The Drubbing

When will John Hammond wake up and realize, Jerry Reinsdorf was right, I’ve got to can Scott Skiles? Skiles is single-handedly ruining the bucks. I know Mo Williams was a big loss, and no team with Malik Allen on the roster has ever been successful, but the Bucks have still got a decent team. Why does Scott Skiles insist on burying this team so early in the season? He’s managed to make an okay roster bad and I’m worried that if he continues down this path he’ll have turned the Milwaukee Bucks into the Tampa Bay Bucs we all remember, back when they were sporting the bright orange unies.

I know Skiles is a defensive coach. I get that. And I know Charlie Villanueva isn’t known for his defensive prowess, and has a propensity to chuck up shots to the tune of 4 for 15 on occasion. But starting Luc Richard Mbah a Moute is a crime against basketball humanity. He has no business starting on that team. Maybe on the Grizzlies or the Thunder, but not on the Bucks. And certainly not over Villanueva or Joe Alexander. Mbah a Moute didn’t even deserve to start at UCLA and I’m still not sure how he made it into the Association. Joe Alexander is no slouch on defense. He’s certainly quicker than Luc Richard, he’s more explosive and he’s the future of this franchise. So give the guy some run.

I knew the loss of Mo Williams during the off-season was significant, but I thought Milwaukee could pull through because they still had Ramon Sessions who came on strong towards the end of last season. He plays fantastic when he’s in the game, but he can barely get off the bench. Skiles has some sort of obsession with Luke Ridnour, aka The Poor Man’s Steve Blake, and it’s getting quite unbearable.

Skiles has a great core of young players like Bogut, Sessions and Villanueva, with Charlie Bell and Alexander coming off the bench, in addition to the high-scoring veterans Michael Redd and Richard Jefferson. But they’re never going to grow as a team and gel together if they never get on the court.

It's time for Skiles to stop living in the past and start coaching in the present.

Bill Russell is not walking through that door. Dennis Rodman is not walking through that door. Nick Anderson is not walking through that door. Dennis Scott is not walking through that door. This team is not the team Scott Skiles played on. This is not the team that Scott Skiles wants. So Skiles has to learn to coach the team that he has. Not that team that he wants or the team he used to play on. Scott Skiles needs to be saved from himself.

Now I’m a solutions kind of guy, I don’t like to just give the world more problems. So here’s what we’re gonna do. Skiles wants a team, so fine. We’ll give him one. But it’s not gonna be the Milwaukee Bucks. Skiles team will be called the Pineapples. Bulbous and prickly on the outside and a bit tart on the inside, just like Scott Skiles. And you may have seen this coming, but the team will be in Hawaii. It’ll be an NBA franchise, he won’t be demoted to the D-League or anything like that. But it won’t be a normal NBA franchise. It’s gonna be an Australian franchise. Not cause it’s gonna have Bogut or any other Aussie on the roster, but because it’s gonna be comprised of a band of castaways. They will have a practice facility, but no home arena cause we know no Hawaiian citizens would want to watch a Scott Skiles team. They will only have a 42-game season and all their games will be away games. We won’t punish the existing NBA teams by sending them to play Scott Skiles Hawaiian Pineapples out in the Pacific.

It’s a win-win. Skiles gets his team, the real NBA doesn’t have to put up with him or be penalized by being associated with him. And most of all, maybe the Bucks can get a coach that will let them play to their strengths and lead them to a successful season. Is that too much to ask for?