Weekend Notes: Bogut ready, workouts begin
by Frank Madden on May 16, 2009 3:45 PM CDT
in Daily Notes
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- Good news from Jim Paschke's Twitter feed:
Just got word. Andrew Bogut's back has healed and he has been cleared to begin off-season workouts . Training camp starts in 4+ months.
Tom Enlund has more confirmation. Judging by this recent interview in Australia, Bogut is still a bit annoyed by the Bucks' medical staff's inability to properly diagnose him initially. - Enlund also has a blurb on the glut of point guards available in the upcoming draft.
- DraftExpress reports that the Bucks will be among the teams attending three days of workouts in New Jersey on June 12-14. The Nets plan to bring in 36 players, two groups of six each day. Among the top prospects expected to attend are Jrue Holiday, Austin Daye, Gani Lawal, Terrence Williams, and Jeff Teague.
- The HoopsHype workout schedule has the Buck bringing in SMU center Bamba Fall on May 21 and Temple SG Dionte Christmas on May 22. Both guys are fringe second round candidates.
- Joining the mockery, Hoopsworld has the Bucks taking Earl Clark 10th and Xavier forward Derrick Brown in the second.
- Britt Clement takes a look at the Bucks' lottery history.
- PBN has the complete list of players invited to the pre-draft combine in Chicago. In previous years many possible late first and second rounders would turn down invitations for the 5-on-5 portion of the combine and as a result also miss the physical testing. Fortunately the 5-on-5 has been scrapped altogether (which didn't seem to help that much anyway), so pretty much everyone but the top foreign prospects will be measured at the same time.
- Ty makes an argument for moving the Bucks to Madison. I know Ty is largely just trying to bring up discussion, but I think fundamentally the last thing the Bucks should do is move away from the one part of the state where they actually have a fan base (Metro Milwaukee). And while the Brewers almost have to be outside downtown because you need a big parking lot for summer tailgating, the Bucks have the opposite problem. You can't tailgate in the winter, so the closer the arena is to food, nightlife and public transportation, the better. One of the great parts about seeing games in Phoenix and Boston is their proximity to the cities, nightlife and transportation. No, there's never going to be a subway stop at the Bucks' arena like there is in Boston, but the point is you have to be accessible to your key markets, and right now the Bucks only have one.
Living out on the East Coast, I often end up explaining to people that the Bucks aren't even that relevant in their home state, but I think that's just as much of a demographic issue as anything else. As Ty notes, the NBA skews far more towards younger, urban populations and there just isn't much of that outside Milwaukee. It's there in Madison, but you don't have the same base of corporate sponsor and people with deep pockets to buy up the expensive seats.
And with so many game on weekday nights it's not practical to make a long drive to watch a game, meaning you can't afford to be located far from a city center. The Packers have it the easiest, since it's not too impractical to block off eight Sundays per year to drive a couple hours to watch a game (which means the tough part is getting tickets). That's why the NFL is has it so good: with only 16 games occurring once per week, it's really easy to be a fan.
One thing that everyone can agree on: winning matters. Anyone who went to games in 1999-2001 knows that Milwaukee fans will support a winner, and we're seeing that again now with the Brewers. That's also why I think the Bucks are less willing to go into full rebuild mode than many hardcore fans might prefer. There simply might not be enough time to see it through.
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My Thoughts on the Bucks' Problem
I think a lot has to do with being able to follow the Bucks. Obviously there are the online resources, but for more traditional sports fans it’s tough. Not everyone can afford cable or the FSN package and it’s hard to get reliable radio coverage outside of the WTMJ network radius. Also it seems that the local news is fair weather as it gets; winning teams have their number three pitcher given an exclusive interview while the whole regime change was basically ignored last year. As a result, and with no evidence to the contrary, people assume it’s the same dysfunctional Bucks. I wish the Bucks would go back to regular T.V.
Is FSN still not basic cable for many people? It’s annoying when I go home because my parents have basic Dish Network and don’t get FSN, but I assumed that was just because Dish is bootleg. Fortunately when I am in Wisconsin I just go to the games, but it seems like people outside Milwaukee occasionally have issues getting games (and can’t use League Pass since it still gets blacked out).
by Frank Madden on May 18, 2009 11:51 PM CDT up reply actions
I do like Ty’s idea about making them the Wisconsin Bucks. Any attempt at inclusion is cool. Hey, it worked for the Pats. But I live in Madison and as much as I’d like them for greed purposes, it wouldn’t work. If the Bucks were to make the playoffs, it would be during finals, and these folks are serious about the studying.
Another problem is that there are few reporters that seem to really care about the Bucks. Gery Woelfel cares, and he is the only reporter who has reliable insider information. Still he gets hated on by Packers fans who are angry he did a Bucks column.
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