Milwaukee Bucks: How do standout Bucks teams since 2000 compare?

2009-10 “Fear the Deer” Milwaukee Bucks

Depth Chart

Guards – Brandon Jennings, Luke Ridnour, Royal Ivey, John Salmons, Charlie Bell and Michael Redd

Forwards – Carlos Delfino, Jerry Stackhouse, Luc Mbah a Moute, Ersan Ilyasova and Darnell Jackson.

Center – Andrew Bogut, Kurt Thomas, Dan Gadzuric, Primoz Brezec

Starting lineup – Jennings, Salmons, Delfino, Mbah a Moute and Bogut

Sixth Man – Luke Ridnour

Star Player – Andrew Bogut (All-NBA 3rd Team)

Coach – Scott Skiles

Guards – Led by Brandon Jennings (15.5 points and 5.7 assists), the rookie plucked from Italian Basketball with the 10th pick in the draft. Jennings had Bucks fans dreaming of stardom with his swag-filled play in his first year, highlighted by a 55 point outing against the Warriors.

Jennings was partnered with late season signing Salmons (19.9 points, 38.5 percent from three) to form a fairly deadly backcourt for the Bucks. Ridnour (10.4 points, 38.1 percent from three and 4 assists) provided valuable minutes off the bench as an excellent sixth man.

A fun fact, this was one of Redd’s last seasons with the Bucks, as his knee injuries began to take their toll on his ability to stay on the court.

Forwards – The weakness of this side, the small and power forward rotation was a constant thorn in the Bucks side with very little offense being produced.

Delfino (11 points, 36.7 percent from three and 5.3 rebounds) provided very good shooting from the perimeter, but was rarely able to create his own shot. Mbah a Moute (6.2 points and 5.5 rebounds) was an excellent lock down defender, but rarely showed anything on the offensive end.

In isolation, this would have been fine but with a rookie point guard in Jennings, the teams offense often became stagnant due to the inability of the wings to offer any type of penetration. A young Ilyasova (10.4 points, 33.6 percent from three and 6.4 rebounds) played some minutes off the bench that season also, but as his shot from beyond the arc struggled, so did he.

Center – Quality wise, the strongest position on this team was the center position. Depth however is a completely different story.

Bogut (15.9 points, 10.2 rebounds and 2.5 blocks) had his best year in the league this season and was rewarded with a spot in the All-NBA Third Team. Bogut’s combination with Jennings was the reason for much of the Bucks success and the term “Fear the Deer” was coined from their combinations (amongst other things).

However once Bogut went down, there really was no help behind him in the rotation with Thomas (3 points, 4.2 rebounds) stepping in for Bogut to complete the season.

This team really is a case of what could have been, as many Bucks fans will argue that if Bogut never went down injured, the Bucks would have gone much further into the playoffs that season, and who knows, maybe even further down the track.