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Tag Archive - Milwaukee Bucks

Trade Deadline: What Bogut-For-Monta Means

March 13, 2012 in by with 1 Comment

Bucks and Warriors have agreed in principle on trade to send Bogut and Jackson to Warriors for Ellis, Udoh and Brown, league source tells Y!
March 13, 2012 7:27 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@WojYahooNBA
Adrian Wojnarowski

Ask, NBA blogosphere, and ye shall receive. After a few days of intensifying speculation and rumors, the first real trade of the 2012 deadline went through on Tuesday evening, and it’s a doozy. Let’s unpack:

  • If Andrew Bogut can stay healthy (kind of a big if, but it’s not at all out of the realm of possibility), he and David Lee will make up one of the better 4-5 combos in the league. Bogut isn’t expected back for a while, but the back end of the Western Conference playoff race is close enough that Golden State has a shot at sneaking in, and if they do, his presence could make them a tough first-round matchup for one of the top seeds.
  • As unlikely and questionable as Stephen Jackson’s return to Golden State seems on the surface, perimeter D is a need that he fills. There are risks involved with bringing him back, but getting a center as talented as Bogut makes it worth the gamble. Worst-case scenario, they can negotiate a buyout.
  • If the Warriors do decide to buy Jackson out (which isn’t the plan as of now, according to Yahoo!’s Marc Spears), he instantly becomes the most intriguing candidate to be picked up for cheap by a contender.
  • The biggest downside to this trade for the Dubs: the future of their franchise now depends entirely on the health of Bogut and Stephen Curry, the very definition of a high-risk/high-reward proposition.
  • The second-biggest downside to this deal for Golden State is losing Epke Udoh. But if the Warriors are in win-now mode, it’s worth giving up an unpolished prospect for a known quantity like Bogut.
  • The Bucks save some money by unloading Jackson’s contract and getting back Kwame Brown’s expiring deal.
  • Think about the prospect of a Brandon Jennings/Monta Ellis backcourt for a second. Has any guard combo ever posted a usage rate over 100? Will they combine for 70 shots per game? Is this the black-holiest backcourt since Marbury and Francis? The Bucks just became everyone’s favorite League Pass team for the final third of the season, purely from a morbid entertainment standpoint.
  • Of course, though they deny it now, there’s always the chance this deal could foreshadow a Jennings trade. I wrote about his future in a post yesterday, and now the Bucks may have to answer the question sooner than we thought. If it doesn’t happen before Thursday, we’ll definitely be hearing increased talk about moving the third-year guard this summer, when he becomes eligible to sign an extension.
  • In the grand scheme of things, this trade will probably become a footnote to whatever does or doesn’t happen with Dwight Howard in the next 36 hours. However, if Howard does get traded, this could be viewed as the first domino. The Magic had been making a hard push for Ellis in the past few days, in hopes that it would placate him. Now that that’s off the table, who else can they target to try and keep Dwight happy? Even if Phoenix has a change of heart at the last minute and decides to move Steve Nash, Orlando doesn’t have great assets. The Ellis/Bogut trade might be the thing that finally convinces Otis Smith to pull the trigger on a Howard deal, in which case the Bucks and Warriors can claim a small piece of the credit in helping to end the tiredest story of this season.

The trade deadline is fun, isn’t it?

Trade Deadline: Brandon Jennings’ Self-Positioning

March 12, 2012 in by with 0 Comments

Photo via EnoNarYam on Flickr.

Sources said Milwaukee has made third-year point guard Brandon Jennings available “for the right price,” as one executive who has spoken to the Bucks put it. Jennings, who was drafted 10th overall in 2009 and has been considered the team’s future franchise player, irked Bucks officials with his comments to ESPN.com in early February about a possible departure.

“I’m going to keep my options open, knowing that the time is coming up,” he wrote in an e-mail to the Web site. “I’m doing my homework on big-market teams.”

via Trade Notebook: Smith, Howard in similar situations; Bucks available | SI.com

In a recent column about the new reality that the desire to play in a bigger market has become an accepted prerequisite for NBA superstardom, I looked at Dwight Howard’s absurd, confused diva act and wondered whether he had fully thought through his decision to jump ship from the Magic. Lately, this mentality has spread beyond the league’s A-listers and evolved into a sinister form of leverage that lesser players can use to convince their teams and the rest of the league that their on-court value is greater than it is in reality. How the next 18 months play out for Brandon Jennings and the Bucks could be telling, in terms of the willingness of small-market teams to attempt to placate supposed franchise players, regardless of whether they truly are franchise players.

Jennings made headlines a few weeks ago by hinting that he had designs on leaving Milwaukee for a flashier locale. This could have been pure ego talking (and probably was), but it was also a savvy bit of PR. Jennings is a very good player who will undoubtedly have suitors if and when he does hit free agency. But he’s also plainly not a superstar on the level of LeBron James, Howard, Chris Paul, or most of the other players leading the mass small-market exodus. What his threatened departure from the Bucks does is connect him in the minds of the general public with those players. It’s a little like how private colleges jack up tuition rates in order to appear more prestigious than they actually are. Behaving like an entitled, spotlight-seeking “global icon” is now a way up the ladder, not just something a player can do once he gets there. The school of thought goes that an almost-star’s leveraging their way onto greener pastures will transform them into a superstar, even if they haven’t earned that leverage on the court.

Jennings’ trade value currently occupies the untenable middle. He’s good enough and far enough away from free agency (the earliest he can hit the open market is 2014, and that’s only if he accepts the qualifying offer following the 2012-13 season) that the Bucks won’t benefit in the short term from moving him for picks and cap relief. But he’s also far too inconsistent and incomplete a player to command the CP3/Deron Williams/Carmelo Anthony-sized haul they will undoubtedly be seeking.

It’s the same predicament that the Warriors are currently facing with Monta Ellis, and one which may greet the Kings in the coming years as they are forced to decide whether or not their future will include Tyreke Evans. Shoot-first point guards are the hardest players to price accurately in the trade market or in free agency—the gaudy scoring averages demand figures and assets that other deficiencies in their games are just glaring enough to make teams regret forking over. And as the Bucks gear up to be the next team to have to negotiate a deal for a new arena, Jennings’ saga puts them in a tough spot. He’s the closest thing they have to a marketable star, and as a small-market team, they must decide whether that’s enough to acquiesce to giving him a contract that could hurt the franchise down the line.

It’s not much of a surprise that a player who took an early sabbatical in Italy to circumvent the NBA’s age limit is attempting to take a shortcut to elite status in the league. What will be worth watching is how the Bucks handle the years leading up to when they have to make a decision. If he’s able to leverage his way onto a big-market team by declaring himself worthy of that right, it could set a precedent that badly skews the priorities of a whole generation of players on the bubble of superstardom.

Trade Deadline: Andrew Bogut, The Warriors, And Risk

March 10, 2012 in by with 4 Comments

According to team sources, the Warriors are preparing to make a play for Milwaukee’s center. He’s high on their list, but one source didn’t sound too optimistic.

First off, Bogut is hurt.  Thanks to an injured left ankle, he could be done for the season. Ideally, the Warriors would like to trade for someone who can help  now.

Also, Bogut’s price is high. 

via Inside the Warriors: Warriors Have Their Eyes on Bogut

A common theme in reports of rumored trade deals is the overwhelmingly arduous, difficult work that a significant NBA trade requires to reach completion. Aligning money and player additions to a trade in such a way that is both pleasing and possible for two or more teams is a considerable task, one that often necessitates revisited details upon revisited details. Because of the wide variety of variables in play and the reluctance of many GMs to take on significant risk, most discussed trades never reach the final stage of actual completion.

Upon first glance, this trade appears to fall in line with others that never reached completion. The Warriors desperately need a center like Andrew Bogut. Bogut isn’t the player he once was, but he remains one of the best defensive centers in the league, and capable of strong offensive production, though no longer with regularity. Though Ekpe “Plus-Minus Superstar” Udoh has acquitted himself well defensively for the Warriors, he’s undersized and often a liability on offense. The Warriors need a transforming center, one that can fully change the game on defense and who matches up well with offensively-focused power forward David Lee. If he’s healthy, Bogut could easily be that player, a player who shifts the Warriors from perennial mediocrity to something more hopeful, something mired in playoff contention.

But with so many moving pieces, things are always more complicated than an immediate solution.

But even if the Warriors come up with a package the Bucks might like – for instance Andris Biedrins, Kwame Brown’s expiring, Dorell Wright and Ekpe Udoh — Golden State would have to take back on of two players they really don’t want.

Stephen Jackson or Drew Gooden.

When “Stephen Jackson or Drew Gooden” becomes a necessary concession, things become infinitely more complicated.

But maybe the Warriors would, and should, be willing to accept the 3-year, $20 million cap-draining deal of Gooden. If the Warriors give up Udoh and Biedrins in the deal, as Thompson suggests in his post, the team will be left with one less power forward or center in the rotation. Gooden has served as a decent rotational player for the Bucks this season, but his all-too-frequent stretches of odd ineffectiveness and inefficiency make his sizable contract appear as a timid albatross. Still, the Warriors could do worse than adding a player like Gooden to act as the team’s third or fourth big.

Is the possible price of one intermediately bad contract and the lurking threat of continued injury to Bogut enough to keep the Warriors from finally adding a significant interior defensive presence? In the realm of necessary change and the coalescence of players that meld well together, as Lee and Bogut likely would (and as Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry unfortunately do not), it isn’t an overly high duty to pay, especially for the sum of transformative defense. But it involves tangible risk and sizable change, something the Warriors’ franchise has often shied from in years past.

Faced with an opportunity to break free from an unsuccessful trend, the Warriors must either choose the path of Andrew Bogut and the unknown, or the understood path of waiting and hoping for a preferable, safer opportunity. Risk duels with stagnation within the confines of a franchise, and the NBA wheels continue to turn.

The Lowdown: Terry Cummings

February 19, 2012 in by with 0 Comments

Years Active: 1983 – 2000

Career Stats: 16.4 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 1.9 apg, 1.1 spg, 0.5 bpg, 48.4% FG, 70.6% FT

Accolades: 1983 Rookie of the Year, 2x All-Star (1985, 1989), All-NBA 2nd Team (1985), All-NBA 3rd Team (1989), All-Rookie 1st Team (1983)

The 1982 draft was a loaded class. Dominique Wilkins, James Worthy, Fat Lever, Clark Kellogg, Ricky Pierce and Sleepy Floyd are the highlight players, but the man who walked away with the Rookie of the Year crown was Terry Cummings. T.C. was a lithe combination of power and speed that initially toiled on the moribund San Diego Clippers.

Mercifully, he would be traded into the good graces of perennial powerhouse Milwaukee and when that situation began to go south, Cummings again would be bailed out with a trade to the San Antonio Spurs, sparking the greatest turnaround in NBA history until the 2008 Celtics.

Terry’s good fortune ran out soon after that as a devastating knee injury robbed him of his explosiveness. Nevertheless he soldiered on for another decade as a reserve forward. But when he was at his best, few in the NBA could match his presence, his grace, his strength.

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HP 2011-12 Season Preview: Milwaukee Bucks, Someone PLEASE Make a Shot

December 22, 2011 in by with 0 Comments

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone. The lockout has lifted, we have a season, can I get an Amen? (Amen.) And in the spirit of renewal, our shiny new cadre of writers is putting together previews for all 30 teams in true HP style. From where teams are going to what their disgrace is to explorations of pop culture, we are about to rock, salute us, can I get an Amen? (Amen.) So sit back, relax, and ponder the awesomeness of this fully operational Hardwood Paroxysm 3.0. -Ed.

Quo Vadimus (Where Are We Going?)

By Andrew Lynch

The Bucks are trending toward mediocrity, and that’s a very, very good thing. Last year they were downright awful; there were worse teams in the league, to be sure, but few were harder to watch. Defense can be beautiful - the way that the Bulls play defense, starters and reserves alike, is a joy – and Milwaukee under Scott Skiles is among the league’s best on that end of the floor. When Andrew Bogut is healthy (as he should be this season if there’s any justice in this world), the team is downright scary: the most common Bucks lineup last season allowed a hair over one point per possession, per basketball-value.com.

Unfortunately, the team was equally as frightening on the offensive end – that same lineup scored at the same efficiency that they allowed. Brandon Jennings takes the brunt of the offensive criticism, and with good reason. For all of Rajon Rondo’s well-known struggles shooting the ball from the field and at the line, Jennings’ TS% is even worse. But he’s hardly the lone culprit; Bucks opponents shot the sixth worst eFG% in 2010-11, yet Milwaukee’s eFG% difference was negative because they were the worst shooting team in the league.

With a healthy Andrew Bogut and better offensive execution, though, the Bucks can creep toward the edge of the playoff field in the east. The additions of Stephen Jackson and Mike Dunleavy have flown fairly far under the radar this offseason, but they should help shore up the offense without threatening the defensive stability. Expect Jennings to improve his efficiency and to develop at least some semblance of a pick-and-roll threat with Bogut. The Bucks won’t blow anyone away this season – hell, they may barely be watchable for most of it. Being palatable, though, is a huge step forward.

Who Wants To Start A Cult Mbout: Mbah a Moute

by Matt Moore

I’m not sure if Luc Richard Mbah a Moute would be so awesome if he were actually appreciated. The fact that he’s forced to share the frontcourt with the ever-bulging butter-fat pack the Bucks keep adding to makes his appearance significantly more interesting. He just kind of appears randomly. Sometimes he starts, sometimes he doesn’t, sometimes he plays a lot, sometimes Drew Gooden takes 15 shots a game.

But LRMM is still the kind of player that inspires cultish action. Iconic without being specific, entertaining without really making much sense. Not good enough to be a star, but still boosted by compliments of his defensive greatness. Marginally efficient, defensively stout, long and athletic while primarily using a high basketball IQ. Good God, he’s like the golden calf of the blogger generation.

Now he’s gotten paid and will likely wind up as “why does that guy make so much money” like everyone does. But in the meantime, enjoy the soothing sounds of the LRMM Cult, which offers you eternal glory, as long as you’re not looking to get significant minutes.

Will You Remember Me, I Will Remember You

by Clint Peterson

Squiggy: [To Shirley] What do you say we go to the drive-in, and you let me run amuck?

Laverne: He probably heard what a fun date you are.

Shirley: I know I’m fun…

Squiggy: You people make me stink!

Lenny: I saw it with my own two eyes. I had to choke back a blush!

Shirley: It’s different for you. You don’t have a reputation to protect.

Squiggy: What are you talking about, Shirley? For the first time in my life, I got a reputation!

That reputation being, as Andrew noted, a plodding, lackluster offense, a veritable sack lunch in the company cafeteria in a 5-star wine ‘em dine ‘em NBA world where offense is sexy and points-per-game are at all-time highs, league-wide. You’d be more likely to be Scared of Squiggy than fearing of these deer on the offensive end of the floor. Indeed, the Bucks run of failing to average 100 PPG for a season is two years longer than the entire TV run of Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated.

The addition of speedster Beno Udrih, one of only a handful of guards to pop 50% of his field goals last season, doubles up the number of players on the roster that sunk at least half of their tries from the field last year. The onus is on Scott Skiles to insert him into the proper place for an injection of offense as needed at the PG or SG, especially if Stephen Jackson is in his own personal hero mode.

Should Skiles wield his bottle opener properly when it comes to Beno the Bucks’ locker room could well be covered in plastic come spring with a celebratory playoff berth drenched in a several cases of Shotz Beer.

The Lowdown: Jack Sikma

December 18, 2011 in by with 2 Comments

Four years ago someone asked the Sonics’ then-general manager, Zollie Volchok, if he would consider trading Sikma for Moses Malone. “I wouldn’t trade Jack Sikma for the resurrection of Marilyn Monroe in my bedroom,” was Volchok’s reply, and the feeling was that he spoke for a majority of the bedrooms in Seattle.

Via A Buck, For a Change

Years Active: 1978 – 1991

Career Stats: 15.6 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 3.2 apg, 0.9 bpg, 1.0 spg, 46.4% FG, 32.8% 3-PT FG, 84.9% FT

Accolades: 7x All-Star (1979 – ’85), All-Rookie 1st Team (1978),  All-Defensive 2nd Team (1982), FT% Leader (1988) Champion (1979 Sonics)

The NBA career of Jack Sikma began on the low-end of “no expectations.” He played college ball at Illinois Wesleyan, a small university in the NAIA garnering very little attention nationwide. However, he did catch the eye of Seattle Supersonics executive Lenny Wilkens. Much to the disbelief, chagrin and jeers of Sonics fans, Sikma was selected 8th overall in the 1977 draft. By the time he was traded to Milwaukee nearly a decade later, Sikma had become a cherished idol of Sonics fans with his rock steady play.

Sikma’s game was a curious blend of power and finesse. Until his senior year in high school, he played guard. However, his height exploded to 6’ 10” shifting him to the post. Barely able to hop over a phonebook and still figuring out his own dimensions and abilities in his new body, Sikma routinely had his shot blocked by opponents.  As he recalled it, “I had SPALDING written across my forehead a few times.”

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The Lowdown: Swen Nater

October 23, 2011 in by with 3 Comments

via nba.com/clippers

“I was going to America to be a cowboy,” [Nater] recalled. “I wanted to be just like Roy Rogers. I thought everybody in the U.S. was a cowboy. I went from an orphanage to a Beverly Hills hotel in 22 hours. I had room service. I didn’t see any cowboys, though.”

Via “Where Are They Now? Swen Nater, former college and NBA center” by Dan Raley

Years Active: 1974 – 1984

Career Stats: 12.4 ppg, 11.6 rpg, 2.0 apg, 0.6 bpg, 0.5 spg,, 53.5% FG, 74.8% FT

Accolades: 1974 ABA Rookie of the Year, 2x All-ABA 2nd Team (1974-75), 1974 ABA Rookie 1st Team, 2x ABA All-Star (1974-75); 1975 ABA RPG Leader, 1980 NBA RPG Leader, 3rd All-Time in RB%

The journey of center Swen Nater to professional basketball is unlike any other. Born in the Netherlands, his mother departed Holland for the United States when he was 3-years old with Swen’s stepfather and one son. Swen, along with a sister, was left behind at an orphanage, waiting for the day their parents saved enough money to send for them. 6 years passed until finally an American television show, It Could Be You, organized the reunion of the Nater family.

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The Lowdown: Don Nelson

September 25, 2011 in by with 0 Comments

Nellie

Photo via Fan Base

“It’s important to start off good, especially in the other guy’s building,” said Boston forward Don Nelson. “We Need to get the momentum going.” Nelson scored the first six points of the game to give the Celtics all the momentum they needed Thursday night…

Via “Celts Lead All The Way To Defeat Knicks, 94 to 84″ by Howard Smith

Years Active: 1963 – 1976

Career Stats: 10.3 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 1.4 apg, 48% FG, 76.5% FT

Accolades: 5x Champion (1966, ’68-’69, ’74, ’76 Celtics)

Don Nelson is an integral part of the story of the NBA. In some way, shape or form he’s been in the Association for 5 decades. He’s the unorthodox coach who brought us the 80s Milwaukee Bucks that ran off Central Division title after Central Division title. In the Bay Area, he delivered Run-TMC. (Brusquely ignoring his tenure with the Knicks). He resurrected the moribund Dallas Mavericks into perennial contenders. For a final encore he returned to Oakland and slayed the Mavericks in perhaps the most thrilling upset in playoff history. Finally, his eccentrics just turned into plain crazy, but not before becoming the all-time leader in coaching wins.

However, we’re gathered here today to talk about Don Nelson, one of the most winning players in NBA history. As you can see above, his statistics are not eye-popping. He was never tabbed for an all-star game or received an award. But you’ll notice he was a member of 5 NBA champions. Along with John Havlicek, he’s the only member of the Boston Celtics to transition from the 60s dynasty over to the 70s run of glory.

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The Bucks Have Become Some Sort Of Deranged Machine

June 23, 2010 in by with 7 Comments

CDR is about to be traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for the bargain basement price of just a second round pick, the two teams are just haggling over which second-round pick in what year will come back to New Jersey, according to Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who broke the trade.

This is another sign that the Nets are set to draft Syracuse’s Wesley Johnson with the No. 3 pick and were trying to avoid any controversy or glut of talent out on the wing.

Then in eight days the Nets are going to target Utah power forward Carlos Boozer in free agency, according to ESPN’s Marc Stein.

via Chris Douglas-Roberts traded to Bucks for a second-round pick, Nets to target Boozer in free agency – ProBasketballTalk – Basketball – NBC Sports.

Despite the gaudy salary, Maggette does what he’d always advertised: he scores the ball in prolific fashion, and does so as efficiently as almost anyone else. The price may be steep, but you’re getting something for those dollars.

His defense is worse than circumspect: he’s a big minus on that end, which figures to draw concern from Bucks coach Scott Skiles, who won’t hesitate to bench someone giving less than their all on defense. Optimists would argue Skiles will be able to milk some effort out of Maggette on that end, but seeing is believing, and we haven’t seen defense from Maggette in years.

via Warriors Trade Corey Maggette to Milwaukee for Gadzuric, Bell — NBA FanHouse.

Seems like only months ago they were drafting Joe Alexander, trying to pick up the pieces, trying desperately to convince anyone there was a plan in place. They looked like this.

Now, they’ve formed into some sort of impossibly complex fusion machine that runs on defense and exhausts awesomeness. It’s a bizarre world when hip slogans are being made of the Bucks, and then they make a series of moves that don’t necessarily screw it all up, but somehow just confuse me. Because now they seem like this:

Maggette AND CDR to go along with Delfino AND Moute (who does spend some time at the 3, though mostly at the 4)? What?

Here’s one for you to wrap your wee brain around.

Brandon Jennings-Michael Redd-Corey Maggette-Ersan Ilyasova-Andrew Bogut.

What? Not weird enough? Try this one.

Ridnour-CDR-Maggette-Mbah a Moute- Bogut

Or, maybe you were thinking…

Jennings-Redd-CDR-Ilyasova-Bogut

AND I HAVEN’T EVEN TOUCHED THE WEIRD FAUXHAWKNESS OF CARLOS DELFINO!

But yet, here we are. Brought to the brink of madness by Hammond, unleashed. Before we look at what the Bucks are looking to do in terms of draft night trades (COUGH*GOODBYECARLOS*COUGH), can we all take a second and realize that Scott Skiles will be coaching Chris Douglas-Roberts? Scott Skiles. This man.

Is coaching, this guy:

Yeah, this guy.

If CDR is going to make this work it’s going to take a dramatic change for him to a defensive stopper. He has to be Mbah a Moute-light.  All that one-on-one explosiveness has to be translated to awareness. He’d better enter a no-mind state and just do whatever it is that Skiles tells him.  If not, well, look at what happened to Carlos Delfino, the poor bastard.

Maggette is such a mixed bag. He was a Warrior and a Clipper. That pretty much sums it up, no? He was a high-usage, low-defense, low-return Warrior and Clipper. If anything teaches you that a guy is probably overvalued, it’s that. What happens if they do manage to re-ink Salmons? You have to ditch Redd for a quarter on the dollar, right? You can’t possibly go that deep in the tax with this unit, as much upside as they may have. I will say that bringing in two ISO players on a team that passes the ball really well and needs guys that are willing to step up and absorb a possession is key. CDR doesn’t do it effectively or efficiently, but there is hope that with Skiles he could get there. And Jenning is going to create enough Maggette corner threes to challenge some franchise records. The Bucks have gone from having no offense to being offensively versatile at nearly every possession. Also, I want to see two-on-two’s with Ridnour-Ilyasova and Maggette-Kurt Thomas. And I want it on YouTube, set to House music.

NBA Playoffs Bucks Hawks Game 2: Let Josh Smith Show You A Magic Trick

April 23, 2010 in by with 2 Comments

Having Andrew Bogut around would have helped. It really would have. There’s just so much that happens where the Bucks need someone who’s not just big, but smart enough to suss out things and put certain plays to rest like little children being put down for a nap.

This is such a play.

The Hawks create a cluster here by essentially double screening Ilasova. First Salmons’ man comes through to the other side, shielding his back from Smith who’s just kind of getting excited. Frankensova’s trying to watch Joe Johnson to make sure he doesn’t take Delfino to the rack. Which is good. As we saw with the Mavs. You should probably be ready to help your man. Unfortunately for him, he goes a little too far. He’s now parallel to Smith’s flightpath. Here’s the really dirty part. You’ll notice Bibby sneaking up the bottom side of the play, nudging Salmons’ man to squeeze through, and leaving Brandon Jennings wondering what the hell is going on.

Now on the release, Smith starts galloping towards the rim like Gryphon, Salmons is still chasing his man who’s going baseline, and then bam! (/Madden’d) Bibby screens Ilyasova hard, jarring him and preventing him from even starting to reverse course to cut off Smith at the baseline. Meanwhile, Jennings starts to go after Bibby, realizes what’s happening, and jerks back to try and prevent that which he cannot. You can actually see him go one way, then realize it and back up too late.

See, I included their heights so you would understand why it was such a bad idea. But give the kid credit. He had every intention of going for a pass that he would need to jump off the back of an elephant to catch. Meanwhile, Ilyasova is STILL being cut off by Bibby, which means that even if he misses, the Hawks are going to have a size advantage on the boards. Of course, Smith is eight inches taller, so he’s not going to miss.

It’s easy to say Bogut would have made an impact, but how? Ilyasova still likely would have been on Smith, making the same kinds of mistakes. But you do have to figure Bogut would sniff out what was going on and at least be in a little better position. As is, the Bucks are toast before the pass even gets there.

Dang, Brandon. Dang.

TA-DAAA!

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