Bucks Hamming it Up

MILWAUKEE —  George Karl sat at his desk mulling his 20th starting lineup as the Milwaukee Bucks prepared to face the Chicago Bulls.

Was he going to go small? How about an energy lineup?

Karl looked up and smiled.

“It’s a Darvin Ham lineup,” Karl said, laughingly penciling in his name last week for the first time since Nov. 2.

While Philadelphia, New York and Toronto all used the trading deadline to deal with their deficiencies, the Bucks, nearing their first Central Division championship in 15 years, stood pat.

They’ll have a fresh look down the stretch nonetheless.

Ham returned to action March 1 after missing 53 games while recovering from a foot operation, and the Bucks are hoping he gives them the kind of emotional jolt he did a year ago.

“Darvin gave us a great lift last year as a starter,” Karl said. “He’s one of the few people on our team that doesn’t need touches, never asks for the ball.”

Ham, in his fourth NBA season, is still shaking off the rust -- against the Bulls, two passes bounced off his hands and out of bounds and one of his passes went to no one. But there’s no denying his impact when he’s in the lineup.

An undrafted 6-foot-7, 240-pound forward out of Texas Tech, Ham had a breakout second half last season. After missing the first 39 games with a bum right knee, Ham sparked the Bucks down the stretch, leading Milwaukee into the playoffs.

As was the case last year, Ham’s horsepower and hustle are welcome additions to a lineup of Ray Allen, Sam Cassell, Ervin Johnson and Glenn Robinson that is so quiet it wouldn’t bother a librarian.

After starting just six games total in Denver, Indiana and Washington in his first two seasons in the league, Ham started 21 of 35 games after coming off the injured list last year and averaged 5.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.2 assists and countless moments of inspiration.

In the playoffs against Indiana, Ham shot 65 percent from the field and contributed 5.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game.

But after his breakout year, Ham came down on a defender’s foot in the third game of the season and needed an operation to reposition the displaced bones. Karl said he’d lost the “heart and soul” of his team.

After losing nine of their first 12 games, the Bucks made a strong recovery as Mark Pope, Jason Caffey, Scott Williams and Jerome Kersey all filled in admirably for their fallen teammate.

Even when he starts, Ham relates more with this group of reserves and role players than he does with the team’s star players.

“We’re not prima donnas,” Ham said. “We just come to do our job. We bring the hard hat and the lunch pail every day.”

And now he’s working, too, not just watching.

Everybody’s eager to see if Ham can have the same impact as he did in the final two months last season.

“I hope so,” Karl said. “I think we might be putting a little high expectations on him to come back from a serious injury to be at the top of his game. But I think we need to find out what his comfort zone is and what he can do to the combinations that we have up front and that’s what we’re doing.”

The one thing Karl’s sure of is that while Ham’s body needs to get used to the rigors of the NBA midstream, his mental toughness won’t.

“I don’t think that’s going anywhere,” Karl said. “We need some energy, some juice and some toughness. He’s one of our tough leaders.”

Ham said he has no doubts he can do what he did last year, something that might allow Karl to quit ranting about his team’s lack of interest in improving its defense.

In his first start since Oct. 31, Ham had 10 points and 11 rebounds against the Bulls. He hit a halfcourt buzzer-beater in his next start.

Ham knows his contributions aren’t measured in the box score, either.

“I’m a guy who can go out and calm my teammates down when things seem to not be going our way,” he said. “I talk to guys and get guys to stay focused and that’s a big thing. We’re going to have enough people gunning for us. We shouldn’t have to shoot ourselves in the foot.”