Bogut on board with Skiles' hiring

hooroo · Apr 30, 2008

http://blogs.jsonline.com/bucks/archive/2008/04/29/bogut-on-board-with-skiles-hiring.aspx

Andrew Bogut is enjoying some vacation time in Croatia, where he is visiting family and friends after the long National Basketball Association season.

But it's fair to say the Bucks center is keeping up with current events.

Bogut had this reaction to the hiring of former Chicago Bulls coach Scott Skiles as the Bucks' new coach: "I'm very excited about coach; I know he will be tough," the Australian wrote in an e-mail response. "I think he will be the leader we need to set things straight and hold everyone accountable."

Skiles signed a four-year, fully guaranteed $18 million contract to lead the Bucks, after coaching the Bulls for four-plus seasons. The Bulls made the playoffs in three straight seasons under Skiles, who was fired last December after Chicago got off to a sluggish start.

Skiles coached many times against the Central Division rival Bucks and had a chance to see Bogut progress from his rookie season to his third year, when he averaged 14.3 points and 9.8 rebounds while playing a team-leading 78 games.

"He's doing what you would want any young big guy to do, showing constant improvement," Skiles said. "Young big guys like that, you worry if they seem to be plateauing.

"He doesn't seem to be doing anything like that. It's logical to assume he's going to continue to get better."

Bogut is always a tough critic on himself, and it's clear he also expects improvement.

"My second half of the year was great," Bogut said in a season-ending interview. "My first half was definitely disappointing. I think my second half, I forgot about all the off-court distractions and all the things that were bothering me my first two years.

"I just went out there and played hard. Obviously, you're going to have bad games. You probably have five or 10 bad games in an NBA season. If I can limit it to five next year, I'll be very happy with that. These last 20 games, it was tough going out there, knowing the games were kind of pointless in a way. I used these as motivation to prove myself, that I could definitely be a focal point of the offense and be a team guy first."

Bogut said he sees plenty of potential in frontcourt teammate Yi Jianlian, who went through ups and downs during his rookie year.

"To have him at the 4 (power forward) and shoot the ball the way he does, that's his main role, and I think he's done a great job with it," Bogut said. "I think he can spread the defense. But once he gets more aggressive, I think he needs to work on putting the ball on the floor and trying to get to the basket.

"He's as athletic as anybody I've seen. Ballhandling will be a key factor for him, working in the off-season. If he gets that down, he'll be a much more productive guy. Guys are scouting him and trying to make him put the ball on the floor.

"It's kind of tough, adjusting to NBA guys who are much quicker than you're used to. It's just getting strong hands, and I think he'll be fine. His work ethic is unbelievable, and he'll be in the gym every day this summer."

Bogut also had strong praise for rookie point guard Ramon Sessions, who had a chance to play late in the season and produced a game-winning shot at Washington and a franchise-record 24 assists in a 151-135 loss to the Bulls.

"He was a true point guard," Bogut said. "I haven't played with a true point guard since I've been here, really. I think he did a great job of trying to find teammates first and shoot second. Hopefully, he'll keep that mentality. I think he definitely deserves everything he got."

Sessions piled up some of his statistics in high-scoring games where little defense was being played, but Bogut did not think the numbers were imaginary.

"Obviously, his call-up came when we weren't making the playoffs, and it's a bit easier to go out there when there's no pressure on you and just go out and play," Bogut said. "Still, what he did with 20-and-20 showed a lot, and I think he established himself as a guy who is going to be in the rotation next year, there's no doubt.

"I just keep telling him, 'Don't work on that jump shot too much. Keep distributing that ball.' We've got enough great shooters on this team; we don't need another one. I think he understands that."
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Bogut on board with Skiles' hiring

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