Sports Illustrated is predicting that the Bucks will finish the season ranked 12th in the Eastern Conference and miss the playoffs again.
12. Bucks: New GM John Hammond has made two big trades already, acquiring Richard Jefferson from the Nets (for Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons) and Luke Ridnour from Oklahoma City (for Williams and Desmond Mason). Jefferson, along with new coach Scott Skiles, should help improve a woeful Bucks defense. Ridnour has potential as a distributor, and he comes with a better contract, but he’s not much of a defender and he’s not a scorer like Williams. With Jefferson, Michael Redd, Andrew Bogut and Charlie Villanueva, Milwaukee apparently felt it already had enough firepower. The trick will be just how fast Skiles can implement his system, and whether there is enough bulk in the frontcourt.
On the flip side, the Cavaliers rank second in the East (the article indicates this was true even before the Williams trade). The Pistons find themselves as sixth. You can read the rest yourself.
Only time will tell where the Bucks end up, but here’s to hoping that it’s at least better than 12th.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Anton // Aug 15, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Keep in mind that Marty Burns seems to be a little bit nuts. All those rankings are bonkers.
2 Brett Boyer // Aug 16, 2008 at 5:26 am
As far as the Bucks are concerned, I can’t say that I disagree too much. I think he has Indiana ranked way too high but Miami and Chicago too low.
Atlanta is a question mark now that Josh Smith got paid and doesn’t want to be in Atlanta around that coach or ownership, and I don’t think Charlotte will be any better — Larry Brown has this reputation for turning around teams, but those turnarounds usually come with major personnel improvents as well.
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