Poll: Who would you rather have-JJ Redick or Klay Thompson?

[whatthe_buck!?]

I just don't like Klay Thompson, but I agree with the underlying point.

Fair commentary. And that is my main point, i.e., we just keep devaluing these assets and never can build anything.

It seemed like for awhile on WSSP yesterday we reached a tipping point where people would start to see through this.

But we will see Redick tomorrow night shoot 7-10 in a Bucks win, and we'll forget once again all our underlying screwups.

I would be interested to know if the guys who are excited about Redick and voted for him in this thread would trade him strait up for Klay if that were magically possible and GS was giving us a take it or leave it offer that we had to accept or reject within 1 minute...

[KeyRabbit]

I blame ownership/front office for the Bogut era not being what it should have been. Watching Bogut in college is depressing. He was so confident in everything he did. The Bucks blew their opportunity in the moves that followed that summer. They should have sat on cap space and let Bogut be the #1 option from the start, while pulling an OKC and acquiring picks and young assets. Instead they give Redd the max, bring back Gadz, overpay Simmons, and trade for Magloire. They then move Bogut to the 4, and relegate him to a garbage man role on offense while letting the guards shoot them out of games. Destroyed the confident all around beast that Bogut was. To me the turning point of the franchise was giving Redd the max and going for it rather than the rebuild that was gifted to them.

It isn't even a matter of hindsight being 20/20, either. This board has consistently made logical, if not completely informed, counterarguments against every single move this franchise has made over the past several years. Their hit rate on being correct on the outcome is pretty damn high, while the Bucks continue to flounder without direction except in the drive to "make the playoffs." To be fair, there have been many other factors like injuries that have thwarted the master scheme, but the fact that we're debating these 2 guys as the better option is just depressing.

[step3profit]

I would be interested to know if the guys who are excited about Redick and voted for him in this thread would trade him strait up for Klay if that were magically possible and GS was giving us a take it or leave it offer that we had to accept or reject within 1 minute...

IMO, very few people are 'excited' about Redick. I just think Klay Thompson is overhyped. Just watch him play a few games. He doesn't know what to do with himself when he doesn't have the ball, he isn't any good on defense, and he is a bit of a chucker. He's not particularly athletic. He's not a great transition player or great half court player. He isn't a good rebounder or ball handler. He's not a master thief. I'd like a tall guard but I just can't get excited about Klay Thompson. He's tall, and he shoots OK (though a bit too often).

He probably would just get traded for Redick if we had him rotting on the bench anyway.

[WRau1]

Fred Hoiberg

[whatthe_buck!?]

I blame ownership/front office for the Bogut era not being what it should have been. Watching Bogut in college is depressing. He was so confident in everything he did. The Bucks blew their opportunity in the moves that followed that summer. They should have sat on cap space and let Bogut be the #1 option from the start, while pulling an OKC and acquiring picks and young assets. Instead they give Redd the max, bring back Gadz, overpay Simmons, and trade for Magloire. They then move Bogut to the 4, and relegate him to a garbage man role on offense while letting the guards shoot them out of games. Destroyed the confident all around beast that Bogut was. To me the turning point of the franchise was giving Redd the max and going for it rather than the rebuild that was gifted to them.

I love this post. Just an amazing and unique argument. Bogut was such a gifted player to watch in college. He had all the tools. After 5 years in the bucks organization, he made it on the NBA third team as primarily a defensive specialist. We f*cked up a player who had a ridiculously high ceiling.

In his first couple years, if we had tried to instill confidence in him instead of just treating him like ur average rookie I think his career could have turned out completely differently. More than anything else, THAT'S what the Aussie posters especially should be mad about when it comes to Bucks fan's ripping Bogie, if he goes to a team that committed to building around him instead of trying to fit him into one ill-advised 8th seed run after another he is a top ten NBA player right now. This guy was a young player with Tim Duncan potential and we relied on him -forced him is more accurate- to fill the role of a Marcus Camby.

The cool thing about thinking about Boguts career this way is that it allows us to blame Beaker more than just about anyone in the Bucks organization for him not turning into our franchise cornerstone lol...

[JayMKE]

Redick was completely useless at Thompson's age btw, if the Magic hadn't invested a lottery pick in him he might of been out of the league. Players do get better.

[whatthe_buck!?]

IMO, very few people are 'excited' about Redick. I just think Klay Thompson is overhyped. Just watch him play a few games. He doesn't know what to do with himself when he doesn't have the ball, he isn't any good on defense, and he is a bit of a chucker. He's not particularly athletic. He's not a great transition player or great half court player. He isn't a good rebounder or ball handler. He's not a master thief. I'd like a tall guard but I just can't get excited about Klay Thompson. He's tall, and he shoots OK (though a bit too often).

He probably would just get traded for Redick if we had him rotting on the bench anyway.

Lol that last sentence is so true sadly. That's exactly what would've happened. As for the first line of your post, I believe that there actually are quite a few people (including myself) that are legitimately excited to plug in a SG of Redicks caliber into the starting lineup, if nothing else it's going to improve BJs efficiency greatly. That said however, I still trade Redick for Klay strait up if the offer was on the table this second. I guess like PP keeps hammering home, it all comes back to having (or not having) a clear vision and a set direction for the future of franchise.

[JayMKE]

As for Bogut, I can't say he ever had 'Duncan potential' but I do agree that we messed his development up. He really only had one post move(lefty hook) but in college he showed he had fairly consistent jumper that I'm sure was drilled out of him in the NBA because the belief big men need to live in the post with their back to the basket. Bogut was at his best facing his man up and taking them off the dribble, I think if he could consistently hit the mid range jumper which he has shown the capability of doing in college and even internationally it would of really opened his offensive game up. In the end tho, I think he was always going to have confidence issues since that's probably his personality as a person and as a player. Defensively his first couple years he would just plant his feet, stick his hands in the air, and wouldn't challenge any shots and then all the sudden a few seasons later he turns into a dominant defensive big and shotblocker. Have to wonder how much of that early stuff was coached into him.

[MikeIsGood]

Thompson in a landslide.

And who the better player is right now (Redick, obviously) is completely beside the point.

[whatthe_buck!?]

As for Bogut, I can't say he ever had 'Duncan potential' but I do agree that we messed his development up. He really only had one post move(lefty hook) but in college he showed he had fairly consistent jumper that I'm sure was drilled out of him in the NBA because the belief big men need to live in the post with their back to the basket. Bogut was at his best facing his man up and taking them off the dribble, I think if he could consistently hit the mid range jumper which he has shown the capability of doing in college and even internationally it would of really opened his offensive game up. In the end tho, I think he was always going to have confidence issues since that's probably his personality as a person and as a player. Defensively his first couple years he would just plant his feet, stick his hands in the air, and wouldn't challenge any shots and then all the sudden a few seasons later he turns into a dominant defensive big and shotblocker. Have to wonder how much of that early stuff was coached into him.

He had the potential tools and the intelligence to be molded into whatever we wanted and the player we effectively molded him into was mostly a defensive specialist who was at best a 3rd option on offense on a true contending team. I think the fact that he could so radically change the player he was defensively is convincing evidence to support the argument that he could've been turned into any kind of offensive weapon at center that u could imagine with the right kind of skilled determined coaching...

[Siefer]

I like JJ a lot more than Klay, but I understand and agree with the point being made. Hammond has continuously hemorrhaged value throughout his tenure.

[Badgerlander]

Never liked Klay, I wanted Biyombo until we traded down and then I wanted Faried. At this point Redick I suppose although not at 4/40.

[TheDIsSilent]

This is a question with an obvious answer. Klay Thompson. However, it isn't a fair question anyways, waaaaayyyyy too much hindsight. It's a question, that is asked with the sole purpose of bashing Hammond.

I blame 50% of this mess on Scott Skiles for benching Jax and 50% on Hammond for acquiring Jax. Nobody knew Skiles would bench a guy you just dropped 12 draft spots for without a blink. Hammond should have fired Skiles immediately after benching Jackson for any multiple of games, the year after benching Maggette. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Thank god, Hammond finally fired Skiles after benching Dalemert and trying to fool Hammond a 3rd time. A lot of this stuff is Skiles making Hammond look bad and visa versa. Do we win 1 or 2 more games if Jax wasn't bench last season? That's the number of games we missed the playoffs by. Same as I feel like we'd have 3-4 more wins this season if Skiles didn't bench Dalembert.

I don't say this to credit Hammond with complements, I say it because Hammond's biggest mistake outside of Joe Alexander (which still is largely credited to bad luck since we dropped from 7 to 8 and wanted Gordon), was keeping Skiles around too long. Every substantial move Hammond made, Skiles backfired in his face.

[blazza18]

Right now JJ. For the future Klay.

[MagicGirl]

Magic fan here. You guys are going to love JJ. The guy is a tireless worker, runs off screens, distributes the ball, takes charges, gets up and down the court, is a savvy passer, and oh yeah - great 3 point and clutch free-throw shooter. He has improved his game in every aspect each year he's been in the league. His basketball IQ and leadership skills are off the charts.

Many fans in Orlando (myself included) are opting not to renew our season tickets for next year because we are so upset he was traded. Don't know what'll happen once the season ends, but enjoy the guy while you can.

By the way, he's been doing a Rick Flair 'Wooooo' whenever he hits a 3....it'd be nice if y'all continue that tradition up in Milwaukee.

Good luck the rest of the way.

[Bad Midget]

Redick by a mile. Klay is trash.

[Chapter29]

Put aside all the issues we vetted out yesterday (Monta, Josh Smith, playoff run, Redick being the best player in the deal, etc.)

Unless you guys surprise me in this poll and vote for Redick, the Klay Thompson discussion highlights well how the Bucks have consistently mismanaged assets and maybe the real reason why people are so upset.

If we agree to stipulate that in the 2011 draft the Bucks would have selected Klay Thompson with either the 7th overall or 10th overall draft pick, which has been reported on here, you can track how this asset was wasted over the last two years.

We start out on draft day 2011 where we split the value of that lotto pick in half. We allocate half of the value to acquiring Stephen Jackson and half to acquiring Tobias Harris. In 2011-12, Stephen Jackson was such a mess that we had to use a positive asset in Bogut to take him off the team. And we’ve gotten nothing out of Tobias in two years.

Additionally, because we are so focused on “win-now” 8th seed, we don’t give Tobias serious minutes either. I don’t think they guy will amount to a great player, nor am I crushed we traded him. But we really didn’t give him the minutes needed to see if he could flourish.

So now we arrive at yesterday where the Bucks send off the Tobias asset and what we basically have to show for that 2011 lotto pick is 29 games with JJ Redick. A nice player but also a guy who we will pay at least $30 million to in the offseason we want him to stick around.

We could have just drafted Klay Thompson and had the benefit of a good young sharpshooter on a rookie deal for all of the last two years. Instead the Bucks took that 2011 draft pick and completely mis-managed and depreciated it. We seem to have a knack for doing that with all our assets. Do people disagree?

I cannot disagree with you I guess.

I will say that that these 2 players are really pretty close and I think JJ is more efficient. The salary and being under contract is what sways this the most. I like Klay's size and I would guess he's a better defender. Eh. It's not like Klay is some star. So really if the worst we've done is lost out on Klay for JJ we haven't really floundered all that badly. Though all in all we have.

We swung and singled and got Bogut with a 1st overall. That is far more impactful. Trading Bogut for Ellis and really striking out a bit with Udoh. Much more impactful. We've had so many chances with players we've drafted in the top 10 and so many misses. People act like effectively we haven't tanked for the better part of the last decade and haven't had our shots in the lotto. How long do stay down? Till you lose all your fans? That parts a balancing act.

This team is reasonably talented. I think it could be fun if the Bucks can make a little run and JJ fits in and does well. The FTD Year isn't all that hard to recreate essentially. Just have to start winning more than you're losing and play well and get into the playoffs on a bit of a roll. Fans will come. Many of the folks that are irate around here will suddenly enjoy themselves some Bucks. We are not that far off of that. We shall see but I can tell you we are a better team today than we were yesterday.

[Sarunas_4_MVP]

It's a hard comparison because of the age difference.

I chose Klay but I also think some fans have made his ceiling much higher than it really is. I think he'll be a similar player to Redick and at the very best, a better all around player because he's working on going to basket (Something Redick doesn't do).

Win now:Redick

Win later:Thompson

[Sarunas_4_MVP]

It's a hard comparison because of the age difference.

I chose Klay but I also think some fans have made his ceiling much higher than it really is. I think he'll be a similar player to Redick and at the very best, a better all around player because he's working on going to basket (Something Redick doesn't do).

Win now:Redick

Win later:Thompson

[A Diddy2231]

It's a hard comparison because of the age difference.

I chose Klay but I also think some fans have made his ceiling much higher than it really is. I think he'll be a similar player to Redick and at the very best, a better all around player because he's working on going to basket (Something Redick doesn't do).

Win now:Redick

Win later:Thompson

You can that again! Klay reminds me of Kevin Martin