Coach, the Bucks ARE NOT a jump shooting team

Last week on the Milwaukee Fox Sports affiliate, Coach Terri Stotts declared the Bucks 'a jump shooting team.'

In fact, the statistics describle a far different team. 60% of the Bucks shots are jump shots (shots taken from 12 feet and out). That is -- in fact -- tied for the second lowest overall jump shot percentage in the Association. The only team with a lower percentage of jump shots taken is the New York Knicks with 58%. Thus, I really don't know what team Coach Stotts is watching. His team is, comparatively speaking, not a jump shooting team at all. The leader of the Clueless Club, ladies and gentleman!

Seriously, its disconcerting that the Coach of the team has such a distorted picture of the team's fundamental essence. Its really hard to explain but, I guess, par for the course in Stottsworld.

What's even more curious than that is the Bucks mediocre FG accuracy percentage. It just doesn't stand to reason. If a team takes shots closer to the basket, shouldn't they make more of those shots? I was always taught to 'work for a better shot.' When the coach said that, it generally didn't mean look for a shot farther out on the perimeter, it meant work the ball inside.

So, if the Bucks work the ball inside more than almost any other team, doesn't logic dictate a higher success rate? Not when you have Jamaal Magliore and his mobile mortar launcher (a.k.a. his shooting arm) in your starting lineup. Logic be damned. That guy could miss a two foot shot by four feet. Remember that old commercial where the sponsor presented a vision of basketball in the future featuring moving baskets? I think, in his mind at least, Magliore is stuck in that commercial. How else can you explain his seeming inability to zero in on the otherwise sedentary basket?

Led by the Magliore, the Bucks have the lowest field goal accuracy on "close" shots in the entire Association. He's not entirely to blame. TJ Ford's inability to finish his drives certainly contributes to the Bucks woefulness. (sidenote: TJ shoots the ball as though he's 6'5'' when he goes down the lane. Against the Bulls he attempted a FINGER ROLL during a crucial possession and Bulls C Tyson Chandler easily sent it to Row 53. Ford needs to go back and look at Tiny Archibald and Calvin Murphy tapes and discover how a smaller player can safely and productively release shots in close. It can be done.)

Footnote: I, and from what I gather most Bucks fans who are not members of the print media, think its time to sit down Magliore and TJ Ford. (Tellingly, virtually every hypothetical trade promulgated on the various Bucks Internet Forums was a package that included those two players.) Come on Coach Stotts: Let's just try the Bogut at 5/ Smith at 4 lineup. Its clear by now that Magliore, and to a lesser extent Ford, are counterproductive forces on the offensive end.