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Stephen Jackson: “My situation is going to get better soon.”

January 31st, 2012 Ian Segovia 25 comments

Are you worried about Jackson's influence on Jennings?

“They know how I feel,” repeated Stephen Jackson over and over again after the game against the Pistons. On who “they” were, Jackson would not elaborate, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that he’s talking about John Hammond, Scott Skiles and the Bucks organization at large.

The Bucks are 3-0 without Jackson. Against New York, he was suspended for missing shootaround because he overslept. He was suspended for the Lakers game because he was verbally abusing refs while playing the Bulls. Skiles chose not to play him against the Pistons. According to Jackson, this was the first time that he’s never played in an NBA game he was available to play in.

Without Jackson, the passing looks crisper and the offense looks better. Possessions aren’t wasted on Jackson heat checks. Delfino is playing better perimeter defense. And the team is stocked with better scorers, shooters and distributors. “Scott is right. We are playing well without me in the lineup,” said Jackson. “The rotation is great and as long as we’re winning. There’s nothing for nobody to complain about.”

Jackson isn’t playing well, but he isn’t a locker room cancer. The other players generally adore him. He’s the first one off the bench to high-five everyone during time-outs. He’s around and not playing well, but he’s not undermining any efforts to win. “My situation is going to get better soon,” Jackson said, “Until then, I’m going to support these guys and continue to collect my check.”

Hoopsworld recently ran a report stating the Bucks were looking to ship Jackson.

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Stephen Jackson suspended by league for verbal abuse of officials

January 28th, 2012 Jeremy Schmidt 1 comment

Przybilla as a Buck. It could happen again soon.

From Alex Kennedy of Hoopsworld:

Stephen Jackson has been suspended one game for verbal abuse of an official and failure to leave the court. Incident occurred against CHI.

And things remain turbulent.

This is the second game this season Jackson will miss for disciplinary reasons. He missed the team bus to shootaround in New York and Coach Scott Skiles opted not to play him.

Jackson has apologized on Twitter.

To all my fans apologize for my actions. Its just somethings refs shouldnt say. Gotta keep my kool. Lesson learned.

In other news, I’ve obtained what I feel like is reliable information that John Hammond met with Joel Przybilla and his agent in Milwaukee on Saturday and could be close to working out some a deal. I’m now rooting for this scenario, solely so I don’t look like an idiot for reporting it.

That’s where this season currently sits for me.

Ultimately, Przybilla isn’t making or breaking the Bucks if he joins the team. He would be another big body and he would give the team a true center. But he’d be giving them one that hasn’t played in about eight months and seems fairly content to be retired.

Jeremy Schmidt writes the Milwaukee Bucks blog Bucksketball.com. Follow him on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Categories: Bucks Player Features Tags: ,

What’s the Name for the Bucks Bench Mob? Deer Herd?

January 25th, 2012 Ian Segovia 2 comments

Sorry that grades aren’t as they usually are. Ian struggles with computers.

That bench was on fire. Good thing too because with out Andrew Bogut (albeit a struggling Bogut) the Bucks have very little going for them around the rim. The best they can do is run backdoor cuts, but that one-trick pony didn’t last long into the fourth quarter once shooting went cold late in the fourth.

Stephen Jackson

After only taking one shot against the Hawks, Jackson came back to take 16 shots.  They were the same old shots that he always takes: some good and some with hands in his face. Right now he’s in a battle with Shaun Livingston for minutes at shooting guard. If he keeps having  games like he had against the Rockets – where he’s finding cutters, playing tough defense and hitting shots – then he’ll inevitably win no matter what Livingston does.

Brandon Jennings

Had his fifth straight 20 point game. Jennings had fine shot selection; he took no long twos against the Rockets and was able to get into the paint against one of the better defensive point guards, Kyle Lowry.  The impetus for all Bucks victories normally rests on Jennings dominating his matchup. He was able to outscore both Lowry and Dragic combined tonight.

Ersan Ilyasova

The sole reason why the Bucks were anywhere near the Rockets in rebounding. If Bogut is out for any stretch of time, Ersan’s rebounding will be the only reliable thing the Bucks will have in the paint. Offensively, Ersan can’t play his game while Bogut is out. Gooden plays out on the wings which forces Ilyasova to play closer to the basket than he’s comfortable with

Mike Dunleavy

I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but I smiled with Dunleavy after he hit his first three since he came back from his injury. Not just because the three was huge for the Bucks, but because he was happy. And that made me happy. Hopefully this means that Dunleavy is out of his slump. That’ll be needed because the Bucks haven’t been getting much near the basket. Their hot shooting needs to continue.

Beno Udrih

Udrih had this great sequence where he faked the shot, drove, faked the pass, faked the teardrop then passed it off to Jackson.  His seven assists were a function of hot shooting while he was out there, but a lot of those open shots were setup by his penetration.

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The Royal Ivey side of Stephen Jackson

January 24th, 2012 Jeremy Schmidt 4 comments

A lively Stephen Jackson against the Spurs on January 10. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

“That’s a dumb question, because my role was the same, I just didn’t get the shots that I should get. So, I just played defense and went out there and tried to help my team. The shots didn’t come, I didn’t force them. I don’t think my role was different, that’s just how the game go.”

- Stephen Jackson after Monday’s loss when asked about his role after taking just one shot in 28 minutes

Stephen Jackson played in 761 NBA games over 11 seasons before Monday’s game. Never did he play more than 25 minutes and take one shot or less. Monday was a unique situation for one of the NBA’s notorious volume shooters. Jackson caught and released passes with serious quickness. He kept the ball moving like he was working on an assembly line. There’s some good and some bad to that.

He wasn’t a ball-stopper, which he’s been accused of being at times this season. But he wasn’t a creator either. He didn’t probe the defense with his dribble, he didn’t seem like a much of a threat to catch and shoot off a kick out, he just moved the ball along and went on his way.

It wasn’t like Jackson didn’t care. He played hard and gave a strong effort on defense. Coach Scott Skiles acknowledged as much after the game.

“I thought he was very good on Joe (Johnson) individually defensively,” Skiles said after the game. “Offensively, yeah, he just seemed to be moving the ball around, he didn’t get many opportunities.”

Have we ever known Jackson to wait for opportunities? He isn’t Andrew Bogut. He isn’t waiting on teammates to dump it down to him in the post. He’s typically the guy creating opportunities for his teammates.

But Milwaukee didn’t trade for Jackson in June hoping to get Royal Ivey.

Read more…

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There are no stupid questions about Milwaukee’s 97-92 loss to the Hawks

January 23rd, 2012 Jeremy Schmidt 19 comments
Atlanta Hawks 97 Final

Recap | Box Score

 92 Milwaukee Bucks
Andrew Bogut, C 25 MIN | 3-10 FG | 0-0 FT | 12 REB | 4 AST | 6 PTS | 0

Offensively, Bogut isn’t where he wants to be, he isn’t where the Bucks want him to be and he isn’t where Scott Skiles wants him to be. Skiles was asked about Bogut after the game and he said he thought Bogut struggled tonight. Asked if he was concerned this far into the season that Bogut hasn’t been able to find his touch on his post-up moves and Skiles said, “A little bit.”

Take that for what you will. The center’s absence late in the game did little to increase Skiles’ popularity in southeast Wisconsin.
Brandon Jennings, PG 40 MIN | 9-22 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 11 AST | 21 PTS | -2

It can’t be all 30 point games and it can’t be all 5-20 nights for Jennings. There has to be some kind of middle. Monday night was just a little better of the middle. He shot a decent percentage, but most importantly, he was in attack mode all night and was finding teammates regularly. Jennings detractors often point to his low assist totals as a sign he’s not much of a real point guard. They didn’t have much to point to Monday.
Stephen Jackson, SG 28 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 2 AST | 0 PTS | -1

Maybe he was tired of hearing everyone complain about his shot-selection or his ball holding or whatever else we’ve all been complaining so much about. Whatever the reason, Jackson took just one shot on Monday night, which was a fair amount of unbelievable. It wasn’t like he wasn’t playing hard – he drew a particularly nice charge on Joe Johnson in the fourth quarter. It was strange to see him so uninvolved with the offense though. He just moved the ball quick and went on his way while Jennings, Gooden and Dunleavy did the heavy lifting in the fourth quarter. Very un-Jacksonlike. He’s a man who could stand some balance in his game now that we’ve seen both extremes.

He said after the game that shots didn’t come tonight and that his role was no different. He went as far as to say a question about whether or not his role was different tonight was dumb. For the record, this is the first game in Jackson’s career that he’s played at least 25 minutes and attempted one or fewer shots. Seemed like a relevant question.
Drew Gooden, PF 23 MIN | 4-10 FG | 4-5 FT | 6 REB | 2 AST | 13 PTS | -5

Gooden is so many things. Ridiculous. Polished. Aggressive. Complacent. Clever. Foolish. He’s all these things at once. It makes for a maddeningly frustrating player to watch and it was curious that he played so much of the fourth quarter. Yes, he has the ability to make a shot and his drives to the basket do often result in the free throws that Bogut never draws, but he’s just so damn all over the place. Despite the okay numbers, he had some costly defensive three second violations in the fourth. But hey, somehow he hit a three to tie it with a minute to go.

I give up.
Mike Dunleavy, SF 31 MIN | 6-15 FG | 5-5 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 17 PTS | +2

Dunleavy still didn’t hit a three. So he decided he could be useful in other ways. Instead of coming off screens behind the arc, he curled in an extra step and shot twos. His form is terrific, spin unreal and release the same every single time. But really, he needs to start making some threes too. A good time to start would have been the one he missed with Milwaukee down three and no one within five feet of him with 30 seconds to play. Also he turned it over on Milwaukee’s last important possession. Sigh.
Ersan Ilyasova, PF 28 MIN | 3-7 FG | 4-7 FT | 11 REB | 0 AST | 10 PTS | -1

Ilyasova is very, very tough. He has to be leading the Bucks, if not the league in one handed rebounds that were tipped away from two or three other defenders. Jon Leuer has lost some playing time, a lot of playing time, lately, but be sure that Ilyasova is earning his share of what were Leuer’s minutes.

Two Things We Saw

  1. The fourth quarter was a back and forth battle. Milwaukee needed stops on a number of occasions and Joe Johnson had really been getting into them. Yet still, no Luc Mbah a Moute and no Andrew Bogut. Very curious. Milwaukee had to double team Johnson late just to try and contain him and it led to two passes and a wide-open three from Josh Smith that pretty much sealed the game, given Milwaukee’s three-point shooting struggles. That a bad defensive rotation came with Bogut and Mbah a Moute on the bench left fans on Twitter pretty furious.
  2. Joe Johnson reminded us in Milwaukee once again that it’s very nice to have a superstar late in games. And if that star is 6-foot-8 and can handle the ball, it’s all the better. Johnson was giving Milwaukee fits late in the game, and while Jackson did his best, he simply didn’t have the athleticism to keep Johnson from getting into positions where he could make shots.

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