Anyone concerned about the Prince?

[rrravenred]

Just wondering whether or not people have any concerns about LRMAM's development. By the numbers, he's regressed in pretty much everything from his rookie season (yeah, injury played a part). As we saw with Durant, it's not on the box score that his primary impact is going to come, but you might have expected some form of advancement in his offensive game.

Any thoughts?

[Baddy Chuck]

Concerned? Not even close. Was I supposed to be surprised that a player who didn't have much of an offensive game before doesn't have much of one now?

[emunney]

He hasn't progressed nearly as much as I thought he would, but I still don't think he's the liability offensively that some here think. I'd actually like to see him get a post touch now and then.

What I'm concerned about is his quickness. He doesn't look as quick laterally as he did last year.

[aboveAverage]

I think he bulked up a little too much, but I'm not concerned at all.

He also seems to be developing a nice corner three pointer, which can be really useful.

[steger_3434]

I think he bulked up a little too much, but I'm not concerned at all.

He also seems to be developing a nice corner three pointer, which can be really useful.

That is really the only shot he needs to nail down. Just become Bruce Bowen with amazing D and being able to hit the corner three. I"ll take that any day.

[paulpressey25]

I think he's the same player. It is just that last year he got a lot of his scoring done in the post when he was the starting PF. Garbage buckets and putbacks.

This year he's playing a lot more SF and SG and just isn't under the hoop like he used to be. Plus I think they like that area cleared out so that Bogut can do his face up game where he drives to the hoop. Hence the focus on the perimeter passing game and three point shooting being up this year.

[LISTEN2JAZZ]

He just isn't an impact player. We should be happy he's better than 90% of 2nd round picks, and stop pretending that he's about to bust out into a top 20 SF.

[unklchuk]

I'm a bit concerned. There's no guarantee that a young player can improve, but if they don't it's a negative. I give him license to take the corner 3. He's been hitting some.

But I am disappointed with his scoring efforts in the paint. If he goes up with no hesitation, it's often blocked. So he fakes and fakes and dribbles and tries to maneuver - and bad things happen more often than good things.

Paul Pressey, picking up on a remark by one of our idiot savants, said the Bucks have a number of guys who half significantly please you and half significantly disappoint you (Though Paul probably phrased it better.) That's my feeling about LRMAM.

[ZedgetRedd]

Why should we be concerned? He is a role player, a damn good one at that, and that is all we can expect from him, great defense, a couple open shots, and some rebounding. It would be great if he becomes a decent offensive player but thats probably not going to happen. Im fine with were he is at right now.

[Big Mokeski]

I think he bulked up a little too much, but I'm not concerned at all.

He also seems to be developing a nice corner three pointer, which can be really useful.

That is really the only shot he needs to nail down. Just become Bruce Bowen with amazing D and being able to hit the corner three. I"ll take that any day.

A problem that we face, though, is that whereas the Spurs didn't need Bowen to do much on offense, we don't have the luxury of someone guarding an opposing 2, 3 or 4 providing close to nothing on offense. At minimum, Luc needs to figure out his offensive game. Everyone on SA knew precisely what Bowen's role was on O, no one moreso than Bowen. This is Luc's problem. He really isn't good at anything on O -- spot up shooting a mid-range, camping out for a corner 3, playing with his back to the basket against smaller guys, making an automatic finish at the hoop for garbage baskets, whatever. Note, too, that his season FT % is sitting at less than 65%, which is a problem if he needs to defend at the end of close games where we're protecting a lead. (Last night against the Thunder, he thankfully made the second of two after missing the first.)

This is where I agree that he's not progressing in a productive way, and why if another team really wanted him and was willing to take him alone or as part of a package for a more complete player, the Bucks should strongly consider it.

[paulpressey25]

A problem that we face, though, is that whereas the Spurs didn't need Bowen to do much on offense, we don't have the luxury of someone guarding an opposing 2, 3 or 4 providing close to nothing on offense.

You bring up an interesting point. If you have a front-line of Bogut, LRMAM and Ersan, you have three extremely mechanical offensive players. None of these guys are ones who are going to swoop in and lay down the dunk or do the spin on the baseline and hit the 15 foot jumper.

Ideally Ersan and LRMAM are your two guys off the bench in the front court and you've replaced them with guys who can more naturally score. Or you've replaced one of them with a great scorer (i.e. either Bosh at PF or a guy like Melo at SF)

[Big Mokeski]

You bring up an interesting point. If you have a front-line of Bogut, LRMAM and Ersan, you have three extremely mechanical offensive players. None of these guys are ones who are going to swoop in and lay down the dunk or do the spin on the baseline and hit the 15 foot jumper.

Ideally Ersan and LRMAM are your two guys off the bench in the front court and you've replaced them with guys who can more naturally score. Or you've replaced one of them with a great scorer (i.e. either Bosh at PF or a guy like Melo at SF)

Agreed. But the problem is, other than via the draft, the Bucks are only going to get an asset of two like that via a trade. You don't get quality -- even undervalued quality (like, say, Gerald Wallace) or high-risk quality -- unless you're willing to give up a piece or pieces that another team values. This is what makes Luc a tradeable asset for us. We can't really value a piece like him as highly as other teams, given the dearth of scorers/ creative offensive players throughout our roster, and especially in the front court.

[rrravenred]

PP, does that mean we're headed back to a guard centered offence? That's where we were with Redd and Mo, and we might be headed back there with Jennings and Redd. Having said that, Ersan and Bogie are both offensively competent (most nights), moreso than Bogut / Mags / Smith were back in the day. On the minus side, Jennings is currently a worse offensive player than Mo and Redd is a greatly reduced player from who he was previously.

Clutch offense may have to come from ball movement, and I haven't really seen the sort of rapid ball movement from this team as yet. It may, of course, come in time.

[AntiSuperstar]

Mbah a Moute has progressed a lot, and he'll be fine. His numbers are down for a number of reasons, things like rebounds are obviously down because he's a Small Forward this year. Points are down for a number of reasons, a lot of the reason has to do with the additions of Jennings and Delfino, while it's also true that Mbah a Moute's offensive game is more suited to the 4 spot at the moment. Also last year's Bucks had more offensive players to take away attention from LRMAM. I don't know why his free throw shooting is down, it could just be a fluke, we'll see how it continues over the season.

But he has progressed. His jumpshot is improved as is his man defense. His best value will probably be a defensive minded Small Forward in the long-term, so it's important that he continues to develop those skills. I haven't seen anything from him that's cause for concern. He's already a good perimeter man defender, shows great hustle, plenty of improvemnts as I stated earlier, and seems to have a pretty good understanding of what his role is as well. Those are great signs. Long-term he will probably need to improve his ball-handling a little, his jumpshot a lot still, his help defense, and continue to get better at man defense and post ups to the point where he's a real standout in those areas.

Clutch offense may have to come from ball movement, and I haven't really seen the sort of rapid ball movement from this team as yet. It may, of course, come in time.

I think a lot of it is because Jennings tends to overhandle like most young guards do. The ball movement often seems to better when Ridnour is in the game. Also putting Delfino or Redd at Shooting Guard also curtails the ball movement tremendously, I'm still a big supporter of Bell starting at the 2. I suspect if he listens to Skiles, Jennings will develop a stronger tendency to get the ball moving instead of dribbling and trying to figure out what to do next. It will just take time though because he's just learning to read NBA defenses. I definately think the Bucks ball movement will get better over time. That said, good game last or not, I think Redd is seriously hurting the development here.

[europa]

I'm not concerned. He's still a standout defender. If he can learn to develop the mid-range shot or corner 3 shot the way Bowen did, he'll become even more invaluable. If that never develops, his defense alone will make him a key rotation player on any team. I'd like to see his offense become more consistent but his primary role is defense so as long as he's defending well I'm not going to be worried about him.

[LarryHarris]

He's part of a better team this year as well, so his minutes have gone down. He still makes at least one WOW defensive play a night and mans the other team's best guy. One thing that does concern me is that Skiles doesn't seem to value his D as much as he should. Why was C.Bell on Kobe? Why don't they insert LRMAM into late game defensive rotations? Still, Skiles played him meaningful minutes against Durant, so I hope maybe Skiles just thought he was still getting back against Kobe...

[rrravenred]

His minutes are actually UP this year.

[Licensed to Il]

I love Luc and have been thinking about changing my RealGM name to Mboute Call. But I wouldn't be livid if he was used as a throw in, if it was in a move that exchanged some of our bad contracts or brought us back a better overall player.

I think that the kid is an exceptional defender, and any coach would want him. But he won't ever be an all star, and thus shouldn't be deemed untouchable by us or anyone in the organization. I hope he plays for us for a long time, but again, I see him as a very very good role player. And you don't build around role players.

[AntiSuperstar]

One thing that does concern me is that Skiles doesn't seem to value his D as much as he should. Why was C.Bell on Kobe?

Probably because Bell was defending Kobe better? Maybe you are undevaluing Bell's perimeter defense?

Why don't they insert LRMAM into late game defensive rotations?

He probably doesn't trust him yet. That's pretty normal really, generally you want experienced players in those kinds of situations as they're less likely to make mistakes. The trust factor there will likely come in time. My problem with Skiles is that he has shown a tendency to leave Moute on the bench too long at times, even when he was playing well. But for the most part he's been more than fair in the way he's used him, I mean he's starting a lot of games, even though the most effective Bucks lineup was the one used early in the season, Bell at Shooting Guard, and Delfino at the 3.

[Ayt]

He just isn't an impact player. We should be happy he's better than 90% of 2nd round picks, and stop pretending that he's about to bust out into a top 20 SF.

He's destined to be a solid rotational bench guy unless he is on a very good team that is structured in a way that his offensive game isn't too big of a detriment.