Milwaukee Looks Back on Successful Season

The Milwaukee Bucks aren’t looking back at their season with too many regrets despite losing 18 of their final 27 games.

With a new coach and general manager and a revamped roster, they weren’t given much chance of winning 20 games, much less making the playoffs.

“It was a great year for us,” guard Desmond Mason said. “Having a lot of different faces here, totally different coaching staff, a new system. They said we’d win about 19 games and be last in the Eastern Conference, maybe the last team in the league. So, to accomplish what we did, it was a good season.”

Milwaukee finished 41-41 and held the fourth playoff position in the East until the final day of the regular season, when the Bucks lost their third straight game to slip to sixth and a dreaded date with Detroit, which dismissed them in five games.

“Not too many clubs that were destined to be the worst team in the league overachieved by that much,” Brian Skinner said. “But I think we knew in the locker room what we could do and accomplish.”

Joe Smith said he wasn’t worried about the fade at the finish but would focus instead on the team’s surprising success under first-year coach Terry Porter.

“It’s good to know that we achieved goals higher than anybody’s expectations,” Smith said. “And those are the things that we have to reflect on to get this bitter taste out of our mouths.”

The Bucks head into the offseason needing to find a shot-blocker and rebounder and with their point guard position in flux.

T.J. Ford is headed to Los Angeles for cervical spine surgery on Thursday, and Damon Jones and Brevin Knight are both free agents.

Jones, who has played for eight teams in six years, finally got to start regularly and run an offense with freedom under Porter.

“My experiences here this whole year were excellent,” Jones said. “I couldn’t ask for more. I’m just going to sit back and assess all the situations and see what’s the best for Damon Jones.”

Jones said he’d like to return but he’d also like a chance at a championship.

Knight told general manager Larry Harris he’d like to return.

“Even (without) T.J.’s situation,” Knight said. “Of course, I want him to get healthy and I want him to come back and have as good a career as he can have. But I would love to come back here and play.”

The team’s other free agent, forward Toni Kukoc, said he wanted to stay in Milwaukee, too.

“I think it’s a really good place, the team is going in the right direction, the guys are great, the coach is good, so why not?” Kukoc said.

Skinner, who lost his starting job in the playoffs, said he would probably exercise his option and become an unrestricted free agent July 1, although he wouldn’t rule out a return to Milwaukee.

The Bucks went 13-19 after Ford went down Feb. 24, and they couldn’t push the tempo to their liking any longer.

“We definitely missed T.J.,” Michael Redd said. “He’ll be healthy going into next year. I’ve got all the confidence in the world that he’ll be back next year.”

The Bucks sputtered even more after forward Keith Van Horn, acquired in a midseason trade that sent Tim Thomas to New York, injured a finger on his shooting hand on a dunk in New Jersey on April 6.

Milwaukee won just two of nine games after that.

Van Horn said the team doctor instructed him to take the month off and return to Milwaukee if the hand hasn’t healed by then to determine if an operation would be necessary.

He said he wasn’t too concerned about his injury nor in how the Bucks got pummeled by the Pistons.

“This is something I think we can really learn from. It’s a good stepping stone for this young team,” Van Horn said. “Hopefully we can tweak a few things here and there.”