Buck Droppings: Love for Yi and the Bucks D

Charley Rosen has a pretty good breakdown of the Milwaukee Bucks and their Chinese sensation Yi Jianlian on Foxsports.com. His comments are based mainly upon the Bucks Saturday matchup with the Chicago Bulls. The notoriously stingy Rosen wrote a guarded but encouraging assessment of Yi. The sum of his comments are: Yi has a great looking jumpshot, he's too weak in the post, he's got good fundamentals, and he's a player with a lot of potential who would benefit greatly from an intensive weight training program.

Rosen also had the following general comments on the state of your Milwaukee Bucks:

...He wrote that Michael Redd "routinely ignores wide open teammates." I agree in principle with that, but I think the Redd man is trying to kick his "me first" addiction. I'm willing to give him time.

...Rosen also wrote that the Bucks second team nearly lost the game for them on Saturday. That point is irrefutable. The +/- numbers for the Bucks reserves were heavily in the red. In fact, the Bucks reserves were thoroughly dominated by the Bulls second unit comprised of the indomitable Andres Nocioni, the old warshorse Joe Smith, and the steady Chris Duhon.

...Rosen also contended that Charlie V is only interested in seeing how many shots he can jack up, and that Bobby Simmons has lost his confidence. That's a little harsh on Villanueva, who has been attacking the boards with gusto, but who, admittedly, never moves the basketball. As for Simmons, he came out with both guns blazing on Opening Night in Orlando and he's disappeared ever since. I'm baffled.

...Here's the surprise of the column. Charley Rosen, who has never seen an NBA defense or defender that he thought was adequate, actually praised the Bucks defensive rotations on Saturday night, calling them "surprisingly effective." A little backhanded, but I'll take it. The K philosophy may be taking root.

...And of course Rosen got in his customary gratuitous rip on Bucks C Andrew Bogut, calling his post game "inadequate" and closing the column by lamenting that if Bogut had half the potential of Yi, the Bucks might easily be a championship contender. While I get a little sick of Rosen's Bogut bashing, I have to say he's probably spot on with those two comments.