Fear the Deer! Streaking Milwaukee Bucks Will Be Dangerous Come Playoff Time

Michael Redd is no longer leading the Bucks.  A new kid on the block has emerged to lead them to the playoffs.

Michael Redd is and has always been one of my favorite players. He’s a lefty; I’m a lefty. But that’s not the only reason.

Though through the years he’s been a scorer and has done little else, his ability to light up the scoreboard with one of the game’s smoothest strokes engulfed me, which is reason why I have seven posters of him blanketing my room’s walls. But, despite his talents, the Milwaukee Bucks are a better team without him.

On January 25th, 2009, the team learned that Redd had torn his ACL and MCL in his left knee, ending his season. This January, 15 days before the anniversary of that injury, Redd torn both ligaments again in the same knee. In 2009, the injury devastated Milwaukee. This season, the team hasn’t missed a beat in his absence.

Though the second injury in as many years has hurt Redd’s once very-promising career significantly, the Bucks didn’t let it affect them as the 2009 version did. After going 7-16 with him in the lineup from December 1st to the time of the injury, Milwaukee has won 20 of their past 27, including 13 of their last 16.

How have they turned from a mediocre Eastern Conference team battling for a playoff spot to a 39-30 fifth seed?

It all started with savvy drafting in June and an underrated free-agency signing. The 2009 NBA Draft was stacked with point guards, and General Manager John Hammond took perhaps the riskiest of the bunch, Brandon Jennings .

Jennings, a highly touted 6-foot, rail-thin guard sporting a old-school flat-top , backed out of his commitment to the University of Arizona and decided to go to Italy and get paid.

The move didn’t quite pay off: he sat on the bench, rarely played, and struggled to get comfortable overseas playing an entirely different style of basketball.

Still, despite his paltry statistics, he was still believed to be top-ten talent come June, and the Bucks made sure he was, picking him tenth. Thought of as a flashy undersized guard with no jump-shot and a build that couldn’t take an NBA punishment, the lefty did his best Redd impersonation in his seventh game, erupting for 55 points in a win over Golden State.

With the pressure that came with that “Where’d that come from?” performance, Jennings has since tailed off, hitting the rookie wall of inconsistency. He proclaimed the 55-point game both a blessing and a curse, but I believe that game has made him into a much better and more intelligent player.

He’ll disappear here and there, and score 27 here and there, but amongst the offensive highlights and lowlights there has been one mainstay: his leadership as a true point-guard.

He has averaged six assists per game, but beyond the statistics he orchestrates the offense and has been one of the quickest learners of any NBA rookie. He makes things go for Milwaukee.

And, considering the team is safely in the playoffs, he has done more positive than negative.

Partly because of him, the supporting cast has taken their play to new heights. Twenty-seven year old Carlos Delfino, who was signed this past offseason for the bargain price of $3.5 million, has been an excellent three-point shooter, defender, and rebounder, and has shown the ability to pour on the points.

Delfino struggled for the first couple months, but has since been a vital piece to their success, giving them everything they could imagine out of their starting shooting guard.

But the real difference-maker in their turnaround has been shooting guard John Salmons . A tremendously important player for the Chicago Bulls last season, especially in their first round series against the Boston Celtics, he was cast off by the team at this year’s trade deadline. I’ll let ESPN”s Bill Simmons, who wrote a diary on their recent win over the Atlanta Hawks , to describe his impact on the Bucks:

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“The sneakiest deadline move last month, he’s averaging 19.8 points per game, 45 percent field goal shooting, 87 percent free throw shooting and 37.9 minutes per game after the Bucks swiped him from Chicago in one of those, “Here, take him, we need to clear cap space for the 15 percent chance we might get LeBron” trades. He might have been having an off season, but only 11 months ago, Salmons averaged 45 minutes a game in the epic Bulls-Celtics playoff series (including a yeoman’s 60-minute effort in Game 6). Smart deal. You always want to take a chance on someone who’s done it before, especially at a dirt-cheap price (just $5.8 million for 2010-11) and if you have no chance of signing marquee free agents anyway.”

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As Simmons says, he’s been a brilliant pickup, a player that contrasts Delfino perfectly. While Delfino fills the stat sheet by dishing assists, grabbing rebounds, and collecting steals, Salmons has primarily done what Redd used to do, scoring points in boatloads.

He hits free-throws, threes, can create, can play a lot of minutes, can deliver in the clutch, and can also shut down the opposition, something every player on a Scott Skiles-run team has to do to see any action.

And it didn’t take anytime at all for the 30-year old seven-year veteran to develop chemistry. There is a reason why the Bucks are 15-2 with him in the lineup.

To compliment the play of Jennings, Delfino, and Salmons, center Andrew Bogut has taken his game to the next level, averaging 16 points and ten rebounds in just 32 minutes per game, while guards Luke Ridnour , Charlie Bell , and Jerry Stackhouse provide veteran leadership off the bench. Yes, Jerry Stackhouse, who Simmons couldn’t pass up talking about in the article:

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“Jerry Stackhouse answers with a 20-footer. (Waiting for you to stop staring at the screen in disbelief.) That’s right, Jerry Stackhouse! You’re damned right that’s what I just typed! And you know what else? Teammate Kurt Thomas just high-fived him! The 2010 Bucks are like the island in “Lost” — you never know who will show up next or who might be brought back from the dead.”

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The Redd-less Bucks have the perfect team, and therefore a team that could be very dangerous come playoff time. They have two crafty and unselfish point guards that can light it up offensively if need be, two wings that score and bring the intangibles, a dominant center, a solid bench, a defensive mindset, and are the hottest team in the league.

And Bill Simmons is jazzed about them. What’s not to like?