JS: Hammond Q&A

Post #1 » by **ReasonablySober** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:43 am

Link.

Right off the bat he's blaming injuries.

cinematographer · Post #2 » by **cinematographer** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:47 am

Q. One of the themes of the first half is the team's youth movement. John Henson, Khris Middleton, Sanders, Knight, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nate Wolters all have been key figures. Are the young players showing encouraging signs?

A. We were forced into it. It wasn't the plan. Sometimes you are forced to change in midstream, so to speak. That's kind of what happened to us. We've put the young players out there. We're excited about their progress. The most important thing is they continue to improve now as the season progresses.

cinematographer · Post #3 » by **cinematographer** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:49 am

I think he's potentially a keeper piece and a piece you can build with.

Such a milquetoast ****.

LUKE23 · Post #4 » by **LUKE23** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:50 am

Q.The Bucks finished six games below .500 last season after being a .500 club much of the season. Now there's a big fall-off from that point. How soon can the team be competitive again?

A. You can look around the league and see how teams have done it, teams that have done it through the draft. It usually doesn't happen overnight. Sometimes you have to be very patient, and that's not always easy to do. If you're a larger market team and you have the ability to go out and sign the marquee free agent, you can call the rebuilding process the reloading process. The direction we're heading in right now is we are going to try to build through the draft. This would be the first step in doing so, this season. You hope it happens as quickly as possible but also you don't want to rush the process. Rushing the process is when mistakes can occur. If you draft wisely and continue to have a sound financial structure and some flexibility within that, the process can happen. It may take some time to do it right, to build a team that can win long-term.

Especially for you.

cinematographer · Post #5 » by **cinematographer** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:50 am

Q.What is your assessment of coach Larry Drew (and the staff) in his first season with the franchise?

A. I think Larry has done the best job he can do in a very difficult situation. When Larry came here as coach, we didn't hire him and say, "Oh, by the way, we're going to go through this rebuilding process." Our hope was to have a competitive team, a playoff team. We made some moves in the off-season and we included Larry in those decisions. Signing Carlos, signing Zaza, signing O.J. (Mayo), trading for Luke (Ridnour) and Caron (Butler), you make those moves because you're trying to put a competitive team on the floor. That was the plan going into the season. It's easy for me to sit here and talk about changing in midstream but very difficult for the coach when he's on the floor facing it every night. I think he's done an excellent job in a very difficult situation.

I hope this is politician Hammond speaking.

EDIT: Because it doesn't matter which players come in if Drew is still the coach. Ettore Messina pls

Hammond pls

VooDoo7 · Post #6 » by **VooDoo7** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:52 am

On Carlos: "Right now we understand the surgery did go well".

It just cracks me up that we have no idea what's going on with a guy who we just gave millions to.

At least he admits that they were forced to go young. Still doesn't excuse the sh*t vet acquisitions, or the fact that if it weren't for injuries we still probably wouldn't be seeing Giannis.

Get this guy out of here please.

LUKE23 · Post #7 » by **LUKE23** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:54 am

The Delfino signing, while small in the grand scheme of things, still is pretty damn incredible. I mean that was literally just taking $3.5M and lighting it on fire.

Neal, Butler, Pachulia, Delfino, Ridnour. Amazing.

breakchains · Post #8 » by **breakchains** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:55 am

Some encouraging things in there (building through the draft, not rushing it) but ...

I think he (Knight) needs to be playing the point guard position.

cinematographer · Post #9 » by **cinematographer** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:55 am

LUKE23 wrote:The Delfino signing, while small in the grand scheme of things, still is pretty damn incredible. I mean that was literally just taking $3.5M and lighting it on fire.

Neal, Butler, Pachulia, Delfino, Ridnour. Amazing.

Mayo!

VooDoo7 · Post #10 » by **VooDoo7** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:56 am

cinematographer wrote:
I think he's potentially a keeper piece and a piece you can build with.

Such a milquetoast ****.

The guy is so damn clueless. Pisses me off.

LUKE23 · Post #11 » by **LUKE23** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:57 am

Forgot Mayo. Incredible.

paul · Post #12 » by **paul** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:58 am

cinematographer wrote:
Q. One of the themes of the first half is the team's youth movement. John Henson, Khris Middleton, Sanders, Knight, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nate Wolters all have been key figures. Are the young players showing encouraging signs?

A. We were forced into it. It wasn't the plan. Sometimes you are forced to change in midstream, so to speak. That's kind of what happened to us. We've put the young players out there. We're excited about their progress. The most important thing is they continue to improve now as the season progresses.

Nebs?

Post #13 » by **paulpressey25** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:58 am

HAMMOND: I think I just killed the Milwaukee Bucks franchise with a Trident.

JBucks · Post #14 » by **JBucks** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:59 am

Still amazing to me that he thought this team was going to the playoffs. That tells you everything you need to know about his basketball acumen.

I had 'em at 17 wins before the season started. Probably going to be less than that.

VooDoo7 · Post #15 » by **VooDoo7** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:59 am

paul wrote:
cinematographer wrote:
Q. One of the themes of the first half is the team's youth movement. John Henson, Khris Middleton, Sanders, Knight, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nate Wolters all have been key figures. Are the young players showing encouraging signs?

A. We were forced into it. It wasn't the plan. Sometimes you are forced to change in midstream, so to speak. That's kind of what happened to us. We've put the young players out there. We're excited about their progress. The most important thing is they continue to improve now as the season progresses.

Nebs?

That's all folks!

paul · Post #16 » by **paul** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:59 am

paulpressey25 wrote:HAMMOND: I think I just killed the Milwaukee Bucks franchise with a Trident.

That escalated quickly.

Max Green · Post #17 » by **Max Green** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 4:00 am

paul wrote:
cinematographer wrote:
Q. One of the themes of the first half is the team's youth movement. John Henson, Khris Middleton, Sanders, Knight, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nate Wolters all have been key figures. Are the young players showing encouraging signs?

A. We were forced into it. It wasn't the plan. Sometimes you are forced to change in midstream, so to speak. That's kind of what happened to us. We've put the young players out there. We're excited about their progress. The most important thing is they continue to improve now as the season progresses.

Nebs?

Suspended, unfortunately.

JBucks · Post #18 » by **JBucks** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 4:01 am

Gardner's questions were nothing short of terrible, by the way. What a hack.

LUKE23 · Post #19 » by **LUKE23** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 4:05 am

As I've said many times recently, I think Hammond built this team to win. I don't think it was a stealth tank on his part. Every one of his offseason acquisitions over the age of 25 have been absolutely dreadful, the guy just can't identify winning veteran talent or he can't land it, or both. Now that we are in the spot we are in (which again, was desired by the fanbase but not intended by the management), however, I still want him making the draft pick. After that, all bets are off, but the leash is pretty damn short once we hit 14-15. We're about to enter year 7 of his tenure and he will be sitting at 65+ games under .500.

Max Green · Post #20 » by **Max Green** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 4:09 am

The direction we're heading in right now is we are going to try to build through the draft. This would be the first step in doing so, this season.

This sounds good, but let's see what happens at the trade deadline, and this offseason.

There's no question his decision-making process needs to improve, and that's something he's very aware of. And I think he will improve.

I'm willing to give him the rest of this season and probably next depending on who we draft, but I don't see how someone can improve their court-vision and natural instincts as a PG.