Veterans like Michael Redd are starting to see a turn around. He believes that the team's stability will help that change. (NBAE / Getty Images)

Print

RSS Feeds

FastBreak

Tix

December 26, 2008

Christmas is a time for celebration.

But you could search the National Basketball Association’s annals and not find a team that celebrated reaching Christmas Day with a sub-.500 record. The 2008-09 Milwaukee Bucks, at 14-16, fall into that category.

By the same token, those Bucks who have been with the franchise for Christmases past have seen far darker days than they’re seeing now. Maybe that’s because they see a beacon on the horizon that keeps getting closer and closer.

The Bucks’ Dec. 23 game against the Utah Jazz didn’t provide much in the way of holiday decoration. They shot just 38.8 percent – including 1-for-16 from 3-point range -- against a typically tough Utah defense.

But the bottom line of the box score, which read, "Milwaukee 94, Utah 86," was absolutely glittering. Another ornament on the page was Utah’s shooting percentage: 38.0.

Bucks center Andrew Bogut was found counting his team’s blessings afterward.

“We shot 38 percent and grinded out a win,” Bogut said. “If we had done that a couple of weeks ago, we probably would have lost by 15 or 20. To shoot 38 percent and still win, that's a sign that you're playing good defense. To me, that's very impressive."

“That's the sign of a good team. We've got to do that consistently now. We're going to have games where we're going to lose by 10 or 15; we're going to have games where we're going to win by 10 or 15. The important thing is to try and get better and better, and that’s what we’re doing."

Michael Redd has been with the Bucks longer than any of his current teammates -- since the year 2000. He has endured four consecutive losing seasons, none more painful than the 26-56 dagger of last year.

In its 30th game of the 2007-08 campaign, Milwaukee lost in Detroit by 45 points -- on New Year’s Eve – and dropped eight games below the break-even mark, to 11-19.

As Redd puts the past year in perspective and looks at the current Bucks’ 14-16 mark, it’s not yet something he’s going to write home about.

Yet Redd, like Bogut, is encouraged by the transformation he has seen and the direction the franchise has taken under the first-year leadership team of General Manager John Hammond and Head Coach Scott Skiles.

"We're working hard,” Redd said. “Obviously we wish we had more wins, but we're going in a positive direction. We've just got to keep persevering through the schedule, and hopefully it will turn back our way."
 
"I don't know what our record was at this point last year, but I know the direction we're going in now is pretty good. I was down for 14 games, and we've had some other injuries here and there, so our record may not be totally indicative of our team."

The strides haven’t surprised forward Charlie Villanueva at all, and he fully expects them to continue into the new year and beyond.

"I definitely like the direction the organization is going,” Villanueva said. “It definitely feels good. You knew it was going to go in the right direction once you hired a coach like Coach Skiles. Something that this team had been lacking -- it's not that this team can't play defense -- is a system. His system of how to play defense, and the repetitions we do in practice, has made a huge difference.

"Of course you want to see more wins, but we're hanging in there. If we keep playing the way we're playing, I like where we could be in the end."

Only seven NBA teams allowed more points (8,521, or 103.9 per game) than the Bucks did last season. Through the first 30 games of this year, the team had climbed the chart to 14th in team defense (2,830 points, or 97.6 per game).

And during its first 10 games of December, when Bogut, Redd and several other players who had been riddled by injuries returned to the lineup, Milwaukee yielded just 89 points per outing, held opponents to .416 field-goal shooting, outrebounded its rivals by an average of 44.8 to 39.6 a game and accumulated a 106-62 advantage in points scored off turnovers.

On the flip side, the Bucks were shooting just .440 as a team through 29 games. Only Bogut (.567), Dan Gadzuric (.529) and reserve guard Tyronn Lue (.493) were shooting above their career percentages, and several were substantially below.

Those numbers weren’t causing alarm, though, for several reasons.

First, Bucks players had already missed a total of 36 games due to injury. Starters Redd (14), Bogut (3) and Luke Ridnour (3) were sidelined for 20 of those.

Second, the team endured the most challenging starting schedule in NBA history, playing 18 of its first 28 games on the road.

Third, most of the players believe the shooting percentages will climb as the team stabilizes and players become accustomed to one another. Late December has already confirmed that belief.

“If we'd have faced the kind of adversity we've seen this year in the last couple years, we'd have just fallen on our faces,” Bogut said. “When we've lost away games, like the blowout at Golden State, we wouldn't have handled that very well.

“The coaching staff has been very supportive and has prepared us to handle it, so we're doing a great job in that sense."

Redd believes stability will bring change, and sees both coaches and players putting priorities in order.

"Part of that, I think, is staying healthy consistently,” he said. “We've had some games where we've shot lights-out.

“Our focus has been to keep getting better defensively. Offensively, we just have to keep firing away. The shots will start dropping."

Bogut thinks some of the team’s shooting inconsistency has been a byproduct of its emphasis on defense. He believes that was a trade-off that had to be made.

“I think a lot of that can be attributed to all of the guys now having to play defense,” he said. “It's so hard in the NBA to play 48 minutes of defense and offense.

“In the past, we've had guys taking a rest on defense, having their legs and shooting a good percentage. The coach we have now is demanding more of us defensively, and we're doing a good job of it."

Villanueva stressed the importance of chemistry, which can’t be underestimated at any level of the game. Even the best teams need time to develop that, and they need to have healthy rosters in order to fully achieve it.

"Chemistry is very important,” he said. “A comfort zone is important for a team to be successful. We're not there yet, but I think we're getting there. I think we eventually will get there."
 
"We're still getting used to one another. You can see from the preseason to now how much better we've gotten. So we've just got to keep getting better and getting used to each other. You've got to remember that there's only six players still here from last year. Everybody else is new. Then you add a new coaching staff and throw that into the equation.

“We keep getting better and hopefully we'll keep progressing."

Ramon Sessions hasn’t been in Milwaukee as long as Redd, Bogut and Villanueva have, but the second-year guard has noticed the Bucks’ change of direction, too, and he likes where they’re going.

"I definitely feel good,” Sessions said. “I haven't been here too long, but having been here last year, I feel better this year going into the new year. The team's going in a good direction. We had a tough schedule at the beginning of our season, and I feel like we handled it pretty well.
 
"The practices are much more intense. You can't go into practice thinking you're just going to walk through something. The coaches are going to get on you regardless, so you'd better go out and play hard every night.
 
"We're converting what we're practicing into the games, and that's what we're supposed to do."

You have read the perspectives of four of the Bucks' holdovers on the team's change of direction. Visit Bucks.com again soon to read the insights of some of the teams' newcomers.