Bucks West Coast Trip Disgraceful

Bucks effort enough to make you wince

The third best team in the Association? Right. If the Bucks are in the upper half I'd be surprised. They just got destroyed by two stumblebum teams, the Sacramento Kings and the Utah Jazz. And I mean destroyed. For the entire 4 game road trip, the Bucks were outscored by a whopping 59 points.

They are playing no defense whatsoever, giving up over 101 points per game. They should be embarrased by their efforts in three of the four games played on this trip. Someone should have reminded them that they were playing professional games in front of paying fans, not pick-up games at the YMCA. Their effort in the last game was so bad Utah Coach Jerry Sloan was moved to comment on their lack of energy. The other team's coach calling you out! That's low. Its time for your Milwaukee Bucks to look in the mirror, and that starts at the top.

What is Stotts doing?

When a team with as much talent as the Bucks consistently falls behind by 20 and more points to opponent after opponent, at some point you have to ask: Is the coach doing a good job of preparing them to play? The answer here is no. Stotts has to shoulder blame for the pathetic efforts the team has put out. The two things a coach should demand every night are effort and defense. Too many nights the Bucks have provided neither. What has he done to penalize the lackadaisical efforts? Anything? Just standing there on the sideline like a statue isn't going to cut it, Ter.

Play Bogut more

I'm going to eat some serious crow here. A couple of posts back I said that 82games.com was statistical nonsense. I'm partially reversing myself, or at least qualifying my criticism. I still don't believe you can draw sweeping conclusions about a player's performance based solely upon a comparison of how the team does while he is in the game versus how they do when he is out.

But, in the case of C Andrew Bogut, where many of the contributions he makes do not show up on the stats sheet, the statistic can be at least a little enlightening. The fact is there is only one player on the roster who can say that while he is on the court the Bucks outscore there opponents: Bogut (benchwarmer Ervin Johnson notwithstanding). And, when he's off the floor the Bucks have been outscored by double digits. Now compare that to Magliore's numbers. His are the worst on the team. When he's out on the floor the Bucks get outscored by double digits, and when he is on the bench the team outscores its opponents. In fact Magliore is the only player on the Bucks who can make the dubious claim the team outscored its opponent while he was on the bench!

Magliore is doing nothing. (I truly believe Dan Gadzuric could put up better numbers than Jamaal is producing.) Until Magliore gets his game together, he should sit and Bogut should start.


Ford missed way too many of these

Ford can't hit anything, Williams has disappeared

After great starts, the point guard tandem of TJ Ford and Mo Williams has completely fizzled. Neither is making shots, and its hurting the team. On this disastrous trip, the two combined to shoot 24 for 68 for a whopping FG percentage of 35%. We need those two to get it going again.
That's all I have for today. I'm too disgusted to write anymore.