**This marks the editorial debut of Knicks Journal's newest contributing writer, Ben Ross. Ross was previously recognized by Newsday's Alan Hahn as a "Longtime Fixer," and was featured in one of Hahn's recent editions of "The Knicks Fix."**
You can follow Ben on Twitter @bnr1986.
On what was arguably the most important Knicks game in a decade, New York's new look squad came out and won a spirited contest against the Milwaukee Bucks by a score of 114-108.
The win came behind the efforts of newly minted 6th man Toney Douglas, who scored 23 points, as well as the debut of Knicks’ own “big three”: Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups and Amare Stoudemire.
In clearly an electric night at the Garden from well before the opening tip, the new Knicks showed flashes of defensive intensity that weren't expected from the team’s two superstars. That same defensive effort, plus the abilities of Chauncey Billups, allowed the Knicks to come away with a victory against the Bucks, a team that has handled the Knicks with ease during the Mike D'Antoni era.
Yet this year's Bucks squad is different, as they are a prime example of why stars win in the NBA, and why the Knicks would have been foolish in retrospect to pass on Carmelo Anthony.
One of the NBA most pleasant surprises in 2010, the Bucks climbed to the eastern conference's fifth seed with a surprising 46-36 record. Rookie Brandon Jennings was a pleasant addition to what was previously a less talented lineup than whom the Bucks featured in 2009. Head Coach Scott Skiles was able to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts in his second season in Milwaukee.
Despite a freak elbow injury to Andrew Bogut, the Bucks finished the 2010 season on fire and took a much more talented Atlanta Hawks team to the brink in round one, before losing in seven games.
NBA pundits all around even expected Milwaukee to challenge the Bulls for the central division title this season, as they looked to build on their surprising success. Instead, a series of failed roster moves has left Milwaukee in a position its far more familiar with since Ray Allen left for Seattle in 2003, failing to make any progress at all.
Bucks GM John Hammond’s executive decisions this past summer included resigning John Salmons, giving Drew Gooden a contract worth the team’s full midlevel exception, and to trade for Corey Maggette. Salmons earned his contract through his impressive play last season, and Maggette is the type of player a small market team like Milwaukee needs to roll the dice on when it can't attract true stars. That being said, the signing of Gooden has certainly been a mistake.
Gooden's only played in 25 games this season, but is not an outlier. The past two seasons, he missed 40 games combined. Injuries and inconsistent play has followed him his entire career, and his time in Milwaukee has been no different. It’s likely Hammond is already regretting granting Gooden that contract, a highly untradeable one at that, likely to be found on Bill Simmons’ ‘Top 25 Worst NBA Contracts’ list sometime in the near future.
Yet where Hammond really dropped the ball was when he let his backup point guard drive across the state border to play for the Timberwolves. Of course, that backup point is Luke Ridnour, whom Bucks brass felt they could replace with Keyon Dooling.
Ridnour was a key cog in the Bucks’ well-oiled machine in 2010. A savvy veteran who Amare Stoudemire has called “Steve Nash Lite,” Ridnour backed up rookie Brandon Jennings, but was called upon consistently by Skiles in crunch time to close out the game.
Ridnour was rewarded for his clutch play this past summer, but not by the Bucks, which one would have expected. Instead, he was signed to a 4 year, $16 million dollar contract by Minnesota Timberwolves GM David Kahn (who coincidentally gave the same identical contract in the summer of 2009 to Ramon Sessions, another former Milwaukee backup point guard), and while he hasn't exactly helped the Timberwolves in the standings, his absence is certainly felt in Milwaukee.
Brandon Jennings has been hurt for a good portion of the season, forcing the Bucks to turn to backup options Earl Boynkins and Dooling. Furthermore, when on the court, Jennings has regressed. His assists numbers, three-point shooting percentage and free-throw percentage have all dropped. The Bucks now find themselves 8 games under .500 in the games Jennings has started this season.
While the three aforementioned statistical categories have changed for Jennings, many others have remained about the same as they were last year. With this in mind, it's pretty clear that Luke Ridnour is sorely missed.
How does all this Bucks analysis relate to the Knicks, you might ask? It just goes to show how quickly NBA fortunes can change in an instant. 46-36 is a good record for most NBA franchises on the up. One year later, and the Bucks would be fortunate to finish 36-46. While many fans grew fond of this year's Knicks team, whom stood firmly at 28-26 heading into the All-Star break, at times looked like a team that could finish at 46-36, much like the Bucks had last season. However, the Bucks franchise provides a cautionary tale of what can happen in the NBA when you don't have a true superstar, much less two likes the Knicks do now in Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony.
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