JS: Hammond Q&A

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

With the mess that is the organizational structure of the front office, I just find it hard to separate what is and what isn't Hammond. It's confusing that an organization like the Blazers would want to interview him if he's completely awful.

Ainge is a smart guy and good at his job, but he also has autonomy and the understanding of a hands-off owner.

despite working for the most dysfunctional meddling owner and the least desireable market in the entire nba..... hammond has shown an eye for talent in the draft and even put an eoty award on his resume.

if i was the owner of another team id definitely think hed be worth an interview if i was looking for a guy. after a closed door interview is when id make my decision about where to place the blame for the issues weve had here during his tenure.

[Ron Swanson]

Compare and contrast Hammond and Ainge. Which GM do you think is doing it the right way?

http://bostonherald.com/sports/celtics_ ... _cs_future

How refreshing.

For all the Hammond defenders: This is a GM who came out and spoke very direct truth and sense. He traded young guys who were playing well or had potential to make way for other young players to play. He maximized the improved play of Crawford to garner another draft pick. Wow, what a concept. The Celtics don't know what they have in Pressey, so they throw him to the wolves. What do the Bucks do? They hold tight to Brandon Knight, insist he play out of position and miraculously learn feel and instincts, and play Luke **** Ridnour over Wolters or Giannis at the point. They allow meaningless vets like Butler feature stories in the JS. The Bucks have no clue. NONE.

I'm no Hammond defender, I just don't put much, if any, stock into these mid-season "GM Q&A's" when all you get is essentially a fluff piece with broad cliches like "building towards the future" and recapping what has happened in the last 40 games.

Who knows if Hammond is speaking the truth or simply regurgitating Kohl's marching orders? If our assumption is that Hammond is a terrible GM regardless, then why does it even matter? My personal opinion is that Hammond needs to be canned regardless of what happens this year, but these are literally things that every GM in the league says in any given interview. Who knows if Ainge has a completely different relationship with management? I don't pretend to know the inner workings of any given NBA front office just by reading comments made to the public in the context of a Q&A forum.

Actions speak louder than words, and we'll know whether or not this "youth movement" is all posturing once the trade deadline comes and goes.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

........He and our inept Head Coach hand-picked the veterans to compete this season.......

the hell they did. patently false and the rest of your post i didnt read when i got to this, your main point.

the guys we signed this offseason were our last resort. nobody else would come. thats the fact whether you like it or not.

argue whether we should have been trying to win now..... argue whether this was the best we could do..... but dont argue these guys were our pick of the litter. thats crap.

[Ayt]

i dont know how much weight to put into it, but he did talk a bit about how their new plan is building through the draft and it can take a few years. its good he didnt say they expect to be in the playoffs next season, but since they change their "plans" every 6 months who knows. atleast for now it appears a full rebuild

also, was anyone else irritated by the questions asked? that one in particular, saying you were almost a .500 team last season, when we can we get back to that level of play? as if...around .500 is the championship for this franchise. why not ask, the team has 8 wins, when can we be a title contender? how long do you expect to take?

why the hell is he asking when can we get back to .500. WHO CARES ABOUT 8th SEED!

The bar has been set so low for this franchise and the local mainstream media does nothing but perpetuate it. The Bucks really need their own Bob Mcginn covering them. It would be nice to see a local journalist hold them accountable like Mcginn does the Packers organization.

McGinn would have asked him point blank why he should not be fired.

[bizarro]

........He and our inept Head Coach hand-picked the veterans to compete this season.......

the hell they did. patently false and the rest of your post i didnt read when i got to this, your main point.

the guys we signed this offseason were our last resort. nobody else would come. thats the fact whether you like it or not.

argue whether we should have been trying to win now..... argue whether this was the best we could do..... but dont argue these guys were our pick of the litter. thats crap.

Really? SO, they were forcefed the trade and acquisition of Butler? Hmmmm. They were forced into signing an injured Delfino? They were forced to trade and acquire Luke Ridnour? They were forced to sign OJ Mayo @ $8M/year? And on and on and on. At this point, we only know they went after Wes Johnson and he chose LA. That is all we know. Prove it otherwise, please. I beg of you, prove it.

And, of course they hand-picked these washed up vets because they wanted to Win Now. And, as I point out: I wholeheartedly disagree with their philosophy. I have and will until they prove otherwise. But, to propose this was a last resort and deny they chose the so called talent they brought in is preposterous. Whether or not anyone else would come is a moot point (and, again, the only one I can attest to is Johnson): They chose these pedestrian vets to try an reach the playoffs. And, as I point out: You don't have this problem when you're working with young, unproven, hungry players from the get-go.

But, feel free to make your claims...obviously.

[Ayt]

I remember lots of people on here upset that the Bucks didn't overpay Teague. Thank gosh that didn't happen. They'd be locked into mediocrity for years.

I thought this was an alright interview from Hammond. He can't really say what he thinks, so he chooses his words to offend the least amount of people in priority from his employer, down to us. He's really damned if he does, damned if doesn't with the fans, at this point.

Can y'all just stop it with the: Hammond can't say what he thinks!?!? That's just utter nonsense. This is what he thinks. And, it's right in line with the convoluted ideas and execution of the Bucks FO for the past decade. He is a grown man in a supposed decision-making position in the NBA. Case and point: Look at the Ainge interview. Ainge also speaks his mind, he's simply a more gifted and intrepid GM. Hammond is a total clown. He should be moved into scouting and talent. He is not fit to be a GM.

hes a clown because he said giannis is a potential piece for the future? or....
hes a clown because he didnt rip into knights decision making and said instead that he still needed to work on it? or..
hes a clown because hes not a gifted speaker? or...
is it all from the past win now stuff thats been mandated?

i still dont get where all the vitriolic responses are coming from in this article?

He's a clown because he's incompetent and he deserves to be eviscerated in a thread like this. His responses in the article are a major reminder of just how clueless he actually is.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

Really? SO, they were forcefed the trade and acquisition of Butler? Hmmmm. They were forced into signing an injured Delfino? They were forced to trade and acquire Luke Ridnour? They were forced to sign OJ Mayo @ $8M/year? And on and on and on. At this point, we only know they went after Wes Johnson and he chose LA. That is all we know. Prove it otherwise, please. I beg of you, prove it.

And, of course they hand-picked these washed up vets because they wanted to Win Now. And, as I point out: I wholeheartedly disagree with their philosophy. I have and will until they prove otherwise. But, to propose this was a last resort and deny they chose the so called talent they brought in is preposterous. Whether or not anyone else would come is a moot point (and, again, the only one I can attest to is Johnson): They chose these pedestrian vets to try an reach the playoffs. And, as I point out: You don't have this problem when you're working with young, unproven, hungry players from the get-go.

But, feel free to make your claims...obviously.

all bullcrap you just wrote... last resort moves... hardly handpicked guys. we were forced in the sense that we would have had to abandon a win now philosophy in the offseason and simply not spend the money as the alternative.
who we wanted? who you would be able to argue with the handpick thing? we were linked to ellis, tony allen, redick, korver, teague obviously, dunleavy again, and MORE.... all the guys we actually got were fallback options. it literally came down to that crap or jr smith if you were reading your wires everyday.

the very reasonably asembled team hammond had in mind would be competing for homecourt right now and STILL have giannis and hensons upside to go with it.

we got **** by the abortion that the lockerroom turned into last year and the fact that our money is no good in milwaukee.

[bizarro]

Really? SO, they were forcefed the trade and acquisition of Butler? Hmmmm. They were forced into signing an injured Delfino? They were forced to trade and acquire Luke Ridnour? They were forced to sign OJ Mayo @ $8M/year? And on and on and on. At this point, we only know they went after Wes Johnson and he chose LA. That is all we know. Prove it otherwise, please. I beg of you, prove it.

And, of course they hand-picked these washed up vets because they wanted to Win Now. And, as I point out: I wholeheartedly disagree with their philosophy. I have and will until they prove otherwise. But, to propose this was a last resort and deny they chose the so called talent they brought in is preposterous. Whether or not anyone else would come is a moot point (and, again, the only one I can attest to is Johnson): They chose these pedestrian vets to try an reach the playoffs. And, as I point out: You don't have this problem when you're working with young, unproven, hungry players from the get-go.

But, feel free to make your claims...obviously.

all bullcrap you just wrote... last resort moves... hardly handpicked guys. we were forced in the sense that we would have had to abandon a win now philosophy in the offseason and simply not spend the money as the alternative.
who we wanted? who you would be able to argue with the handpick thing? we were linked to ellis, tony allen, redick, korver, teague obviously, dunleavy again, and MORE.... all the guys we actually got were fallback options. it literally came down to that crap or jr smith if you were reading your wires everyday.

the very reasonably asembled team hammond had in mind would be competing for homecourt right now and STILL have giannis and hensons upside to go with it.

we got **** by the abortion that the lockerroom turned into last year and the fact that our money is no good in milwaukee.

Clearly you're passionate about your version of things. I appreciate that.

And, it's also clear we can agree on some things: The Bucks did try to re-up Ellis (after also trying to re-up Jennings in-season). They were linked to the players you mentioned. AND, regardless of your assertions, they still hand-picked who they brought in. None of it was forced on them. Whether or not they were first options is meaningless as far as I'm concerned. They blame injuries. Yet, we all know injuries played a very small part in their failed scheme.

Moving on...

[clownparade]

the only thing thats going to save this team from moving to another city is a new stadium and finding the basketball version of mark attanasio. what a mess

[ampd]

Hammond is a GM in the NBA supposedly being paid to construct a winning roster, and has repeatedly failed to do that either through the draft, free agency or trades. What's worse, in 6 years he hasn't come close to demonstrating either a coherent plan or any indication that given 6 more years the results will be any different. He inherited a mediocre roster and unintentionally constructed the worst team in the NBA, and hired a terrible coach.

While he isn't the only problem, it seems clear that he isn't able to succeed here. Time to go.

[clownparade]

Hammond is a GM in the NBA supposedly being paid to construct a winning roster, and has repeatedly failed to do that either through the draft, free agency or trades. What's worse, in 6 years he hasn't come close to demonstrating either a coherent plan or any indication that given 6 more years the results will be any different. He inherited a mediocre roster and unintentionally constructed the worst team in the NBA, and hired a terrible coach.

While he isn't the only problem, it seems clear that he isn't able to succeed here. Time to go.

i dont think there is anyone here that would disagree with you. as far as im concerned he seems like hes a good scout, but cannot and shouldnt be a gm.

but although i dont at all disagree with you, i dont even care about hammond. i dont care if he gets fired, or extended, or is the gm for another 500 years. it doesnt matter at all until the top of the organization changes. the bucks will never have a good gm until kohl changes or sells the team

[randy84]

SI Midseason Grades:

Milwaukee Bucks: F
8-33, No. 15 in the East

Let’s start with two pieces of good news. First: Milwaukee took a chance in drafting Giannis Antetokounmpo and smartly realized immediately that: A) his development should be a top organizational priority, and B) he was an Internet sensation waiting to happen who demands saturation coverage. That’s led us to the point where the 19-year-old Greek rookie is averaging 23.2 minutes — that’s more than Andre Drummond last year — and roughly 1,426 gushing blog posts per week by people who are rightfully captivated by his long arms, gigantic hands, crazy upside, adorable smile and general all-around friendliness.

Second, Bucks.com writer Alex Boeder continues to fight the good fight despite a brutal season, hilariously noting earlier this month that seldom-used, 25-year-old rookie Miroslav Raduljica was enjoying a higher PER than LeBron James during his own rookie season. That is some warm, tasty brew to wash down a really, really bitter pill of a 2013-14 season. Well done.

Everything else has been a train wreck. Their offense ranks dead last, their defense ranks 20th, newly extended center Larry Sanders leads the league in embarrassing headlines, O.J. Mayo has basically flamed out and a summer spent accumulating middling veterans (Caron Butler, Zaza Pachulia, Carlos Delfino, Gary Neal) has led to a league-worst record and a steady supply of frustrated postgame comments.

It seemed like the Bucks had spent enough ($24 million for Mayo, $15.6 million for Pachulia, $13 million to the Delfino/Neal pairing, $44 million to lock up Sanders, $5.5 million payroll increase in the Butler trade) to reach their usual standard of banal mediocrity. Instead, they are a surprise tank with all sorts of unnecessary gizmos and ill-fitting parts. As soon as you start thinking, “Hey, Andrew Wiggins is just the guy to turn that whole franchise around,” you can’t help but reverse course entirely, instead settling on “Man, I hope Andrew Wiggins goes somewhere else.”

Love the part about Wiggins at the end.

[Max Green]

Bizzaro is upset because Hammond didn't flat out say that Knight sucks and shouldn't be playing PG, and proclaim that Giannis is our PG of the future. Bizarre indeed.

Please, Max. This is grossly undermining my disdain.

Let's just put it this way: John Hammond is the messenger of the entire mess @ Bucks headquarters. I believe he is decent at one thing, and one thing only, drafting. Beyond that, I believe he is a colossal failure. And, whether or not that is because of excessive influence from Kohl and cronies I no longer care. He and our inept Head Coach hand-picked the veterans to compete this season. And, now, Hammond backpedals and averts all responsibility for the quagmire he assembled by blaming injuries. They stumbled into the only acceptable strategy for this trainwreck of an organization and they can't even embrace it. They've let a washed-up vet like Butler own the current Bucks conversation because he's from Racine and because he has a pathetic beat reporter like Woelfel backing him up. The same pathetic beat reporter who routinely defames Sanders on Twitter while lauding Ersan's improved defense for holding Josh **** Smith to 2-9. I currently loathe the Bucks organization because, beyond the draft, I completely disagree with their entire philosophy of player acquisition and player development.

And, yes, I loathe Brandon Knight's game. It's fool's gold - and, that's being nice. And, yes, I firmly believe Giannis and Wolters should be our PG's. I firmly believe Brandon Knight should be traded. And, if we can not find an acceptable trade partner I firmly believe he should be moved to a role as a 6th man and used like Ramon Sessions. And, frankly, if you find that bizarre I have nothing else to say to you.

The direction we're heading in right now is we are going to try to build through the draft.


In every interview Hammond has done the past week he's clearly stated multiple times that we are rebuilding now, even going as far to cite the OKC model that he used to downplay publicly for years. You need to calm down. You are ranting and raving like a lunatic.

[ampd]

Hammond is a GM in the NBA supposedly being paid to construct a winning roster, and has repeatedly failed to do that either through the draft, free agency or trades. What's worse, in 6 years he hasn't come close to demonstrating either a coherent plan or any indication that given 6 more years the results will be any different. He inherited a mediocre roster and unintentionally constructed the worst team in the NBA, and hired a terrible coach.

While he isn't the only problem, it seems clear that he isn't able to succeed here. Time to go.

i dont think there is anyone here that would disagree with you. as far as im concerned he seems like hes a good scout, but cannot and shouldnt be a gm.

but although i dont at all disagree with you, i dont even care about hammond. i dont care if he gets fired, or extended, or is the gm for another 500 years. it doesnt matter at all until the top of the organization changes. the bucks will never have a good gm until kohl changes or sells the team

I'd be happy with cleaning out the entire front office and starting over. Find some guys out of successful small market organizations, let them hand pick their guys, etc.

[ampd]

they are a surprise tank with all sorts of unnecessary gizmos and ill-fitting parts.

That sums up Hammond entire roster building philosophy right there.

[SkilesTheLimit]

Hammond is a GM in the NBA supposedly being paid to construct a winning roster, and has repeatedly failed to do that either through the draft, free agency or trades. What's worse, in 6 years he hasn't come close to demonstrating either a coherent plan or any indication that given 6 more years the results will be any different. He inherited a mediocre roster and unintentionally constructed the worst team in the NBA, and hired a terrible coach.

While he isn't the only problem, it seems clear that he isn't able to succeed here. Time to go.

He can thank John Salmons for his 6 years as our GM. Without those fluke 30 games with Salmons, it would have meant no Executive of the Year Award. When he won that, Herb thought he had a genius on his hands.

[clownparade]

they are a surprise tank with all sorts of unnecessary gizmos and ill-fitting parts.

That sums up Hammond entire roster building philosophy right there.

the funny thing is that is also describes the pistons title team. dumars and hammond got incredibly lucky that misfits billups/x2 wallaces and rip hamilton all worked together so well. they both randomly acquire players that didnt work elsewhere hoping it magically works again. they did it once, and have both looked awful ever since trying to do it again

[paulpressey25]

I remember the good old days in the Fall of 2009, when Hammond went on with Sparky, and the WSSP caller asked him why we didn't keep Ramon Sessions, and Hammond explained to the caller that we couldn't keep Ramon since "Ramon was an UNRESTRICTED free agent" and thus could play where he wanted.

A few of us tried to use that as proof that Hammond was a dope. But the opinion was discounted, with many suggesting that Hammond simply didn't want to deal with the question and get into FA v. RFA with a caller, hence Hammond was more brilliant, not less.

Who could have thought that four years later, we'd sit with the worst record in the league and Hammond would still be employed as our GM?

[WeekapaugGroove]

I remember lots of people on here upset that the Bucks didn't overpay Teague. Thank gosh that didn't happen. They'd be locked into mediocrity for years.

I thought this was an alright interview from Hammond. He can't really say what he thinks, so he chooses his words to offend the least amount of people in priority from his employer, down to us. He's really damned if he does, damned if doesn't with the fans, at this point.

Can y'all just stop it with the: Hammond can't say what he thinks!?!? That's just utter nonsense. This is what he thinks. And, it's right in line with the convoluted ideas and execution of the Bucks FO for the past decade. He is a grown man in a supposed decision-making position in the NBA. Case and point: Look at the Ainge interview. Ainge also speaks his mind, he's simply a more gifted and intrepid GM. Hammond is a total clown. He should be moved into scouting and talent. He is not fit to be a GM.

hes a clown because he said giannis is a potential piece for the future? or....
hes a clown because he didnt rip into knights decision making and said instead that he still needed to work on it? or..
hes a clown because hes not a gifted speaker? or...
is it all from the past win now stuff thats been mandated?

i still dont get where all the vitriolic responses are coming from in this article?

He's a clown because he's continued to do clownish things. It's that simple.

[AussieBuck]

GOS you are being a **** clown. Hammonds built a win now team worse than the teams that tanked. He gave a 4 year deal to a guy who wasn't going to be in our top 3 centers who is coming off serious surgery. The Mayo deal smacked of someone who doesn't watch basketball, Gary neal is a 10-12th man, Butler has been washed up for years. His basketball knowledge about as deep as your average local team fan. No idea why you go on this prime Sigra runs when you are perfectly capable of reasonable contributions. Bored?