My Reaction to The Bucks' Draft

Last night was the 2012 edition of the NBA Draft. It's a time when teams and fans of teams have a chance to draft that one special player that can take their franchise to the promised land. That's what makes the draft so great.

Outside of having to see David Stern's ugly mug every five minutes and the players' awkward interviews with Mark Jones, the NBA draft is my favorite.

The Milwaukee Bucks' draft is always an interesting one, no question. The Bucks the past few years always seem to never fill a need. They traded Jon Brockman, Jon Leuer and Shaun Livingston with the #12 pick to the Houston Rockets for Haitian-Canadian center Samuel Dalembert and the #14 pick.

Yes, Dalembert is an upgrade over Drew Gooden and Larry Sanders at center, based merely on the fact that he is a center. Gooden played out of position and Sanders just plain isn't there yet...and maybe never will be (it pains me to say that because Larry seems like a chill dude and could be a contributor with time).

I wasn't as upset with the trade as some Bucks fans, who seemingly scrutinize and criticize the Bucks' every move...just because. But I won't get started on that.

As far as I'm concerned, we traded one guy with potential and that's Jon Leuer. Brockman isn't any good. Livingston is a solid player, I guess, but didn't have a position with the Bucks. I don't like to see him leave because he could have been a solid guy off the bench but they have a log jam at PF. Someone had to go and GM John Hammond needed to make the money work for the deal.

After the trade, I figured that this all but solidified the Bucks taking a wing player in the first round. Someone like Terrence Jones or Terrence Ross, perhaps. I knew that Austin Rivers would have to drop for the Bucks to get him but deep down I knew they wouldn't take him because he never worked out for the Bucks prior to the draft.

I was wrong. They took another PF/C type in North Carolina's John Henson in the first round.

After about ten minutes, I came around and started talking again. I was upset because it never fails that the Bucks take someone I don't feel they need. It's was interesting that they'd draft another big after trading for a big and already having guys like Ekpe Udoh, Gooden and Sanders on the roster. Not to mention Ersan Ilyasova and his prospects of returning.

So many thoughts ran through my head about what they would do. I thought they would have to trade another one of those guys just to find minutes for everyone.

I suppose that what's going to happen is Gooden will start, Udoh will back up and Henson and Sanders will see limited playing time, especially with Scott Skiles as coach. Dude WILL NOT PLAY ROOKIES...unless your name is Brandon Jennings.

After some time to reflect, this draft pick might not be so bad after all. If Henson plays well he could earn good minutes and then we might have something with him and Tobias Harris. Henson is a lefty and that has to present at least some problems for opposing defenders in the post. He also seems like a pretty high character guy that seemed at the very least content to be in Milwaukee. I had a feeling they might take him given how high they were on Henson, I just didn't think he'd fall to #14.

In the second round, the Bucks took Doron Lamb from the University of Kentucky who had about half their team from last year get drafted.

Given our ability to find gems in the second round, we might have a player on our hands in Lamb. He came from a winning program and can shoot the lights out. He could be a solid player off the bench this year to give Monta Ellis a chance to catch his breath from running up a down the court so much.

I like the pick.

Hopefully, Henson can put on a little muscle in the coming months and can get better offensively and become a force inside for the Bucks. Hopefully, Lamb can become a deadly outside shooter that can penetrate. That'd be ideal.

-Big Money