No surprise, jennings wants out

he doesn't deserve it. 

 

But the team is a mess, there is no plan in place. 

The Bucks should do whatever it takes to get him to sign the one year tender. An openly disgruntled Jennings should help their lottery odds considerably.

 

The Bucks need to stop treading water. And things can't get better until they get worse for a while.

Sign and trade hime to the lakers for a case of used sneakers.......

What kind of a grade does Hammond deserve?

 

D- perhaps?

Hammond has been very hit and miss with his personnel decisions.   He's made some very good moves, but then you look at things like the Joe Alexander draft pick or the Tobias Harris trade and it makes you scratch your head a little bit.   The one thing he's done very well is manage their salary cap situation.   Previous GMs (i.e. Larry Harris) mortgaged their future with some stupid contracts like Gadzuric that hurt them for years.    Hammond might not have made great decisions in all situations, but at least he's not killing the franchise with a lot of boat anchor type deals.   Ersan is the only guy that's on the hook for more than 3 years and he's been a solid, if not spectacular player.   Now, Jennings could change that but I don't think there's any chance he's signed to a long term deal at this point.

That trade for Redick had Herb Kohl's fingerprints all over it.  I can't recall if Hammond was extended by then or not, but it really seemed like a move for this season when they were clearly no better than a 6 seed.  I like Redick as a player, but unless they made that Ellis move for Josh Smith at the deadline too... I dont know how they thought that those 3 guards were going to work well together in retrospect.

Hammond has been quite good in the draft.  His highest pick, Alexander, was a bust.  But everything else he has pretty much hit on.

 

Jennings, Sanders, Tobias, Henson   ---- all have panned out for the club in their own ways.    4 out of 5 in the first round is pretty damn good.. especially when your average pick is about 13-14.

 

Hammond was also decent in the 2nd round as well.

I was reading an article about Nate Wolters this morning and it got me to thinking.  What can I reasonably expect from the small market Bucks?  What would make me happy as a fan?  I've been a fan since I can remember as a kid and have never stopped following them, success or failure.  

 

An owner who hires a good GM and let's him do his job.  A GM that seems to have a plan for success which acknowledges the limitations of their small market situation and who sticks to that plan consistently (a la TT).  A coach who is respected by current players and who gets the most out of their talent and at least doesn't have a reputation that acts as a deterrent to signing free agents.  Players that buy into the coach's approach, play like a team, and at least don't publicly complain about being in Milwaukee.  

 

Hard to say how much we know about players, when we are limited to mostly fluff articles written by sympathetic reporters.  Still, I always respected players like Terry Cummings, Sidney Moncrief, Ray Allen who seemed like good people off the court and had some involvement with the community.  Same for rookies that come in with a good attitude, work hard, and don't automatically give the impression that they see Milwaukee as a stop on the way to a big market team.    It's not realistic to think that all players signed or drafted by the Bucks will be fine upstanding citizens but most of them should be.  I understand that it is hard to have a good team if you're going to be too particular, especially given the restraints of the Milwaukee market.

 

That said, never got the feeling that B. Jennings, M. Ellis and several of the other players traded for in recent years (Jackson, Payton, etc.) ever had any real intention of staying with the team.  Reddick seemed like a good guy, but we may have given up on a good young player to obtain him and it didn't make sense at the time.  Yes, I'd like to have a winning team that not only makes the playoffs but occasionally makes some noise in them, even though I don't expect any championships in Milwaukee.  Most of all, I'd like to have respect and ideally some emotional investment for the organization and players that I cheer for.   Haven't had that for a while now, but still think it's doable.

Well and good, but quite incomplete as Hammond has other responsibilities that directly and significantly impact the team.

 

Such as trades, especially when factoring in players that can opt out of Milwaukee.

 

What is his overall grade for trades?  An F?   Pretty abysmal, if you ask me.

Henson had a spectacular summer league averaging something like 17PPG and 15 boards.    He needs to get stronger, but if he can play even close to that level in the regular season I think this is an intriguing team.   Sanders and Henson patrolling the paint should help them defensively.  They just need to get more consistent scoring.

This is the year to bottom out- the backcourt scoring the need will go 1-2 in the draft next year...

quote:

What is his overall grade for trades?  An F?   Pretty abysmal, if you ask me.

I don't think it's an F. The draft success and the cleaning up of the cap mess is certainly worthy of a C grade, even with the bad trades.

Hi MC,

 

My F grade was for trading and not his overall grade.

Didn't read that right. But there are a couple trades early on in getting rid of roster weight. Seems like the grade you are giving is solely based on the Redick trade, which is a bad deal of course. The Bogut trade wasn't bad. Wasn't great, but didn't hurt.

As long as Mayo isn't Salmons, they won't need to do another dump trade again.

What about the deal for Salmons?  Dude played like Jesus in the Fear the Deer season.

 

Then they gave him too much money and shipped him out the next year...  

Since we are completely off topic with this thread, I thought this was a good article praising the Bucks on how they draft, yet scratching their head at how they evaluate vets.

 

http://basketball.realgm.com/a...uild-From-The-Middle

There's nothing really to glean from that article IMO.  Can Henson and Sanders co-exist?  WTF is that?  I also like the fact that the writer suggests the Bucks draft pick can't shoot because of long arms.  Really?  How's that analysis working with Kevin Durant?  

 

 

Well, so much for Deetoilet not wanting him.  He's dealt for 3 players to the Pistons and he gets a deal of 3yrs $24MM.

 

Brandon Knight is an interesting guy but he's no Jennings at this point

 

People were ripping Hammond for the Tobias Harris trade, well, they will have a field day with this one.

I have no problem with this at all. Jennings is a coach killer and a cancer. The Bucks robbed the Pistons. 

Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings are now on the same team.

 

Let that sink in for a minute.

 

Even if he turns into a star, I don't think it was going to happen in Milwaukee. He just never put it all together.

Actually, most members of Realgm are loving this trade.

 

1. Knight is a little more efficient shooting than Jennings and plays better D (which is the key part to note here)

 

2. He's younger 21... and has team control for a bit + if this makes us a little worse and pushes us up the lottery for 2014 while we revamp this roster, that's not a bad little bonus.

 

Good trade.. especially getting Middleton too, who sounds like will be a decent backup wing player.

I'm no big fan of Jennings, but to think we went from signing Jeff Teague to dealing Jennings for Brandon Knight and a couple of other unknown guys?   

 

Maybe I'm not giving Knight enough credit.  He's a young, talented guy but you could say the same thing about Jennings at this point and Jennings is a better player.   Hopefully Knight will turn out to be something but right now I just don't know.

 

Coach brings up a great point- Josh Smith and BJ on the same team.   Incredible.  Two of the more boom/bust in the league that will be on the court at the same time.

This team still has zero plan. Blowing up the team every single season and starting completely new. Bringing back Delfino and Ridinour?? That being said, jennings was a me first gunner who thinks he is better than he is. Good ridance

Thanks, for the compliment. I have watched Josh Smith for years and he's a cancer.

 

That Detroit team is going to implode. Not enough basketballs to go around, way too much attitude and sense of entitlement, and both of them are inconsistent gunners that lack the self-awareness or desire to subordinate their games to a team concept.

 

It's going to be a disaster, but it's going to be entertaining to watch from a distance.

I feel sorry for that coach.

Not a bad re-tooling of the roster i guess. Knight, Neal, Ridnour, Mayo- nice mix and match ability at the G positions. There a lot of 3 point shooting there, which helps a team with solid young interior players. If this rookie shows anything at all, this could be worthy of a watch or two in 2013-14.

I so badly would love to see them succeed... But it's "prove it" for me.

Spent some time yesterday reading NBA media pundits and surprisingly a fair number of people think the Bucks got the better of this deal because Jennings is simply not a reliable player.   Sure, he'll wow you from time to time with a 35 point game but then he'll go 6-27 the next game and they'll get blown out by 20. 

 

i would much rather have a guy you can count on even if he doesn't have star potential because you know what you have.  This roster has far fewer knuckleheads and selfish players now that Ellis and Jennings and Dalembert are gone.   It will be interesting to see how they play.  

The Bucks were very fortunate that Ellis didn't take the offer. I would have preferred Teague to Knight, but I still like the move. 

 

Jennings remaining in MKE was just not tenable. 

As the recent JSO article states, they're setting up for next years lottery. The pieces they have will be great when they have a star to elevate them. Jabari Parker would look great in Milwaukee... the new arena will be the house that Jabari built...

If nothing else, addition by subtraction.  I am inclined to think Jennings is a permanent aloha.

 

Run him out of town.

Didn't he sign with the ViQueens?