Today the news broke that John Hammond is leaving the Milwaukee Bucks to be the general manager of the Orlando Magic. While we here in Milwaukee wish the best of luck to John in his future endeavors, he will always be a Buck and recognized for all that he has done to put our “small” market back on the map. Let’s take a brief look at the long and lustrous career that John Hammond had with us.
Hammond became the general manager of the Bucks back in 2008 after Larry Harris and while there were some moves that were not viewed in the greatest light by Bucks fans, there are a lot that helped shape the Bucks into what they are today. So let’s begin with a trade that set everything in motion:
July 31, 2013 – the Milwaukee Bucks traded Brandon Jennings to the Detroit pistons for Brandon Knight, Viacheslav Kravtsov, and Khris Middleton.
The trade shown above, looking back, is one that began the chain of events leading to part of what we are today.
February 19, 2015 – The Milwaukee Bucks traded Brandon Knight and Kendall Marshall to the Phoenix Suns; the Philadelphia 76ers traded Michael Carter-Williams to the Milwaukee Bucks, while the Phoenix Suns traded Tyler Ennis and Miles Plumlee to the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Phoenix Suns traded a future 1st round draft pick to the Philadelphia 76ers.
Now it is true that none of the players traded for in this trade remain on the team in the offseason of 2017, this trade was a necessity based on cap space. At the time, Brandon Knight’s contract was up and would be expecting to get paid, however, the Milwaukee Bucks wouldn’t have enough cap space to sign Knight, Giannis, Parker, and Middleton. Therefore, we decided to gain something instead of just losing Knight in the offseason.
Also, this three-team trade allowed the Bucks to be able to sign Greg Monroe that following offseason, which while not always a great fit, was still a big signing for what has always been considered a “small” market team.
September 22, 2016 – The Milwaukee Bucks traded Tyler Ennis to the Houston Rockets for Michael Beasley.
October 17, 2016 – The Milwaukee Bucks trade Michael Carter-Williams to the Chicago Bulls for Tony Snell.
February 2, 2017 – The Milwaukee Bucks trade Miles Plumlee to the Charlotte Hornets for Spencer Hawes and Roy Hibbert.
The three trades shown above, as you can see, can all be traced back to the original Brandon Jennings trade and all of the players listed above, with the exception of Roy Hibbert, played key roles or made great contributions in the 2017-2018 season.
It wouldn’t be an article about Hammond without mentioning probably one of the greatest draft picks ever in the NBA – Giannis Antetokounmpo – who was drafted 15th overall in the 2013 draft. A lot of people (including myself) were not thrilled with this pick since he was a foreigner, and no one from overseas had been great since Dirk Nowitzki (which is a spot in Buck’s history we will move past) and no one had seen this kid play; but man were we all wrong. Hammond drafted arguably one of the best players who will ever play in the NBA and we are only seeing the beginning of it. I titled this article, John Hammond – Forever a Buck because the trades and draft picks mentioned above set in motion the team that we see today and will see for many years with Giannis being the leader. No matter where Hammond’s career takes him, for many years, you will still be able to look at the Bucks and see his fingerprints all over them.
Thank you, John Hammond!
