With the news that the Milwaukee Bucks will have the first selection of this year?s NBA draft, the countries of Australia and Croatia must simultaneously be feeling a sense of relief and supreme disappointment.
Milwaukee is the NBA?s equivalent of Siberia, as Atlanta is the NBA?s Bermuda Triangle.
The city is a nice city on Lake Michigan, but is only a couple hours away from Chicago and with WGN covering the games, the Bulls reign supreme.
The Bradley Center is an aging facility and though the George Karl/Ernie Grunfeld Bucks had some playoff success, the situation there is very bleak.
Their best player, Michael Redd, is an unrestricted free agent and he will be heavily courted by teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Clippers. He has publicly stated that he likes Milwaukee and aims to stay, but as he gets closer and closer to actually being free to put his foot in the water, that water looks more and more attractive. With up and coming teams like the Cavaliers and Magic on the outside of the playoffs, the Bucks will be hard pressed to be one of the East?s top-eight teams.
This is where Andrew Bogut comes into play.
Assuming the Bucks keep the pick and select Bogut, he will not be asked to be the savior of Milwaukee basketball. This is excellent for his psyche. He does not have the Lebron James? level of ability that could turn a franchise around. Bogut is more comparable to Yao Ming, a rare talent that could solidify a solid club.
The Bucks are not a solid club, they will demand Bogut to play beyond his years, as the fans will demand nothing short of a playoff berth.
With a resigned Redd and a healthy T.J. Ford, they could possibly be solid, but both men?s futures are in dire doubt.
When it came down to the final three, Portland was surely the destination that would have been most ideal for Bogut. They have frontcourt talent in place, with Zach Randolph and Theo Ratliff at power forward and center, which would allow Bogut to come off the bench and gradually adjust to the NBA.
This was the track Jermaine O'Neal was on in Portland when he played behind Rasheed Wallace, Brian Grant and Sabonis. Granted Bogut is much further along than O'Neal was during his rookie season, but if he becomes the better version of Bill Laimbeer as NBA scouts project, he will need a supporting cast that is comprable to the one Laimbeer had in Detroit.
The Mountain West Conference, while sufficiently adequate, is a far cry from powerhouse conferences like the ACC or even the Pac-10 and is even further from the NBA, where he will be guarded by the likes of Amare, Duncan, KG and Camby on a nightly basis.
Bogut?s game and personality are best suited to be eased into a situation, not thrust onto every billboard on Interstate 43 like he is Lew Alcindor, particularly when there there is no Oscar Robertson already at the helm in Milwaukee.