2011-12 Milwaukee Bucks 1.0

Much like I did for the Green Bay Packers following the 2011 NFL Draft, here is my first look at how the 2011-12 Milwaukee Bucks following the 2011 NBA Draft:

Earl Boykins and Michael Redd are technically unrestricted free agents while Chris Douglas-Roberts (“CDR”) is a restricted free agent. The Bucks would need to tender CDR to allow them to match any offer he receives from another NBA team. Following their big three-team trade I don’t see Milwaukee Bucks general John Hammond tendering CDR, especially based on how little he played down the stretch last year for the Bucks. For the purposes of this post we are going to assume that Hammond lets Boykins, CDR, and Redd leave via free agency.

Assuming that everyone stays healthy and that there is no NBA lockout, two huge assumptions, the starting five for the 2011-12 Milwaukee Bucks should be:
- PG: Brandon Jennings
- SG: Stephen Jackson
- SF: Carlos Delfino
- PF: Drew Gooden
- C: Andrew Bogut

That leaves a bunch of combo guards as back-ups. The current pecking order is: Beno Udrih, Shaun Livingston, and Keyon Dooling. Look for Udrih to be the left-handed Luke Ridnour and Livingston to eat up Dooling’s minutes.

Much like the back-up combo guards, there are a bunch of back-up combo forwards. The current frontcourt pecking order is: Ersan Ilyasova, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Larry Sanders, Tobias Harris, Jon Brockman, and Jon Leuer.

Finally, as usual, the Bucks do not have a true center to back-up Andrew Bogut. Similar to the Green Bay Packers not really having a true back-up defensive tackle for B.J. Raji, the Bucks continue to put all their eggs in the Andrew Bogut basket (no pun intended) despite his checkered injury history.

I am going to wait to see how the pre-season goes but if I were Scott Skiles my five-man bench pecking order would be Udrih, Ilyasova, Mbah a Moute, Livingston, and Sanders. That leaves Brockman and Dooling along with 2011 NBA Draft picks Harris and Leuer wallowing at the end of the bench collecting pretty substantial paychecks for not actually playing in games.

With the aforementioned 14 guys on the roster that leaves one final roster spot open for the Bucks. Normally the Bucks would have the veteran bi-annual exception (don’t make another Dooling-like mistake) and the mid-level exception (don’t make another Gooden-like mistake) at their disposal but with all the labor uncertainty, who knows how the salary cap is going to shake out. With so much money committed through the 2012-13 season, look for the Bucks to spend very little guaranteed money on their 15th roster spot, especially considering the money troubles facing their owner Senator Herb Kohl.

Look for a few NBA labor related posts over the next few months. Besides that, we all better hope the NFL Owners and Players agree to a new CBA otherwise this is going to turn into a purely Milwaukee Brewers blog.