After watching the Milwaukee Bucks last night, who may very well be the worst team in the NBA right now, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. Yes, the Trail Blazers have been decimated by injuries. But at least Portland still has talent left to fill the remaining uniforms.

Milwaukee has very, very little talent. Losing Michael Redd last week to yet another serious knee injury just about sucked the life out of this team. My goodness — he was their guy, their Brandon Roy. A member of the Olympic team and one of the best outside shooters in basketball, Redd again suffered a torn ACL and MCL, to the same knee he was recovering from a similar injury.

And the sense of gloom it caused the Bucks was obvious last night as they sleepwalked through a 12-point loss to the Trail Blazers that just as easily could have been a 30-point loss. Honestly, that team we saw last night in the RG was worse than the Nets or Timberwolves. Ugh.

And Brandon Jennings seems for the moment to have forgotten what type of player he is. Instead of trying to penetrate and get the Blazer defense back on its heels, he mostly passed the ball softly around the perimeter or parked behind the three-point line and lofted long, often erratic jumpers. That’s not going to work for him. Would love to seem him back in the paint, lofting that pretty tear drop he has.

But I have to say there’s another team out there I’m feeling sorry for, too. There are actually Los Angeles Clippers fans out there, people. And you have to feel bad that they woke up to the news today that their marvelous No. 1 pick in the draft, Blake Griffin, is out for the season.

Man, this kid was going to be the reason the Clippers stepped up a notch this season and probably competed for a playoff spot. Chris Kamen is playing very well and Baron Davis, for the time being, is paying attention. Griffin would have been a difference maker.

Now — and Trail Blazer fans can identify — the Clipper faithful will have to sit around and wait a year to watch their No. 1 pick play, an ironic parallel with Greg Oden.

That really stinks.

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Don’t know if you noticed it or not, but Jennings, the Milwaukee Bucks rookie point guard, went scoreless in the first quarter Saturday night against the Golden State Warriors — and then scored 55 points over the last three periods!

This is the player who skipped out on college last season to play in Europe, the first young American to take that avenue to the NBA. He had mostly a hard time getting on the floor for his team, but his experience against older players and with tons of practice time was invaluable.

This blog post by former agent and Sports Management Worldwide founder Dr. Lynn Lashbrook best sums it up:

And instead of a one-and-done year on campus, he had an enriching European experience, did his maturing and growing up while learning to function in his chosen career — and made a lot of money doing it. No offense intended to anyone at Arizona or any other college, but I believe Jennings made a very intelligent decision.

And his play in the NBA is reflecting that. If you go to Europe, pay attention, work hard and listen to the very talented and experienced players over there, you’re going to learn A LOT.

Is there any doubt this could lead to more players following his lead? The only stumbling block after Jennings’ uneven performance over there, is that some European teams now may be reluctant to take on high school players, fearing they won’t be good enough to contribute to their teams. But some will compete at a passable level and there will be enough of them to entice teams into taking a chance on others.

And over here, it will only take a few going over — the marquee players a lot of college programs rely on to sell tickets and raise TV ratings — before it will look as if the NBA rule prohibiting the drafting of high school players will be rendered fairly useless as far as the colleges are concerned.

I’m not in favor of a kid skipping a senior season of high school to go to Europe, as is being attempted this season. But instead of a year in college at some school where the coach is more of a poser than a mentor? Absolutely. Go make some money and see the world!

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Like the Los Angeles Lakers (Paul Gasol) and Denver Nuggets (Chauncey Billups), the San Antonio Spurs have managed to add a very good player to their roster (Richard Jefferson) without giving up much of anything but a little garage-sale junk from the basement.

Jefferson will help the Spurs a lot and San Antonio gave up three expendable players with expiring contracts, including Fabricio Oberto, who will probably — after a buyout — end up back with the Spurs.

This illustrates again that if teams in the NBA want to take on big contracts, they can get players for virtually free. I know the Bucks will sit back and tell their fans that they’re going to be in great shape after next season because of a lot of cap room, but it’s likely they won’t ever convince a free agent to go there anyway. I think such deals, long term, are bad for the NBA. It’s seemingly increasing the distance between the haves and have-nots.

But the Trail Blazers are supposed to be one of the haves. I know they had no interest in Jefferson because they’ve turned him down since last season’s trade deadline. But there must be somebody out there they really want and in this financial climate, I would expect them to add someone in a onesided trade. Seriously — it’s THE way to get better right now in the league.

Portland needs to take advantage of this situation while it exists. It’s the strong preying on the weak and the Blazers better be working toward their own private feast.

If good players are being given away by NBA teams, I expect the Trail Blazers to be up in front of that line. One warning, though — nobody knows what the salary cap is going to be yet and any trade involving a lot of cap space may not be possible for Portland until sometime in July.

That means we might see things in this draft that don’t make sense right away but will be clearer whenever that cap number is made clear.

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Whatever problem Scott Skiles seems to have with his players — and I sense sometimes he has problems in that area (or with his front offices) — the guy can coach. I’m telling you, the Milwaukee Bucks played HARD against the Trail Blazers last night. And played pretty smart, too.

The Milwaukee defense was extremely difficult to penetrate for much of the game. Skiles used a lot of overplaying and ball denial to take Portland out of its comfort zone. Eventually, the Blazers were able to launch a lot of three-pointers and on this night, that was a good thing. The shots were going in and that was the difference in the game. Oh, that and Brandon Roy, who had another one of those special games.

It was a very physical game, a playoff-type test for Portland even though the Bucks are probably, with all the injuries, the least-talented team the Blazers will face for the remainder of the season. Again, credit to Skiles for coming up with a game plan that worked most of the night and getting his players to play so hard.

Roy and Steve Blake were the difference makers in this game, with a lot of help from Joel Przybilla. The team’s ball movement is getting much better, although I’d like to see the ball get inside to the post a little more often. (That’s kind of a broken record, isn’t it?).

And by the way, on this night it was Sergio Rodriguez’s turn to ride the merry-go-round that is the Blazers’ backup point guard rotation. He turned it over a few times, missed some assists when teammates blew wide-open shots at the basket but in general, played well considering it’s been three games since he’s been out there. They might as well sign somebody out of the D-League to a 10-day contract just to muddle that position up a little more.

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The Bucks had no answer inside for Greg Oden. So Greg Oden got the ball. Nice idea. Nice execution. Might be worth trying again some night.

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