2/12/2005 02:42:00 PM|||Shep|||With Keith Van Horn playing the fallen angel, and Marcus Fizer in IL purgatory, Kukoc has strapped on some wings and returned from obscurity with this flight of fancy in his last 5 games:

24 min - 44 FG% - 86 FT% - 0.4 FG3 - 7.6 pts - 5.6 reb - 5.2 ast - 0.8 stl - 1.0 blk - 1.4 TO

Rebounding slightly above the league average for forwards is all well and good, but 5.2 assists from someone who can play PF? You'd have to have Garnett or Webber on your team to come close to that. Granted both of them score and rebound a lot more... they're also not available on the waiver wire, are they? Add in those numbers from the end the stat line, and you've got yourself a genuine poor man's Brad Miller.

Until Van Horn proves he's ready to contribute, Kukoc will be a solid backup forward. He's playing about 80 times better than Fizer had been, so if the Bucks are smart (are they?), they'll keep Kukoc ahead of him on the depth chart.
|||110823903571236941|||Pick-up Of The Week: Toni Kukoc