Skiles happy with Bogut, but needs more from power forwards

Paul Imig Posted: Nov. 6, 2009

AP/Charles Rex Arbogast

ST. FRANCIS -- Andrew Bogut was not happy with his performance to start the season. But after scoring 16 points, grabbing 13 rebounds, and blocking three shots Tuesday night in Chicago, Scott Skiles believes it’s a step in the right direction for the Milwaukee Bucks center.

“I thought he played very well (in Chicago),” Skiles said of Bogut after practice Wednesday. “When he got his opportunities, he scored. When he went into his move and drew some help, he kicked the ball out. That’s along the lines of the type of game we need from him.”

Bogut attempted 14 shots against the Bulls, making eight of them, after shooting only a combined 16 shots in Milwaukee’s first two games.

“I’ve told him I’d like to see him get at least 15 shots or above in a game,” Skiles said. “But for a big man, that’s not always easy to dictate, because they’re always susceptible to a team double-teaming or coming down with help. But I thought he had great judgment (Tuesday night). I thought he went to the hole when he should have, and passed the ball out when he should have.”

After Bogut’s improved play in Chicago, the 7-foot former No. 1 overall pick increased his per-game statistics in every major statistical category, and now carries an average of 10 points and nine rebounds in to Friday’s matchup in Minnesota.

“Bogues (Bogut) is a very good face-up player,” Skiles said. “He can face-up, and he’s got a quick first step for his size. When he has his back to the basket and catches it deep, almost all the teams come down there. They either come on his dribble or come on his catch. He’s an excellent passer, so we’ve got to keep going down there.”

With Michael Redd out of the lineup for at least two weeks, Bucks rookie point guard Brandon Jennings knows it’s even more important that Bogut become an integral part in the offense.

“Bogut came out strong (against Chicago),” Jennings said. “We were trying to get Bogut going, and get him involved. Every night we’re going to need that from Andrew Bogut, because he’s a big part of our team.”

A shift in the starting line-up

After starting Kurt Thomas at power forward in the first two games of the season, Skiles made a somewhat unexpected change to his starting lineup before the game Tuesday night by inserting Hakim Warrick in Thomas’ place.

Just as Skiles hoped, Milwaukee got off to a much better start and outscored the Bulls 25-13 in the first quarter. Warrick finished with a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds. Thomas did not play at all in the game.

“It’ll probably stay the same this weekend (with Warrick starting at power forward),” Skiles said. “We need more out of that spot. We need to shoot the ball better from that spot. We need more defensive rebounds out of that spot.

“We didn’t particularly like, at least initially, Kurt (Thomas) and Bogues out there together. It seemed to slow us down a little bit. So we’re still searching a little bit.”

Another concern for Skiles has been poor shooting on offense. He previously stated that he believes Jennings would have had double-digit assists in his first two games had guys made more open shots.

“We’ve got so many guys right now that aren’t shooting the ball near their career averages, Hak (Warrick) being one of them,” Skiles said. “We believe everybody’s going to, as usually happens, it’s only a three-game sample right now, people revert back to the mean. But unfortunately, we’ve got a little bit of a lengthy list of guys that aren’t shooting near their career percentages.”

In his first four seasons in the NBA, all with the Memphis Grizzlies, Warrick averaged just a small fraction under 50%. It’s so close, in fact, that had Warrick made just one more of his 2,286 career shots prior to this year, he would’ve been an exact 50% shooter for his career when he signed with the Bucks.

So far this season, Warrick has made 14 of 39 attempts (35.9%).

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Skiles happy with Bogut, but needs more from power forwards

AP/Charles Rex Arbogast