Bucks Diary

Monday, November 03, 2008

Big Win, Bigger Loss?: Milwaukee Bucks Total Win Contribution boxscore for Game 4


The Milwaukee Bucks quietly recorded a huge bounce back win at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night. But in the process they lost their leader, Michael Redd, to what is being called a sprained ankle. Redd had a big game before the injury, but he certainly wasn't the only Buck who did.

I completed a Total Win Contribution boxscore for the game. I think it illustrates the value of hard play and defense.


Bucksdiary Stars of the Game

1. Luc Richard Moute (+1.350)
2. Richard Jefferson (+0.689)
3. Michael Redd (+0.640)

Observations

1. Big, big, HUGE night for the rookie 3 position player, Luc Richard Moute. He is looking like a Total Win Score dream player. He guards anyone, he does a little of everything, and he's very efficient doing it. He's a winner.

2. Is Richard Jefferson the key to the Milwaukee Bucks this season? In the Bucks two wins, he's been one of my top "stars". He's been pretty bad in both of the losses.

3. If Redd is out for any stretch, I wouldn't turn to Charlie Bell as his replacement. Bell has been bad. I hope Coach Skiles remembers back to the preseason and inserts all-purpose Luc Moute at that position. Of course, that puts a premium on RJ providing points, but I think he might step up.

4. What planet is Knicks Coach D'Antoni living on? The Bucks won the game with their hard play, but D'Antoni's bizarre lineups certainly helped. For two different stretches of the game he had 3 guys 6'2'' or under on the court. And he's totally alienating the usually productive David Lee. This aint Italy D'Antoni. You can't win with small lineups unless you have freakishly good players like Steve Nash, Amare Stoudamire, and Shawn Marion. And even then it only takes you so far.

5. Last year, when I first started developing Win Contribution, I imagined how one could play only a short stint and yet record a very negative Win Contribution. Its simple. Hoist up a couple bad shots, turn the ball over, provide no positive statistic, and then return to the bench. On the same night, Tyronn Lue and Dan Gadzuric demonstrated how its done. For instance, Lue played 5 minutes. He missed two shots and turned the ball over. That's a -3 Win Score. Over the course of 48 minutes, that projects to -28.8 Win Score points. The average point guard (last season) recorded 6.9 Win Score points over 48 minutes. Thus, Lue's Win Score above average was an unfathomable -35.7. In the world of Win Contribution, there is no such thing as "garbage minutes". You gotta bring it or you get called out.

6. After the very UnBucklike "BadgerBuck" uniforms we saw on Saturday night, it was great to return to the traditional Milwaukee Bucks "Traveling Greens" again (though I wish they had "Milwaukee" on them, like the BadgerBucks unis, and the original Traveling Greens from the 70s). But it was even better to see the defensive effort of the guys wearing those Traveling Greens. THAT is Milwaukee Bucks basketball in my mind... the kind we saw in the 80s with Pressey and Moncrief and Lister and Cummings... not the crap we saw in the 16 seasons prior to this one.

2 Comments:

At November 3, 2008 at 1:07 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

On the uniforms comment, I actually liked the Purple / Green uni's better than any other. I thought those really set us apart from other teams in sports. The red and green is too typical and christmas-like.

 
At November 3, 2008 at 10:52 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

The Purples were hideous. I can't believe they lasted as long as they did.

 

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