"They have all these eccentric plays, but then there's no one there to rebound." -MJ

That is the Bucks' season right there, summed up in twelve simple words. I could write a 5000 word essay about this season and still never quite strike the note/feeling that this quote captures so beautifully.

Try it during a game some time:

-2nd quarter, Bucks down 9 against a team they should be beating, they play good D for 24 seconds and force a tough shot, Bogut kicks the rebound out and the Bucks are hustling down court, it's 3v2 and now Mo pulls up for a 25-footer that clangs off the iron and out of bounds. The rest of the guys shuffle back to play defense again. 'They have all these eccentric plays, but then there's no one there to rebound.'

-Tie game, middle of the 4th quarter. Bucks play solid D for the first 15 seconds, then somebody penetrates the lane and Bogut steps up to challenge, nobody rotates to pick up Bogut's guy, and it's an easy assist for an uncontested dunk. Bogut looks pissed and whatever meager noise the crowd was making dies back down. 'They have all these eccentric plays, but then there's no one there to rebound.'

-Close game, the other team gets an open jumper that doesn't fall, but 2 of 5 Bucks have already taken off downcourt looking for a fast break and nobody else has put a body on anyone, offensive rebound. 'They have all these eccentric plays, but then there's no one there to rebound.'


Those twelve words capture it all, the bad shots and the soft rebounding/defense and the sense that the 5 guys on the court are never really on the same page. Just the general absurdity of trying to win with a team built around pieces that don't quite fit together and maybe don't want to anyway.

Can you even picture any of the starters hanging out with each other? Mo is thuggin' it, Bogut can't stand the 'hood mentality, Redd is very much about Jesus and the church, Yi is 19yrs old and wishes he was in California, Charlie Bell is still salty about free agency and the fans, Charlie V and Simmons are salty about their minutes, and Gadzuric is the same player he was $30 million dollars ago.

Winning fixes issues like these but the Bucks need to play with chemistry to win, so it's a catch-22. They play a few games well and then when they lose a couple there's a bunch of finger pointing and everbody returns to their own agenda. You get the sense that nobody values their teammates' contributions quite as highly as they value what they themselves bring to the table, and I don't know whose fault that is or how you fix it.

It's easy to say blow the team up and rebuild around so and so, but it's also just as easy to look at all the talent and say 'if only we can get them to play as a team we would really have something.' Is it the players' fault for being selfish? Is it the GM's fault for picking the players? Is it the coach's fault for not building unity? Is it nobody's fault because maybe everyone will gel at some point and all of this will work out for the best?

"Sadly, sadly, the sun rose; it rose upon no sadder sight than the man of good abilities and good emotions, incapable of their directed exercise, incapable of his own help and his own happiness, sensible of the blight on him, and resigning him-self to let it eat him away." -Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.

Nothing is as frustrating as watching someone waste their potential, and that is what bothers fans so much about this team. Pictures from recent games:

Against Detroit:








Wednesday, against the Sonics:

Also against the Sonics, this guy here was blatantly trying to attract the attention of the Bucks girls, Energee, for most of the night:

He did eventually manage a wave and some giggling at the end of this performance.

Finally, a scene from the Feb. 23rd against Cleveland, it's Seniorgee performing the Soulja Boy dance:



This may have gotten the loudest cheers of the night, btw.