Random Tidbits

[PkrsBcksGphsMqt]

At a charity golf outing recently I had the opportunity to speak with a current Bucks employee and a former Bucks employee. Both worked in/with the front office. Both were super nice dudes and fun to hang out with.

I'm not sure how interesting these things will be (many are not surprising), but I figured I might as well throw them up on the board.

Current Employee:
- One of the first things I said to him was that I was "excited for the Bucks this year." His response seemed like a rehearsed answer, mostly about our veterans etc. This kind of freaked me out so I made it clear I was not excited for a playoff run, but for our new direction and young talent. His eyes kind of lit up after I said that and he started to speak more freely and open about the team.
- I then tried to get some information about the Bledsoe situation. He didn't give me a whole lot. He said that no one really wants to give him the max because he has not proven to stay healthy. He said his agent won't even agree to a huge incentive-laden contract or any kind of provisions that are dependent on games played. He also said Phoenix was being unreasonable with their demands for a sign and trade. He didn't really give me a prediction of what will happen with Bledsoe. I brought up the possibility of Bledsoe signing a 1 year deal and becoming a free agent and he said that would probably be the best route if Bledsoe truly believes in himself. He also said that would force Phoenix to trade him.
- I then mentioned to him that I liked the last trade the pulled off because they acquired a future first and that I had been frustrated under Kohl because they never seemed to value draft picks. He responded with a very emotional, "THAT IS WHAT WE'VE BEEN WANTING TO DO EVER SINCE WE GOT HERE!" With "we" meaning him and Hammond. He said it was basically the Senator's demands to win now that stopped them from acquiring future firsts etc. He also seemed to tout Dudley as a major coup in the deal.
- Then the employee told me that it is going to take at least one more bad season/high draft pick to get this thing on the right track (he then quickly said "not as bad as last year though!!" and I quickly told him, I don't care if it is that bad ). That led into a dicussion about the prospects in the draft and how he thought it would be a strong draft. I told him I thought there would be a lot of good big men taken at the top of the draft and he immediately mentioned Okafor as the guy at the top of the draft. Then right as I was about to mention Mudiay he started gushing about him. He then got real serious and told me the guy he really, really liked was Theo Pinson, said he could play 1, 2, or 3. He said he was really looking forward to scouting Pinson this season.
- He also talked briefly on former players' unrealistic perceptions of themselves (this was while we were discussing Bledsoe wanting to be a max player). He really ripped on Luc and to a lesser degree Jennings. He said Luc thought he was a max player and that he believed he was a great offensive talent. He even said Luc would go to the coaches/front office and talk to them about being able to play PG .

Former Employee:
- He got the job because he was tight with the Senator. Senator told Hammond, "Hey I am not going to tell you what to do, that's why I hired you, for you to make the decisions. But if I were making the decision on whether or not we should hire this guy, I'd hire him." I have a feeling this sort of thing happened a lot. The former employee hated Hammond, because he felt like Hammond would give him assignments below his experience and expertise. He ultimately quit because of this.
- Said he was tight with Steinmiller (stun).
- This guy also said if the Chicago owners would have won the bid for the team he would have been rehired in the front office.
- He also said that Billy Mckinney was so convinced he was going to be fired after last season that he moved in with his mom. I assume this meant he sold his place, but I'm not sure. It was a really weird comment . He also said Hammond (and everyone else in the front office) was convinced that they were going to be fired.

That was kind of a brain dump, if I remember some other stuff we talked about I'll make another post. Again, not sure how interesting this stuff is, but I don't get a lot of opportunities like this so I figured I'd share.

[Turk Nowitzki]

Thanks for the report, some awesome stuff in there!

[pack15412]

LRMAM as a point guard! That hilarious.

[PkrsBcksGphsMqt]

Couple of other things I remembered while cooking dinner, all are from the current employee:

On Marshall: They only considered picking him up after Kidd had made comments about how he was disappointed that there weren't many pass-first PGs in the league any more.

On Mayo, Larry, Henson: They are all looking good. He kept saying Larry is going to have a bounce back year. He also said Henson is not a center (at all)... "he doesn't have the ass to play center." We also talked about his diet and the need for him to put on weight and to keep it on. I asked about Mayo specifically mentioning he looked FAT! last season and he just looked off into the distance and said, "Yeah, I don't know what happened there." He seemed really optimistic about Mayo going into this season though.

Wolters: Said he really liked him, but that he had a really tough summer league (including practices).

[AussieBuck]

Current employee is a moron.

[PkrsBcksGphsMqt]

Current employee is a moron.

Yeah, I didn't want to rip the guy because he was so nice, but he didn't exactly impress me. I seriously think there are brighter people on this board and that's kind of frightening if you know what is position is.

The former employee also thought everyone from the Kohl regime would be fired by the end of this next season. I'm not sure how much weight to give that statement though, because he was clearly pissed at Hammond and it could have just been wishful thinking on his part.

[AussieBuck]

Current employee is a moron.

Yeah, I didn't want to rip the guy because he was so nice, but he didn't exactly impress me. I seriously think there are brighter people on this board and that's kind of frightening if you know what is position is.

The former employee also thought everyone from the Kohl regime would be fired by the end of this next season. I'm not sure how much weight to give that statement though, because he was clearly pissed at Hammond and it could have just been wishful thinking on his part.

Henson has more ass than Larry! It's so hard to believe that a paid member of an NBA front office can think that someone with Henson's skill set is anything other than a C. Hammonds thought Larry was a PF too so I guess he's not alone in having his head up his butt.

[LUKE23]

I think Henson can play PF only if his range improves to FT line or better. Even with the defensive awareness issues (which I think he can improve) we can live with that if Larry is at C. But you can't have two guys that can't score beyond 7 feet at PF/C. And right now Henson's jump shot is terrible. His offense is put backs/lobs and that lefty hook seven feet and in.

Really I prefer that both guys play 30+ mpg so that will necessitate them playing together at times.

[LUKE23]

And really, if I were running things, Ilyasova would be gone and Parker/Henson/Sanders would get all the PF/C minutes barring injury.

[emunney]

I like that they're into Pinson, but I don't think it's accurate that he can be your ball handler as his handle is not very good. Good passer though. Smart.

[Ill-yasova]

We also talked about his diet and the need for him to put on weight and to keep it on. I asked about Mayo specifically mentioning he looked FAT! last season and he just looked off into the distance and said, "Yeah, I don't know what happened there." He seemed really optimistic about Mayo going into this season though.

I laughed SO hard at this part that it scared my dogs!

[Badgerlander]

Current employee is a moron.

Yeah, I didn't want to rip the guy because he was so nice, but he didn't exactly impress me. I seriously think there are brighter people on this board and that's kind of frightening if you know what is position is.

The former employee also thought everyone from the Kohl regime would be fired by the end of this next season. I'm not sure how much weight to give that statement though, because he was clearly pissed at Hammond and it could have just been wishful thinking on his part.

Henson has more ass than Larry! It's so hard to believe that a paid member of an NBA front office can think that someone with Henson's skill set is anything other than a C. Hammonds thought Larry was a PF too so I guess he's not alone in having his head up his butt.

I was going to say the same thing actually. The very first thing that I noticed about Henson was that he uses his ass like a Center. He may not have much of an anchor but he knows how to use it like a Center.

[yoshii8]

Big fan of the word tidbit. Thanks for sharing, sounds like a good conversation.

[raferfenix]

Thanks for sharing all this!

I think either Henson or Sanders could log significant PF minutes if they would just develop a semblance of a jump shot.

Interested in this part as well:

On Marshall: They only considered picking him up after Kidd had made comments about how he was disappointed that there weren't many pass-first PGs in the league any more.

Hoping our point guards actually making players around them better becomes a point of emphasis across the board.

[FrieAaron]

I seem to remember Wolters looking to pass way more early in the season and thought Drew talked to him about looking for his shot more or something? Maybe I'm making this up.