Just watching Larry Sanders on NBA-TV in a Summer League game versus the Grizz. The dude hit a couple of treys (one to put tie the game with .7 remaining), led all scorers, took and hit open jumpers, owned the paint, was involved in every play...

I'm telling you, the Bucks may just be a top team in the East that nobody's really thinking about. I've been talking up Larry Sanders, AKA: Gumby, AKA Brooms for Arms, AKA: GoGoGadgetArms for a good two years now and the guy is just shocking to watch play the game. Dude raises his arms up and you go to check the settings on your TV because it doesn't look real. Add to that this guy can actually play. He's not just a Thabeet freakishly tall human. He's an incredible talent.

With a front court rotation of Sanders, Bogut and Gooden, I think these guys will contend with anyone in the East. Then you look at Jennings and the rest of their young wing players coming back with playoff experience... I would not be shocked if this group runs right up there with the Boston/Miami/Orlando group in the East all season long.

http://www.nba.com/video/teams/bucks/2010/07/14/pbmilmem100713-1372919/

C: Bogut, nice player but coming off horrific injury.

PF: Gooden, one of the laziest players in recent memory. Sanders, nice looking rook. Ilyasova loses minutes here and really shouldn't.

SF: Maggette, one of the most selfish players in the league. GS, statistically, was better was he was on the bench. Amoute' is nice backup 3.

SG: Salmons is a crafty scorer, but neither he nor Maggette can shoot from deep.

PG: Jennings, 38% gunner. Selfish, stat oriented Marbury type of PG, no thanks. No viable backup.

this is a 40 win team if anything breaks right

Milwaukee can win their division if Chicago disappoints.

Jennings averaged over 15 points and 5 assists per in his rookie year and shot it at 38%
Felton averaged just over 12 points and 5 assists per in his fifth year and shot it at 45%

Jennings was just fine for a rookie and any team, especially the Knicks, would be lucky to have his services. He carried that team and made everyone better around him. No way anyone thought the Bucks were a #6 seed before the season started.

JohnWallace44 wrote:PG: Jennings
Center: Bogut
PF: Larry Sanders, Gooden
Scoring Guard: Salmons
Wings: Magette, Ilyasova, Redd, Delfino, Mbah Amoute, CDR

Just watching Larry Sanders on NBA-TV in a Summer League game versus the Grizz. The dude hit a couple of treys (one to put tie the game with .7 remaining), led all scorers, took and hit open jumpers, owned the paint, was involved in every play...

I'm telling you, the Bucks may just be a top team in the East that nobody's really thinking about. I've been talking up Larry Sanders, AKA: Gumby, AKA Brooms for Arms, AKA: GoGoGadgetArms for a good two years now and the guy is just shocking to watch play the game. Dude raises his arms up and you go to check the settings on your TV because it doesn't look real. Add to that this guy can actually play. He's not just a Thabeet freakishly tall human. He's an incredible talent.

With a front court rotation of Sanders, Bogut and Gooden, I think these guys will contend with anyone in the East. Then you look at Jennings and the rest of their young wing players coming back with playoff experience... I would not be shocked if this group runs right up there with the Boston/Miami/Orlando group in the East all season long.

http://www.nba.com/video/teams/bucks/2010/07/14/pbmilmem100713-1372919/

this is an up and coming team that played very well once they acquired Salmons--haev what looks to be a very nice young big man they can add to the team(maybe two of them) added more scoring punch off the bench play tough D and use 10 guys a lot to increase team energy. This was a playoff team last year and it will go up a notch this year.

smackeddog wrote:I like what they did, though I still don't understand how they won so many games last year when you look at their roster and Jennings shooting %. I think they overtake Atlanta this year, who I think will begin a rapid decline this season.

Yea I can see that as well. Joe Johnson's max contract won't hurt Atlanta right away, but it will be one of the biggest albatross contracts ever in a few years.

As for Milwaukee last year, they had a legitimate Rookie of the Year candidate in Jennings and had the best center in the East outside of Dwight Howard. Add Salmons and Ilyasova, who were impressive, and there you have your 46 wins.

I see the Deer being a 50 win club tihs season.

Another PG issue for them... will Dooling replace what Ridnour gave the team last year. Ridnour really smoothed out the bumps in Jennings' rookie season. People underestimate his role on the team.

How do the Bucks balance Magette, Salmons, CDR, and Delfino? Where does Mbah a Moute now fit in in terms of MPG?

What about Gooden and Ersan Ilyasova? Who gets most of the minutes?

Where does Sanders fit in?

The Bucks became an overachieving team which won because of team chemistry once Bogut got hurt, and they have tinkered with many of the things that helped them win last year, and lost Ridnour, and underrated stability player for them last year.

I don't think you can just come out and anticipate an automatic increase in wins for the Bucks due to some kind of natural progression that you might see on a young team whose core players/relative MPG will probably remain substantially the same to that of their breakout season.

I like Skiles, but he is going to have an interesting time trying to mix and match the players/personalities he has on this team, and I think it might be tough keeping everyone happy and on script with this squad.

Paladin55 wrote:Has Jennings learned anything he can improve on after a year playing the NBA game? Has the NBA learned anything about Jennings' game, and any weaknesses they can exploit?

Another PG issue for them... will Dooling replace what Ridnour gave the team last year. Ridnour really smoothed out the bumps in Jennings' rookie season. People underestimate his role on the team.

How do the Bucks balance Magette, Salmons, CDR, and Delfino? Where does Mbah a Moute now fit in in terms of MPG?

What about Gooden and Ersan Ilyasova? Who gets most of the minutes?

Where does Sanders fit in?

The Bucks became an overachieving team which won because of team chemistry once Bogut got hurt, and they have tinkered with many of the things that helped them win last year, and lost Ridnour, and underrated stability player for them last year.

I don't think you can just come out and anticipate an automatic increase in wins for the Bucks due to some kind of natural progression that you might see on a young team whose core players/relative MPG will probably remain substantially the same to that of their breakout season.

I like Skiles, but he is going to have an interesting time trying to mix and match the players/personalities he has on this team, and I think it might be tough keeping everyone happy and on script with this squad.

Ridnour came in and shot jumpers. Now they ahve pumped up their scoring they didnt need Ridnour as much. The only thing the PG backup needs to do is not turn the ball over.

If Jennings is healthy they are going to be in the playoffs for sure. Jennings points should stay around 15 points on less shot attempts. I expect his Asts numbers to be around 8-10 per game.

Paladin55 wrote:Don't believe you should even think about Jennings hitting the 10 APG mark on this Bucks team. He only about about 3 games last year where he even had 10+ (Collison had 14 such games, by the way, and even Duhon had 4!), and now you are saying that he might have an Assist average which would place him in a category with Nash, Paul, Williams, Rondo, etc.? Don't think so, bro- 6-8 APG is realistic, with 6/7 being probable.

I mentioned much more than Ridnour, who also averaged 4 APG in only 21 MPG. He was more than just a shooter for that team, and when you had Jennings shooting about 30%/game, Ridnour became an important player for the Bucks. Jennings was also very happy taking jumpers last year, by the way, and he did not get to the line nearly as much as he should have because he settled for his jumper on many occasions. If you look at the 36 minute adjusted stats, Jennings takes 1.5 more 3s, just about 1 more foul shot, and had fewer assists than Ridnour, so saying that Ridnour was just a jump shooter is somewhat of a foolish observation, especially in comparison to Jennings.

None of us have any idea how Jennings will improve his game, or what schemes teams will come up with to neutralize his strengths and exploit his weaknesses as a player.

The Bucks may end up being a great team this year, but there are many team/player chemistry questions which will have to be answered before they take the next step up as a team.

Last years Bucks team was GARBAGE. That team was projected to be heading straight to the lottery. I'm surprised Jennings averaged as many assists as he did.

If you take a look at their summer acquisition's you can clearly see they are getting guys who can run with Jennings. Maggette, Gooden, and Sanders can all finish above the rim. He will probably get one or more assists on alley oops.

You are also overrating Ridnours contributions to the team. The guy was a shooter for them. He was important because they sorely lacked scoring. Ridnour will help Flynn like he helped Jennings and that is by coming in making shots when he is having a bad night because Minny doesn't have consistent scorers.

Jennings didn't get to the line because he wasn't getting calls. You expect a rookie PG to gets calls when driving to the rim.

purple012870 wrote:Adding "selfish, black hole, me first, me second, me third" players like Maggette is never good thing.

Adding incredibly lazy guys like Drew Gooden (there's a good reason why he's bounced around with record frequency) is worse.

And CDR, despite being a nice offensive spark, comes to Milwaukee as a scorer first- defender second player.

AnubisADL wrote:
Last years Bucks team was GARBAGE. That team was projected to be heading straight to the lottery. I'm surprised Jennings averaged as many assists as he did.

If you take a look at their summer acquisition's you can clearly see they are getting guys who can run with Jennings. Maggette, Gooden, and Sanders can all finish above the rim. He will probably get one or more assists on alley oops.

You are also overrating Ridnours contributions to the team. The guy was a shooter for them. He was important because they sorely lacked scoring. Ridnour will help Flynn like he helped Jennings and that is by coming in making shots when he is having a bad night because Minny doesn't have consistent scorers.

Jennings didn't get to the line because he wasn't getting calls. You expect a rookie PG to gets calls when driving to the rim.

So they will go from a gritty hard-nosed defensive team of scrubs, to a high-flying offensive machine that is also a gritty hard-nosed defensive team? Doubt it.

Maggette, as someone pointed out, is me first, Gooden is not the player he once was- and he was never a player worthy of being drafted where he was, anyway, and CDR and Dooling come over from one of the worst teams in the history of the game.

I like Sanders, but I'm not sure if he is ready to play any backup C, and how many minutes will they give him at PF without having to admit that they made a mistake in signing Gooden, who will also take minutes from Ilyasova, who was important for spreading the floor last year and giving them some energy.

The Bucks still have a lot of questions- no guarantee that they take the next step up as a team.