It is finally the All-Star break, or “Black Super Bowl Weekend” if you choose, and Bucks have stumbled right up to it as expected. For the year, they are 9-41, a truly astonishing number. Our current record has Milwaukee dead last in the league. And Bucks are the worst at a number of things too, for instance:
- Bucks are the worst rated offensive team with a rating of 99.68, no one is below them.
- Bucks garner the worst attendance rating but Aaron Rodgers attended a Bucks game with my uncle, so that was cool.
- Bucks have six less wins then a Philadelphia 76ers team that was just outscored 66-33 and 69-30 in the first half of consecutive NBA games against Los Angles Clippers and Golden State Warriors. Milwaukee are technically worse then this team somehow, someway.
- Bucks have 24.9% chance of receiving the 1stpick in the lottery. The highest of all teams. This situation is kind of like having an argument with your girlfriend. You are fighting, she is winning, you finally think of something awesome and totally true to stick her with it, you stick her with it, she flies off the handle, possibly slaps you because your right and women are confusing. But the fact is that what she was bitching about to you could be justified in the first place, and so for awhile it is just weird as you both lick your wounds and don’t want to be around each other, and hate each other (The following has been a metaphor for having to watch the Bucks in case you are wondering), but then after a long tumultuous week of no sex and hating, the make-up sex happens and everyone breaths a fresh of new air (the eventual Draft Lottery). It’s been a sexually frustrating season in Milwaukee.
- Bucks have the worst Adjusted Net Rating. (Net Rating takes into consideration estimated point differential per 100 possessions and then it is adjusted in terms of strength of opponent. I like this stat because there are only two teams in the West that rank lower then 18th, and only five teams outside of the top fifteen, and it is very apparent the West is far superior to the East. The Bucks hold an adjusted net rating of -10.75. To compare, Oklahoma City Thunder are the best at +8.48, and Atlanta Hawks are middle of the road at +0.68. In other words, Milwaukee loses games and generally, they lose pretty big.
So as you can see, some things have not worked out at all. The belief was to begin the year Milwaukee would not tank the season. Before the year, they brought in NBA veterans like Carlos Delfino, Brandon Knight, Gary Neal, OJ Mayo and Zaza Pachulia, it looked inevitable that paired with a decent frontcourt of John Henson, Ersan Ilyasova and Larry Sanders, this would be a team competing in the Eastern Conference. A team that seemed destined for the eighth seed. True Bucks fans sighed winds of depression thinking about how they were about miss out on the highly touted upcoming draft class.
Instead of competing though, Bucks got injured, losing Delfino, Sanders, Knight, Pachulia, Neal, Butler and Mayo, all at different and overlapping times over the first month and a half of the season, and the next thing you know, it's the end of December and Milwaukee is 7-24 becoming the front-runners in Tanksville.The injuries have been peculiar. Sanders broke his hand in a bar fight and just recently broke the orbital bone in his face. Pachulia broke his foot. Henson sprained his ankle terribly, and Knight popped a hammy two minutes into the season.
None however, make as little sense as OJ Mayo. In late January, Mayo missed some games due to the flu. He returned to play in back to back games on January 24th and 25th and has sense been day-to-day on the injury report with “the flu”.It is now, February 11th and he still has the same flu. Like Mayo, I too reside in Wisconsin, but I haven’t heard of anyone else getting the three week flu like Mayo. Which leads me to question a few things.I hit up my uncle recently asking him if he had heard anything more about Mayo. He laughed and replied Mayo is fine. So take that, as you will. I’m just waiting to see how fat OJ Mayo gets by April.
Bright Spots
As Milwaukee tumble on through the season, a couple of positives have come to light. One is Brandon Knight. I was pretty skeptic on Knight. In Detroit, he did nothing that was memorable, aside from getting baptized by DeAndre Jordan but that is not exactly a positive thing. For the season, he has led the team in scoring, at 16.5 ppg. He has been a decent distributor (numbers-wise) averaging 4.8 assists per game but has also shown that he is much more of a two guard, that is just a hair small to only play the two.
I hope he can develop a sense to really command a team as a point guard, and not just as a scorer. As Coach Larry Drew has more time with him, I’m hoping this becomes a reality. Especially if they are surrounding him with blossoming players like Henson, and Giannis Antetokounmpo and a future number one or two overall draft pick. The development of Knight could prove crucial to this team in there or four years.
Another bright spot has been John Henson. Henson is arguably skinnier than Giannis, but he is just as long. He gets pushed around on defense when guarding the stronger players in the league (Guys like Dwight Howard, Joahkim Noah, and Roy Hibbert), but his length is a constant problem for defenses. For the season he has averaged 2.2 blocks per game.On offense, Henson has been Milwaukee's second option, scoring 11.8 points a game on 52% shooting. He legitimately uses a lefty skyhook that makes Kareem smile. When it is on, it’s beautiful. He has also been a sturdy rebounder at 8.1 per game and leads the team with a 19.5 PER.I’m really high on Henson. I think he will be a playmaker in this league for a while. My only real complaint is he seems very laid back, and nothing seems to bother him. Not even losses. I don’t want to question his drive, but I don’t want him to become like Corey Maggette and become so used to losing that it doesn’t phase him. But that is me really knit-picking. Realistically I have nothing but love for Henson.
The Rookie Class
I may be biased when I say this, but I think it’s safe to crown Milwaukee kings of the 2013 Draft. Milwaukee nailed three players. Bucks obviously drafted Giannis Antetokounmpo, whom is an Internet sensation, and a player on the rise. While he is still raw and learning at the tender age of 19, he managed to score 7.1 ppg and 4.6 rpg. Those numbers are modest, but I can assure they are the most exciting seven and four in the league. Every time Antetokounmpo grabs a rebound and starts to run up court on a one-man-fast break, the city of Milwaukee wins. He alone has made a 9-41 season delightful. There is not another rookie that can say that.
While most NBA heads have heard of Giannis by now, another solid move was drafting Nate Wolters in the second round. Milwaukee threw Wolters into the fire forcing to play a lot early on due to injuries and proved that he does in fact belong in the NBA. He does not turn the ball over often and has shown a knack for filling up the stat sheet. While his minutes haven’t been consistent, in games he has played for longer stretches, it pretty common to see a stat line consisting of seven points, nine assists and seven rebounds or 7/10/4, or 11/3/4, just a little bit of everything. A 6’ 4” and 190 pounds he is a big powerful point guard that defends and makes plays. Before the season, I compared him to Goran Dragic. Dragic has since exploded this season averaging over 20 points and six assists per game, and while I don’t know if Wolters will ever average that, I think he will be a very, very reliable point guard in this league for years. I mean, could not you see Wolters being the pivotal bench player as a member of a contending San Antonio Spurs team? I sure can.
Our draft doesn’t stop at two players however; Milwaukee also drafted a brute named Miroslav Radjulica. The man is a mountain. He is like Nikola Pekovic but a little swifter. He sports a tremendous arm sleeve tattoo and can drink over a gallon of vodka in 2 hours[1]. While he does not average many minutes, he has been ultra efficient, with a PER of 16.7. Radjulica honestly has great ball skills and soft hands. He is pretty good pluus he just looks so strong that I cannot say anything bad about him in fear that if he were to meet me and know I said bad things about him, he might strangle me. And quite frankly, I don’t want to go out being strangled by a guy named Miroslav. I have always envisioned my death way different then that.
A Mid-Season Outlook
We know this season is done. It would be beneficial to lose every single game from here on out, but we as Bucks fans will probably settle on winning like four or five more games; a modest and fair amount.
Hopefully this season can be the turning point to more glory days in Milwaukee Bucks basketball. Although it is often forgotten, even by Milwaukee's own fans, Bucks were an original NBA franchise and have a very rich history in the league, despite only winning one championship.
If they are lucky Bucks will land the coveted first pick that becomes a franchise cornerstone. If Milwaukee is really lucky, the draft pick, Giannis and Henson will stay in town for awhile. And if the Bucks are really really, really lucky, they will an NBA championship in the next five years.
But for now, let’s just cheer for Giannis as he represents for Milwaukee during All-Star weekend.
~Andrew
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