I promise to not dwell on last season much longer. Maybe.

And to prove my possible-promise, let's instead briefly consider the Bucks' serious problems over the past half decade.

The Bucks concluded their 2007-08 campaign 33 games behind the division-leading Pistons. That's bad, but what's worse is that it marked the fifth straight season they finished at least 20 games behind the division winner.

To put that into perspective, our research found that only three teams in the NBA, the Grizzlies, Sonics, and Clippers, have finished at least 20 games behind a division leader the past  two seasons. None have reached three in a row.

You'd hope to mark this up as too bad to be true, but alas. 

Short of the Pistons relocating to South Carolina and the Southeast division, the Bucks must take matters into their own hands to stop this maddeningly consistent trend of inconsistent basketball.

By the way, Michael Redd and Dan Gadzuric are the only Bucks representing this entire five-year era. Mo Williams and Andrew Bogut have never finished inside 20 games of the division winner since arriving in Milwaukee.

This is a relatively young group, but after half a decade the numbers only lead to more serious doubt about whether this is the core (Redd/Williams/Bogut) of a winning team, now or later. It's easy to say this simply isn't the right combination of players and changes must be made, but the evidence suggests it's not only the easy answer, but the correct one.

CNN's Mark McKay interviewed Yi Jianlian a couple months back about the upcoming Beijing Olympics, with some discussion as well of his first season in Milwaukee. Not surprisingly, Yi cites dealing with the 82-game schedule as the biggest surprise, while Milwaukee's snowy winter was also an eye opener--but also "the most fun part."  Maybe he'll be OK in Milwaukee after all.

The interview was done at the same time that TNT did a feature on Yi for NBA.com.  Given Yi is seen going to the CNN building in this, I'd guess it was short when the Bucks were in Atlanta at the end of March.

• Tom Enlund writes that Jon Horst is the latest member of the Pistons front office to defect to Milwaukee, taking the title of Director of Basketball Operations after spending three seasons in basketball ops for Detroit.  Horst joins GM John Hammond and assistant GM Jeff Weltman in making the trip across Lake Michigan.  I won't act like I know anything about Horst's credentials aside from the fact that he comes from a stellar organization and is clearly someone Hammond knows well.  That alone is a good thing. 
  
  While Kohl's hiring of Hammond has been the starting point of a busy Bucks' offseason, don't underestimate the importance of Hammond expanding the Bucks front office by bringing in some of his Detroit colleagues.   For one, having more people with basketball backgrounds around decreases the likelihood that decisions are made by people unqualified to do so.  Moreover, Hammond bringing in his own guys further establishes the new GM's influence over the shape of the organization, something that was altogether unclear following the dismissal of Larry Harris. And it says something that Hammond has been able to lure two more guys away from a fantastic organization like Detroit to try to build something in Milwaukee. The Bucks were in desperate need of an organizational makeover and they've gotten exactly that in the last month.     
  
• Dave Dean was also promoted to director of basketball administration following seven seasons in scouting and player personnel.  Lastly, Bulls' assistant trainer Marc Boff has been hired as the Bucks' new athletic trainer.
  
• After spending the first two months of the season in the thick of the rookie of the year race, Yi Jianlian's poor finish saw him miss out on both all-rookie teams. Yi finished with 13 votes, ranking second behind Joakim Noah in the "also receiving votes" category.  I wouldn't argue with that, though I think second team members Jamario Moon, Thad Young and Carl Landry all had better seasons than first team members Jeff Green and Al Thornton. Also, Ramon Sessions didn't get a vote, yet Javaris Crittenton and Acie Law did. Moral: it's better to play poorly for 50 games than well for 20.
  
  As usual, voting was apparently based mostly on scoring stats, which is why Green and Thornton (both double-figures in ppg) made it despite being nowhere close to Landry, Moon and Young in per-minute or overall efficiency stats. Not surprisingly, those three played valuable roles on playoff teams, while Green and Thornton were able to shoot a lot playing on terrible teams.  Bobby Simmons, Dan Gadzuric and Awvee Storey all had higher PERs than Green.  Not a good sign.
  
• In the past the Bucks have made a big deal out of their lottery visits, includng soliciting fans for good luck charms. Gery Woelfel reports that John Hammond will be representing the Bucks on stage when the lottery results are announced May 20, but he's clearly not hoping to make a habit of it.

  "I don’t know what to say about it,’’ Hammond said. "I don’t want to go there. I don’t like being in the lottery.’’ Hammond will be on stage for the televised portion of the Draft Lottery. The other Bucks’ representative, who will be in the backroom for the actual lottery drawing, will be Jon Horst, the team's newly-hired director of basketball operations. Horst, like Hammond, worked for the Detroit Pistons before joining the Bucks.

• A day after the NBA's all-defensive teams were announced, the San Jose Mercury News' Tim Kawakami dishes out his no-defense team  Starting at shooting guard: Michael Redd.

  Possibly pound-for-pound, minute-for-minute the worst defensive player in the league on sheer talent and effort. For instance, this year he had 13 blocked shots and 65 steals in 2,702 minutes.
  
  How bad are those numbers? Baron Davis had 43 blocks and 191 steals in 3,196 minutes. Boris Diaw had 39 blocks and 61 steals in 2,308 minutes. Caron Butler had 20 blocks and 128 blocks steals in 2,314 minutes. And none of those guys are ever going to be first-team All-Defenders.

• ESPN's Chad Ford thinks the Bucks would go for Derrick Rose in the unlikely event they win the draft lottery. No argument here.

  The Bucks spent last year's lottery pick on an athletic power forward with inside-outside skills -- Yi Jianlian. Would they pick another power forward in Beasley this year? Probably not.

  Now that John Hammond has taken over as GM, he's looking for a tough leader. Mo Williams may be entrenched at the point in Milwaukee, but if Hammond gets a shot at a franchise point guard, I think he's taking it.

  Mo Williams entrenched at the point? I wonder if John Hammond and Scott Skiles have been informed of this. 
  
• The lottery isn't until May 20, but if you mess around with ESPN's lottery mock draft , you'll see that Ford has the Bucks likely taking Texas point guard D.J. Augustin if they don't move into the top three.  If the Bucks do luck out, Ford has them taking Michael Beasley second and Arizona guard Jerryd Bayless third. 
  
  Augustin had a fine career at Texas, but at 5'11" without great athletic ability, he would appear to have somewhat limited upside at the next level.  Interestingly, Ford thinks the Bucks would pass on UCLA combo guard Russell Westbrook at the seven spot, but he has Westbrook going ahead of the Bucks' pick in the event Eric Gordon isn't available to L.A.  I'd rather roll the dice on an athletic ballhawk like Westbrook or even the talented-but-raw Anthony Randolph than go with Augustin.  Either way, it appears Ford's basing these picks mostly on his own logic, so odds are these things will change a lot in the next six weeks.
  
• The Bob Boozer Jinx dissects John Hammond's interview with Gery Woelfel.

  Most Bucks fans have become painfully aware over the last five years that Redd is not Kobe, Lebron, or a few All-Star teams of players, from McGrady to Stoudamire to D-Wade to Joe Johnson. Yet somebody forgot to tell Michael who still thinks he's as good as his contract, which, to him, meant that last season he had the right to undermine the team on the court. Redd's "franchise" contract is now a lodestone keeping the Bucks in the Central Division cellar.

  I'm not quite so cynical towards Redd, who I'd have to guess will still be on the roster come November --if for no other reason than his contract makes him hard to deal.  Still, I don't see a complacent player content with his paycheck, but rather a guy who worked as hard as anyone to become a great scorer, and then worked very hard to become more than that over the past year.  But unfortunately he's simply not a guy who can single-handedly carry an offense and make other players better.
  
  I'd guess that Redd is extremely driven by the desire to live up to that contract and the expectations that came with it.  Which is partly why he feels the need to take over games late and why he did make a more concerted effort to pass and rebound this year; if that's what great players do, then he wants to do that.  He probably saw Kobe, LBJ and McGrady and figured that while being a lights-out pure scorer had gotten him his contract, the only way to transcend his one-dimensional reputation was to shoot less and do everything else more--just like the "real" superstars.  Often times people see that as the ultimate sacrifice for a big-name scorer, but in reality it's just as much about ego as being a ballhog that only looks for his own shot.  And as Kobe Bryant showed this year, giving up your points in favor of passing more is all the rage.  If Redd does return with the Bucks, it'd be a waste for him not to be the leading scorer; he's far too proficient compared to his teammates not to be.  But the Bucks also can't afford for Redd to dominate the ball the way "real" superstars do.
  
• DraftExpress has word on what the NBA Player's Association expects the 08/09 cap numbers to be.

  The most interesting thing to come out of the seminar might have been the insight that was revealed about next year’s cap figures and the NBPA’s plans regarding the upcoming CBA. Next year’s salary cap is currently being estimated at 58.5 million dollars, up from 55.63 million dollars. The luxury tax threshold is projected to rise to 71 million dollars, up from 67.865 million this year, and the Mid-Level Exception is expected to rise to 5.55 million dollars, up from 5.36 million. These are not final or official numbers at this point, but rather the NBPA’s estimations, as they were told to us.

  While the Bucks are capped out for the next couple years at least, the healthy boost in the luxury tax is a good sign considering the possibility that the Bucks will be in the $70 million salary range in 09/10. While attendance has been a bit down this season, the NBA people I've talked to have generally been very upbeat considering the league's booming international business and the strong playoff ratings.
• 411Mania chimes in on the Skiles hiring and sees major improvement ahead.

  Skiles is a no nonsense, defense-first type of head coach, and he changed the culture there until this year, and made them a winning team after years of being near the bottom of the standings after the Jordan era ended in 1998. The thing that trumps this situation over the situation that he walked into in Chicago is that he already has a TON of talent with the guys that I listed above. Now he has to get them together, organize them, and help them reach their full potential. If Skiles is given as much control as I suspect, then the Bucks WILL be back in the playoffs this time next year and maybe with a 5th or 6th seed. The Bucks have the pieces of the puzzle…it's just putting the puzzle together. Maybe they shouldn't have hired Bill Simmons after all…

• You'll be surprised to hear that no Bucks received all-defensive team votes .

• Gery Woelfel has a wide-ranging interview with John Hammond that's well worth a read.  Hammond still seems higher on Andrew Bogut and Yi Jianlian than anyone else, but given his diplomatic style he's not exactly throwing anyone under the bus either.

  "I don’t think it would be fair to say that, that there are untouchables on this team. You look at the obvious: we have two, very good young pieces in Bogut and Yi that you can build around. Bigs are so hard to find. The Boguts and the Yis ... it would be awfully hard to move guys like that.
  
  "Does that mean Michael Redd can be moved? Or anybody else on this roster? No. But I don’t think it’s fair to use the term untouchables when you are a team that won 26 games this year."

  Hammond emphasized the need to make the most of opportunities, suggesting he's heading into the summer with an open mind. To that end, he stopped short of backing himself into a corner when Woelfel asked about the competition between Yi and Charlie Villanueva at the PF spot and Mo Williams and Ramon Sessions at the point:

  "In my mind, yes, they can co-exist on this team. But you know what? All of those guys you mentioned are assets, even Sessions. The way he finished the season ... as we continue to work the phones (in trade talks) I guarantee you his name will come up. "So those guys are all assets. Anytime you have assets, you look at that as positives."

• Complementing Woelfel's basketball discussion, Charles Gardner provides an interesting profile of Hammond the traveling man.  Win or lose, you get the feeling that when all is said and done no one will have anything bad to say about Hammond the person.  Hopefully for Bucks fans, the success he enjoyed with Joe Dumars in Detroit will carry over and we'll be admire his work as much as his character.
  

  "Joe always said we complement each other well, because 'you coach-think and I player-think,'" Hammond said of his former boss. "But the great thing is over the years, he learned to think more like a coach and I learned to think more like a player.

  "When you become a hall of fame player, it tells how hard you've worked to become that. If you can carry that over to your next opportunity, that's what Joe did."

• The Bratwurst ponders what might have happened had the Bucks picked Chris Paul in 2005.  Brett also names Alabama's Richard Hendrix his supersleeper pick in this year's draft.

  If I was running the Bucks’ draft room – and did not move into the top three in the lottery – I would try to trade Villanueva and move down in the draft to get Hendrix. At the very least he should be a bruising, quality player who could come in the game and offer a nice change-of-pace to the finesse skills of Yi. In the best case scenario, he could become a dominant power player who scores at a high rate, pairs with Bogut to become one of the best rebounding frontcourts in the league, and also has the athleticism to do a little of everything else. Either way, it’s highly likely that he will a least be a good player.

• Ersan Ilyasova had 16 points (6/8 fg) in 16 minutes in Barcelona's final regular season game of the year, a 90-84 loss to Iurbentia Bilbao.  Barcelona finished the season in third place behind Real Madrid and DKV Joventut, and now faces sixth place Bilbao in the first round of the ACB playoffs starting this Friday.  Read more about Ersan's Spanish exploits right here .
  

Ilyasova's defense has been a bright spot in Spain.

When Bucks' forward Ersan Ilyasova signed with Barcelona last summer, it would have been easy to close the book on him as simply another second round pick that washed out.  Which might not seem like a big deal until you consider that in 2005, Larry Harris and Dave Babcock chose the Turkish teenager over now-familiar names like Monta Ellis, Ryan Gomes, Louis Williams, Andray Blatche and Amir Johnson. Fortunately, Ilyasova's relative youth (he just turned 21...we think) and the progress he appears to be making in Spain suggest that he could yet become a productive player in the NBA--whether it's in Milwaukee or elsewhere. 

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• Tom Enlund reports there's no real news on the assistant coach front.  Still looks like former Bulls assistant/interim coach Jim Boylan , former Indiana coach/telemarketer Kelvin Sampson , former Grizzlies' assistant Lionel Hollins , and D-League coach/Dairy Queen owner Joe Wolf will join development coach/holdover Bill Peterson.
  

  "We’ve come to agreements with everybody," said Hammond. "We just haven’t signed contracts yet. We’re in the process of getting contracts back, basically as we speak. So I would say maybe by tomorrow (it will be done) or if not, then maybe by Monday.

• Chatting over at ESPN, Chad Ford wonders if Dan Fegan may once again try to force Yi Jianlian out of Milwaukee.

  Too early to tell. [Yi] was great at the start of the season and fell off the map in the second half. I wonder if his agent Dan Fegan is going to push for a trade now that John Hammond is on board and the team will be emphasizing toughness. I still think Fegan prefers to get Yi into a market with more Asians.

  This rumor isn't altogether new, but this is the first time I can recall someone in the media saying it.  Unlike Larry Harris, Hammond doesn't seem the type to advertise whom he wants to trade, but his glowing assessment of Yi last month certainly suggests he would prefer to give Yi a second season in Milwaukee.

  "I absolutely love his game," Hammond said. "I think his upside is off the charts. I don't think he's afraid to stick his nose in there. I think he will rebound the basketball. If you ask him to go in the post, I think he will do that. When you have a big guy like that who can go out on the floor and stretch the defense, those guys are invaluable."

  Combine Hammond's apparent admiration with the organization's obvious investment in the Yi brand, and the only remaining concern (aside from Yi actually "becoming good") is whether Scott Skiles is similarly optimistic.  Skiles has plenty of experience with young bigs, having coached Tyson Chandler, Eddy Curry, Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas--albeit with mixed success--in Chicago.  And while Yi clearly has much work to do if he's going to live up to his advanced billing, his willingness to work on both ends should give him every chance to earn Skiles' trust.  With Charlie Villanueva probably on the way out, the interesting part will be watching whether the Bucks bring in any real competition for Yi at the PF spot.
  
• The Bob Boozer Jinx continues to push for a Redd-to-Cleveland trade. 

  I was (and still am) quite serious about the anatomy of the Michael Redd trade to Cleveland. The Cavaliers get Redd; the Bucks get 21-year-old shooting guard Daniel Gibson and the Wally Szczcerbiak contract (one more year at $12 million). Keep it simple, get it done.

  A few posters on realgm came to similar conclusions - Bucks would have to get Gibson or F/C Anderson Varejao or both; Cleveland would require that the Bucks take Wally's contract, no way around it. The Cavs cannot afford to keep both Redd and Wally at shooting guard. The realgm-ers also added to the mix the Cavs #19 pick in the 2008 draft.

  Various flavors of Redd-to-Cleveland have been mentioned for weeks , but here's the latest discussion, which also talks about a Mo Williams deal. All these ideas are complicated by the fact that Gibson isn't even under contract with Cleveland for 08/09 (he'll be a RFA), which means Gibson would have to agree to a new deal as part of a sign/trade when free agency negotiations start in July.  Moreover, Mo and Varejao are BYC until July 1.  So any deal involving Mo, Gibson or Varejao would have to come after the draft.  The Cavs could then still trade the rights to the player they pick, but you almost never see picks traded during the summer after draft night--in large part because a pick is more valuable to a team when they can use it themselves. 
  
• Varejao especially would be an attractive piece since he's an excellent rebounder, solid man defender of both the 4/5 spots, and also one of the better big defenders of the pick/roll.  Given the Bucks' desperate need for team defenders, Varejao would be a solid option as a starting 4 or (if Yi starts) as a top notch backup to both big spots.  Varejao has a player option for 09/10 at $6.2 million, so he's effectively an expiring deal next year for $5.8 million.  Ironically, Dan Fegan also represents Varejao, and I'm sure he'd be thrilled if two of his clients were competing for minutes.  So in a way the least attractive part of acquiring Varejao might be the excuse it provides Fegan to campaign for Yi's departure.  Either way I'd still take Josh Howard/Jerry Stackhouse for Redd every time if possible.
  
• Mo Williams finally had surgery on his thumb this week, an injury he played with for most of the season. In spite of wearing that wrap across his hand, he established career-highs shooting from the field, three point range, and the line (.480/.385/.856).  He's expected to be fine by camp...whether it's in Milwaukee or elsewhere.
• The Bucky Channel continues its Bucks Survivor series.  If you're not voting for Charlie Villanueva this week I don't really know what to tell you.

• The organizers of the Olympic torch relay finally realized the best way to prevent protesters from getting at the flame as it makes its way to Beijing: give it to the tallest Chinese dude you can find.  OK, so Yao Ming was apparently unavailable, but Yi Jianlian carried the torch without incident, joining Jackie Chan (another guy I wouldn't mess with) as the flame makes its way through Southern China.
• As noted previously, all signs point to Scott Skiles rounding out his coaching staff with some combination of Jim Boylan, Lionel Hollins, Kelvin Sampson and Joe Wolf.  And as we predicted a couple weeks back, player development specialist Bill Peterson will be the lone holdover from last year's staff.  UPDATE: The Bob Boozer Jinx has some good logic on why Hollins (probably staying in Memphis?) and Wolf (redundant if Peterson is around?) might not be in Milwaukee next year. 
  
• Ah yes, one of the joys of summer: 82games.com giving us more stats explaining why the Bucks were so bad last year.  The sortable offensive stats reveal that the Bucks took the second-highest proportion of inside shots in the league, something to keep in mind the next time someone claims the Bucks were too jumper-happy.  The downside is the Bucks were 29th out of 30 teams in inside fg%, so it's not like taking shots in the paint did them as much good as it could have.  The Bucks were also fairly miserable from three point range, finishing 25th in 3fg%, but at least they had the common sense to rank only 24th in shots from distance.
• The picture is of course even bleaker on the defensive end , where the stats suggest the Bucks' perimeter defense was mostly to blame for the worst defense in the league. Milwaukee ranked 27th in 3fg% allowed and dead last in 2pt jump shot% allowed, indicative of a team that couldn't stop penetration and kick outs or close out on shooters.  The Bucks were better in terms of inside fg% allowed, ranking 19th, but they unfortunately allowed the third highest proportion of inside shots.   In other words, while their interior defenders weren't total pushovers, opponents got into the lane with ease.  And considering that inside shots are the easiest to convert, that's a big problem.  The ball's in your court, Mr. Hammond.
• The Bratwurst has begun their comprehensive look at this year's draft.  Brett likes what he sees from Michael Beasley, Kevin Love, and Derrick Rose, but he's not sure about the rest of the purported top eight.  My completely unscientific sleeper pick: Indiana senior PF D.J. White.
• Michael Hunt asks a very reasonable question: remember when the Bucks were actually good?

  To the question of whether this can become a good NBA town again, crickets chirp just before Joe from Oconomowoc calls the sports-blab show to beat on the baseball team. That's on the Bucks for making themselves irrelevant in the spring, just as it is on them to make people care once more round about the time the NBA gets serious.

• Tom Oates at the Wisconsin State Journal reviews the 07/08 Bucks through a championship lens.
• Very interesting note from DraftExpress' coverage of the Euroleague finals, where Greek point guard Theodoros Papaloukas led CSKA Moscow to another championship.

  Theodoros Papaloukas has apparently not yet given up on the possibility of playing in the NBA this summer, and has even hired a new American agent to help him with that cause. He was reportedly extremely close to signing with the Milwaukee Bucks last year, but Mo Williams’ large contract didn’t leave enough money on the table for him to justify the decision. Papaloukas will be looking for a deal in the 3-year, 20 million dollar range this summer. Considering his age, the way he played this weekend and in the season as a whole, that looks like an extremely long shot.

  Especially given the tenuous future of Mo Williams in Milwaukee, it's certainly interesting to play "what if?" and wonder where the Bucks might stand had they let Williams walk (or gotten something in return from Miami in a S/T) and signed Papaloukas instead. The 6'7" Papaloukas is just two days shy of his 31st birthday, so he might not have been a long-term solution, but his dynamic court vision has made him arguably the most valuable player in Europe the past couple seasons. Not bad for a guy who comes off the bench.
• The Bob Boozer Jinx is the Free Darko of Bucks blogs.  Just a bit out there, but in a good way.

The Bucks aren't in the playoffs, so in the last few days we've speculated about potential future Bucks, like Josh Howard and other small forwards. 

And while we love to look ahead, we also can't help but notice Bucks from the past as we watch the postseason.

Last night was a good night for ex-Bucks like Joe Smith, Damon Jones, and Jason Hart. That particular trio punched tickets to the second round. On the other hand, Ray Allen and Sam Cassell have had better days. Much better days.

Here's a rundown of ex-Bucks in the playoffs and how they've performed:

Joe Smith: Advanced to second round 4-2 over Wizards. Averaged 5.5 points and 4.8 rebounds in 19.7 minutes. Smith followed up an 0-6 night in the Game 5 loss with eight points and five rebounds in 26 minutes off the bench in the series-clincher. This marks the third straight playoff series the Cavs have put away the Wiz and Racine native Caron Butler.

Damon Jones: Joined teammate Smith in the second round after the Cavs won 105-88 last night. Jones didn't score for the fifth time in six games, playing just a couple minutes. The Cavs prefer Wally Szczerbiak and Daniel Gibson as outside shooters who can do a little more than simply shoot from the outside, so Jones isn't getting court time. Naturally, his only points in the series came on a three-pointer, in Game 2's 116-86 rout.

Lindsey Hunter: Hunter scored three points in Game 1 but wasn't heard from since, playing less than four minutes combined in the last five games. Hunter, who played all 82 games for the Bucks that season, has watched Aaron Aflallo and Rodney Stuckey take over backup guard duties in Motown.

Kevin Ollie: See, not all ex-Bucks can win in the playoffs. They play each other after all. The Sixers took a surprising 2-1 lead over the Pistons before dropping three straight, though Ollie didn't really play a role in the good or the bad. Ollie, who shot a career high 45.9 % from the field in 2002-03 with the Bucks, scored four points and had three assists in the series -- all coming in the final game.

Calvin Booth: Booth didn't play in the Pistons-Sixers series, probably not a bad idea by coach Mo Cheeks. The seven-footer shot 33.3 % from the field in the regular season. On the good side, it's Booth's birthday in four days, on May 7. Happy almost-34th, Calvin. From Brew Hoop.

Ray Allen: The Celts lost for the third time in Atlanta last night, meaning there will be a Game 7 on Sunday between the number one and eight seeds. Down two points in the waning seconds, Allen missed a potential game-clinching three-pointer last night. He finished 1-8 from behind the arc in the game. He's averaging 17.7 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and is shooting 44.3 % from the field in the series.

Sam Cassell: Looking for a steady backup point guard, the Celts added former champion Cassell, but he's averaging 2.0 points on 20.0 % shooting in the team's three road losses. The Celts probably didn't think they worked for home court advantage so they could play a decisive Game 7 against the Hawks in the first round in Boston, but that's where things stand. At home in the series, Cassell is averaging 11.0 points and hasn't turned the ball over.

Zaza Pachulia: This big body is getting some nice minutes off the bench and played his best game yet in Game 6 with nine points, six rebounds, and two steals in 28 minutes. Oh, there was also that little moment in Game 4 when he stood up to KG and then some, which seemed to shock the Celts into a loss they haven't recovered from.

T.J. Ford: Ford and the Raptors have been long gone after falling in a surprisingly swift five games to the Magic. Ford started all five games despite being outplayed by Jose Calderon. His play was particularly troubling for the Raps in the first two games of the series, both losses, when he shot 2-17 from the field for just 11 points.

Mike James: Like Ford, his team hasn't played in a few days. Unlike Ford, that's because they won so quickly, ousting the Mavericks 4-1. James, who played with fellow ex-Buck playoff players Joe Smith, Zaza Pachulia, and Calvin Booth for Milwaukee in 2004-05, hasn't stepped on the court in the series, but does get a front-row seat to watch the best point guard in the world and the sensible MVP pick, Chris Paul.

Jason Hart: Well, Hart also gets to watch a premier point guard in Deron Williams as he sits deep on the Jazz's bench. The Jazz closed out the Rockets (and Marquette alum Steve Novak) last night. Hart, you might recall, started his NBA career with the Bucks.

Dirk Nowitzki: Dirk never took the court for the Bucks, but he was drafted ninth overall in 1998 by them. Another disappointing first-round loss this season for the Mavs, but this time they simply came up against clearly a better team in the Hornets. Nowitzki averaged 26.8 points and 12.0 rebounds on 47.3 % shooting.

An interesting trend here is that the big boys (Allen, Nowitzki, Ford, Cassell) are having mostly forgettable playoff runs, while some of the small names (Hart, Pachulia, Hunter, Smith) are at least playing on the right teams.

Scott Allen Skiles pretty consistently succeeded as a head coach in the NBA, something you wouldn't necessarily believe given he was sent out of town from his only two head coaching gigs within four years. But the numbers speak for themselves: in Phoenix, he was over .600 two of three years, and the Bulls added 28 wins in his second season coaching.

This is really worth being optimistic about. Truly.

As long as we understand that it's still, in the end, almost all about the players on the floor. Thankfully, that's where John Hammond should come in handy, because we all know by now that Skiles could channel the coaching knowledge of Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach, and John Wooden and still miss 45 wins with current player personnel.

This leads us into a discussion about Skiles and the small forwards he's coached.

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