Game One Quick Thoughts

The second half played out the way I was afraid it would at halftime. The Bucks were hanging with the Bulls at the half because of an extraordinary offensive performance by the bench. But that performance was uncharacteristic of the personnel on the Bucks bench. Therefore I was afraid it could not be sustained, and it wasn't.

Here are some quick thoughts on the game, and then I will have a "Total Win Contribution" Boxscore up in the next couple of hours:

1. It looks as though second round pick Luc Richard Moute will get many more minutes than lottery pick Joe Alexander this season. That is clearly the correct move, but I am surprised Bucks brass is allowing Skiles to run a meritocracy. Very good sign.

2. Charlie Villanueva is on a short leech, and with the addition of Austin Croshere he may find himself on the way out of town. Villanueva is clearly not a favorite of Coach Skiles. As soon as he missed a few jumpers he was immediately pulled from the game and never heard from again... despite the fact that he was one of the only Bucks frontliners who was rebounding.

3. Cheers to Andrew Bogut... he had a very poor offensive preseason, but he came out and played hard in the opener. One caveat : just as in the first Golden State exhibition, Bogut was not playing against a real center.

4. As I thought, PG Ramon Sessions poor preseason has left him out of the rotation in Milwaukee. I had high hopes for him based upon the way he closed last season and his big summer league... but he absolutely stunk in the preseason.

5. Bad sign for the Bucks: Richard Jefferson was awful, and he did not rebound. It may not be long before I am calling for him to be moved... while he still has some value. He was just brutal tonight, and my Total Win Contribution boxscore will most likely show that.

6. Was Michael Redd dead during the 1980s? I ask that because he can obviously score, but the thing that seperated the flashy players (Dominique Wilkins, Bernard King, etc) from the decade's champions (Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, etc) was all around production. Redd scored tonight, but showed no inclination to do anything else. Its frustrating because he has the potential to be so much more than he is -- he proved it during his first two seasons -- but he doesn't seem to think secondary statistics have any value. Which makes me wonder whether he had a television growing up.