The Bucks were one of the teams which most changed their roster during the offseason and even though this isn't a guarantee that they will have better results this season, they really needed to do something, after a 26-56 season (just the Heat and the Knicks did worse on the East), the 3rd worst on franchise history.

The changes began on the coaching department and Scott Skiles is the new coach of the team. Skiles has been having an interesting career as a coach with the Suns and more recently with the Bulls, in a total of 281 wins and 251 losses (0.528), but he won't have an easy task in Milwaukee with a team which struggled a lot last season. The way Skiles puts defense in front of everything will make the Bucks be a different team this season, as we are talking about a team which allowed 103.9 ppg last season and were second last in FG% allowed with 47.9% FG.

The key of the team this season will be how their star Michael Redd will adapt to this new phase of the Bucks. Redd has been highly criticized in the past for being selfish, even by the Bucks supporters and he will need to have a great season or this will be his last season as a member of the team. However, I think there is a misinterpretation from what Redd can offer the team and especially from what he can't offer the team. Redd will never be a playmaker, capable of commanding the offense of the team and he has been criticized for that, however we need to see that he had 3.4 apg last season, which isn't nothing amazing, but this was a career high in assists for him!

The problem was that last season the starting PG of the team was Mo Williams, who isn't exactly a guard who can command well the team. It's actually the opposite, as he is a guard who is mostly a shooter, very similar to Redd! So, the team didn't have a guard capable of organizing well the team and it's only enough to say that Williams averaged 2.7 Turnovers/game last season - the 6th guard with most TO/game on the league!

Coincidently or not, this problem was totally corrected during the offseason, as Williams was sent to Cleveland and the team hired Luke Ridnour to replace him. Ridnour may not be the inidividual talent that Mo Williams is, but he is a player who thinks first on the team and then just in shooting, the opposite of Williams. This PG change will benefit the team. Ridnour comes from a bad season with the Sonics, where he was the starter PG in just 5 games and his numbers decreased last season, even though he has also played less minutes per game.

Ridnour should be the starting PG at the beginning of the season, but the Bucks have a player who will be their starting PG in the future and a future star on the NBA: Ramon Sessions. He has just played 17 games on the last part of the season, taking advantage of the team being already out from the playoffs contention and he had a tremendous impact. With just 26.5 min/game, he ended the season with 7.5 apg! Actually on the last 5 games of the season, he had 15 apg, including a franchise record of 24 assists on a single game! He will obviously have more opportunities this season and he will need to show his value, at least Sessions has been working hard and the proof of that is that he was the player with most assists on the Summer League.

But the major change of the Bucks during this offseason was the trade which brought SF Richard Jefferson to the team. RJ is a tremendous player and for the first time last season since his rookie season (03-04), RJ managed to play the 82 games of the season! Jefferson is coming from a career season is terms of points (22.6 ppg) and his physical power will give a lot of problems to his opponents. If Scott Skiles manages to create chemistry between Jefferson and Redd, we may be in presence of one of the best duos on the league.

The frontcourt of the Bucks is pretty young, but with huge potential. Andrew Bogut didn't have the expected impact for a #1 draft pick, but he has been improving season after season and he managed to finish last season almost averaging a double-double: 14.3 ppg and 9.8 rpg and I expect him to keep improving this season. Bogut is becoming more aggressive and even though this has given him some injuries, that has been one of the keys for this improvement and this is the way he needs to follow, in order to become a dominant center.

Bogut will have on his side Charlie Villanueva, who has been also showing a lot of potential. Charlie began last season as a backup of Yi Jianlian, but when he got the chance of starting, his number skyrocketed. After the All Star Break, he averaged 15.1 ppg, 7.7 rpg and 1.3 apg, good numbers which make me think this season may be a statement season for him.

The Bucks had the 6th draft pick and they chose Joe Alexander, who is a versatile player and who is capable to play in both PF and SF positions. Alexander had 16.9 ppg and 6.4 rpg in West Virginia last season and he will surely have more playing time in the PF position this season, as Richard Jefferson will surely play a lot of minutes this season. As he won't have a very important role on the team this season, he won't feel pressured and this will help a lot his development.

This team of the Bucks has everything to enter April fighting for a playoff place. They had a good offseason with correct decisions, however Scott Skiles will need to build a basketball team in a short period of time and his success or not in doing that will be the key factor for the team. The Bucks will need to play good basketball right on the beginning of the league, as their schedule isn't easy: they will have just 10 home games in their first 28 games of the season.

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