Where Will The Bucks Finish?

[The Lone Granger]

Where do you think the Bucks will finish next season in the east?

 

Here is what their roster will look like:

 

PG: Brandon Jennings: Keyon Dooling: Earl Boykins

SG: John Salmons: Chris-Douglas Roberts

SF: Carlos Delfino: Corey Maggettee: Luc Richard Mabuate

PF: Drew Gooden: Larry Sanders: Ersan Illysova

C: Andrew Bogut: Jon Brockman

 

The Bucks have tremendous depth in the 3/4 areas with 3 players who are capable of putting up good numbers in each of those spots.

 

If Salmons can come back healthy (injured all pre-season) he will be an amazing scorer on this team as well.

 

The one thing that it's probably going to come down to: Can Andrew Bogut recover from his injury this season, and how effective is he going to be?

 

Last night he played in 20 minutes and had 8 PTS, 5 REB, 2 AST, and 2 BS. He looked like his old self which is great to see.

 

Right now, I have the Bucks either in the 3rd seed, or the 5th seed. It's going to be a very close race between the Bucks and the Bulls for the central, and with Boozer and Krover out with injuries, I like the Bucks chances.

 

Where do you see the Bucks finishing?

 

Source: Moneyman on Another Site

 

I think that the Milwaukee Bucks will have a good season, but they will not win the Central division. In my opinion the Central will look like,

 

1. Chicago Bulls

2. Milwaukee Bucks

3. Indiana Pacers

4. Detroit Pistons

5. Cleveland Cavaliers

 

No offense to anything anyone has posted thus far, but the Bulls are by far the better team. I don't understand how anyone can say that Gibson isn't better than an aging Drew Gooden. Gibson put up decent numbers last year as a rookie, and coming into this season he's improved a lot, and is ready for the NBA game even more than he did last year. Gooden is a decent player, but he's not going to put up the kind of numbers that he used to by any stretch of the imagination. He could still put up 10 PPG, and 10 RPG, but I fully expect Gibson to put up better than that in his tenure as the starting power forward.

 

Also, you can count Boozer into the equation when you think about the fact that he'll be back into the starting lineup just about 4-5 weeks into the season. I'm not really worried about the Bulls play while he's out with his injury.

 

As for the other positions, here's what I have,

 

Derrick Rose > Brandon Jennings

Ronnie Brewer < John Salmons

Luol Deng = Corey Maggette

Joakim Noah = Andrew Bogut

 

I'm not sure that Bogut is going to be the same player after that injury. And even if he is, Noah is equal to him simply because he does so much more than Bogut does. Noah is going to put up a decent amount of points, but he also rebounds exceptionally well, and he also plays great defense.

 

Luol Deng and Corey Maggette are almost the exact same player. The only difference that I see holding Deng back from being the by far better player is the fact that he has had injury problems. If he stays healthy however, I can see him putting up some very big stats. He's shown so far in the preseason (even though preseason doesn't really count), that he still has his game, and assuming he stays healthy this will be a breakout season for him.

 

Derrick Rose over Brandon Jennings is a no-brainer. This is the real reason that I give the Central to Chicago. Jennings had a good year last year, but there is no way that he's going to come even close to matching Derrick Rose this season. I think we saw a taste of what is to come with Rose in the Fiba World Championships, where Rose played outstanding basketball form Team USA. He's gotten better on defense, and maybe it's just me, but he looked quicker, and an improved passer.

 

That's just my take on this thread, maybe I'm wrong in some areas, but I'm still going to say that the Bulls will take the division. Am I saying that they are Title contenders? not necessarily unless from the time Boozer comes back they are completely healthy. But what I am saying is that they are the better team, and I really believe they have more depth. Kyle Korver coming off the bench, and when Boozer comes back Gibson as well. That's a very nice first two off the bench in my opinion.

 

All that being said, to answer the question of this thread originally, I think the Bucks will finish at about #5 or #6 in the East. If they get a healthy Michael Redd back late in the season, they very well might be contenders when the Playoffs come around, very similar to the Bulls assuming everyone stays healthy.

 

Thoughts?

[YugoRocketsFan]

Behind the Heat, Celtics, Magic, Bulls

[N.1.A.K.]

i honestly think the Bucks take a step back this year. i think they will be playing at least 1/4 of their games without Bogut this year. Maggette will be in and out of the lineup on his way to playing 70-75 games. The other teams in the NBA aren't going to sleep on these guys from Milwaukee now as well. Teams are going to get up for games against them and want to test their abilities against a team that was playoff caliber the year before.

 

i see them as a 6-8 seed.