Actors go on talk show circuits for a very good (financial) reason: they want you to see their new movie. You need convincing that it's worth $10 and two hours of your time.
It makes sense, really; from the actors to the studios to the theaters, all brands benefit from a star actor exposing their human side on The Daily Show, David Letterman, etc. Certainly, you learn something about the movie, its origins, and why the people involved are so happy with it, but ultimately you never know how good the movie is until you've seen it yourself (or read Rotten Tomatoes).
These cinematic PR tours aren't much different than anything you'll hear or read coming out of NBA media days. The Milwaukee Bucks held theirs on Monday, and it met expectations. Media day is essentially a movie trailer advertising the team's ambiguous knowns and unknowns. An opportunity to set the bar for a season expected to be better than the last. By design, we're left with more questions than answers.
Void of any meaningful game tape or locker room grumblings, it's hard to do anything but reflect on the disappointment that was 2011-12 and listen to the Bucks plant seeds of hope for 2012-13. This doesn't mean a preseason media session is fruitless; rather, players and coaches can only reveal so much information because they have only a little more than we do at this point.
Scott Skiles can't give an honest assessment of minute allocations because the 2012-13 Bucks were literally 18 some hours away from stepping onto a court together for the first time. John Henson can't tell you what the NBA grind feels like for a rookie without a real practice. Media members can only ask speculative questions based on past knowledge and future assumptions, neither of which produce revelations about the team's make-up.
We don't know if Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis are going to mesh together over a full season, or repel each other like negative magnets. We can only predict (with unfailing optimism if you're taking media day quotes as gospel) how Skiles will shuffle and pair together his stacked front court on a nightly basis. What we do know, however, is there's work, and it needs to be done before November 2.