- John Schuhmann of NBA.com reports that Michael Redd and Team USA are now in Macao, preparing for their remaining exhibition games before the Olympic schedule kicks off on August 10. Their next game will be on Thursday at 7 am central, when they take on Ersan Ilyasova and the Turkish national team. And while Team USA is taking their job seriously, there's still some room for fun:
As the players were shooting around before practice began, Dwight Howard asked a courtside observer, "If I start shooting like Michael Redd, will I start making my jump shots?"
Howard then proceeded to do a perfect imitation of Redd's unique lefty stroke ... without the successful results. - Truman Redd at Bucks.com profiles Andrew Bogut's Olympic aspirations.
"Being the centerpiece of our offense and our defense, teams tried not to let me get the ball in the post," Bogut said as he turned back a few pages of his career. "I love getting double-teamed because if I can’t score, I’m going to find the open man.
It's kind of funny to hear Bogut talk about opponents trying to flop against him, isn't it? In fairness, I don't think Bogut's a flopper in the truest sense, as he generally relies on legitimate collisions to take charges, rather than throwing himself to the floor at the slightest contact (a la Vlade and even Bob Horry).
"A lot of teams tried to get me in foul trouble. They would go at me a lot, try to draw cheap early fouls. They’d flop a lot to try to take charges."
- Bogut and Australia are in China taking part in the FIBA Diamond Ball Tournament. The Boomers begin play on Wednesday against Yi Jianlian's Chinese team, followed by African champion Angola on Thursday.
- Drew Olson at OnMilwaukee with an interesting take on why Mo Williams might not be traded soon.
Allen and Lue are role players, but they are regarded as hard-working guys who should upgrade the chemistry of the team. Of course, the best way to do that will be by trading Mo Williams and / or Charlie Villanueva. But, Williams really can't be dealt until he recovers from thumb surgery.
This is the first suggestion I've seen that Williams' surgery could impact his trade value. He played with the injury for much of last year (that wrap wasn't just a fashion statement) and never missed a game, so I always assumed the damage wasn't that serious. He had surgery in early May and reportedly should be fine by camp. - Olson also drops this interesting little nugget:
It's probably nothing, but some Brewers players were chatting the other day and they seemed convinced that owner Mark Attanasio is interested in buying the Bucks, or at least a stake in the team.
- Those of you strangely fascinated by jersey numbers (like me) will be pleased to know that Bucks.com now has official numbers listed for all their new acquisitions. With Desmond Mason already wearing #24, Richard Jefferson is apparently going with the #44 that he wore back at Arizona. RJ wore the #24 his entire career in New Jersey, though it's unclear if that was in part because Keith Van Horn wore #44 for the Nets when Jefferson was a rookie. Van Horn also wore that number in Milwaukee, while the immortal Jiri Welsch was the last Buck to wear it. You have very small shoes to fill, Richard.
Speaking of small feet, the #11 once worn by little guys Earl Boykins, T.J. Ford, and Lee Mayberry will now belong to Joe Alexander. Joe also wore those digits at West Virginia and in Vegas, so no surprise there. Meanwhile, fellow rook Luc Richard Mbah a Moute will inherit Royal Ivey's #12 after wearing #23 at UCLA. Tyronn Lue will opt for his favored #10 and Malik Allen will take #30. Lue has never worn a number other than that, while Allen switched from #35 to #30 last year. For a listing of every Buck and their number from the past 40 years, check out Basketball Reference. - SI's Ian Thomsen takes the plunge with his first round of 08/09 predictions. He's got the Bucks finishing ninth in the East but also lists John Hammond behind only Kevin Pritchard and Ed Stefanski among his executive of the year favorites.
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Kwame Brown has signed a two-year deal with the Pistons, further reducing the number of affordable free agent bigs on the market. The Bucks worked Brown out a couple weeks ago, but would not have had the cap room to match the Pistons' two year, $8 million offer.
- Here's your 08/09 Energee dance team. I think there's technically supposed to be an exclamation point in there somewhere.
Filed under:
Tuesday Notes: Redd in Macao, Bogut in Nanjing, RJ's #44
By
Frank Madden
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