Hammond to ORL: Confirmed by ownership

[emunney]

Now Babcock is the guy who's really been here forever. Bucks hired him the same year as George Karl.

EDIT: Correction, hired the year *before* George Karl.

[Badgerlander]

So it sounds as if much of the credit for Giannis goes to Weltman.

It was Dave Babcock who scouted Giannis extensively and brough tHammond and Weltman over to Greece to see him.

I like how an Atlanta reporter is reporting all of this. Classic see a tweet and post it as your own without doing any background info or fact checking.

Chouinard covered the Bucks until about a year ago

[Steve210]

Well the ORL board seems pretty excited about it, but a lot of their excitement is around his draft success and not considering the awful contracts he's been involved with.

The ORL board was also pretty excited when they hired Skiles I wouldn't read too much into that.

I personally think Hammond is a really good guy, I've met him and spoke to him on a number of occasions, he's one of the most down to earth and personable guys that have worked in the Bucks front office. We have all debated his hits and misses a number of times here. He's had some great drafts and some not so great drafts, good trades and bad trades. Bad free agent signings and some decent ones.

I just hope Zanik is ready? We have no idea what this guy is all about, and we are going to find out really soon, as Bucks fans let's hope he can keep this thing moving in the right direction, because Hammond definitely laid the ground work for the future.

[Wiscfan92]

It was Dave Babcock who scouted Giannis extensively and brough tHammond and Weltman over to Greece to see him.

I like how an Atlanta reporter is reporting all of this. Classic see a tweet and post it as your own without doing any background info or fact checking.

Chouinard covered the Bucks until about a year ago

Wasn't aware of that, so I guess that's my bad then. Makes this even worse then if he was associated with the team. Who did he write for?

[chonestown]

I personally think Hammond is a really good guy, I've met him and spoke to him on a number of occasions, he's one of the most down to earth and personable guys that have worked in the Bucks front office. We have all debated his hits and misses a number of times here. He's had some great drafts and some not so great drafts, good trades and bad trades. Bad free agent signings and some decent ones.

GOS has brought this up as well and I do think it matters. If other GMs think you're a dick and agents hate you, the ability to bring in desired personnel may be compromised. With that said, his affability doesn't excuse his misadventures.

[Treebeard]

I'm waiting to hear Kidd's status in all this... I'm not a fan of his in-game coaching and less a fan of his reported personnel work. Zanik's first operation as GM (assuming he's still here at the end of the week) should be to decide Kidd's fate. IF Zanik fires Kidd (and coaches), let it be soon, so the replacements can be onboard sooner as well.

[blazza18]

John Hammond will always be the guy whose new bosses hired and fired coaches behind his back.

He's always been a mediocre, lame duck.

[Badgerlander]

I like how an Atlanta reporter is reporting all of this. Classic see a tweet and post it as your own without doing any background info or fact checking.

Chouinard covered the Bucks until about a year ago

Wasn't aware of that, so I guess that's my bad then. Makes this even worse then if he was associated with the team. Who did he write for?

he did several of his own blogs and i think may have been on brewhoop before he was hired to cover the hawks

[SirChurros]

I think people are being overly-optimistic if they think this has any impact on Kidd.

I guess anything is possible, but I would be very surprised.

[ReasonablySober]

Read on Twitter

[Fresh_Prince12]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

This is simply not true. It was Dave Babcock.

And wasn't it McKinney the one who pushed for thon? I remember a lot of draft videos where he was talking him up a lot

[Treebeard]

"...and anticipate further announcements about the front office staff...." Now, I'm nervous....

[SirChurros]

"...and anticipate further announcements about the front office staff...." Now, I'm nervous....

I think this just means that expect an announcement confirming Zanik as the next GM soon.

[sidney lanier]

Assuming it's going to be Zanik now, I wonder whether his ten years with ASM Sports will mean their stable of NBA players now becomes where we look first for free agents. Kyle Lowry is a client.

[Bernman]

This is a bad thing, until Kidd departs. One less dissenting voice who is a personnel guy and has power in at least his title in the room.

Like I said on Twitter, I don't love the idea of Orlando knowing who the Bucks like at #17. Doesn't matter at #6, but it sure as **** matters at #25, or in how Orlando deals on draft night with other teams.

That Vasquez trade is really the gift that keeps on giving, huh. That was our pick. So instead of 2 picks, 17 and 25, we get 1 where we may get traded ahead of by the team who now has that 25th pick, in addition to our intel.

If we make the Brooklyn trade it might be even worse because they wouldn't have to trade up then. They'd select 2 spots ahead of us on the second pick.

[Treebeard]

And wasn't it McKinney the one who pushed for thon? I remember a lot of draft videos where he was talking him up a lot

I believe Hammond and McKinney have been friends and frequent co-workers since their college days

[bango_the_buck]

One would expect Zanik to be formally promoted and to bring in a right-hand man.

Edit: Have It All beat me too it.

[M-C-G]

I personally think Hammond is a really good guy, I've met him and spoke to him on a number of occasions, he's one of the most down to earth and personable guys that have worked in the Bucks front office. We have all debated his hits and misses a number of times here. He's had some great drafts and some not so great drafts, good trades and bad trades. Bad free agent signings and some decent ones.

If other GMs think you're a dick and agents hate you.

Just ask this dipwad

[diener34]

Do we know how attached Zanik is to advanced analytics?

Is it reasonable to assume that every team has analytics department at this point? The likelihood that they're all saying the same thing is probably high.

The differentiating factor seems to be having a 'Jerry West' that can see which players are best and that can conceptualize which grouping of players will win.

As far as advanced analytics goes, I'm sure every team has some sort in practice, but you have a staggering range....

Teams like the Rockets and Warriors know exactly what they want to do and use the #'s to build the team and coach them to the maximum efficiency.

Then you have teams like the Bulls who I'm sure have an analytics department, but GarPax either has no idea how to use it or just ignore it completely.

I have faith in Zanik with his pedigree, but I was specifically looking for quotes or instances where he's talked about the shift toward analyitcs in the past 10 years.

[blazza18]

If the owners chose to keep Kidd midseason, I'm not overly excited Zanik will be allowed to do his job properly. But also it could mean Zanik wants to keep Kidd around. Which isn't great either.