Last season, the Bucks had legitimate aspirations in reaching the Playoffs when they received Richard Jefferson from the Nets. However, injuries suffered by both Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut guided the Bucks into the lottery once again. Even without those two guys, head coach Scott Skiles managed to guide the Bucks into being competitive by having a 27-29 record midway February, but the lack of depth killed them and the Bucks ended the season with a 7-19 record.

Going for this season, the Bucks dealt Richard Jefferson to the Spurs and somehow I understand this trade. A bad economy and salary cap restrictions in a team which wouldn't win the championship this year anyway is a good reason to trade a guy close to turn 30 years old and who will receive $14,200,000 this season. However, the Bucks received in exchange Kurt Thomas, Fabricio Oberto and Bruce Bowen, but these 3 players won't be part of the organization in the future. In fact, only Thomas is in their roster right now and in my opinion the Bucks should seek to receive some young talent from trading the veteran center.

The Bucks also didn't want to re-sign Charllie Villanueva and Ramon Sessions in the off season, showing clearly that they are in a rebuilding mode, hoping that their young kids can smoothly develop into better players in the future.

The leader of this franchise is Michael Redd, but unfortunately he has been more of a spiritual leader lately because he passed more time injured than playing basketball. In the last 3 seasons, Redd missed a total of 90 games and he played only 33 games last season, but it was enough for him to lead the team in scoring with 21.2 points per game. Hopefully he is healthy going into this season and with such a young roster, Michael Redd will need not only to carry the team offensively, but be as well a role model for the young kids to learn from and with him. Going now for his 10th NBA season, we can safely say now that he will never be a playmaker, as his career high in assists was only 3.4 apg, but the Bucks will be more than happy if he can stay healthy the whole season and continue performing his career numbers of plus 20 points per game, while shooting near the 45% clip.

Like Michael Redd, Andrew Bogut battled also with a season ending injury, as he played only 36 games. It was a shame for him because Bogut is really developing through his career. He has a ton of potential as a big man who can score, as he has soft hands and a high IQ basketball, but he lacked the aggressiveness for a big man. However, Bogut is gradually becoming an aggressive player in both ends of the floor and we can track such development in his career progression in rebounds per game: 7.8, 8.8, 9.7 and 10.3 boards per game last season. When healthy, Bogut is a legitimate double-double player and with just 24 years old, he can still keep developing his game. He needs also to become one of the team's leaders, as he is one of the oldest players playing for the Bucks with this roster.

Besides Redd and Bogut, the Bucks have in their roster 7 players with two or less years of experience in the NBA and this tell us how young this team is. Head coach Scott Skiles will have the challenge of smoothly developing all these young players and taking in account that usually he likes to give minutes to all players, the Bucks will probably have the right coach for such task. The Bucks selected Brandon Jennings with their 10th draft pick and Jennings is a pretty talented player who somehow didn't have a good season last year while playing overseas. He is a tremendous athlete for a point guard with a rare quickness and leaping ability, with the ability of also creating his own shot consistently and at the same, he also possesses excellent court vision. During the NBA summer league, he averaged 8.2 assists per game - best in the league and having the chance to get heavy minutes this season, it wouldn't be a total surprise if he's involved in the Rookie of the year award candidates along with Blake Griffin.

While he's developing, the Bucks have in Luke Ridnour a solid Point Guard. Ridnour is the kind of player that can put 10 points and 5 assists per game consistently and although he lacks good defensive skills, he is still a good role player that many top teams would like to have in their rotation.

Meanwhile, Luc Mbah a Moute was a pleasant surprise for the Bucks last season. Although he's limited offensively and still needs to put some work in his game, he plays extremely hard and showed some interesting defensive skills. He played all 82 games for Milwaukee last year, while starting 52 of them, which is a good indicator of how Scott Skiles likes him. Now on his sophomore season, let's see if he can be more involved offensively in the team, while he will be a valuable piece of this organization, due to his work ethic and hard work.

The list of the Bucks' young promising players also includes Joe Alexander, Jodie Meeks and Ersan Ilyasova and these kids have some talent, so Scott Skiles will need to give them some minutes this season for their development. A quick note for Alexander, as he struggled in his rookie season, but started showing some good signs in this summer league, in which he managed to averaged 16.6 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.

The Bucks have also added former Grizzlies' Hakim Warrick for a mere $3,000,000 one year contract. Warrick is a pretty durable player, who coming off the bench has always reached the mark of 11 points per game, while playing about 25 minutes per game. He also shot in the 50% mark in those seasons and in my opinion, the Bucks got a bargain contract with him, as he's a valuable player in terms of cost-performance.

This won't be an easy season for the Bucks. Their two better players and team captains are coming from season ending injuries and they need desperately to stay healthy. The remaining of their roster is staked with some pretty good talent, but with them being all so young, they will pass through the usual high and low moments during the season. The good news for the Bucks is that in the Eastern Conference a sub .500 record can be enough to earn the bottom spot for the playoffs, but in order for them to reach that, Scott Skiles will really need to make a terrific coaching job.