Welcome! Come one, come all, to the main event! It's season preview time, and Upside and Motor is ready to rock your world. The previews will be both concrete and lyrical in this magical world, both by numbers and by prose. To take a look at all the previews, click here.
Straight Up
Straight Up features all the stuff you actually want to see in your team previews: who are the new kids on the block, who skipped town, and where the team stands for the upcoming season. Along with my projection and standing for the upcoming season, it'll also feature three individual awards: Team MVP (let's not get into the debate over exactly what that means), the Most Important Reserve, and the Most Unheralded Asset.
Projected Record: 31-51 (5th in the Central Division, 14th in the Eastern Conference)
Off-season Acquisitions: Joe Alexander, Malik Allen, T.J. Cummings, Matt Freije, Adrian Griffin, Ron Howard, Richard Jefferson, Damon Jones (temporarily), Kevin Kruger, Tyronn Lue, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Luke Ridnour, A Partridge in a Pear Tree
Notable Losses: Yi Jianlian, Bobby Simmons, Mo Williams, Desmond Mason, Royal Ivey, Awvee Storey, Jake Voskuhl, Michael Ruffin
2008-2009 Team MVP: Michael Redd - This one's a given. The guy's a dynamite scorer and the leader of this team whether you like it or not. He'll need to be all-world if the team is going anywhere. They're not. But he'll still be an all-league talent and a hell of a shooter.
Most Important Reserve: Charlie Bell? Luke Ridnour? Man, I don't even know. Strange times in Milwaukee.
Most Unheralded Asset: Andrew Bogut - He made big strides on defense last year, and that side of his game will be nurtured under Scott Skiles. He probably won't ever be the focal point of a team, but centers who can score effectively in the post, rebound, block shots, and give high fives to invisible teammates are hard to come by these days.
Poetry in Motion
Photo from AP.
Poetry in Motion will feature my feeble attempts at mimicking the sonnets of one William Shakespeare, complete with a weak, liberal interpretation of iambic pentameter and an identical rhyme scheme. As they say, the NBA imitates art...I mean poetry...err, life imitates the NBA...or I imitate poetry while writing about the NBA. Something like that. Either way, each preview will contain two sonnets: one focusing on a wider, team outlook and another focusing on the roles and futures of individual players. Revel! Criticize! Enjoy!
Scott Skiles is preaching defense in
But staying healthy all season is key;
No more sprains, spasms, and ankles balky,
For the Bucks to reach mediocrity.
Redd will shower down shots from all over,
And
But, long as the D remains bipolar,
Contenders will dismiss them on a whim.
There’s a lot to like, and reason to hope,
Just don’t expect much out of these Bucks yet,
They’re trying to reverse this downward slope,
In the new, improv’d East, they’re far from a threat.
For now, a step forward will be enough,
Making the playoffs would be far too tough.
Can Redd be “the man”? The jury’s still out,
But his shooting is undeniable,
Bogut’s emergence has removed some doubt
As his game becomes more reliable.
R-Jeff, if nothing else, is consistent,
Hyper-active on both sides of the ball,
Charlie V must learn to be persistent;
The mental game has been his tragic flaw.
Ramon Sessions is a revelation,
Alexander will be…interesting…
Provided you don’t have high expectations
Or minutes in key stretches investing.
1A and 1B will shoulder the load,
Unless Villanueva soon explodes.
Player Preview Spotlight: Michael Redd and Richard Jefferson
The Player Spotlight feature highlights just one of the many cogs that make up the team. They may not be the best player on the team and they may not be the most recognizable (or who knows, they may be both), but I can guarantee that they're interesting. Their game, their on-court persona, their role within the greater scope of the team. Something about the player in the spotlight deserves your attention, and as usual, I'm more than willing to point it out to you.
The Bucks have fallen into an unfortunate trap: that of the almighty PPG. It's important that your core players be able to score the ball in some way, whether through setting up their own shot, hitting a three from the corner, or taking it all the way to the basket. And as long as the winner of the game is still decided by the team that scores the most points, general managers, fans, and scouts will continue to be deceived by the potential of points scored. The Rookie of the Year award stands testament to this, as it pretty much depends solely on whichever rookie has the opportunity to score the most points. It's not the rookie that is the most efficient. It's not the rookie with the biggest impact. But the rookie that puts the ball in the hoop the most. Flawed logic, to be sure, but it is what it is.And early in a player's career, they're often evaluated just as superficially. If you can score, you show "potential." If you can't, you're a role player. It's a simple formula that's made its way into collective basketball psyche. And, it's exactly where we find Richard Jefferson and Michael Redd.
The biggest criticism of Redd since his emergence is that his game doesn't facilitate being a primary option on offense. For what it's worth, I don't think Redd has been given a fair shake; if Redd had been surrounded by a few players whose talents didn't duplicate his own in the way that Mo Williams' did, we may be looking at a very different Bucks team today. But as it stands now, Michael Redd cannot lead this team as currently constructed to ours measures of success. Mostly because he and Richard Jefferson represent the same type of player: a player best suited as a primary scorer who can do a little bit of everything (see: the craftsman). Their skills are exceptional, but they need a contrast, not redundancy, to be successful. So often they are misconstrued as "complimentary players" because they need other talent around them to succeed. But could the same not be said of Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, or Kevin Garnett? Or anyone to ever play the game for that matter? You need players of diverse skill sets who excel in different areas in order to succeed in this game, and the Bucks have done a great job of...well, not doing that.
They traded for Charlie Villanueva, who has a lot of "potential." But he's not the kind of player who's going to thrive alongside Redd and Jefferson. They drafted Joe Alexander, and I'm not sure what his role is supposed to be on this team. I've gone through a bit of a change of heart concerning Joe: at first what I decided was versatility, athleticism, and reason to be optimistic was later morphed into a lack of a coherent on-court identity. If expectations are true, the Bucks used the eighth pick in the draft on a hustle player who could score, but can't. Basically, they drafted Shawn Marion without the Shawn Marion.
So Milwaukee is staring down the barrel of having just two semi-stars (who may have been superstars in some alternate universe) and an ocean of "potential," with no real short-term means to right the ship. Scott Skiles has a long road ahead of him, and this year is only the beginning.
Season Previews, F'real
For those poor, conservative souls trapped in normativity, I'll make sure to send you to a few places where you can read through more conventional, in-depth season previews. Most of these links will be from team bloggers whose trade is knowing what there is to know about their respective teams, so tell your ears to perk up; it's time to listen.
SLAM
Hardwood Paroxysm
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