Worried so far?

[steger_3434]

I'll give Skiles and the Bucks the benefit of the doubt and say they aren't taking these games seriously and are just working on things. Could that be one of the reasons why Skile's teams usually start out so horribly in the regular season?

[Asher]

I'll give Skiles and the Bucks the benefit of the doubt and say they aren't taking these games seriously and are just working on things. Could that be one of the reasons why Skile's teams usually start out so horribly in the regular season?

that and the circus trip.

[MajorDad]

looking at the bucks' schedule for november, i would have thought that Skiles would have wanted to get this tea m as ready as possible to start winning games out of the gate fast. because it's going to get real hard and real ugly fast.

I think posters should start changing their vocabulary. stop using the word expecting and start using the word Hoping. obviously, you are starting to agree with my assessment of the current bucks, and you are hoping they start getting it in gear and start taking these games more seriously. A good coach would have started taking games seriously from day 1.

I'm sure HOPING the Bucks start getting it in gear real soon. i'm expecting they won't.

[Sigra]

Spurs also didn't win this preseason. That's what hapen when you have 3 good players who will play around 36 minutes per game and you don't want to use them too much in preseason. And rest of your roster is full of role players who will not get big minutes or are not young and talented.

[steger_3434]

Spurs also didn't win this preseason. That's what hapen when you have 3 good players who will play around 36 minutes per game and you don't want to use them too much in preseason. And rest of your roster is full of role players who will not get big minutes or are not young and talented.

For me at least, it's not that we're losing. I know that records don't mean anything in the preseason, it's how we're losing. We've been getting blown out of the building. This team isn't talented enough to turn the switch on as soon as the season starts. The fact that November is a brutal month is cause for enough concern. The fact that we were one of the worst teams last season and have looked like one of the worst teams in this preseason has me concerned. If we were a 45-50 win team last year and I knew the talent we had could get us there again I wouldn't be concerned about the preseason. I'm afraid that guys out there are genuinly trying and they are still not very good.

[paul]

Spurs also didn't win this preseason. That's what hapen when you have 3 good players who will play around 36 minutes per game and you don't want to use them too much in preseason. And rest of your roster is full of role players who will not get big minutes or are not young and talented.

For me at least, it's not that we're losing. I know that records don't mean anything in the preseason, it's how we're losing. We've been getting blown out of the building. This team isn't talented enough to turn the switch on as soon as the season starts. The fact that November is a brutal month is cause for enough concern. The fact that we were one of the worst teams last season and have looked like one of the worst teams in this preseason has me concerned. If we were a 45-50 win team last year and I knew the talent we had could get us there again I wouldn't be concerned about the preseason. I'm afraid that guys out there are genuinly trying and they are still not very good.

Our starters took 17 points out of Detroit's starters in the third quarter the other night steger. Sure we didn't win the game, Jefferson got tossed etc, but to suggest we weren't competitive in that game is ludicrous, we were within 2 points with about 8 minutes to play from memory. Maybe if Jefferson doesn't get tossed we win, maybe not, but from the sounds of things Detroit were playing hard and we were outplaying them, and it's not like Detroit are a team of bums.

[steger_3434]

Spurs also didn't win this preseason. That's what hapen when you have 3 good players who will play around 36 minutes per game and you don't want to use them too much in preseason. And rest of your roster is full of role players who will not get big minutes or are not young and talented.

For me at least, it's not that we're losing. I know that records don't mean anything in the preseason, it's how we're losing. We've been getting blown out of the building. This team isn't talented enough to turn the switch on as soon as the season starts. The fact that November is a brutal month is cause for enough concern. The fact that we were one of the worst teams last season and have looked like one of the worst teams in this preseason has me concerned. If we were a 45-50 win team last year and I knew the talent we had could get us there again I wouldn't be concerned about the preseason. I'm afraid that guys out there are genuinly trying and they are still not very good.

Our starters took 17 points out of Detroit's starters in the third quarter the other night steger. Sure we didn't win the game, Jefferson got tossed etc, but to suggest we weren't competitive in that game is ludicrous, we were within 2 points with about 8 minutes to play from memory. Maybe if Jefferson doesn't get tossed we win, maybe not, but from the sounds of things Detroit were playing hard and we were outplaying them, and it's not like Detroit are a team of bums.

That is a good point, and I hope things will turn out good. I'm of the philosophy of fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. How many times throughout the years have the Bucks started a game a blazing only to lose by 15? How many times have they gotten down big, only to come back and make it a game and then lose by 15? Too many times to count. I hope things have changed, but untill I see actual results I will remain overly cautist with this team.

[trwi7]

I'm of the philosophy of fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

I'm of the philosophy of fool me once, shame on...shame on you. You fool me, you can't get fooled again.

Our starters took 17 points out of Detroit's starters in the third quarter the other night steger. Sure we didn't win the game, Jefferson got tossed etc, but to suggest we weren't competitive in that game is ludicrous, we were within 2 points with about 8 minutes to play from memory.

The problem I have with the game on Saturday was that our starters played nearly 40 more minutes combined than the Pistons starters and we still lost by double digits. That's concerning to say the least. You can say they were within two with 8 minutes to play, but then Detroit went on a 13-0 run or something like that to make it a blowout again. And that was with their starters out.

[Alice]

Spurs also didn't win this preseason. That's what hapen when you have 3 good players who will play around 36 minutes per game and you don't want to use them too much in preseason. And rest of your roster is full of role players who will not get big minutes or are not young and talented.

for a guy with a slow leak in his head, you think pretty good.

[old skool]

I don't understand the need to wear out the Bucks veterans in October. The season is long enough. I can't recall any NBA team that had a good year because they played their regulars significant minutes in the preseason.

Let's give sKiles and staff the benefit of the doubt on this. They know a lot more than us fans. They have a plan.

Last year the Bucks won 3 of their first 5 preseason games. That turned out great!

oLd sKool

[paul]

I'm of the philosophy of fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

I'm of the philosophy of fool me once, shame on...shame on you. You fool me, you can't get fooled again.

Our starters took 17 points out of Detroit's starters in the third quarter the other night steger. Sure we didn't win the game, Jefferson got tossed etc, but to suggest we weren't competitive in that game is ludicrous, we were within 2 points with about 8 minutes to play from memory.

The problem I have with the game on Saturday was that our starters played nearly 40 more minutes combined than the Pistons starters and we still lost by double digits. That's concerning to say the least. You can say they were within two with 8 minutes to play, but then Detroit went on a 13-0 run or something like that to make it a blowout again. And that was with their starters out.

I could be wrong here twirl but weren't the Bucks starters out by then too? RJ was definitely gone halfway through the third, pretty sure Bogut and Ridnour were both sitting by then as well? So we were running with something like Lue (then Sessions), Redd, The Prince, CV and Gadz? Pretty sure that was the unit that had the majority of the run against them.
I also think the reason Redd and CV logged so many minutes is because we didn't really have a backup for either of them - with Bell and Griffen (Redd), Allen and Elson (CV) all not playing. This would explain some of the minute disparity between starters.
Like I said we didn't win and I'm happy to agree this team has issues, but anyone suggesting we weren't competitive the other night is way off base imo, particularly when our starters gave the Pistons starters a hiding in the third quarter, I actually thought there were more positives than negatives from the last game.

[trwi7]

I don't remember. They might have been. My main point is still the same though. Our projected starters to open the season played nearly 40 more combined minutes than their projected starters to open the season and we still lost by double digits.

[Jez2983]

Right. I'm not worried. I'm confused as to why we traded for a SF then picked a raw SF. I'm confused as to why we didn't chase some better defensive forward but I can understand this as we didn't have lots of money to splash around. The first point still definitely confuses me. I think JA was a good late-first round pick but not in the lottery. I think mid's idea of Lopez may have been good, but then we don't have a great history with bigs, do we. I think emunney suggested that there wasn't much else good at the time, which makes our refusal to trade the pick even more baffling.

I am worried at what might happen if Bogut gets injured. I'm much more worried that Villa is more likely to get injured. At one point we debated whether Elson or Allen may get the starting nod -

I am interested in seeing new starters. Not excited, just interested. I am interested to see if JA gets invited to the dunk contest before he actually scores any points in the NBA.

I hope Bogut, RJ, Redd mesh well. I hope Ridnour discovers his Seattle form. I feel confident CV will play better this year, and that Sessions has more ability than shown in the preseason. I suspect Bogut will improve, and that players will go harder once the season starts. Of course Bogut/Redd aren't going to play their hardest in pre-season - what happens if they got injured???

I am not worried so far, but I have some concerns.

[MajorDad]

Old school. i can't remember a year in the last 10 where the bucks starters have been worn out by their lackadaisical play in october. they've all been injured before they've ever been worn out. guys like redd and CV and Bogut should be well rested from all the time off they took last year. it's not like they played 60 + games. i'd rather wear these guys out before they get their usual annual injuries. I also have problems with the amount of minutes bucks starters play. I look around at other teams in the NBA and see their star players averaging 40+ minutes a night for the entire season and never tiring. i see bucks starters averaging 25-30 minutes a game and tiring out. Why can't bucks star players average 40 minutes a game like their counterparts do?

My biggest worry is that our current bucks are actually giving 110% and playing these games as if they did have meaning, and this is going to be as good as it 's going to get. My second biggest worry is that the bucks will start accepting losses to quality teams such as Detroit and start considering them as "quality " losses like NCAA schools do. Yup, we had 45 quality losses last year among our 65 losses. My third biggest concern is that the bucks will accept losing and start consider holding the other team to under 100 points as an improvement and something to celebrate. my 4th biggest concern is that the players won't accept losing and will just quit on their coach like they've done the last 5 years. let's just say that skiles left the bulls because he could no longer effectively communicate to his players. and he inherits a bunch of bucks who CV already publically admitted QUIT on their coach last year. i kind of expected Skiles to take a much tougher approach to this team than he currently has. I was expecting a drill sargent approach. he has seemed too mello. I can't believe he's been a Bucks coach for more than 2 months, and he hasn't publically thrown any of the bucks players under the bus yet. that's so uncharacteristic of the Skiles i knew and was expecting. Nobody hires a bobby Knight and wants him to be mellow or nice or a player's coach.

[paul]

Old school. i can't remember a year in the last 10 where the bucks starters have been worn out by their lackadaisical play in october. they've all been injured before they've ever been worn out. guys like redd and CV and Bogut should be well rested from all the time off they took last year. it's not like they played 60 + games. i'd rather wear these guys out before they get their usual annual injuries. I also have problems with the amount of minutes bucks starters play. I look around at other teams in the NBA and see their star players averaging 40+ minutes a night for the entire season and never tiring. i see bucks starters averaging 25-30 minutes a game and tiring out. Why can't bucks star players average 40 minutes a game like their counterparts do?

I'm really not sure where to start with that. If it was a gag post then ignore the following, if not here goes.

CV, Bogut and Redd should be well rested from all the time they took off last season?

Bogut played 78 games last season, so he missed a grand total of 4, and played through a couple of injuries. He then played in the Olympics, meaning presumably he's had a total of about a month off in the last year, and most of that time was spent training on his own in Australia. He's also still recovering from an ankle injury sustained at the Olympics.

Redd played 72 games, so missed 10, and also played in the Olympics. Although he didn't play big minutes he did still have to be in camp training etc for most of his offseason.

CV played 76 games last season, so he missed a total of 6, and has apparantly been working out on his own since long before camp started.

Here's an idea, let's flog these guys to death during the completely meaningless (results wise, not play wise) preseason games, 42mpg each sounds about right to me, so that we can get a few meaningless (there's that word again) W's before the season actually starts. While we do this let's just cross our fingers that one of them doesn't go down injured due to the obvoius fatigue they'd be carrying, because we've got such strong backups this season at SG (Bell, Griffen), PF (Allen, Elson, JA) and C (Gadz and Elson).

Your right, that would be a wonderful idea. Oh and not sure which 'stars' you were looking at, but there were a grand total of 3 players average 40+ mpg last season, and as for our starters playing 25-30mpg - last season RJ averaged 39 for the Nets, Redd 37.5, Mo 36.5, Bogut 34.9. Our SF's and PF's were terrible last season, hence they averaged less minutes each.

[emunney]

MajorDad gleefully wastes the time and effort of yet another frustrated poster.

[bogutsdad]

I also hope that they can at least be better than .500 by the end of November.

Look at our schedule. I see almost no way that happens. I have us pegged for 6-13 at the end of November.

Wins: @ OKC, vs Tor, vs Was, @ Mem, vs NY, @ Atl
Losses: @ Chi, @ NY, @ Bos, vs Phx, @ Cle, vs SA, vs Bos, @ Den, @ Uta, @ Cha, @ Orl, @ Det, vs Cle

Trwi7, do you want to have a friendly wager on that prediction, I think we start better than that (don't know where the extra wins come from, just optimistic I guess). Loser has to go through december with the sig of the winners choice. How about it?

[SupremeHustle]

I also hope that they can at least be better than .500 by the end of November.

Look at our schedule. I see almost no way that happens. I have us pegged for 6-13 at the end of November.

Wins: @ OKC, vs Tor, vs Was, @ Mem, vs NY, @ Atl
Losses: @ Chi, @ NY, @ Bos, vs Phx, @ Cle, vs SA, vs Bos, @ Den, @ Uta, @ Cha, @ Orl, @ Det, vs Cle

Trwi7, do you want to have a friendly wager on that prediction, I think we start better than that (don't know where the extra wins come from, just optimistic I guess). Loser has to go through december with the sig of the winners choice. How about it?

I'll take the bet if he doesn't.

[BuckFan25226]

I don't remember. They might have been. My main point is still the same though. Our projected starters to open the season played nearly 40 more combined minutes than their projected starters to open the season and we still lost by double digits.

So? Detroit is better then us, much better. They are much better then a lot of teams. They are also deeper then they have ever been. Stuckey and Afflalo are turning into good players, and really good bench players. And Maxiell is a beast.

Look at it this way. Look at the 2 quarters when it was our best 5 vs their best 5. 1st and 3rd quarter... Total score....

Bucks - 49
Pistons - 49

We dominated them in the 3rd, cut it to a 2 point game. Then RJ gets tossed. Then Lue comes in for Ridnour, then Gadz comes in for Bogut. Going into the 4th quarter, our best player is gone, Bogut's on the bench. We end up down 6 going in to the 4th.

So for the one concern we all should have is our bench, which clearly is weak. Getting Charlie Bell healthy is going to be important for the opening few weeks of the season.

[BDUB_30]

That is a good point, and I hope things will turn out good. I'm of the philosophy of fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. How many times throughout the years have the Bucks started a game a blazing only to lose by 15? How many times have they gotten down big, only to come back and make it a game and then lose by 15? Too many times to count. I hope things have changed, but untill I see actual results I will remain overly cautist with this team.

admitidly biased .....reaching new levels around here ...


so youre basically saying that most of your lack of support for this team is based on how poorly weve done in the past and how many times the bucks have let you down ..

congratulations ..admiting you have a problem is the first step .