'A Meeting of 2 Dragons'

In their first sellout since the season home-opener against Chicago, a mostly full Bradley Center and 200+ million fans watching back in China saw Yi match up against Yao for the second time this season, as the Bucks fell again to the Rockets 83-91. Thoughts from last night's game:

-Chinese fans were in abundance, filling most of the upper level and cheering loudly for both Yi and Yao whenever they would make a play. Chinese media could be seen wandering the stands and taking pictures of the festivities for those back in the People's Republic of China.

At one point during an intermission the Bucks celebrated the Chinese Lunar New Year by throwing out 200 red envelopes which we determined, despite my friend's best efforts to not catch TWO that practically fell into his lap, contained: two free passes to the March 5th game against Seattle, some Bucks stickers, a pin, and a one dollar bill, which we assume has some kind of cultural logic behind its inclusion. Or maybe it was just a big middle finger to the communist government.

-Capitalizing on a mid-season nba game that was drawing 50 million more viewers worldwide than Superbowl XLII, Harley-Davidson struck some sort of deal to have the pregame introductions wrap-up with Bango tooling around the court on a Harley for 30 odd seconds as the players stood awkwardly near center court, waiting to jump the ball. The bike was also brought out again for another couple laps later in the game. Assuming the people at Harley went through the trouble of ensuring that these joy rides were done at a time when the chinese television cameras were watching, this had to be a better return on investment than the $2.7 million per commercial FOX was charging for superbowl airtime.

-In a game where the hype was understandably focused around Yi and Yao, Andrew Bogut was by far the most impressive big man on the floor. He finished with 21 pts, 5 rebs, and 4 blocks, took at least 2 charges, and pretty much dominated one of the best centers in the game, Yao. Bogut repeatedly beat Yao on the block for high precentage buckets, blocked two of the 7'6" center's shots, and generally looked the more physical of the two down low.

It continued a string of impressive games for Bogut, and will hopefully quiet some of the complaints that Bogut has only played well against mediocre competition. In a lot of ways Bogut's progress from season to season has mirrored that of Michael Redd and the way both of them continue to improve with time speaks well for the franchise's prospects going forward.

-McGrady seems to thrive against teams that don't play defense with much intensity, and so naturally he continued his trend of killing the Bucks everytime he visits Milwaukee. McGrady finished with 33pts, 11 rebs, and 6 ast and had an answer for every milwaukee run.

McGrady vs. bad defense is like being in college and going down to the gym to play pick-up games with whatever other 4 guys are waiting to get in the next game, vs. playing in your intramural basketball league with your friends. Those pick-up games are fun but guys aren't killing themselves every possesion, people may already be tired from being on the court for a few games, and the talent level and intensity of teams as a whole is lower.

In the intramural games, you're playing against 5 guys who know and have played with each other before, everyone is (in theory) fresh and rested for the game, and the intensity level is way higher. Guys are playing tough defense, rotating and helping and giving hard fouls if someone is about to get an easy look. The fact that there are refs and fouls and a scoreboard and substititions all make for a much, much more intense game than your average college-student pick-up game.

Teams are playing to win and it shows, and a guy who can do very well for himself in pick-up games at the gym can suddenly look mediocre in intramural games where teams are actually trying to stop him.


McGrady is not mediocre however, so if most nba regular season games are 'intramural' games, the milwaukee bucks are the equivalent of a thursday afternoon pick-up game where the gym is only half-full because everybody is still at class and the talent/intensity are way down, and someone like McGrady is going to have a field day. And that is what happened saturday night.

-Just before the big t-shirt toss in the 4th quater, the Bucks were about to roll out a giant artillery gun/gattling gun contraption that sure looked like it would launch t-shirts into the farthest reaches of the upper level, when the woman in black, pictured above, put the kibosh on the whole operation, pulling Bango off the fire station even as he was going through a NASA-like checkdown of the weapon and its controls. This was a great disappointment as the weapon looked like it would have beeen something to behold, and few t-shirts make it up into the 400's.

A Chinese New Year Celebration

200 million overseas viewers
15,000 live raucous fans
100's of Milwaukee's finest karate masters
50 free t-shirts
12 players
4 hemispheres
2 epic Chinese giants of men
#1 fans in the NBA

As an avid Bucks fan for the past 26 years of my life, I was excited as any fan for the promise and dreams of the 2007-2008 Bucks season. The team had a new coach with a successful history of teams that play defense and hustle. Larry Harris signed one of the best points guards in the Eastern Conference to a contract he had earned with his skills and development last year. The front court was anchored by our former number one draft pick who is consistently proving more and more that he deserved to be a number one pick. And, lest we not forget, there was this Yi guy bringing all-star potential and the hopes and dreams of 1 billion people on his back straight to Fortress on 4th Street. The season could not possibly get any better.

In the excitement that the Bucks season promised, I was swept up in the pomp and grandeur, as I'm sure many other optimistic fans were, and I went out on a limb and purchased a Bucks 10-pack ticket plan from the incomparable account representative - Shaun Talley.

But then the season began. Losses mounted as the Bucks rarely displayed even the heart of a feeble doe, let alone that of a full sized 30 point Buck. Instead of the heart of a Buck, rather they stunk like the manure of the animal they were named after. Their lackluster performances and historic losses made me want to hurl. I was angry that I had been duped so bad into spending my hard earned $100 on Bucks tickets.

Yet, as a true fan always does, I continued to attend the games. I realized that, although the Bucks rarely won when I was in attendance, each game turned out to be an adventure of the highest magnitude. Whether it was meeting the greatest account representative in the world or simply my ticketmate getting a free program, each game brought a unique kind of excitement.

And then the Chinese New Year blew Yao Ming and his Houston Rockets into town. The atmosphere was electric. The concrete walls of the BC were rocking like I had not seen since the 6th game of the Eastern Conference Finals when Scott Williams was thrown out of the game and suspended in a controversy that still shakes Milwaukee Bucks fans to the core (sorry that's another article).

This game was fantastic. This time, instead of being handed a program, my ticketmate - and main author of this blog - managed to herocially snag a Chinese envelope which contained a voucher for 2 free tickets as well as a $1 bill. Was this merely a coincidence or some crafty planning on the part of our friend, Shaun Talley? Who knows, but it welcome none the less. Halftime included a demonstration by one of the finest martial arts schools in the Milwaukee Area. Many people do not realize the fine heritage of Milwaukee's martial arts (we are home to the legendary Frank Dux). There were also the antics of not only Bango, but his partner in crime from Houston. Their hi-jinks alone made the game worthwhile.

This is why I would like to take this time to thank all who were able to plan this rocking party. The Milwaukee Bucks organization. Yao and Yi for coming to America. The Chinese government, both for sending some of your best fans over for the game and also for insisting that 200 million of your peasant farmers were able to watch the game. Shaun Talley for getting us our outstanding tickets. And all who were in attendance that night. Thank you Milwaukee.

Harris to Stay the Course?

GM Larry Harris was quoted in a recent article by SI.com's Paul Forrester as saying:

"...your players dictate the style you're going to play," but cautions that the Bucks are trying to develop some semblance of offensive balance.

"We're a good perimeter-shooting team," Harris said, "but when we're willing to up-tempo the ball, our turnovers are tremendously high. An all-out fast-breaking team is not our style because we do have a low-post guy [in Bogut] and we want to play through him as well.

"So we'll run when we have opportunities, but Larry is a defensive guy. He's a no-nonsense person. He understands you need to have an inside-outside game. And adjusting our team to that style, because we've been so much the other way, [has required] almost a reprogramming that you can actually win that way."

"There are always conversations that take place when you're a month away from the trade deadline," Harris said. "But as for reports that we should break things up -- that's not what winning organizations do. I think our core is intact and we're building around that core. If you're a fan of the Milwaukee Bucks, if you're within the organization, you have to feel like we can identify what we're trying to do, who we're building around, who our future is and how we're trying to fit those pieces together."

All of which seem to suggest the Bucks will not be making any major moves before this month's trade deadline, despite an increase in grumbling from disgruntled fans looking for a major roster shake-up.

The Journal-Sentinel itself, historically a bastion of Herb Kohl support, even gave voice to those calls for change in an early 2008 article by the ultimate disgrunted fan, columnist Michael Hunt. Hunt ripped Bucks management from the top down and called for a complete team blow-up, declaring Bogut and Yi the only two pieces worth rebuilding around as the team moves forward.

Which, unjustified bad-mouthing of the front office aside, is not such an outlandish claim; Bogut and Yi are the two most untradeable assets the Bucks have, with the potential to form the most impressive front-court tandem since Tim Duncan and David Robinson collected 2 NBA championships in 6 years and nearly 2 more, prevented only by the short lived Shaquille O'Neal/Kobe Bryant Lakers dynasty.

And while Yi has not been nearly as dominate as Duncan was his rookie season (21.1 ppg, 11.9 rpg, 2.51 blocks), neither is Bogut nearly as old as Robinson was, and Yi has by all accounts shown flashes of the dominance that will hopefully come with more experience in the league. So it is not at all a stretch for Hunt to call those two the most valuable Bucks pieces. The problem with blowing up the team and rebuilding around those two, is the difficulty of getting much in return for the team's other assets.

Outside of Michael Redd, whom can the Bucks even attempt to move for any substantial return? Bell, Simmons, and Gadzuric all have contracts which make them undesirable, Mo has a slightly better case of the same problem, and Villanueva's stock is at an all-time low even if he probably would benefit from a change of scenery. So the only player they could even hope to get close to fair value for is Redd.

Which, at first, can also seem to be an appealing path to pursue. The team played a nice stretch earlier this season with Redd out, Mo has said he liked the temporary switch to SG and there was a nice balance between scoring and play making with Ivey and Mo as the starting backcourt, and there seemed to be more inside touches for Bogut and a better flow on offense in general with Redd on the bench. So if you can get a good, young, defensive-minded forward for Redd, why not make this trade? Defense, if you can actually believe that as a reason to hold on to Michael Redd.

The reality is that he is getting better at it, occasionally even locking his man down when he becomes sufficiently motivated (that out of 41 games so far this season there is only one game, against former Team-USA teammate Kobe, which I can reference to support this claim is one of the main criticisms of Redd). He just doesn't consistently make his defense a priority and that enables the lack of effort team-wide.

But Michael Redd does have the tools to do it, and even if it takes a painful unlearning of bad/lazy habits, one thing he has shown season to season is a dedication to improving his game. This is a man who came into the league as a 2nd round draft pick, played sparingly his first couple years, and earned his place as an NBA all-star by making progress each and every off-season. It would be shortsighted to not appreciate his history of improvement and trade him now just because the team as a whole has not yet found the chemistry and discipline necessary to play winning basketball.

Beyond all that, the other reason not to trade Redd and move Mo Williams to SG is that fact that most SG's in this league are in the 6'5"-6'7" range and Mo is generously listed at 6'1". Given that he is probably closer to 5'11" in real life and not known for shut-down defense himself, how will Mo match up defensively? So even if he finds the defensive focus that has so far eluded Michael, does he have the size to defend 2-guards? If you shift Royal Ivey over to cover for Mo, does he have the size/skill to get the job done?

Why not just hold on to Mo and Redd, keeping all their other skills on the court for you, and find a way to get them to buy into the defense/team-first/share-the-ball philosophy that is really the problem that has hamstrung this team? I think the point Larry Harris was trying to make is that this is a team with a lot of talented parts, that for whatever reason hasn't come together yet. And given the probable returns from blowing up the team, the best course is to let these guys struggle through this and figure out the path to winning basketball.

Which is actually a pretty solid conclusion to reach, unsatisfying as it may be to disgruntled fans and columnists alike.

SESSIONS OUT WITH LEFT HAND FRACTURE

'February 2, 2008
MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee Bucks rookie guard Ramon (rah-MAHN) Sessions sustained a left hand fracture in the team practice on Friday, February 1, General Manager Larry Harris announced today. Sessions was originally assigned to the Tulsa 66ers on November 8, 2007, before being recalled from the Bucks D-League affiliate yesterday. He is expected to miss six weeks of action.

Sessions appeared in 24 games (17 starts) with Tulsa, averaging a team-high 21.1 points (6th in the D-League), a team-high 7.6 assists (3rd in the D-League) and 6.5 rebounds (19th in the D-League) in 36.2 minutes per contest. His points, rebounds and assists add up to 35.2 per game, eighth in the league. Sessions is the only player to be named the D-League Performer of the Week twice this season, claiming the award on November 26, 2007 and January 28, 2008.

A 6-3, 190-lbs guard out of Nevada, Sessions was the 56th overall selection by the Bucks in the 2007 NBA Draft. He has been on assignment in Tulsa for the entire D-League season. He was joined by Bucks teammate David Noel on January 20. Sessions played in five preseason games with the Bucks, averaging 1.4 points, 1.0 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 7.0 minutes of action.'

-http://www.nba.com/bucks/news/sessions_injury_080202.html