As the Milwaukee Bucks recorded a winning season and returned to the playoffs, how did general manager John Hammond contribute to the team’s success?
It was in 2010 behind Scott Skiles and a Brandon Jennings-led Milwaukee Bucks team that John Hammond first received national recognition as an executive in the NBA. Hammond assembled a rag-tag roster of odds and ends, coupled with a seemingly unearned swagger that took the league by storm.
It was in that year, with injuries to the franchise’s two marquee players, that the Bucks marched to a winning record and the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
It was that year that the “Fear the Deer” Bucks made their debut and Jennings’ fateful “Win in Six” proclamation was a hot topic in national papers and nightly editions of SportsCenter.
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It was that season that John Hammond was awarded the league’s highest honor for a general manager in the league; NBA Executive of the Year.
While the parallels between the 2016-17 season and 2010 are spooky (sixth seed, two injured stars, rookie point guard, trading for a veteran scorer) the latest incarnation might just be Hammond’s magnum opus as GM of the Milwaukee Bucks.
John Hammond (and assistant GM Justin Zanik for that matter) made the necessary and crafty moves to keep the team afloat and push for the playoffs. And while there were missteps by the Bucks front office, overall, they deserve a lot of credit.
Let’s take a look at the front office’s best and worst moves, from the head-scratchers to the season-saving acquisitions.
Free Agency Hits (and misses)
The iceberg that sunk the 2015-16 season was most notably the Milwaukee Bucks inability to stretch the floor. Outside of Khris Middleton and Jerryd Bayless the Bucks had little-to-no three-point shooting. The Bucks took the least amount of three-point shots in the league and were 25th in three-point percentage.
So the offseason plan was pretty simple: surround Giannis with shooters and give him space to operate.
Hammond inked Cleveland glue-guy Matthew Dellavedova to a 4-year, $38 million dollar offersheet that the Cavaliers could not afford to match. Delly offered the three-point shooting the Bucks craved and brought championship experience and defensive grit that the team desperately needed.
His ability to play off ball made him the obvious choice to take over the starting point guard spot. Unfortunately, Delly’s shot didn’t make the trip to Milwaukee and he lost his starting spot to Malcolm Brogdon, but Delly did make an impact on the second unit and played clutch minutes in the postseason. While he might be overpaid and more apt for a bench-role, it was a decent signing.
Hammond followed up the Delly signing with another big name free agent, Bosnian sharpshooter Mirza Teletovic. Teletovic was coming off a season in Phoenix in which he made more three-pointers off the bench then had ever been done in the NBA before. It made perfect sense.
Unfortunately, Mirza also struggled with his shot and proved to be a liability on defense. It’s possible he wasn’t put in many situations to succeed, but regardless, he did not earn his three-year, $30 million dollar deal. How Hammond recoups the damage from the free-agency miss will be one of the main storylines for the upcoming summer.
Unpredictably, Hammond’s best signing came in the one-year deal awarded to the player Gus Johnson nicknamed the “Old Man and the Three”. Jason Terry played far more minutes than anyone could’ve expected and when he was on the court the Bucks just looked like a more competent team. Whether it was Hammond’s brilliance or coach Kidd’s desire to bring in someone familiar, we may never know, but when it comes to sports contracts, the man who seals the deal gets the praise. In that case, kudos, John Hammond.
Hammond also deserves a mountain of praise for signing Giannis Antetokoumnpo to a below-market contract extension before the season began. Giannis will likely make an All-NBA team this season and could’ve been eligible for a more lucrative deal, but Hammond got him signed long-term at a significantly lower number.
The Miles Plumlee contract (and how the Bucks made the deal of the season)
There is no justification for signing Miles Plumlee to a 4-year $52 million deal. None. Not the ridiculous cap spike, not the Mozgov money awarded to anyone with legs earlier that summer, and not the moderate amount of promise Plumlord showed in the latter half of 2016.
That contract is a black eye on Hammond’s season and the front office deserves all the criticism in the world for awarding $12.5 million a year to a 27-year-old center who had shown more fizzle than flash in his first four years in the league. However…
Convincing the Charlotte Hornets, a team that supposedly has people who are paid to make basketball decisions, to acquire the league’s worst contract in exchange for two expiring deals deserves a parade.
Yes, the contract was stupid and short-sighted. Yes, the Bucks will likely be stuck with Spencer Hawes for another season at $6 million. But the Bucks needed to admit their mistake and do what they could to make amends. That’s something Rich Cho, Michael Jordan and the rest of the Charlotte staff will likely have to address in the near-future.
Saving the season one trade at a time
Rudderless without their leading scorer and likely to struggle getting buckets, John Hammond took to the trade market to add firepower and defense to the roster. Khris Middleton (and Jabari Parker later in the season) could never be replaced, but John Hammond managed to dig around in other team’s discarded goods to find some overlooked jewels to alleviate the loss.
I’ve written about this at length throughout the season, but acquiring Tony Snell and Michael Beasley for pennies-on-the-dollar likely saved the Bucks’ season.
Snell came over from Chicago as a disappointing 3-and-D wing that couldn’t score and struggled with defensive consistency. He then reinvented himself as a sharpshooting iron man who led the team in three-pointers made and started a team-leading 80 games (tied with Antetokounmpo). Michael Carter-Williams (whom Snell was acquired for in a straight swap) struggled to stay healthy all year and failed to rise up to the top of league’s worst point guard rotation.
Snell will be a restricted free agent this summer and will likely command a big pay raise. How the Bucks proceed will be one of the league’s most watched storylines in the offseason.
Michael Beasley may have also played himself into a big pay day. After coming over from Houston in exchange for Tyler Ennis, Beasley made an immediate impact as a bench scorer. The former second overall pick was a dependable bucket-getter and shot a career-high from behind the arc. His play earned praise from ESPN’s Zach Lowe while making the writer’s annual ‘Luke Walton All-Stars,’ a list reserved for role players and NBA journeymen.
Ennis, for comparison, was traded to the Lakers at the deadline after months of uninspiring play in Texas.
A tight budget this summer might price Milwaukee out of the Beasley sweepstakes (a term you probably haven’t read since his freshman year at Kansas State). If Beasley signs for decent money this year, he owes a lot of the credit to John Hammond for taking a risk on the much-maligned former Golden Star.
Doing damage in the draft
Championship teams are built in the draft. Sure, the Cleveland Cavaliers might disagree, but most teams don’t have a LeBron James. For the rest of the planet, the NBA Draft is the pivotal point in franchise building, and you would be hard-pressed to find a team that wouldn’t love the 2016 Milwaukee Bucks’ draft class.
For the second time in the last half-decade the Milwaukee Bucks went all in on the lanky international prospect with a raw skill-set and a laundry list of question marks. So far, it looks like they are 2-for-2.
Thon Maker is the real deal. Maker came along gradually, playing mostly in blowout wins and losses but die hard fans could see there was something special and Hammond and Kidd knew they couldn’t ignore his impact.
He flew around the court, altering shots and making life miserable for shooters, he stayed in front of much smaller and quicker guards and hit threes at an elite level for the position. Eventually he cracked the starting lineup and debuted in the playoffs.
In a re-do draft Thon Maker likely doesn’t fall to Milwaukee. Teams picking one through nine would find themselves giving The Sheriff a long look and someone likely would’ve pulled the trigger before Hammond and co. Milwaukee got a great player at a great pick…sound familiar?
The NBA’s Rookie of the Year race features the other Bucks rookie, Malcolm Brogdon. The Prez captured the starting spot from Dellavedova and never looked back. Brogdon was arguably the league’s best rookie shooter, hitting over 46 percent of his shots including 40 percent of his threes. He showed up in big games and almost never looked like a rookie.
The reigning ACC Defensive Player of the Year continued his defensive aptitude in the big leagues and was rarely out of place. In the open market, a player of Malcolm’s ability would likely command in the ballpark of $10 million per season. The Bucks got him as the 36th overall pick at just south of $1 million a year. Starting guard quality production at a tenth of the price.
The 2016 Bucks draft class will go down in Hammond’s greatest hits along with acquiring Khris Middleton as a throwaway piece in the Brandon Jennings trade and drafting an unknown Greek player with a hard to pronounce last name.
Summer Focus and Final Grade
John Hammond can hang his hat on one of his best seasons as an NBA executive. His team navigated devastating injuries, he swindled his peers and the team exceeded expectations. Short of a title, there can’t be a much better feeling as an NBA general manager.
But like all careers in the NBA, the job doesn’t stop when the last game is played. In fact, you could argue that an NBA GM’s job begins when the rest of the team has packed up and went on vacation. And Hammond has a lot of work to do.
Re-signing Tony Snell will be a top priority for Hammond, but he must stay grounded. He can’t get into a bidding war over a replacement level player. If a team like the Nets or Sixers signs Snell to a massive offer sheet, he will need to play it smart. Hammond has the tape on Snell and has the goodwill but he can’t have another Plumlee situation on his hands and he probably won’t be able to trick another team into cleaning up his mistake. Probably.
The future of Greg Monroe will loom over the early part of the summer. We will know soon whether or not Moose will opt out and the decision will have a huge impact on next season. If he opts in, great. Pay him the same amount in the same role and hope to improve with the players you have in place. If he opts out, decide if you want to bring him back at a lower number or decide to spend your money elsewhere.
Hammond will need to seriously consider moving a contract of an under-performing veteran to help re-sign his long-term players. John Henson will be a likely target but the market for defensive-minded big men is at its lowest point ever. Teletovic did himself no favors as a three-point specialist who can’t make his threes, but some team might take a risk on the Bosnian. Mirza is not afraid to pull the trigger and defenses still respect his shot. That added attention could help out a team desperate for spacing.
Decisions will need to be made regarding Michael Beasley, Jason Terry and a possible extension for the highly promising but oft-injured Jabari Parker. It’s not an enviable position.
With a contingency plan in place to transition Justin Zanik into the general manager role and phase out Hammond after next year, Hammond’s future is the most unclear it has been in years. If Hammond feels like he still has something to prove in the league it will likely be easy for him to find another employer. As Marc Stein reported, the Orlando Magic will take a long, hard look at John Hammond as the team looks to replace Rob Hennigan.
Important decisions are on the horizon for John Hammond.
A decent crop of free agent additions, a number of favorable trades and the season’s best rookie class is not something to sneeze at. A few more years like this and we might be looking at something really, really special.
BTBP Final Grade: A
Next: Milwaukee Bucks: Analyzing Khris Middleton’s late season return
Make sure you stick with us over the coming days and weeks as we review the rest of the Bucks’ seasons individually.