PG Orlando: Lopez >>> Hammond

[Pachinko_]

As much as I would love for that to be a forever thing, I know that’s probably not likely. Players age and lose some ability, teams may not gel like this, or they tune out the message, etc. It’s never a given. It’s why this run has been so special.

But I don’t want to be a downer now lol. I’m glad we have them and relieved that we have them with a superstar’s impending FA. It’s as good of a situation as anyone could dream up “selling” to Giannis

Probably not likely? Nah, it is definitely likely, very likely. Look back how we assembled this team, it was all guys with options and they chose us, we never had to pry anybody. And there will be more of these guys, and none of them will be irreplaceable. We've played without every significant contributor not named Giannis, and it made **** all difference. Actually even without Giannis we could hold our own for a couple of games, that's how powerful is Bud's system.

If those 3 stick around pretty much the only issue I can foresee is if Mids drops off and becomes untradeable, that contract could become a problem at $35-40m a year. So fingers crossed for that, but everybody else looks replaceable, Horts knows how to replace them, Bud knows how to make them play around Giannis, and Giannis knows how to lift a good fitting team to contender status. We've figured it out.

[emunney]

John Hammond is the perfect GM for a team chasing the 8th seed. It's got to be part of his elevator pitch for a GM job.

1. I drafted Giannis.
2. I can get you the 8th seed.

Who wants to be in the playoffs the same number of times as if entropy itself was the GM?

His ceiling as a GM is low. But his floor is eh, okay?

If you're a team that just cares about getting by, he's a safe choice that won't completely blunder you into the abyss. And maybe, just maybe, he can catch lightning in the bottle (drafting Giannis, the FTD run). But you don't hire him if you have the stomach for the risk of failure that comes with ambition, IMO.

I got so tired of it during his tenure I know Kohl mandated mediocrity as a floor, but it was draining to watch a GM continue to just barely meet that low bar.

His floor is the worst season in franchise history, no? He was *attempting* to be mediocre. Sometimes he did not make it.

[humanrefutation]

Who wants to be in the playoffs the same number of times as if entropy itself was the GM?

His ceiling as a GM is low. But his floor is eh, okay?

If you're a team that just cares about getting by, he's a safe choice that won't completely blunder you into the abyss. And maybe, just maybe, he can catch lightning in the bottle (drafting Giannis, the FTD run). But you don't hire him if you have the stomach for the risk of failure that comes with ambition, IMO.

I got so tired of it during his tenure I know Kohl mandated mediocrity as a floor, but it was draining to watch a GM continue to just barely meet that low bar.

His floor is the worst season in franchise history, no? He was *attempting* to be mediocre. Sometimes he did not make it.

That is very true.

[FlagsFlyForever]

I still think we are all glad the Bucks hired Hammond. We wouldn't have Middleton or Giannis without him.

[MrPerfect1]

John Hammond is the perfect GM for a team chasing the 8th seed. It's got to be part of his elevator pitch for a GM job.

1. I drafted Giannis.
2. I can get you the 8th seed.

Who wants to be in the playoffs the same number of times as if entropy itself was the GM?

His ceiling as a GM is low. But his floor is eh, okay?

If you're a team that just cares about getting by, he's a safe choice that won't completely blunder you into the abyss. And maybe, just maybe, he can catch lightning in the bottle (drafting Giannis, the FTD run). But you don't hire him if you have the stomach for the risk of failure that comes with ambition, IMO.

I got so tired of it during his tenure I know Kohl mandated mediocrity as a floor, but it was draining to watch a GM continue to just barely meet that low bar.

An argument can be made that Hammond built 2 different Championship caliber teams, with both teams being in small markets/Non FA destination cities.

[Baddy Chuck]

I still think we are all glad the Bucks hired Hammond. We wouldn't have Middleton or Giannis without him.

God bless Brandon Jennings and Danny Ferry for us having those two as well.

[tydett]

You guys aren't thinking about this money wise. For an 8th seed, each home playoff game is probably worth about $2 million in revenue. Imagine a guy comes up to a owner team governor and says "I'm going to get you that extra $4 million (at least) almost every year while never causing any image troubles and having a team that helps the community to make your org look good." That's John Hammond's sales pitch and cheapo owners eat that **** up.

[trwi7]

You guys aren't thinking about this money wise. For an 8th seed, each home playoff game is probably worth about $2 million in revenue. Imagine a guy comes up to a owner team governor and says "I'm going to get you that extra $4 million (at least) almost every year while never causing any image troubles and having a team that helps the community to make your org look good." That's John Hammond's sales pitch and cheapo owners eat that **** up.

"Instead of the $4 million in extra playoff revenue, I won't sign guys like O.J. Mayo to $8 million a year contracts, saving you an extra $4 million and also keeping your image intact."

[4xBuck]

Hammond can do better than that, and the Magic aren't cheap.

Hammond, "I can get it done in a small market. I built the 2004 Pistons and I'm responsible for the all stars and MVP for the 2019 & 2020 Bucks, bitch."

[HKPackFan]

There is something fitting about MCW on a Hammond built team.

[KidA24]

You guys aren't thinking about this money wise. For an 8th seed, each home playoff game is probably worth about $2 million in revenue. Imagine a guy comes up to a owner team governor and says "I'm going to get you that extra $4 million (at least) almost every year while never causing any image troubles and having a team that helps the community to make your org look good." That's John Hammond's sales pitch and cheapo owners eat that **** up.

"Instead of the $4 million in extra playoff revenue, I won't sign guys like O.J. Mayo to $8 million a year contracts, saving you an extra $4 million and also keeping your image intact."

Yeah, but wait til OJ gets back from injury...

[M-C-G]

Who wants to be in the playoffs the same number of times as if entropy itself was the GM?

His ceiling as a GM is low. But his floor is eh, okay?

If you're a team that just cares about getting by, he's a safe choice that won't completely blunder you into the abyss. And maybe, just maybe, he can catch lightning in the bottle (drafting Giannis, the FTD run). But you don't hire him if you have the stomach for the risk of failure that comes with ambition, IMO.

I got so tired of it during his tenure I know Kohl mandated mediocrity as a floor, but it was draining to watch a GM continue to just barely meet that low bar.

An argument can be made that Hammond built 2 different Championship caliber teams, with both teams being in small markets/Non FA destination cities.

Don't forget, Golden State!

[M-C-G]

You guys aren't thinking about this money wise. For an 8th seed, each home playoff game is probably worth about $2 million in revenue. Imagine a guy comes up to a owner team governor and says "I'm going to get you that extra $4 million (at least) almost every year while never causing any image troubles and having a team that helps the community to make your org look good." That's John Hammond's sales pitch and cheapo owners eat that **** up.

"Instead of the $4 million in extra playoff revenue, I won't sign guys like O.J. Mayo to $8 million a year contracts, saving you an extra $4 million and also keeping your image intact."

Yeah, but wait til OJ gets back from injury...

One of the weird things about bball as a fan, the IDEA of OJ Mayo for that squad was certainly fine, he added a lot of things, but can't teams hire like a private investigator to figure out how f-ed up players off court life is prior to making an offer. OJ Mayo saga, will be a 30 for 30, or E! special some day.

[DrWood]

On pace for 71 wins

[paulpressey25]

I still think we are all glad the Bucks hired Hammond. We wouldn't have Middleton or Giannis without him.

God bless Brandon Jennings and Danny Ferry for us having those two as well.

He truly was Chauncey Gardner. Sort of by happenstance lucked into Giannis because of an amazing confluence of events.

[randy84]

Hammond was a genius. If we would've had OJ and Henson last year, Kawhi wouldn't have punked the Bucks.

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

[HKPackFan]

On pace for 71 wins

I've been super curious if it is actually feasible to get 70 wins, considering they have so much of the eastern playoff teams yet not played. Raptors, heat, pacers, celtics, 76ers all have 2-3 games left.

So I broke it down.

45-7 as of the Magic game, 52 games played, 30 left.
we need to finish 70 wins and 12 losses, with 7 losses already in the books. We have 5 losses left we can afford, meaning the rest of the season we have to finish 25-5.

Out of the 30 games, 14 are under .500, the 16 games are against playoff teams.

Let's gamble and say the bucks go 14-0 against the under .500 teams (I KNOW TRAP GAMES AND ALL!!! And even the last 4 games will be a challenge because of resting people: nets, nets, cavaliers, hawks). But lets say our deep bench can beat those 4 teams to end the season. OK fine, let's make it 13-1 (especially since the Hawks are the second night of a back2back 2nd last game of the season, meaningless game maybe all tired bench team).

It means by going 13-1 against under .500 teams,
Bucks need to go 12 - 4 against playoff teams.

Who's on that 16 game schedule? 3x raptors (2 away), 2x celtics, 2x 76ers, 2x heat, 2x pacers. Once: Lakers away, Thunder home, Nuggets away, Rockets home, Mavs away.

Lakers away might be tough.
Mavs away might be tough, although we haven't let anyone sweep us this year so we could be very motivated.
Toronto away on the second half of a back2back.
Miami away on the second half of a back2back.
Nuggets away on the second half of a back2back west coast road trip (3rd game in 4 nights).

And some teams just have good shooting nights where they hit 18-22 3's.

It's going to be tough. I could see them dropping 6-9 games out of the next 30. That would be a 66-69 wins, which is still pretty incredible.

Yet I'm not going to count this team out, I believe they improved with Marvin, a couple extra minutes of good D vs Ersan, and a better 3pt percentage. This team is better than last year, and fresh with all the limited minutes, maybe the back2backs aren't as taxing.

It would not surprise me if the team only loses 5 games the rest of the way.

It's feasible, but those are 16 games where there are some good opponents and will be some tough games. It's actually great stretch to get ready for the playoffs.

[GrandAdmiralDan]

I still think we are all glad the Bucks hired Hammond. We wouldn't have Middleton or Giannis without him.

Hammond agreed to trade that draft pick (that was ultimately used on Giannis) to Atlanta at the 2013 trade deadline in a deal to acquire Josh Smith. Danny Ferry backed out of the agreed upon trade at the very last minute and saved Hammond from that blunder.

Then that 2013 off-season we signed RFA Jeff Teague to an offer sheet to replace Brandon Jennings. Atlanta wound up matching, so we instead did a sign and trade of Jennings to Detroit for Brandon Knight. Hammond has recently been on-record as not taking any credit for acquiring Middleton as part of that deal as Middleton was completely just a throw-in to that trade, according to Hammond.

So we should be more thankful to the Hawks and Danny Ferry for preventing Hammond from doing what he tried to do. Twice.

[buckboy]

30-22 against the spread. I missed the start and took 2nd half over instead.

I had it parlayed with the Bucks (2nd). We got boned on that one.

[paulpressey25]

So we should be more thankful to the Hawks and Danny Ferry for preventing Hammond from doing what he tried to do. Twice.

And in the meantime, we hired Larry Drew as head coach. With Bucks brass still steaming at Danny Ferry from months earlier, Drew informed them that Ferry was really in on this Giannis kid. Was the pick partially a "spite pick". You be the judge.