20+ Vision

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. Of course, since we can't bring Chauncey and 'Sheed to Milwaukee, continuing to add names from the Motor City's front office is a good start and the next best thing.

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.