Hammond & Skiles Conference Call - Today - Page 5

[MickeyDavis]

The over/under on how many times they say "luxury tax" is 27.

[paulpressey25]

Maybe your best chance at a hard hitting player-coaching question would be to ask Scott Skiles what he sees in Ridnour and Jennings that he did not see with Ramon. What traits or skills.

[BucksRUS]

The over/under on how many times they say "luxury tax" is 27.

I take the over.

[old skool]

For me it will be just as frustrating if a lot of answers talk about short term roster pain for long term success, or salary "flexibility". Those buzz words don't really mean anything. I am not looking to be sold a bill of goods like Knicks fans and the 2010 Lebron hype. But at some point it would be helpful to understand what type of future moves the Bucks think are feasible, stemming from the flexibility that they developed this summer.

It would also be interesting to know if the Bucks feel that the 2009-10 roster is essentially complete, or if they are looking to make a move pre-season or mid-season.

The third thing that interests me, is how they think Bucks players will improve. Everyone agrees that most NBA players improve over the summer. The problem is that rookies and free agents and injured players tend to not work very much over the summer and tend to not improve. That covers most of the Bucks roster. I don't expect much new from Redd or Bogut - they have been nursing injuries and recovering all summer. Hopefully the international players are staying in shape, but usually that league competition does not translate into personal development. And the free agents usually sit around until their deals are done. A team like the Bucks needs players to improve their skill. How will that happen?

oLd sKool

[Devilzsidewalk]

Oh how I'd love to have a Bucks version of that Big East teleconference a few years ago.

NSFW.

http://ballhype.com/audio/prankster_flo ... onference/

thank you

[andonewheel]

Sessions sucks. They won't say that but common sense tells you that he is neither better then Luke Ridnour nor Roko Ukic much less Brandon Jennings.

I would roll the dice on Stephon Marbury, who is another big time asset to move at the deadline if need be who has some name value and juice to his game, but that is just me...Stephon would be a 6th man.

lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao

I don't know why some of you guys hate Sessions soooooooooo much. Why would you call him a clown? He was a 2nd round pick who got paid pennies, what makes him a clown? What did he ever do to hurt this team to become so hated by some???

And we should add Marbury for his character? Let's have him tutor Jennings, what a brilliant idea.

What a joke of a post. I'll keep in mind you're just joking around from now on.

[BDUB_30]

Hammond better come correct. No b/s . Ramon had alot of fans here , the team did build him up a little bit here and there during his time . The fans deserve an honest explination of why the bucks didnt retain him . Not a politically correct manipulation of the situation. If i hear salary cap mentioned in regards to the bucks not being able to retain Ramon im gonna puke . They need to come out and tell us why the didnt like Ramon. IF hammond says he just doesnt see Ramon growing into a quality pg , i can totally buy it cause i dont either . But to sell the salary cap lie would just be insulting to the fans .


Honestly , nobody asks Hammond to explain himself . They do this on their own accord . Dont get up and feed us a bunch of lies. When you say that youre going to make tough decisions that alot of people wont like , then if you CHOOSE to explain them decisions at least gives us the real reason you made them decisions and not some disgusting distortion of the truth .


Im confident hes going to be honest this time . If hes not i will have lost a certain amount of respect for him . If they just cant get past how poor of a defender Ramon is , and they cant get past how poorly he runs the team . Then thats all the explinaiton i need because i already KNOW thats why he wasnt resigned.

[BDUB_30]

Sessions sucks. They won't say that but common sense tells you that he is neither better then Luke Ridnour nor Roko Ukic much less Brandon Jennings.

I would roll the dice on Stephon Marbury, who is another big time asset to move at the deadline if need be who has some name value and juice to his game, but that is just me...Stephon would be a 6th man.

lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao

I don't know why some of you guys hate Sessions soooooooooo much. Why would you call him a clown? He was a 2nd round pick who got paid pennies, what makes him a clown? What did he ever do to hurt this team to become so hated by some???
.

Some people value players that defend and play team ball . A certain amount of Ramon hate works in direct porportion to how alot of people overated him. The mentality is obvious , if people on here were willing to go to great lenghts calling Ramon the future of this team , calling him a future all star , claiming he was the next Rod Strickland ..etc etc Then their was going to be a backlash to that side of the spectrum that was CLEARLY wrong . That backlash is people saying Ramon sucks .


He doesnt suck at all , he just isnt that great . I got this dude pegged as a carrer backup.

[old skool]

BDUB:

I don't feel that Sessions was a budding star, but I was very impressed with his improvement from the end of 2007-08 to the end of 2008-09. He improved in almost every phase of the game. I would have liked to have seen the rest of his development in a Bucks uniform. Maybe he would continue to be a backup. Or maybe he would develop into a starter. I think that the latter is likely, given his improvement over 105 games or so. I also thought that his contract with Minnie was reasonable, making it easy for the Bucks to fit him into their roster and budget. I don't see many other young players out there who have demonstrated the ability to improve and play at Sessions' level. The worst that I saw him was a back up being paid back up money - not a bad deal for either side.

I hope that Hammond is right and the Bucks are better off spending their dollars elsewhere. Only time will tell. If Sessions becomes a Michael Redd and develops into a starter/sometime all-star - at back up money - the Bucks will have missed a golden opportunity.

In any event, I do not see Hammond and sKiles explaining why they let Ramon or CV leave. Nor do I expect them to explain why they traded Jefferson or Johnson. They might offer an "explanation", but that explanation will be pretty vanilla and not too harsh when it comes to assessing any of the former Bucks players involved. Instead they will likely take the high road and speak favorably of the players added to the roster. They won't lie, but they won't be telling the truth in a meaningful way.

oLd sKool

[pifhluk23]

people still buy season tickets?

[Wise1]

Questions I would ask:

1. Yes or No, is this a playoff team with reasonable health in 2009-10?

2. Looking at the long-term outlook of this roster, can you explain why you felt that Sessions at $4M per year would hurt your ability to build a roster, when any backup PG worth anything will command at least that salary?

3. What is your plan for backup PG in 2010-11?

4. Do you think the team would be better off long-term if you had cleared Redd and RJ's contracts last year, and saved $31M off the cap for 2009-10?

I"ll give these a shot.

1. Our goal is always to make the playoffs. I believe we've put ourselves in good position to achieve that goal should everything fall into place.

2. We were very concerned with the Luxury tax, and we are also comfortable with our current backup PG position. We have two starting caliber PG's on this team, and we are excited about Ukic and what he brings.

3. We'll evaluate that at the end of the season, but I'm comfortable we will be able to keep one of our current free agents or upgrade elsewhere if necessary.

4. We are not in a cost cutting mode. We have not received any good offers for Michael that can help this team long term. We fully expect Michael to play and important role on this year's team as well. He's worked tirelessly this offseason, and all signs appear to be 100% health at the start of training camp. We think he'll have an excellent year and will be instrumental in getting this team back to the playoffs.

Well done Smooth. I'd actually buy all of this.

[BDUB_30]

BDUB:

I don't feel that Sessions was a budding star, but I was very impressed with his improvement from the end of 2007-08 to the end of 2008-09. He improved in almost every phase of the game. I would have liked to have seen the rest of his development in a Bucks uniform. Maybe he would continue to be a backup. Or maybe he would develop into a starter. I think that the latter is likely, given his improvement over 105 games or so. I also thought that his contract with Minnie was reasonable, making it easy for the Bucks to fit him into their roster and budget. I don't see many other young players out there who have demonstrated the ability to improve and play at Sessions' level. The worst that I saw him was a back up being paid back up money - not a bad deal for either side.

I hope that Hammond is right and the Bucks are better off spending their dollars elsewhere. Only time will tell. If Sessions becomes a Michael Redd and develops into a starter/sometime all-star - at back up money - the Bucks will have missed a golden opportunity.

In any event, I do not see Hammond and sKiles explaining why they let Ramon or CV leave. Nor do I expect them to explain why they traded Jefferson or Johnson. They might offer an "explanation", but that explanation will be pretty vanilla and not too harsh when it comes to assessing any of the former Bucks players involved. Instead they will likely take the high road and speak favorably of the players added to the roster. They won't lie, but they won't be telling the truth in a meaningful way.

oLd sKool

To be honest Old Skool , i think their was some regression in Ramons game. Intially , we saw a guy that seemed very commited to the pass and a certain amount of savy at finding the open man. Under skiles , that changed. He went from being a draw and kick pg ( which im not a huge fan of anyways ) to a guy that seemed only willing to give the ball up if it net him an assist . He wasnt making the same decisions with the basketball that he did in the brief stint we saw him under Larry K .


Now you could go all diffrent directions with that . Possibly , he felt the need to " get his " when he got the pt because he knew that skiles was going to play him sporadically. The problem was , i didnt like it and either did this front office and skiles . This is essentialy why he is no longer here . You might see Ramon materialize into something more then a backup , but only if he gets back to learning and playing team basketball . This guy isnt nearly good enough to be a one on 5 creator . Guys with insanely more talent ( iverson ) whom play that style still struggle to find results . Its only the elite of the elite that can dominate the ball to that degree and still win . Kobe / Lebron , not scrubs without jumpshots .



As for your other point in regards to Hammond coming clean with his decision making process . I think its imparitive that he does so now . I completly agree that hes gonna walk the fine line . But i got a feeling youre going to see some brutal honesty with Ramon because its real easy to say " Well , we wanted to keep cv but we couldnt afford that price tag " ... That line of logic checks out . But using that load of crap in regards to Ramon does not . You cant say how much you liked Ramon just decided that was to much , because if you liked him at all , that clearly was NOT to much . SO i think theirs a fair chance that Hammond may be boxed in here to be honest . If not , unless he comes up with some creative excuse , i will not be satasfied with the " salary cap " line of crap . Hes got to come better , id suggest just being honest .

[d-god]

I think Hammond is getting a bum rap from the masses....
True - Alexander was a bad pick, but I dont think Hammond has done much wrong since then.
The trade for RJ was great and allowed us to get rid of the hopeless Simmons and Yi. Sure RJ was expensive and Hammond knew he had a bad financial situation, but my guess is that he thought for 1 year he could at least have a team that would make the post season and get some excitement generated in Milwaukee and corporate sponsorship flowing into the coffers.

At the start of the 2008/09 year he probably knew that he would have to offload at least 1 of the 2 marketable assets (Redd & RJ) to other teams at the end of the year, thereby reducing his tax problems. He probably knew that he would have to rebuild the next year.
Unfortunately Redd and Bogut went down and so did our shot at the post season.

So he was left with the rebuilding process. RJ for cap room...you couldnt trade him for another player with similar salary. Charlie V...bad timing with his contract but how could you pay him more? (especially most people ridiculing him for complete lack of defense). Sessions...maybe Hammond should have or shouldnt have, but he made the educated guess of Sessions ceiling and then drafted Jennings.

With bugger all cap room, he has done pretty well to get the type of players he has, all of whom have talent and all of whom have the ability to work as a team. Im looking forward to this year

[trwi7]

The trade for RJ was great and allowed us to get rid of the hopeless Simmons and Yi.

For Simmons' 2010 expiring and Yi he got one year of average play from RJ and then traded him for Kurt Thomas, Carlos Delfino and Roko Ukic. Sorry for not singing his praises on that one.

2010 expiring for less 2010 expirings and contracts that go to 2011.

Yi for Roko Ukic.

Bleh. Not exactly the best use of Yi as an asset and say what you want about him, but I have to think he had more value in the summer of 2008 than what we ended up getting for him.

[LUKE23]

When it's all said and done, we didn't clear any 2010-11 salary in the RJ deal. When Hammond came in, Simmons was expiring in 2009-10. Now, instead of using that money on Simmons, it has just been re-disbursed to Bowen/Thomas/Delfino/Ukic, and also got us one year of RJ that didn't mean anything because we didn't make the playoffs.

The only long-term salary that Hammond has cleared in his tenure so far is Mo Williams, and he got very poor value back for him (should have at least gotten an expiring if we're taking a player as poor as Ridnour). Otherwise, financially we are in exactly the same shape as when Hammond came in.

[raferfenix]

The trade for RJ was great and allowed us to get rid of the hopeless Simmons and Yi.

For Simmons' 2010 expiring and Yi he got one year of average play from RJ and then traded him for Kurt Thomas, Carlos Delfino and Roko Ukic. Sorry for not singing his praises on that one.

2010 expiring for less 2010 expirings and contracts that go to 2011.

Yi for Roko Ukic.

Bleh. Not exactly the best use of Yi as an asset and say what you want about him, but I have to think he had more value in the summer of 2008 than what we ended up getting for him.

Hammond should be called out on the RJ trade being a failure.

Yi for 1 year of so so play from RJ that didn't result in playoffs is poor. Hammond took a gamble, lost, but did have the good sense to bail once it was obvoius it wasn't working. It did cost us the Yi asset, and Hammond should admit that at least.

[EastSideBucksFan]

I have a bad feeling Yi is going to have good year, the guy looks absolutely ripped.

I'm thinking China put him into the same training program that Russia put Ivan Drago in.

[paulpressey25]

I have a bad feeling Yi is going to have good year

We really need the Bucks to get out of the gate fast and be a good team.

Otherwise the "around the league" threads have the potential to be out of control. Yi, CV, RJ, Mo, Ramon, Amir. That doesn't even include all the guys we passed on in the draft last year for Potsie.

[LUKE23]

I'm far more worried about Sessions breaking out than Yi.

[Bernman]

I'm far more worried about Sessions breaking out than Yi.

He included Ramon in the same list.

What I'll object to though is not accounting for Brandon Jennings potentially disappointing and being outplayed by later draftees. You're making far too many assumptions about a guy who sucked in Europe just based on summer league, PP. I'll be here lamenting about missing Austin Daye, et al; if their performances are superior already to a guy who's being handed an opportunity on a sliver platter, ala Yi when he was here. Only to fade in perception relative to his draft classmates after they received as much of an opportunity.