Bucks.com- Skiles on Sess,injuries,Bogut.

[Mike X]

Bucks.com Exclusive
See how Scott Skiles plans to deal with injuries


Print E-mail this story E-mail RSS Feeds FastBreak Tix
November 04, 2008

Bucks head coach Scott Skiles addressed the media on Tuesday to talk basketball. Things opened with an update on the status of Bucks guard Luke Ridnour. Skiles’ response on the point guard’s availability was “I would say he’s probably probable.”

He then went on to talk about how injuries are part of the game and when someone goes down, it’s up to the people behind them to take advantage of the increased playing time.

“I never get frustrated about injuries,” Skiles said. “I’ve known for as long as I’ve been around sports, it’s part of the game. It’s one of the reasons you put together a full roster. You don’t ever want anyone getting hurt and I’m not trying to be unsympathetic to guys that are hurt, but it happens to guys on all teams. You hope it doesn’t, but it does and like I said it provides opportunities for other people to step up and play well. You hope the structure of your team is strong enough that you can weather it while certain guys are out.”

One of the players who has stepped in while Luke Ridnour has been out is Ramon Sessions. The second-year guard went from being inactive the first two games to starting in the following two. He has responded with the team’s highest two assist games of the season (eight and nine) and averages of 15.0 points, 8.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 2.0 steals in an average of 39.5 minutes per game.

Skiles was asked about Sessions performance with heavy minutes in the last two games after being inactive in the opening two contests.

“I’ve got to make sure that everybody’s earning anything that’s given to them,” Skiles said. “Basing nothing on anything that’s happened in the past – only on what I’ve seen since I’ve been here. Unfortunately for Ramon, he didn’t play very well during the exhibition season. Now an opportunity opened up for him and he played very well. So now he deserves a further look and further minutes. It doesn’t surprise me that he did, because I’ve seen him play well in the past. I don’t think you’re in a position when you take over a new team to be looking at what guys did in the past. They’ve got to show me right now and he’s definitely, in the last two games, shown us that he can play very well.”

The opportunity for someone else to receive extra minutes may be there depending upon what happens with Michael Redd’s injury. Skiles wasn’t sure what Redd’s status would be and he didn’t mention who might receive the starting nod if Redd was unable to go. Two names were brought up to him, Charlie Bell and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. Both could receive consideration.

When asked if Mbah a Moute (listed at 6-8, 230 lbs) could handle playing shooting guard, Skiles said “We did that in the exhibition when Michael missed a couple games and he did a very good job. He’s seamlessly been able to play two or three positions for us. Because of his defensive ability, it has great value, but also because he knows what we’re trying to do. He’s a very smart player. He can just fit in at any of those spots.”

Speaking of Bucks rookies, Joe Alexander saw his first action in the Bucks win over the Knicks on Sunday. Skiles said he was looking to get Alexander some game action to gain some experience. He added that Alexander’s injury at the start of camp set him back on the learning curve.

The Bucks coached added “Obviously, for Joe, he got set back a little bit in camp. If Richard Jefferson or Michael Redd or Bogut or Ridnour, one of the veteran guys, miss some early days of camp, it’s not that big of a deal. But for rookies it can be huge. It was not an ideal scenario for him and he’s catching up. I’ll try to be smart about when I put him in and hopefully I can get him out there when he can have some success.”

Learning curves don’t always apply to rookies, however. Andrew Bogut is learning to deal with extra attention when he gets the ball in the post. Skiles said Bogut is learning to read when teams are going to bring double-teams and figuring out when he can get his shots and when he’ll be able to get his teammates open looks.

Skiles brought up a situation he saw with a young center while he was playing with the Magic. “I played with Shaq in his rookie year, and I’m not trying to say Andrew is Shaq, but that’s what teams did to him early on in his career. They mixed it up all the time. It got to point for Shaq later on in his career, he had seen every possible coverage so he just held the ball, waited and made great reads out of there.

“Andrew, while teams are mixing up their coverages, we just have to be patient with him. Having said that, he’s made some awful good plays out of there already too. We need to keep playing off of him out here.”

[icat2000]

I'm really enjoying having a real coach this season.

Interesting comments. Alexander will get his opportunites.

I thought Bogut had improved in handling the doubles and triples that he has dealt with in the last four games. His passing out when doubled has improved to giving open shots to his teammates.

[stellation]

I have to admit, I completely forgot that Alexander missed a chunk of learning time during the pre-season.

[carmelbrownqueen]

I have to admit, I completely forgot that Alexander missed a chunk of learning time during the pre-season.

Yeah it's easy to forget that he was out for almost the whole training camp it seems with that abdominal injury.

[Nebula1]

I'll second that it's nice to have a real coach again.

[BucksRuleAll22]

Im sorry but only a fool would put Sessions on the inactive. Sessions is already a very good PG and is gonna be something special. Not playing Sessions already costed the Bucks 1 or 2 more losses. We would be 3-1 or 4-0 if Sessions started.

[icat2000]

Sessions has showed that he might be a good PG in the future. He does have some glaring flaws on the defensive side. Skiles is no fool and judging by Sessions pre season form that was the reason why he was marked inactive. Due to Luke injury Sessions had another opportunity to redeem his poor preseason showing and grasp that chance with two hands. However, I still believe he has not overtaken Luke in the starting role yet.

[Bernman]

Im sorry but only a fool would put Sessions on the inactive. Sessions is already a very good PG and is gonna be something special. Not playing Sessions already costed the Bucks 1 or 2 more losses. We would be 3-1 or 4-0 if Sessions started.

How could not playing Sessions have "costed" us 1 or 2 more losses when we only lost 1 of the games in which he didn't play?

[SupremeHustle]

Yeah, if forgot JA was hurt during training camp. Still would rather have a true 4 like Thompson, but I'm holding out hope for Alexander.

[Alice]

I'll second that it's nice to have a real coach again.

i always agree with nebs.