Because when they could have waited and found themselves with a possibility of Mo and Redd playing Seven Seconds or Less or Avery Johnson being the Rich Man’s defensive genius, what did the Bucks do?
They hired Scott Skiles, the poor man’s defensive genius. Who’ll get about 18 months out of a team and then watch the team burn out. It happened in Phoenix, it happened in Chi-Town, it will happen again in Milwaukee. Count on it.
And another thing? Yes I am bitter that now Flip Saunders is available. He is the perfect choice to transisiton a team from bad to decent and decent to good. Yeah, he may never win the big strap, but he can get a lot out of bad and decent.
Really. NBC Sports has a rumor on their site that baffles the entirety of the shit out of me. Going to Bleacher Report and taking the ideas of an idiot and an ass in regards to a trade rumor is much the same as the Journal-Sentinel Online going publishing the rumors of a wingnut political blog. Would Agent Steinz roll up with what Jonah Goldberg says as to where Gilbert’s going to land next season? What about if the Daily Kos tells you that Derrick Rose is unequivocally going to the Bulls? No. It was irresponsible all around, and even if I wish Ned Yost was fired in October? He deserved to get his rant on.
Bucks’ Redd is on the market The Milwaukee Bucks supposedly have guard Michael Redd and his 22.7 points per game on the trading block and rumor has it that he’d fit well in Cleveland, which could theoretically get him and Milwaukee’s first-round pick next year for Wally Szczerbiak, Daniel Gibson, and Cleveland’s first-round pick this year. Would be a good deal for LeBron James, even if Cleveland isn’t looking to give him a sidekick. (Bleacher Report, HoopsWorld)
Here’s where the first problem comes into play. Michael Redd may be nothing more than a scorer. He may have a bad contract. But I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts that he’s going to garner more than an expiring contract, a 85% of Mo Williams, and praying that Chris Douglas-Roberts can turn into an awesome Jerry Stackhouse. Not much more. But by himself? He’s going to bring something of value in return.
But again, I’m digressing. We’re here to talk about the article in question. Let’s click the link, shall we?
Here is a trade that could work:
(If you want a legitimate piece of news to be broken? This is what you use for a lead sentence! Maybe I’m being too mean, but let’s be honest. You don’t need a home run swing like baffles the entirety of the shit out of me. But here is a trade that could work? PERFECT!)
Michael Redd + 2009 1st round pick(top 7 protected)
for
Wally Szczerbiak, Danial Gibson, and 2008 first round pick
(I know what you’re thinking, he nails Szczerbiak but botches Daniel?)
Why?
the Cavs would get a prolific scorer who can hit jump-shot or create his own shot to go along with James. With a lineup of West, Redd, James, Wallace, and Big Z the Cavs would be serious contenders for the next two years.
(Broken clock. Right twice a day.)
The Bucks would get a big expiring contract in Szczerbiak and would get two pieces for their rebuilding process in Gibson and the 19th pick (hopefuly Brandon Rush) Sessions, Szczerbiak, Randolph (8th pick), Yi, and Bogut along with a bench of Rush, Gibson, Mason, and Bell could sneak into the eighth spot in the East.
(The Problems here are threefold. 1, repeating words in the same sentence is always a good decision. Also? Hopefully. 2, Daniel Gibson is a slightly downhill move from Mo Williams and Ramon Sessions was awesome in a small sample size, or need I remind you of Gibson in the 2006 Eastern Conference Finals? 3, Wally Sczerbiak would make Scott Skiles head explode with his negative defense at the 2. Okay and 4? Anthony Randolph is gonna be a bust. (I CAN HAZ STROMILE SWIFT?))
I also think the Bucks will trade Villanueva and Williams at some point during this off-season.
(Yes and no.)
This is why the “mainstream media” and Blogfrica are beefing. Some lazy dude looks up a poorly spelled, poorly thought out rumor, and lends it credence by giving it the gravitas of an old media name. Other people in old media look upon this rumor and despair, those damn kids in their underwear from their parents basement are at it again. And then they do something crazy. And Will Leitch fires back.
It’s a vicious cycle. And this is why the Sovereign Nations of Blogfrica are not going to dine with the Sports Columnists.
Didn’t think you were going to get learned, didja?
All these basketball posts must seem crazy. From the Phoenix Suns getting shafted last season, there were less than 10 basketball related posts in the past year. But let’s be honest. I do like basketball.
The required blogger spec script is a basketball movie. I live for March Madness. And I grew up on the greatest era in the NBA. It’s just not the be and end all.
Be that as it may. My idealism and love of the future led me to look at some mock drafts. And as a Bucks fan, here’s the thing that gets to me. I may not be thrilled with the hire of Scott Skiles to D the Milwaukee Bucks up, but it is what it is.
The Bucks are going analog.
The problem is, the two most likely choices are rather digital.
EricGordon. You know Eric Gordon, right? He is a scorer personified. He can create his own shot. He can slash. He can gun. Problem? He may give a good effort on D. But while he may be able to score 25 PPG, he could very well give up 30.
DaniloGallinari. And here is the #1 Euro on the board. And his game is as Archetypical as your average Euro. Versatile, with good ball skills and he is Il cose intangibili del capitano. But while he may be able to flop like the Fat Chick thriller? He is bad at defense and rebounding.
Put it another way. WHY ARE THE BUCKS DRAFTING OFFENSEIVELY SKILLED PLAYERS AND HAVING THEM WITH A DEFENSIVE COACH? THAT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE!
And that goes for you too Lester Hudson. Scott Skiles wants none of you!
Really. There is no superstar point guard. There is no great contract that’s going to get moved. I’m not going to say something crazy like Starbury’s expiring contract is what you want on your team. Because that’s crazy.
But like Charles McHutchence said, let’s look at the facts. There are three point guards of some level of talent. But the contracts are bad. There will be shopping, but if somebody does move, it will be for pennies on the dollar.
Meet the Point Guard Three.
1) Kirk Hinrich, Chicago Bulls
11.5 PPG, 6.0 APG
From HoopsHype: Great knowledge of the game, good shooter, superb quickness, good court vision, excellent defender, put forth a great effort, could become one of the premiere point guards in the NBA.
HOWEVER! Kirk Hinrich gets his new contract and his offense falls off the cliff. 35% points off of the field goal percentage, 65% behind the arc, five points less in scoring. And you’re still on the hook for 4 years at 33 million.
Odds of a trade occuring? Of the three, it’s the most decent. Hinrich is the one most likely to hook himself to the juvenation machine and get back on the road to glory.
2) T.J. Ford, Toronto Raptors
12.1 PPG 6.1 APG
From HoopsHype: Extremely quick and hard to stop one on one. Wonderful ballhandling skills and vision. Excellent in the open court. A true floor general.
HOWEVER! The size hurts him. His jumper is inconsistent. And he does have a certain tendency to break himself fool with his suicide drives through the lane. Still on the hook for 25 million dollars in 3 years, with an exercised option.
Odds of a trade occuring? Marginal. His salary sucks, but the Raptors seem to be in love with Calderon. They may be willing to take 50 cents on the dollar.
3) Mo Williams, Milwaukee Bucks
17.2 PPG, 6.3 APG
From HoopsHype: Very quick and talented point guard with good court vision and superb ballhandling. He’s a very good scorer with an improving shot. Offensively, he’s got skills to pay the bills.
HOWEVER! He’s still a two-guard in a point guards body. His decision making still needs improvement and he has defensive lapses. Also, Momar is injury prone. (Momar? Get it?!?)
Will he be traded? Not likely. He’s the got the most salary coming back to him. But he is an underrated scoring option. And the Bucks do have inclination to trade everybody. And in a world where the three way trade is always an option, a good sales job on Momar may bring him new life.
Huh, Chicago got the #1 pick? Not New York, but as Stern Conspiracy Theorists go, it’s not unexpected.
Here are some things you need to know.
1) John Paxson is loathe to pull the trigger on any trade. Buy that metric, Beasley is the #1 Pick, as the Bulls already have Duhon, Gordon, and Hinrich as Point Guards and several bits of talent at the two (the highly intriguing Shannon Brown, the much maligned Larry Hughes, and Swiss Miss Thabo Selofsha, and didn’t JamesOn Curry destroy the D-League?). Even if Brown, Duhon, and Gordon don’t all come back? They are still wicked deep in the backcourt.
1a) Also by that metric? The Heat still won’t make the playoffs. Derrick Rose may be special. But even if they sign Shawn Marion, they still don’t have the cap room for quality depth. Not hating, but the window closed on them for this round. And D-Wade is gimpy.
2) But if the Bulls go with Rose? It’s a buyers market for above average guard. From Mike Bibby to Mo Williams, there are plenty that could be moved, and there are not many who will.
2a) Ironically, if the Heat get Beasley? They still won’t make the playoffs.
2b) But they’ll pick high again next year in a Chicago style attempt at rejuvenation of the Eastern Conference.
3) Minnesota gets the small-market teams don’t make any sort of money shaft. Brook Lopez is decent, but he will never be great. No inspirado here.
4) Sadly, Eric Gordon is going to make the SOCS intriguing, but Seattle gets screwed. Stern needs to rectify this straight away.
5) And John Hammond? I would like something in a UCLA Bruin please.
Now, the San Antonio Spurs are the least fun to hate dynasty in Sports. It’s true. Look at them compared to a team like the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas is like a Star Wars prequel. You have an underperforming Golden Boy in Tony Romo Skywalker, a guy who fails in the clutch like Mace Windu Owens, and Adam Pac-Man Jones is like so many Lando Calrissians.
I A’INT GONNA BE IN YOUR GOT DAMN PREQUEL!
But we at the Grand National Championships say we will find good reasons to hate your San Antonio Spurs. Some of them are obvious. (OVER MY DEAD BODY!) Some of them, might surprise you. We will work in Alphabetical Order, if only to build up suspense.
BRENT BARRY (G/F)
With his slam-dunk championship in 1996, Brent Barry effectively killed the slam dunk championship as real NBA entertainment. He also carried this championship and the one time he led the league in three point field-goal percentage into being highly overrated. He really is just a giant Eddie House. And specific motherufckers like that should not have five playoff teams sniffing around him.
MATT BONNER (F)
Nickname: Red Rocket
BRUCE BOWEN (F)
Bruce Bowen would not be in the league except for the fact he mauls whom he tasked to defend. He will go all Bruce Lee on a superstar if it’s going to help. Ask Chris Paul or Steve Nash what his denfense entails. In prison, they would call it a tender love story.
TIM DUNCAN (F/C)
Tim Duncan has never committed a foul. Ever. He will let you know this in the most vociferous terms. A foul to him is like sex with a slumpbuster.
True Story: Tim Duncan once was thrown out of a foot locker after an employee called him on bumping into him by the Air Force Ones.
MICHAEL FINLEY (G/F)
Appeared in Like Mike, Punk’d, Quite Frankly with Steven A. Smith, and The Apprentice. Need I say more?
MANU GINOBILI (SG)
Those who have played with Ginobili in the Italian Leagues know that beyond his Duncanesque inability to accept a foul call and his Bowenesque mauling of offensive players, he is not at his most dangerous on the court. He was at his best on the road trips, hitting on anything that moves.
From this…
To this…
ROBERT HORRY (F)
For somebody so well-known, he really does nothing of value for the 82-game season and about 47 minutes and 30 seconds of playoff games. He used to be the Nate Dogg that brought #1 jams to everybody from Warren G to Eminem. Now? He’s nothing more than Bruce Bowen’s tag team partner in the three time AWA Tag Team Championship winning team of Bad Company.
“Cheap shots and heel tactics for everybody!” Says Horry.
IAN MAHINMI (C)
Does not use his Frenchness to fight crime. He’s in the D-League, what else is there for him to do?
Mahinmi would fit right in.
FABRICIO OBERTO (C)
Crazy enough to assume that people would want Fabricio Oberto widgets for their social networking homepages and text alerts to their cell phones. He holds meetings for the Obertons, the Fabricio Oberto fan club, and there is no promised punch or pie. Also, his beef jerky is terrible.
TONY PARKER (G)
There is a voluminous array of reasons to hate on Tony Parker (from his flopping to his sexing of the Queen of the Harpies), but if I am going to go in greater detail? I was told it would be over her dead body…
And seeing as she’s too smart for any of my deathtraps, (or I’m too lazy to work on one,) I’ll just leave you with this. Watch and feel the hate flow.
DAMON STOUDAMIRE (G)
Corrupted by the influence of the Jail Blazers. In Toronto? He was going to be the next great point guard. But he went from Mighty Mouse to the master of the giggling green. He wasted his skills just because he wanted to go deeper with the taste of a convenience store chicken ‘n’ swiss.
KURT THOMAS (F/C)
Here’s the thing. He’s a hard worker. He plays with high energy. He’s been on many teams, but they’ve always wanted him. He works with charities and he will play hurt.
But point of fact? His favorite book is Waiting to Exhale. Seriously.
An excellent academic. A renaissance man who lists Sylvia Plath among his favorite authors. But as floppers go? He rates as a negative 8 on the Duke University flop scale. Please do enjoy.
This is your NBA dynasty. A bunch of addicts, cheap shot artists, floppers, punks, and wannabes. They’ve brought the game back into the dark ages.
I’m not writing this as a fan of the NOOCH. I’m writing this because this team has got to be stopped. I don’t care if it gives Kobe another ring. I don’t even care if it allows Boston fans to act like D-Bags.
The Spurs are all that is wrong with the on-court game of basketball. We can fade a lesser evil.
But Josh Smith is awesome. Josh Smith is a god among men. But you know what?
He’s gonna let me down. Joe Johnson’s gonna let me down. I’m used to Mike Bibby letting me down.
I mean, do you think David Stern would let the decent core of ATLANTA beat the three superstars of BOSTON? What, you’re gonna say that the better team finally established their dominace with their backs to the wall?
Please. This sport is faker than Pro Wrestling. Boston’s a better story, and asshole fans are better than no fans whatsoever. Say the Hawks re-up Josh Smith, do you think they’ll even sell out a game? Nope.
Vince McStern has to have his stars how he wants them.
I know that this is 20/20 vision. However? This is something that needs to be said.
You’re the Milwaukee Bucks. You’re a team that has a severe inability to play defense. You’re a team with an excellent passing big man and an offensively talented 4. You have a point guard who turned his cup of coffee into some double mocha cat pooped out java beans. You have a point guard who can put the biscuit in the basket. You have a reasonably good 4/tradable asset in Charlie Villanueva. And you have an overpaid World B. Free styled bomber in Mr. Michael Redd.
And your bench is chock full of untradable contracts. It’s easy to be awful in obscurity, am I right?
But it’s no fun. So the Bucks rolled up in here with a new GM. And they fired Larry Krystowiak. Yep. It’s a rebuilding session.
But here’s where we come in. You have a good offensive team with no defensive skills. So who do you need to hire? A coach that can work with the personnel? Or a coach that will try and change the framework of the team.
Your Milwaukee Bucks went for B. Now, B has been able to do some things for teams before he got canned. But he burns out quickly. He is Scott Skiles.
I DRIVE A DODGE STRATUS! PEOPLE FEAR ME!
I do like Mr. Scott Skiles. He gets a lot out of his talent. And considering your Dan Gadzurics and Bobby Simmons aren’t going anywhere. The Bucks could use a guy like that. But here’s the thing?
Don’t the Bucks have feelers? There were rumors that three Western Conference playoff coaches were going to be out of a job. One would be comedic for the Bucks to hire.
One would out-Skiles Skiles.
But the guy who could actually work with this roster? I know it’s crazy. I know it’s illogical. But give me this.
If Mike D’Antoni’s mustache does not land him an awesome gig somewhere else, I don’t believe in love anymore.
