Print RSS Feeds FastBreak Tix

September 13, 2008

MILWAUKEE -- I have never officially written a scouting report.

Just the other day, though, a friend asked me for one on the 2008-09 Milwaukee Bucks.

I advised him to buy a program at the first game he attends this season, given the revolving door that has been spinning at team headquarters since the 2007-08 campaign ended.

Then I thought, with training camp less than a month away, this might be a good time to take a sneak peek at the Bucks' prospective roster.

So here goes.

# 11 - Joe Alexander
The Bucks selected the 6-foot-8-inch, 230-pound forward out of the University of West Virginia with the eighth overall selection in the 2008 NBA Draft. Alexander, 21, earned First Team All-Big East Conference recognition following his junior season at WVU and was named an Honorable Mention All-American by the Associated Press. He led coach Bob Huggins' Mountaineers in scoring (16.9 ppg, eighth in the Big East), rebounding (6.4) and blocked shots (1.5, eighth) in 2007-08, then hiked those numbers to 180 points, 9.7 rebounds and 1.7 blocks while helping the 10th-seeded Mountaineers reach the Sweet Sixteen of the 2008 NCAA Tournament. West Virginia’s tournament victims included second-seeded Duke. Prior to attending WVU, Alexander prepped at Hargrave Military Academy. He was born in Taiwan and also lived in China and Hong Kong during the first eight years of his life. He will become the first Taiwanese-born player to play in the NBA.

# 30 - Malik Allen
The Bucks signed the 6-foot-10-inch, 255-pound Allen to a free-agent contract July 17, 2008. The seven-year NBA veteran opened last season with New Jersey and was traded to Dallas in February. He played in a total of 73 games and averaged 4.6 points and 2.7 rebounds, shooting 48 percent from the field. He made three playoff game appearances during his stint with the Mavericks and has competed in the playoffs in four of his seven NBA seasons. Allen became a favorite of new Bucks Head Coach Scott Skiles during their years with the Chicago Bulls, with whom Allen played parts of three seasons. Allen's best statistical NBA season came with the Miami Heat in 2002-03, when he averaged 9.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. Allen was undrafted out of Villanova University in 2000, and performed with San Diego of the American Basketball Association and Trenton of the International Basketball League before catching on in the NBA.

# 42 - Charlie Bell
Bell, beginning his fifth NBA season and his fourth in Milwaukee, averaged 7.6 points, 3.1 assists and 2.5 rebounds in 68 games with the Bucks in 2007-08. The 6-3, 200-pound guard re-signed with Milwaukee during the summer of 2007 coming off a breakthrough NBA sason with the team in 2006-07. He was the only member of the Bucks to appear in all 82 regular-season games that year, and achieved career-best averages of 13.5 points, 3 assists and 2.9 rebounds in 34.7 minutes per game. His 0.92-to-1 steal-to-turnover ratio that season ranked fifth in the NBA. A year earlier, Bell found his NBA niche with Milwaukee, averaging 8.4 points in 59 games. In 2003-04, he led the Italian League in scoring at 25.5 points per outing, playing for Virtus Kinder Bologna. He began his NBA career in 2001-02, playing a total of seven games for Phoenix and Dallas. He entered the NBA undrafted out of Michigan State University, where he helped lead the Spartans to three straight Final Fours and a Big 10 Conference record 115 wins over a four-year span. Bell was a starter on the 2000 MSU team that won the NCAA championship in Indianapolis.

# 6 - Andrew Bogut
Bogut signed a multiyear contract extension with the Bucks in July prior to competing in the 2008 Beijing Olympics with the Australian National Team. He scored 45 points in leading the Boomers to Olympic victories over Russia and Lithuania before spraining his left ankle in a quarterfinal game against the United States and was sidelined for the remainder of the Games. The 7-foot, 260-pound center is coming off the best of his three NBA seasons, having averaged 14.3 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 2007-08. The 24-year-old topped his previous career scoring and rebounding highs from the previous season, when he averaged 12.3 points and 8.8 boards. He played all 82 games in his rookie season in 2005-06, averaging 9.4 points, 7 rebounds and 2.3 assists and ranked fifth in the NBA in field-goal percentage at .533. He participated in the NBA Rookie/Sophomore Challenge during All-Star Weekend. The Bucks chose Bogut with the first overall selection in the 2005 NBA Draft after he was the consensus National Player of the Year at the University of Utah in 2004-05. He became only the third player in Utah history to top the 1,000-point mark in only two seasons, finishing his career with 1,126. Has played internationally for Australia since 2001, and was named MVP of the 2003 FIBA Junior World Championships in Greece after leading the Aussies to the title.

# 9 - Francisco Elson
The 32-year-old Elson signed a free-agent contract with Milwaukee on Aug. 14. The 7-foot, 240-pound center/forward has 10 years of pro experience, including five in the NBA. He split the 2007-08 season with San Antonio and Seattle, averaging 3.3 points and 3.2 rebounds per game. He won an NBA championship ring with the Spurs in 2006-07, appearing in all 20 of their playoff games during their title run. He logged career-high averages of 5 points and 4.8 rebounds in 70 regular-season games with San Antonio that year. Over five NBA seasons, which included a previous stint with Denver, Elson has averaged 4.1 points and 3.8 rebounds in 334 games. Like Bucks center Dan Gadzuric a native of The Netherlands, Elson played two collegiate seasons at the University of California and helped lead the Bears to the 1999 NIT championship. He spent the first two seasons of his college career at Kilgore Junior College in Texas. Elson is fluent in five languages: Dutch, English, Spanish, German and South American Suriname.

# 50 - Dan Gadzuric
The 6-11, 245-pound center is entering his seventh NBA campaign -- all with Milwaukee. He averaged 3.2 points and 2.8 rebounds during the 2007-08 season. He appeared in 51 games, bringing his Bucks regular-season total to 384. Gadzuric's best year as a pro came in 2004-05, when he averaged 7.3 points and a team-leading 8.3 rebounds over 81 games, shooting 53.9 percent from the floor. He finished second in the NBA in rebounds per 48 minutes (18.1) and first in offensive rebounds per minute (7.0). Gadzuric came to Milwaukee as a second-round draft choice (34th overall) in 2002 out of UCLA. He was named honorable-mention all-Pac 10 Conference following his senior season, when he helped lead the Bruins to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet Sixteen. A native of Den Haag, Holland, Gadzuric attend the Governor's Academy in Byfield, Mass, and averaged 21 points, 17 rebounds and seven blocks as a senior in leading his team to Massachusetts' Class C state championship. He played in the prestigious McDonald's All-American High School Basketball Game the following week.

# 44 - Adrian Griffin
The Bucks acquired the nine-year NBA veteran in the Aug. 13 three-team trade that sent Mo Williams to Cleveland, Desmond Mason and Joe Smith to Oklahoma City and brought Luke Ridnour and Damon Jones to Milwaukee. A 6-5, 230 swingman, Griffin has worn the uniforms of Boston, Dallas, Houston, Chicago and Seattle during his 477 career NBA games. He owns career averages of 4 points and 3.2 rebounds and has competed in 48 playoff games, including 20 during Dallas' run to the NBA Finals in 2006. He spent three seasons in the Continental Basketball Association, United States Basketball League and Italian League before making his NBA debut with Boston in 1999. during his previous for five teams over nine NBA seasons. He split time with Chicago and Seattle during the 2007-08 campaign, averaging 1.9 points and 1.7 rebounds in 35 total games. He has played in 477 career games with Boston, Dallas, Houston, Chicago and Seattle and owns career averages of 4.0 points and 3.2 rebounds. He has played in 48 playoff games, including 20 during Dallas’ run to the NBA Finals in 2006. The Seton Hall product spent three years in the CBA, the USBL and the Italian League following graduation before signing with the Celtics prior to the 1999-2000 season. He was named the CBA's most valuable player and its Finals MVP in 1999 after leading the Connecticut Pride to the championship. Undrafted by the NBA, Griffin averaged 10 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists over a four-year career at Seton Hall University.

# 24 - Richard Jefferson
The seven-year pro came to Milwaukee in a June 26 trade that sent Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons to New Jersey. The 6-7, 225 forward averaged a career-high 22.6 points (ninth in the NBA) for the Nets last season. A starter in all 82 of New Jersey's games, he also collected 4.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists per contest. During the 2007-08 campaign, he established the Nets all-time record for free throws made (542, sixth in the NBA) and attempted (679, seventh in NBA). His 1,857 points were the fourth-highest total for a Nets player in a single season, and his scoring average was the sixth-highest for a single season in New Jersey history.

Jefferson was drafted by the Houston Rockets in the first round (13th overall) of the 2001 NBA Draft and then acquired by New Jersey, along with the draft rights of Jason Collins and Brandon Armstrong, for Eddie Griffin on June 27, 2001. In 489 career regular-season games with the Nets, he averaged 17.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists. He was a six-time playoff performer with New Jersey, and made consecutive trips to the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003, He averaged 15.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 78 post-season games. Jefferson entered the league as the first-round pick, going 13th overall, to the Houston Rockets in 2001. He was a member of the U.S. bronze-medal Olympic team that year. Jefferson was a three-year standout at the University of Arizona, where he scored 944 career points.

Damon Jones
Jones, who spent the 2003-04 season with the Bucks, returned to Milwaukee in the Aug. 13 deal that sent Mo Williams to Cleveland, Desmond Mason and Joe Smith to Oklahoma City and Luke Ridnour and Adrian Griffin to Milwaukee. The 6-3, 185 guard who, like Griffin, was not drafted into the NBA, is heading into his 11th in the league. During his previous hitch in Milwaukee, Jones averaged 7 points and 5.8 assists in 82 games. Now 31, he appeared in 67 games for Cleveland last season, helping the Cavaliers earn third consecutive playoffs berth by averaging 6.5 points and 1.9 assists in 19.9 minutes per game while shooting 41.7 percent from 3-point range. Jones has participated in the playoffs in each of the last five seasons and has played 59 postseason games in the NBA. Since playing in the IBA with the Black Hills Posse and in the CBA with the Idaho Stampede from 1997-99, he has worn the NBA jerseys of the New Jersey Nets, Boston Celtics, Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks, Vancouver Grizzlies, Detroit Pistons, Sacramento Kings and the Miami Heat besides those of the Bucks and Cavaliers.

# 10 - Tyronn Lue
The Bucks inked Lue to a free-agent contact on July 17, the same day they signed Malik Allen. A 10-year NBA veteran, the 6-0, 175 Lue is no stranger to the transition game, having played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Washington Wizards, Orlando Magic, Houston Rockets, Atlanta Hawks and Dallas Mavericks. In 510 career games, he has averaged 8.9 points, 3.3 assists and 1.8 rebounds. He was a member of the Lakers' NBA championship teams in 2000 and 2001. Lue, 31, started the 2007-08 season with Atlanta before being dealt to Dallas and averaged 5.8 points and 1.5 assists in 50 combined games. Lue was selected by Denver with the 23rd pick in the 1998 NBA Draft out of the University of Nebraska, where he scored 1,577 points in three seasons with the Cornhuskers. His best collegiate season came in 1997-98, when he averaged 21.2 points, 4.8 assists and 4.3 rebounds per outing.

#12 - Luc Mbah a Moute
The Bucks chose the 6-8, 230-pound Mbah a Moute with the 37th overall selection in the 2008 NBA Draft , and he signed a contract and played with the Bucks in the 2008 Las Vegas Summer League. The native of the African country of Cameroon, Mbah a Moute played three seasons at UCLA and ranks 15th on the Bruins career rebounding chart with 775 boards. He started 106 of the 107 games he played for UCLA, averaging 8.7 points and 7.2 rebounds and shooting 50.3 percent from the field. As a junior, he received All-Pac 10 honorable mention after averaging 8.8 points and 6 rebounds. He played in three consecutive Final Fours with the Bruins. Mbah a Moute was named the Pac 10's top newcomer following his freshman season at UCLA. Mbah a Moute began playing organized basketball in 2001, and participated in the first edition of what became the Basketball Without Borders program in Africa. He left home for the United States at age 15 and played two years of prep basketball at Florida's Montverde Academy.

# 22 - Michael Redd
Redd, whose eight years with the Bucks give him the team lead in tenure, became an Olympic gold medalist as a member of the Team USA squad that went undefeated in Beijing, China last month. The 6-6, 215 sharp-shooting guard averaged 22.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 2007-08, during which he was voted one of the franchise's top 20 players in observance of the Bucks' 40th year in Milwaukee. Redd raised his scoring average in eight of his first seven NBA seasons, topping out at 26.7 points per game in 2006-07. He scored 13 points in the NBA All-Star Game in 2004, during the season in which he averaged better than 20 points for the first time. Redd is one of the greatest success stories in NBA Draft history, having been selected out of The Ohio State University in the second round with the 43rd overall pick by the Bucks in 2000. He enters his ninth pro season as the sixth-ranking scorer in the history of the Bucks franchise with 10,596 points and ranks among the all-time leaders in eight other categories. During the three years he spent playing for Ohio State in his hometown of Columbis, Ohio, Redd became the Buckeyes' fifth-leading career scorer with 1,879 points.

# 13 - Luke Ridnour
The 6-2, 175 Ridnour was the main cog, from a Bucks perspective, in the Aug. 13 trade that sent Mo Williams to Cleveland, Desmond Mason and Joe Smith to Oklahoma City and also brought Damon Jones and Adrian Griffin to Milwaukee. Ridnour, a five-year NBA veteran, has averaged 9.1 points and 5 assists in 362 games in the league. He saw action in 61 games with the Seattle SuperSonics in 2007-08, averaging 6.4 points and 4 assists in 20 minutes per game. In the three seasons before that, Ridnour started in 217 of the 232 games in which he appeared for Seattle and averaged 10.8 points, 6 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.3 steals. He owns a career free-throw percentage of .855. The Washington state native was drafted by Seattle in the first round of the 2003 NBA Draft (14th overall) following a three-year career at the University of Oregon. In his junior and final season with the Ducks, he averaged 19.7 points, 6.6 assists and 3.4 rebounds per outing and was a third-team Sporting News All-American.

# 51 - Michael Ruffin
The eight-year NBA veteran, a free agent at this writing, is coming off his first season in a Bucks uniform. The 6-8, 248 muscleman appeared in 46 games with Milwaukee in 2007-08, averaging 2 points and 4 rebounds per outing. His season highlight was a 14-point, 16-rebound performance March 18 against the Miami Heat. Selected by the Chicago Bulls in the second round (32nd overall) of the 1999 NBA Draft, the University of Tulsa product spent two seasons with the Bulls before one-year stints with the Philadelphia 76ers and Utah Jazz and three seasons with the Washington Wizards.

# 7 - Ramon Sessions
Sessions provided one of the silver linings of the Bucks' 2007-08 season April 14 when he handed out 24 assists (and scored 20 points) against the Chicago Bulls to break the previous franchise record for assists in a game. The previous mark of 21 was established by Guy Rodgers back in 1968, the team's inaugural season. Sessions, whom the Bucks chose with their second-round pick (57th overall) in the 2007 NBA Draft, averaged 8.1 points, 7.5 assists and 3.4 rebounds in 17 games with the Bucks. He spent the first portion of his rookie pro season with the Tulsa 66ers of the National Basketball Development League, averaging a team-high 21.1 points (sixth in the D-League), a team-high 7.6 assists (third in the D-League) and 6.5 rebounds. Sessions played his college hoops at the University of Nevada, where he helped lead the Wolf Pack to a 43-7 Western Athletic Conference record, an 81-18 overall ledger and three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. During his prep heyday at Myrtle Beach (S.C.) High School, he averaged 27 points per game as a junior, setting a school record with 52 in one game, then scored 25 per outing as a senior, and broke his own school record with a 53-point performance.

# 20 - Awvee Storey
Storey, like Ruffin a free agent at this writing, spent his first season in a Milwaukee uniform in 2007-08. The 6-6, 225 swingman out of Arizona State University averaged 3.5 points and 2.1 rebounds in 26 games with the Bucks, his third NBA team. He played in 25 games with the Washington Wizards in 2005-06, averaging 1.7 points and .9 rebounds, and appeared in nine games with the New Jersey Nets in 2004-05, averaging .9 points and .6 rebounds. He spent part of the 2004-05 campaign with the Wonju TG Sambo Xers of the Korean Basketball League, averaging 14.2 points and 5.6 boards as the team won the league title. He split his 2003-04 season competing for Chongju SK of the Korean League and Trotamundos de Carabobo of the Venezuelan League, and was with Samsung Thunders of the Korean League the previous year. Storey, not drafted by the NBA, averaged 10.5 points and 7.1 rebounds in 85 games over three seasons at Arizona State. He led the Pac 10 Conference in rebounding as junior with an average of 9.1 per game. Storey is a native of Chicago, where he attended Proviso West High School.

# 31 - Charlie Villanueva
The 6-11, 232 Villanueva is starting his third season with the Bucks and his fourth in the NBA. He averaged 11.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game during the 2007-08 season, splitting minutes at power forward with rookie Yi Jianlian. Villanueva came to the Bucks from the Toronto Raptors in June of 2006 in a trade for point guard T.J. Ford. During his first season in Milwaukee, he appeared in 39 games (missing 43 due to injuries) and averaged 11.8 points and 5.8 rebounds. Villanueva, drafted by Toronto with the seventh overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft, averaged 13 points and 6.4 rebounds in his rookie season and collected 18 points and 12 rebounds in the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge in Houston. He scored a Raptors rookie record 48 points in a March 26 game at Milwaukee that season. Villanueva played two seasons at the University of Connecticut, and helped the Huskies win the NCAA championship during his freshman season in 2004. He made the Big East Conference All-Rookie Team that year, then averaged 14.9 points and 9 rebounds (tops in the Big East) in his final season in Storrs.

# 43 - Jake Voskuhl
Yet another 2007-08 Buck who was a free agent at the writing, the 6-11, 255 Voskuhl is entering his ninth season in the NBA. In his first go-round with Milwaukee, he averaged 2.2 points and 2.2 rebounds in 44 games. The previous season, he appeared in a career-high 73 games and made nine starts for the Charlotte Bobcats, averaging 4.4 points and 3.5 rebounds in 14.3 minutes per outing. His 13-point, 13-rebound game against Phoenix that season ranks as one of the best of his pro career. Before his stint with the Bobcats, Voskuhl spent four seasons with Phoenix and one with the Chicago Bulls, who snapped him up with the 33rd pick in the second round of the 2000 NBA Draft. Voskuhl, like Villanueva a product of UConn, played 139 games over four seasons at the school, averaged 6.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks and shot .542 from the field. He helped the Huskies win the 1999 NCAA championship.