unklchuk wrote:YWM. I'd say that's the Bucks current strategy. Youth With Mentors. We have a bunch of young men who may have potential to develop. Hammond has brought in vets in each category to mentor them. Ridnour, Butler, Delfino, Pachulia. All seem to be willing to do the mentoring. The vets aren't anything special, but they don't have looong contracts at exorbitant cost.
More than once Hammond has talked about Delfino and others being such good mentors.
Following this strategy makes the Bucks better than getting high draft pick, worse than playoffs. Nowhere really. Front Office not concerned. They want a "competitive" team with developing youth. They don't care if competitive conflicts with developing.
If the youth develop, and the mentors are significant in that, it can give the team the leg up they're looking for. If the youth overall prove no better than so-so, then it's a trainwreck. Few survivors.
I get the rationale that young players need veteran mentors. However, you don't need 5 of them on a 15 man roster. "Exorbitant cost" is relative. Add Neal to the guys you mentioned and that around $23,000,000(this year alone). For me $23,000,000 is exorbitant for veteran leadership. Each of those moves makes total sense to me on their own to bring veteran leadership. All 5? That's overkill that just takes minutes from developing players.
Maxtradamus
