series of Time Warner Cable Triple Play commercials, after less than a year with the team. Read more…

First off, an addition to the glossary from today’s earlier post.  Pace factor is going to be a key for the Bucks this year and I am going to be keeping my eye on it and bringing it up constantly.  Get to know it.

• The Sporting News has been counting backwards in a power poll to start the season.  The Bucks rank 24.  The always great Bethlehem Shoals is underwhelmed by the Bucks right now though.

• JSOnline reports that Ramon Sessions facing the Bucks was not exactly like Brett Favre facing the Packers.  A mildly intriguing Scott Skiles quote in the article though:

“There’s an art to figuring it out, and it’s a very iffy business,” Bucks coach Scott Skiles said. “Sometimes guys continue to grow and grow and grow; other guys don’t. It’s very hard to project that.

So it kind of seems like maybe Skiles and John Hammond have a hunch that Ramon will not be one of those guys who continues to grow.

• In a notes package, Andrew Bogut speaks about getting through 82 games this year.  If he can do that it will go a long way towards getting the Bucks back to respectable.  Of course, it was only a week or two ago that Bogut was saying he’ll have to deal with back problems for probably the rest of his career, so I say we take things a day at a time ‘Drew.

• Alex over at BrewHoop checked out the Bucks open practice on Saturday.  I was unable to attend (damn real job) but he does a terrific job breaking it down.  Judging from the picture it looked like at least 15 people attended, so things are looking strong for the Bucks early season attendance.

• At Bucks Diary, Ty does a great job of analyzing the Bucks as defenders using the actual numbers.  Some surprising numbers too.  Would you have guessed that Charlie Bell was the worst Bucks defender last year?

The Milwaukee Bucks are officially on the clock.

After what has seemed like an eternity, but in actuality was only a few months, Ramon Sessions has signed an offer sheet with the Minnesota Timberwolves for four years and $16 million.  As we all know very well by now, Sessions is a restricted free agent, which means the Bucks have seven days to match the offer or bid Sessions adieu.

Adding three million dollars onto this season’s payroll would push the Bucks into luxury tax land.  As is, the Bucks sit at $68,316,940 and that’s including Sessions’ million dollar qualifying offer.  The luxury tax for 2009-10 will be $69.92 million.  Add three million to the Bucks current number and the Bucks will pay roughly $2.8 million ($1.4 million matched dollar for dollar) in tax money.  It’s been widely believed for some time now that the Bucks threshold with regard to matching was/is $3 million annually for Sessions and therefore will not be matching this offer.

But let’s just sit and think logically about things for a second here. Read more…

• The Bucks are going to be on local television seventy more times than they’ll be on ESPN this season.  Seventy?  Really?  I mean, it’s cool that it’s not seventeen, but only seventy?  What is stopping FSN from showing every Bucks game?  Some games make a little bit of sense, a Monday night home game in April may be left out in case the Brewers have scheduling priority, but I’ve long noticed the habit of not broadcasting Sunday day games.  I’d like nothing more than kicking back on March 14 after a long night and watching the Bucks take on the Pacers from the comfort of my own home, but I won’t have that opportunity.  Instead, I’ll have to trudge out in the subzero March weather to see two teams that will likely not be playing for much.  Sure, they make a couple extra bucks in attendance maybe, but they lose the goodwill.

• On Monday, I said Eurobasket 2009 starts on what would be yesterday.  That was incorrect.  It actually is on September 7.  Notable names: Szymon Szewczyk and Ersan Ilyasova.  Szewczyk was acquired on draft night in 2004 and has been slowly “developing” in Poland for the last five years.  Will he ever actually be a notable name for the Bucks?  Unlikely.  But he’s still Bucks property and therefore warrants mentioning.  Ilyasova is obviously the more noteworthy name.  One of the Bucks more significant off-season acquisitions, Ilyasova hasn’t been seen by Bucks fans since he was that scrawny foreign guy chucking and looking confused in 2006.  Word is he’s bulked up and is much more ready for the league.  For all your Eurobasket needs check out THN blog BallInEurope.

• First real discussion of the possibility that Ramon Sessions calls it quits and returns to the Bucks at the discount bargain bin price of just over a million.

• Bruce Bowen retires.  He can probably buy a few rocking chairs with the $2.1 million the Bucks gave him to go away.  It would have been terrific if Bowen would have hung it up before August 1 when the Bucks had to commit the $2 million or $4 million, but I can’t say I blame him.  He gets a nice bonus on the way out this way.

• ESPN ranks the Eastern Conference, the Bucks fare predictably poor in this practice.  The Bucks come in fourteenth in the rankings put together by a panel of fifty-three.  The thoughts on the Bucks?

With questions about Michael Redd’s knee, Andrew Bogut’s back, Charlie Villanueva’s replacement and the PG position, Milwaukee is one of the NBA’s true mystery teams. Could coach Scott Skiles lead the Bucks to a surprise playoff run? Could they fall apart and lose 60 games? As the saying goes, that’s why they play the games.

A pretty fair assessment overall.  The Bucks hopes rely largely on Bogut’s health, though I wouldn’t worry too much about whoever it is that ends up logging the majority of minutes at the four.  The combination of players they have their should make up most of Villanueva’s scoring and will more than outproduce his defense.