The Bratwurst - Milwaukee Bucks Blog

The Bucks have given one year minimum deals to a pair of veteran, limited power forwards. They added Samaki Walker and Michael Ruffin.

Walker’s career has had two highlights. One was being the number 9 pick in the 1996 draft, taken ahead of Kobe Bryant, Peja Stojakovic, Steve Nash and Jermaine O’Neal. The other was the fact that he wore one of the greatest draft-night suits ever. Every so often I like to attend a black-tie function, but I have yet to find one where a white bowler hat is appropriate. Walker is on his 8th different NBA team and was out of the league last year.

Ruffin is, quite simply, one of the most unbelieveably inept offensive players in NBA history. Seriously. In his 7 year career, Ruffin has averaged 1.7 PPG while playing 14.8 minutes per game! Prorated out to 40 minutes per game, he would average under 5 PPG. He is also a very entertaining 46% career free throw shooter. He is, however, a somewhat decent rebounder (10.8 rebounds per 40 minutes for his career) and has a reputation as a pretty solid defender. We’ll see.

These signings bring the Bucks up to 16 players on the roster, so I have to think that between Ramon Sessions, Awvee Storey, and David Noel, one of them will not be with the team at the end of camp. My money is on Sessions, who will probably be in the NBDL working out the kinks in his jumper.