xTitan wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
I think most people feel Bogut's game is still evolving and has some to go yet...he needs to find his jump shot for sure....to me it just seems that people who defend Mo do it almost defiantly, maybe thats because of the position Williams plays and the fact that peole see how that position should be handled differently.
Prior to this season my issues with Bogut were
1. Nothing bothered me more than anything about Andrew than his picking games to sulk and even flat out quit on the team if he was either getting dominated by his man or he wasn't happy with his teammates. Then i'd see supporters of Bogut find any excuse possible to give Andrew a pass for this when IMO there was nothing whatsoever to excuse his doing that. I actually saw some here trying to spin his quitting in games as his way to show how much he cares about winning.
To his credit, this year he's stopped do it this year. Now when he's playing poorly on offense or getting shunned by the guards, i don't see that terrible body language or him quitting to where he doesn't care if his man is just owning him.
2. He was soft defensively for a big man. This year has been a dramatic shift. He's not only blocking shots, he's getting off his feet and trying to alter shots. Great to see.
3. He was way to passive offensively. Sure there were quite a few games where he was ignored, but there were multiple others where his defender would own him early and Andrew would go in a shell where he looked to have zero confidence he could score on his guy. I still think he gets passive if he struggles scoring early, but nowhere near as bad and his post skills are better, but still lacking pretty much outside of little hooks. Some nights thats enough if he's on or defended by an overmatched big. When those aren't going though, he really has little else to turn to scoring wise.
4. No jumper at all. I was hoping so badly that Andrew would come into this year with a jump shot. Outside of select dominant bigs in the Shaq mold that can score all the time in the paint, most quality bigs can hit both a face up midrange jumper and has a post up jumper. This along with paint skills make a good big man so tough to guard. They can then score in multiple ways and on multiple spots on the court. Bogut can score in the paint, that's it and on nights teams take that away or he's off, he has little else to turn to. Nothing needs to be said for his near Gadzuric like free throw shooting.
5. Bogut as a rebounder. This is his third season and all three years he's been a very mediocre rebounder. Not terrible, nothing special either. I expected him to be a top notch rebounder. He has the size and hands to rebound better and more consistently than he does. Many want to mainly blame the guards for this, that's a cop out given rebound rate. Great rebounders are ferocious rebounders, Andrew isn't that.
I don't think anything about my views have an anti-Bogut bias, i want nothing more than him to be better than he's shown and he's the last guy on the team i'd trade. But often when i've posted stuff like this, i've been called either a hater or anti-Bogut as if all i do is rip him or want him to fail.
As for Mo, i like him more than some here, but i was still leery of resigning him because of his bad defense and making matters worse, teamed with Redd's defense. Once we signed him, i hoped he'd at least improve his defense some, but wasn't too optimistic he would. He obviously hasn't. I've spent 5 years watching a bad defensive backcourt between TJ/Redd or Mo/Redd, i was tired of it before and by now it drives me crazy. At least one has to go, both wouldn't bother me at all either.
I think at times Mo gets way more blame than he deserves for the Bucks losing given the sad shape of this roster and having a rookie coach in over his head, but given his indifference to defense many nights, i can't put effort anymore into defending him much even during times i think he's getting more overall blame than he deserves. Suck it up and defend, it's not asking alot if you get a 52 million dollar contract from a team.
