Summary of Bad moves while Hammond "GM"

[paulpressey25]

Don't want to debate control/no control. Simply want to document all the bad moves that occurred while Hammond was employed as GM. There was a lot of bad crap that went down when he was with the organization.

Please feel free to add so we have a comprehensive list. Also please post those flow charts that showed how we cycled through bad SF to bad SF over a multi year period.

Drafting Joe Alexander and passing on Brook Lopez as he fell in 2008 draft

Trading for Richard Jefferson and taking on his huge contract right after taking over

Failure for his first three years to get a backup C for Bogut despite his injury issues

Holding out trading Redd and his big contract in January 2009 when he was having knee issues. Then Redd's ACL blew and he was untradeable.

Creating a salary mess in his first season with RJ and Redd resulting in team trying to trade lotto pick Alexander to New Jersey six-months later to dump Ridnour's salary. (He needed money to match any offer sheet for Ramon Sessions).

Botching negotiations with the Knicks in the July 2009 when D'Antoni was considering putting David Lee and Gallinari on the table for Ramon. A month later he let Ramon go for no return to the Wolves on a reasonable offer sheet.

Trading Gadz expiring contract and one year of Bell for Corey Maggette's $30 million dollar contract.

Using the 10th overall pick in 2011 draft to then dump Maggette, passing on Klay Thompson. In process he then acquired Stephen Jackson's $20 million owed.

Using Bogut trade dump Jackson's toxic personality and contract and taking on Monta, passing on Steph.

Rather than using restricted free agency as a tool, preemptively giving huge contracts to Larry Sanders and John Henson a year early.

Trading a first and second round pick for Vasquez

Spending $120 million on Miles Plumlee, Teletovic and Delly last summer

Props for the Brogdon/Moute picks in the second round. But think he used about 20 of them in his time here.

What else? Know there are many small move failures also I'm forgetting like Brockman, the Keyon Dooling FA contract. Help me out.

[emunney]

The Delfino signing when Delfino already had a broken foot and never played for us (or in the NBA) again. My personal favorite, although not high impact.

[Swan Vox]

Hambone bad move:

Giving out his business card to random fans and expecting them not to abuse it on draft night.

[Wooderson]

[paulpressey25]

Bad move that turned good. Botched negotiations at 2013 trade deadline to acquire Josh Smith from Danny Ferry. The 2013 number one later used on Giannis WAS going outbound in that package.

Also, failing to acquire Eric Bledsoe from the Clips in the Reddick sign and trade negotiations in July 2013. The Suns got him for taking on Caron Butler's contract. We traded for Caron Butler (and his contract) only SIX WEEKS later.

[Wooderson]

I forgot that the 2nd rounder sent to SAC for Brockman turned into Isaiah Thomas.

[paulpressey25]

Dealt Mo Williams to Cleveland for Ridnour. We can debate Mo's culture issues here. But on a talent for talent basis, Mo did get his asterisk appearance in the All Star game after he left us.

As noted above, the Ridnour contract was so problematic to the luxury tax situation six months later Hammond offered newly drafted lotto pick Joe Alexander to NJ to take Ridnour's contract off our hands. Google it. Nets declined that deal.

[Kerb Hohl]

Trading Gadz expiring contract and one year of Bell for Corey Maggette's $30 million dollar contract.

Using the 10th overall pick in 2011 draft to then dump Maggette, passing on Klay Thompson. In process he then acquired Stephen Jackson's $20 million owed.

Using Bogut trade dump Jackson's toxic personality and contract and taking on Monta, passing on Steph.

This string of moves is what made me stop watching the Bucks for several years. I moved out of market so my jump back on the bandwagon wasn't even that major.

I think overpaying to bring Salmons back after FTD is involved in this string as he was also involved in the dump with Maggette. The trade would have been insanely good (dumping Maggette and Salmons AND being able to move up in the draft if you look at the pieces that moved around in the trade) but they needed to get Jackson (probably a Herb directive).

The flow chart is actually missing the Salmons aspect. FTD was great because we just enjoyed the ride assuming that we had Jennings and Bogut plus some flexibility the following year. Dropping a few spots in the draft due to the late-season run wasn't a huge deal...and then we traded for Maggette and signed Salmons to a giant contract...and when Hammond was given the "get out of jail free" card and botched that in the Charlotte/Sacto trade.

[buckboy]

Ummmmm........taking Michael Carter ****ing Williams over the Lakers pick?

People must have blocked that out of their heads it was so terrible.

[M-C-G]

Ummmmm........taking Michael Carter ****ing Williams over the Lakers pick?

People must have blocked that out of their heads it was so terrible.

I think everyone knows that was soooooooo Kidd, it doesn't make a ton of sense to even bring up.

[Ron Swanson]

- Wasting the 8th overall pick on Joe Alexander.

- Trading back in 2011 Draft and passing on the opportunity to draft Klay Thompson or Kawhi Leonard.

Those to me are the biggest wasted assets/missed opportunity's that set the franchise back. Everyone gets a mulligan, but you can't whiff that bad on a top-10 pick. Klay doesn't likely impact our drafting of Giannis (Curry would have), which is then biggest factor for me in all these hindsight scenarios.

Reddick and Vasquez trades were up there as far as wasted assets go, but the value of said assets is debatable. Gooden, Henson, Plumlee, and Salmons contracts/extensions were all dumb and foreseeable without hindsight.

[MickeyDavis]

Gooden SMH. Coming off a one year deal at the vets minimum we bid against ourselves and sign him to a ridiculous 5 year deal. And then have to use amnesty to waive him.

[yoshii8]

Trading Tobias Harris for an expiring JJ Reddick to chase the 8th seed.

[gbmb34]

Probably most Kohl, but how about Sessions and Joe Alexander for Mike Conley?

Or the David Lee coulda/woulda/shoulda. I wonder how many bad Hammond deals never leaked. Always seems like the 'always trades" would've been great for the Bucks. Funny how that works.

[zjl3]

http://archive.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/82942312.html Declined trade for Zachary Randolph

How about in 10-11 Hammond acquiring 4 of his former Clippers players - Keyon Dooling, Earl Boykins, Brian Skinner, and Corey Maggettee

[Nowak008]

Gooden SMH. Coming off a one year deal at the vets minimum we bid against ourselves and sign him to a ridiculous 5 year deal. And then have to use amnesty to waive him.

I don't think you can overstate how stupid that move was. He played for 7 different teams in 9 years. He had gotten the vet min the previous year. The book was out on him - he sucked and sucked hard. 5 freaking year deal - incredible. Everyone on the board was horrified and from day one was an albatross.

[gbmb34]

Gooden SMH. Coming off a one year deal at the vets minimum we bid against ourselves and sign him to a ridiculous 5 year deal. And then have to use amnesty to waive him.

I don't think you can overstate how stupid that move was. He played for 7 different teams in 9 years. He had gotten the vet min the previous year. The book was out on him - he sucked and sucked hard. 5 freaking year deal - incredible. Everyone on the board was horrified and from day one was an albatross.

I remember this vividly. Guys like AussieBuck hated Gooden before the terms were even announced. I was sort of fine with it as a bench big for a few million for a season or 2. Then he gets the full mid-level. Might be his most obviously horrendous move.

Not to mention that Gooden has been out of the league for years while LRMAM and Ersan are still humming along as rotation players.

[bizarro]

Wow. Let's go team! This is the lulz.

Let me just throw a peanut into this room of elephants...

Tossing in this year's 1st round Clippers pick (in addition, yawn, ad nauseum I know we've screamed this out here time and again) for a one season injured rental of Greivous Vasquez. I will never live it down. Ever. And, don't Kidd yourself: Hammond executed the move regardless of influence.

[buckboy]

Ummmmm........taking Michael Carter ****ing Williams over the Lakers pick?

People must have blocked that out of their heads it was so terrible.

I think everyone knows that was soooooooo Kidd, it doesn't make a ton of sense to even bring up.

OK. So we are open to conjecture then.

"bad move made while Hammond was GM".

For the record, I agree that that was probably Kidd. Along with Vasquez. But I also don't think it matters. His name is on the door.

[bizarro]

But, really, the overarching theme for me during Hammond's tenure is the absolute inability to sustain any positive momentum. He was the classic 'one step forward, two steps back' or 'shooting oneself in the foot' GM. His inability to capitalize and create a sustained run can be attributed to his penchant for utterly stupid valuation of assets.

The two microcosms of this, for me, are the organizational and Hammond-executed disdain for 2nd round (Primarily) draft assets. As a small market team, you CAN NOT cater to the myth that you need meaningless vets to warm the end of your bench. It pigeonholes the team into demanding stardom and success from its (in Hammond's case) 'boom/bust' 1st round picks. This is simply counterintuitive to all tenets of even the most conservative of investment strategies. It puts the team in the proverbial corner.

Case and point, for me, are the following failed and inexplicable strategies:

(1) Acquire Salmons and Bulls 2nd round pick for Hakim Warrick and Joe Alexander. Later slings that 2nd round pick - Isaiah Thomas - for an absolutely non-NBA player in John Brockman. Inexplicable. Roll the dice w/ youth. Draftpicks are gold (yes, i understand the percentages...this doesn't mean you don't play them). I mean, let's also not forget we slung the 2nd of the 2 2nd round picks for Chris Douglas-Roberts. The Lakers ultimately selected Robert Sacre - a decent 'Mr Irrelevant'.

(2) 2011, we trade a protected 2nd round pick and cagey vet Keyon Dooling to Boston for the rights to Spanish C/F Albert Miralles.

(3) Acquire a future 2nd in the trade back to 14 and acquisition of Sammy Dalembert

(4) Sling future 2nd to Philly and Ricky Ledo to Dallas for rights to fan favorite Nate Wolters

(5) In summer of 2013, we collect 3 2nd round picks in a span of two days in the Redick and Ridnour dealings

(6) A day later, we trade Luc M'bah Moute for the more favorable of Pelicans/Kings picks...things looking up.

(7) Trade draft rights to Lamar Patterson to Atlanta for a future 2nd round pick. At the time Patterson was deemed a decent 2nd round prospect.

(8) Acquire the rights to trade for Greivous...I'm sorry, we acquire a 1st round pick and Jared Dudley from Clips for Delfino, Miroslav and - you guessed it - a future 2nd.

(9) Meanwhile, we're filling our roster spots w/ Kenyon Martins; Jorge Guttierez; Chris Copeland; Steve Novak...and on and on.

(10) Trade Jared Dudley and Zaza, respectively to Washington and Dallas, for heavily protected 2nd round picks. I wonder what the Bucks will do with these?!? Derp derp.

(11) And, of course, there are the meaningless day 2 trades of Norman Powell and Patrick McCaw. Because, the more you play these odds you see, you WILL find talent in the 2nd round.


I mean, all you have to do is look at these transactions, they are just a microcosm. Under Hammond, there was no direction - there was the constant one step forward and two steps back. There was simply feeble attempts to acquiesce to HC and Owner demands. A devaluing of valuable draft assets for meaningless vets. The problem is: he was turrible at creating success given the criteria and desires of said figure. The Bucks overall record - regular season and playoffs - speaks to this. It's really that simple. It all happens on the fringes w/ small market teams and the Bucks burned their fringes with aplomb.