RealGM

I just thought of something.

Jennogut?
Bonnings?

WTF, its not going to work, trade BJ for Mo Williams or Mo Evans or something.

Brogut.

Lawlz.

Andon Jengut.

Sounds like a Star Wars character.

Young Bogey

lol at the last two posts.

Call is starting now, but I won't be on until a little later (maybe not at all). I'm sure at least a couple of our members will be on and can post a recap (luxury tax, culture, win now, etc...).

This should be interesting.

I'll try to post this over the next hour as it happens. Jim P. leading off. Stay tuned.

Here are paraphrases of the answers to Jim P's questions.

Skiles: We've gotten commitments from our guys to work hard this summer. Much better than last summer.......really satisfied with off-season we've had and having guys working out here.

Jim: What was best surprise of the summer?

Hammond:We felt good about our summer league. Don't get overly excited but is some type of standard to judge team. Felt good about Jennings SL. Showed things at PG that our team needs.

Greg(caller): When are the Bucks going to be a stable team?

Hammond: Difficult question to answer. We are trying to get to be that. Jordan said last week that the Bulls needed to learn how to win first. We need that too. Learn to be a good team consistently.....with a good salary structure. If we do that, then we can go from good to great.

Is this Paschke softball questions, or do fans get to call in?

Greg: Everytime we get a ball player with a good future like Sessions, we let them go. What about that?

Hammond: But maybe we have kept guys in the past and we've paid them. Overpaid guys at certain times. From our standpoint we had tough decisions to make, but Senator hasn't let players get away. He's kept Redd, Gadz, Simmons, Bell and more.....we haven't lost free agents. We let CV and Ramon go but sometimes you have to make tough decisions. Our decisions will pay off. (Hammond got pretty worked up answering that one)

Mario: With all changes, who will starting five be?

Skiles: I'll let that play out in camp. Good thing with changes is we have across the board depth for starting spots and PT. Could be that by opening night I have tough decisions to make. We'll have a good starting five and now have bench depth which was a weakness last year.

Jeff: What about Redd and Bogut's health? Will they be as good?

Hammond: Both have had excellent off-seasons. We are expecting that. Be integral parts to our team. We must have Redd and Bogut on the floor for us to be the team we hope we can be. No different than other teams. Injuries a key factor. At the lottery last year, looking at all 14 teams and many of them had key injuries that kept those teams from the playoffs. Maybe 8 or 14 teams in lotto because of injuries. If they are healthy no reason we've can't make a run at the playoffs.

Sylvester: Wants to know how we begin as fans to compete with the elite teams with the squad we have this year.

Skiles: That's a good question. That has to be your goal. First put together team that can compete. Then next step is become a playoff team....then take lumps there. Keep your young players. Make trades.

Hammond: We need Redd and Bogut to be healthy. Guys like Charlie Bell must play better....now he's in good shape. Ridnour, Gadz, Elson must all play well. Ersan, Warrick, Jennings must all step up. We need fans to walk away from games thinking "that player" is better than I thought.

Keep your young players

Ridnour, Gadz, Elson must all play well.

Phyliss: With the economy, people trying to save money, but many fans not interested in seeing Bucks keep losing.

Hammond: I can't blame the fans. No one hates losing more than the two guys you are talking to right now. But moves we are making are the right thing for us. We aren't expecting to lose this year. Expecting to win. I know we had bad breaks, but those are excuses. We will be better this year.

Skiles: Entire organization empathic to fans having less discretionary income. We will put a better product out there.

Hammond: Words are cheap, but we are doing everything in our power to uncover all issues and put the best team on the floor. Not a lack of effort on our part.

Dr. Bill: We lost 40ppg with losing RJ and CV. How do we replace those points?

Skiles: We need multiple players to step up. Bogut must step up to 15ppg.....he must take 15-18 shots a game since he scores at a high percentage. Warrick has scored off the bench in Memphis. Brandon can step in and score. My coaching philosophy though is defend and rebound. The points will come. But Bogut is one guy who can step into a scoring role for us.

Rob: PG and Center two most important positions according to what you say. Is Jennings the key to everything....him being a superstar? Then fill in the other three slots?

Hammond: Two hardest spots to fill are PG and C. We have to look at our jobs as if we are doing them for 10-years. Long-term outlook. Jennings has attributes to be a special PG...time will tell. Those two guys must play well. Then build around PG and C.

Dan: John, wondering how you coming from Detroit how you compare our scouting stacks up with other organizations as number of people scouting here and in Europe. I'm not a big fan of FA since teams overpay. We need to draft our players and retain them.

Hammond: Dan, you are right that if you can do it, no better way to do it.....CBA set up for it....build through the draft. We look at how other teams build their rosters. You need to get that special guy. Guys like Jennings and Bogut....are those the pieces you can build around? You need building blocks.....for the most part you get those through the draft. We have a good scouting staff. We have an international person that scouts for us. No stones left unturned. It will pay off.

Roosevelt: With Jennings and Meeks, this year will you put more up-tempo style on the floor this year?

Skiles: I always want to run. That starts on the defensive end. Last year we started out good defensively and lost our anchor Andrew. To be up-tempo you must get stops and rebound well. Then have person who can make good decisions at the PG spot who can push the ball and make good decisions.

Nicolas: With RJ gone, who deserves starting role. LRMAM deserves this maybe?

Skiles: We'll see. Let it play out. We have options. Luc is excellent defender at four spots on the floor. Delfino gives us options, spread the floor, good rebounder and can defend some. Joe still in the mix, he's improved a bit. Hakim can play some 3. You'd like as many shooters as you can, but they also have to defend their spot.

Tim: What attributes make a Scott Skiles PG? How does our current personnel meet that?

Skiles: #1 thing is the ability to create off the dribble and vision and poise to make plays for others and when it is your time to score. We are high on Brandon Jennings. Need guy who is creative and makes good decisions....Nash, Paul....may get 28 one night and 12 the next. That's what we want.

Kevin: I understand the moves and how comes together, but the last move...trade with Toronto.....when we traded RJ, Amir was the main player coming back.....seemed like frontrunner to be starting PF. Did something happen during the summer where Amir's value went down or do we like Delfino that much?

Hammond: Nothing happened over the summer. Amir did well in SL. I know Amir and have a good feel for him. But as you look at our roster, are they "assets" to us. Can this guy help us win games? Then is a player an asset to "others". Players are better if they can be an asset to us and others. When we acquired Amir we knew he had value to others. When we got Amir, we didn't have Ersan, Warrick or KT committed here. We needed another wing to stretch the defense since RJ shot well from 3 and stretched the D. Because of depth at PF, we can get Carlos. Got him a good contract for us. We need to sign guys at contracts like this. Delfino at his contract is also an asset to other teams around the league. We need more assets like this.

paulpressey25 wrote:Kevin: I understand the moves and how comes together, but the last move...trade with Toronto.....when we traded RJ, Amir was the main player coming back.....seemed like frontrunner to be starting PF. Did something happen during the summer where Amir's value went down or do we like Delfino that much?

Hammond: Nothing happened over the summer. Amir did well in SL. I know Amir and have a good feel for him. But as you look at our roster, are they "assets" to us. Can this guy help us win games? Then is a player an asset to "others". Players are better if they can be an asset to us and others. When we acquired Amir we knew he had value to others. When we got Amir, we didn't have Ersan, Warrick or KT committed here. We needed another wing to stretch the defense since RJ shot well from 3 and stretched the D. Because of depth at PF, we can get Carlos. Got him a good contract for us. We need to sign guys at contracts like this. Delfino at his contract is also an asset to other teams around the league. We need more assets like this.

What? You mean like Ramon?