You knew that it wouldn’t take long to figure this out, but the backcourt of Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings isn’t working out for The Milwaukee Bucks. Jennings has spent his entire four-year career in The National Basketball Association in Milwaukee while Ellis was acquired from The Golden State Warriors last March. The problem is that both guards have the same playing style as neither man has met a shot that he didn’t like. The Bucks are currently in 8th place in The Eastern Conference while they fallen off of the pace in The Central Division behind The Chicago Bulls and The Indiana Pacers. Since the trade last year, The Bucks record is 39-36.
Led by Ellis and Jennings, The Bucks are currently 26th in The NBA as far as field-goal percentage at .432. Ellis is shooting a career low 39 percent while Jennings is right on his career average at 39 percent. Both Ellis and Jennings average nearly 17 shots per game while the next closest Buck is Ersan Ilyasova at 9.6 shots per game.
Before former Bucks head coach Scott Skiles resigned in January, he tried to preach ball movement to this team, but it is difficult when your two best players in Ellis and Jennings both have a shoot first mentality. After the trade that sent Ellis to Milwaukee, I joked with several friends that the rest of the players on The Bucks team would need to develop a knack for rebounding as it would be the only way that they would be able to touch the basketball. There are plenty rebounds up for grabs when The Bucks are playing as they are currently 7th in The NBA as they are pulling down 43.5 rebounds per game, but they are last in the league in opponent rebounds per game at 46.1.
According to ESPN.com, Jennings has been the subject of trade rumors as far as being sent to The Dallas Mavericks. The main problem for both Ellis and Jennings is that they both are point guards with the mentality of shooting guards. What Bucks general manager John Hammond must do is find a way to trade either player or both to find a natural point guard and open up the offense as The Bucks are currently 14th is assists at 22.2 per game. If the offense were opened for the other players on the team, The Bucks record might improve. Veteran forward Mike Dunleavy is averaging 11.2 points per game on the season on just 8.6 field-goal attempts per game. I am not saying that Dunleavy should be the feature guy for Milwaukee, but he is an example of efficiency and what other players on the team can do if the offense were opened up.
The Bucks have made this mistake before by having the same type players as their feature guys. In the mid-90’s Vin Baker and Glenn Robinson were both scoring forwards who primarily did the same things on the court which led Milwaukee to being a mediocre team.
Coming into this season the thought process was that The Bucks could compete in The Central Division as The Bulls have been without point guard Derrick Rose and The Pacers have been without forward Danny Granger for the entire season. Both The Pacers and Bulls play more “team ball” which is why Milwaukee is now 5 games out within the division. Currently, Jennings is in the last year of his rookie contract while Ellis could opt out of the final year of his deal so it is imperative for Hammond to make something happen before this season’s trade dealine. Once again The Bucks will be starting over as they won’t be winning with the combination of Jennings and Ellis. The bottom line is that winning basketball is just like my dinner plate as it requires balance which The Bucks do not have right now. If I eat to much meat for dinner I might develop indigestion and some Buck fans might be getting sick and tired of selfish basketball in Milwaukee.
Source:Basketball-reference.com
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