FanHouse JohnHammond

It's official: Ramon Sessions is heading to Minnesota.

Bucks general manager John Hammond confirmed to the Journal Sentinel earlier that he will not match the Minnesota Timberwolves' four-year, $16.4 million offer sheet for Sessions.

The Timberwolves signed Sessions to an offer sheet after they failed to lure point guard Ricky Rubio, whom they selected with the No. 5 pick in the June draft, over to the NBA from Europe.

John Hammond has had an awfully busy first few months as the Bucks GM, finding a coach, preparing for the draft and swinging a semi-blockbuster deal for Richard Jefferson. He can now cross one more thing off his list: giving his franchise center an extension.

Andrew Bogut has agreed on a five-year deal that could be worth up to $72.5 million, including $60 million of guaranteed money. That's not quite as much per year as Chris Paul (who was selected three spots below Bogut in 2005 and recently agreed to a four-year, $68 million deal), but it's certainly a hefty raise and will easily set him up for life. Bogut is in Australia at the moment preparing for the Olympics with his country's national team, but he's expected to fly to the U.S. so he can officially put pen to paper on Friday.

It's still unclear what Hammond's master plan looks like (will Michael Redd remain part of the picture? will Ramon Sessions supplant Mo Williams as the team's point guard of the future), but locking up his up-and-coming big man was a no-brainer. Sure, the Bucks would probably take Paul or Deron Williams if given a do-over on the 2005 draft, but if Bogut continues to improve at his current pace he could be an All-Star this coming season.

Recently, the myth of point guard purity has been a bit of a personal bleating issue for me. Consider me thrilled, then, to see new Bucks general manager John Hammond address it head-on in a wide-ranging interview with BrewHoop. Hammond takes issue with the assertion shooting PG Mo Williams isn't a good match for wing scorers Michael Redd and Richard Jefferson.

"To be an NBA effective player, you have to be able to make shots. If you don't have a guy that can shoot the ball like Mo or make plays like Mo, then guys like Jefferson or Michael aren't going to get open as easily. So anytime you have a scorer on the floor I think he can complement other people. Everyone's looking for the consummate point guard, but there are just so few of those."

And, as we've learned with Jason Kidd, being the "consummate point guard" isn't necessarily a boon. Assists and "pointguardness" are severely misunderstood concepts in the NBA; that many recent championship teams have lacked a top-flight point guard (Derek Fisher, Jason Williams, Rajon Rondo?) seems to be lost on pundits as we all search for the next Steve Nash (who has actually shot a lot more the past couple years).

Jefferson and Redd have been very efficient scorers in the recent past. If Williams and the frontcourt can also score efficiently, there will be little problem overall with Milwaukee's offense. And there shouldn't be -- this is a talented offensive team. The real consternation regarding the Buck backcourt should come on the other end, where neither Williams nor Redd have shown they can be consistently stout defenders.

(Be sure to check out the first two parts [I, II] of BrewHoop's Hammond interview as well.)

Crystal Ballin' takes a team-by-team look at what should, could, and probably will happen in the June 26th NBA Draft.

The Bucks' have a lot of issues heading into this off-season, and most of them revolve around below average talent (Bobby Simmons and Dan Gadzuric) receiving above average dollars ($16M next season). The team needs to begin getting its roster in better shape for the coming seasons, and the draft may be able to help them do that via trade.

Picks: #8, #37.

Needs: Small forward is the glaring need, but some roster cohesiveness would be nice too.

Best case scenario: That the Bucks use the eighth pick to entice a team to take back one of their bad contracts.

Last season, very few class-of-2004 draftees got their early extension, and only one received a maximum deal (Dwight Howard). You would figure we have exactly two max players this summer (Chris Paul and Deron Williams -- absolute no-brainers). But apparently, Andrew Bogut and/or his friends in the Australian media think the Buck will join the club. From the Sydney Morning Herald's Jamie Pandaram, via BrewHoop:

What would you do with $80 million? Some of Australia's financially stricken basketballers could give tips to NBA compatriot Andrew Bogut, who is set to receive that figure in just over four weeks as part of a contract extension. [...] The deal Bogut is negotiating is worth an estimated $13.3 million a season over six years with his club, the Milwaukee Bucks, is expected to be formally announced on July 1.

Pandaram offers no sourcing; to be fair, his story mostly centers on how Bogut's good fortune comes at a moment in which Australia's continental basketball league faces financial ruin. BrewHoop notes no contract can be signed until July 9 (deals are negotiated and leaked to the media during the one-week July moratorium, but not made official).

Honestly, based on circumstantial evidence but no inside information, Bogut grabbing an $80 million contract seems unlikely. Bogey's per-minute numbers this year were not as good as Emeka Okafor's 2006-07 numbers ... and many felt the 5-year, $60 million contract Charlotte offered Okafor (ultimately rejected) was too rich. Add in that Milwaukee GM John Hammond learned under Joe Dumars, who never hands out the max, and the $60-65 million range looks far more likely for Bogut.

(Besides Bogut, the two most interesting class-of-2005 test cases for me this summer: Andrew Bynum and Danny Granger. We'll be talking more about them in the coming weeks.)

In Friday's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Michael Redd tells reporter Charles F. Gardner he's been told the Bucks haven't sought to trade the scoring star. Mixed in with other anecdotes, it seems to imply Redd won't be on the market this summer. But take a closer look at Redd's quote.

"They called me and said they had not initiated talks about a trade, and not to pay attention to what was being said," Redd said. "Out of respect, they wanted to tell me to ignore those rumors."

Take new GM John Hammond at his word, but it doesn't mean anything. Most teams, I'd imagine, haven't yet initiated trade talks. The draft is three weeks away, and trades rarely get consummated before the big day. And while I'm not in any war room, there's certainly the sense that the real, serious negotiations don't start until everyone's had their chance to look closely at the draft prospects -- workouts just began Wednesday.

The only question which matters: does it make sense to trade Redd this summer? As a $15 million player on a small-market team with a bloated payroll and only 26 wins to show for it ... yeah, if the right deal's available, Redd should be gone. It'd be different if Milwaukee were knocking on the Eastern Conference door, but this team's not even close.

Thankfully, Redd nor Hammond seem to believe dude will be a Buck for life; these guys are realistic about the need for change. And while the discussion between the two has obviously been good for their relationship, Bucks fans and observers shouldn't read anything into this: Milwaukee's roster will change, and Redd's a likely trade candidate.

Few league followers remain sympathetic to Scott Skiles; after Chicago's disaster of a start this season, followed by a disaster of a middle and a disaster of an end, it seems clear he poisoned the well quite a bit with his angry, abrasive style. Chicago had good defensive talent, and most of the guys were ones you would say work hard. The team needed offensive creativity, if anything, and Skiles nor successor Jim Boylan could provide that.

Milwaukee needs some offensive creativity, too; weapons like Michael Redd, Mo Williams and Yi Jianlian should be able to boast an offense better than 22nd in the league -- the Bucks did have the #13 offense in the league just a year prior with the same pieces, after all. But the defense remained consistent: consistently awful.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Tom Enlund reports the Bucks will likely hire Skiles as their new coach within a few days. With the above findings in place, it makes too much sense. If the Bucks offense can get back on track while Skiles incites some team defense out of the bunch (and there's potential for this -- with long Andrew Bogut and Yi, and good quickness in the backcourt), this team can easily vault into the Atlanta-Indiana-New Jersey range. With a(nother) top 10 pick and some reassignment of assets, they could get even better.

Of course, this supposes new GM John Hammond doesn't want to immediately make his mark by detonating the locker room. Of course, Skiles could be a star candidate for that gig, too; it was, after all, the incredibly young 47-win 2004-05 Bulls which stands as the coach's greatest bench triumph. This could work, folks.

Who's going to be the new coach in Milwaukee? The online sportsbook Bodog lists odds for six candidates plus the field -- Scott Skiles is easily the favorite with 1:1 odds, followed by Larry Brown at 3:1, Rick Carlisle at 7:2, Tom Thibadeau at 4:1, Jeff Van Gundy at 6:1 and Mike Fratello at 8:1.

What about the Bulls? Carlisle and Van Gundy are tied with 7:4 odds, followed by Fratello at 7:2, Terry Porter at 9:2 , Thibodeau at 6:1 and Mark Jackson at 8:1. Personally, I'd peg Carlisle as the favorite to land with the Bucks over the Bulls due to his history working with John Hammond, but all in all I can't disagree with these odds.

But what about the Knicks job? This is where it gets interesting. In talking with a contact from Bodog over email, I was told Bodog almost didn't post any odds on candidates since "Jackson is such a prohibitive favorite." What they settled on was a straight-up question: "Will Mark Jackson be named the new head coach of the New York Knicks?" The only option bettors can select is "no," which pays +150. In other words, which means they're so sure he's going to get the job they're not willing to risk a single dollar for people wanting to bet "yes," no matter how long the odds.

Granted, all of this might change once Donnie Walsh starts bringing in candidates to interview, but it's interesting that the snap judgment from a company whose business is based on making correct guesses is that the job is absolutely Jackson's to lose.

Previously on FanHouse:
Zeke Could Have Made You Some Money

The video is already a few days old, but it's still relevant considering Ramon Sessions set another career-high by scoring 25 points to go along with 14 assists in Milwaukee's season finale against the Timberwolves. Now, I imagine most of you probably just asked yourself, Ramon who?

Well, in case you haven't been paying attention (and I understand if you haven't been -- the Bucks did end the season on an eight-game losing streak), Sessions is Milwaukee's rookie point guard who's come out of complete obscurity to average a double-double the last month of the season (11.3 points and 11.3 assists), including an obscene 20 point, 24 assist performance earlier this week. For more, read up on BrewHoop.

You want to know the crazy part? He didn't even make his NBA debut until March 9th, instead spending most of the league terrorizing the D-League. Seriously, Larry Harris, you deserved to be fired just for that. Needless to say, but I'm guessing the first order of business for new GM John Hammond is putting Charlie Bell squarely on the trading block.

Bill Simmons dream of running an NBA franchise may have hit a little speed bump today. And by "speed bump" I mean it has been totally derailed. The Milwaukee Bucks, according to Marc Stein, have reached an agreement to "lure" John Hammond away from the Detroit Pistons to run their front office.

Hammond's first task in Milwaukee, according to sources, will be hiring a veteran coach to help the Bucks make a firm assessment of their talent after a group expected to compete for a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference woefully underachieved in Larry Krystkowiak's first full season on the bench.

Sources say Hammond is expected to make a strong push to hire former Pistons coach Rick Carlisle. Working as an ESPN analyst this season after leaving the Indiana Pacers, Carlisle is also widely considered as a strong candidate to coach the Chicago Bulls next season.

If you are a Bucks fan -- even one that was staunchly behind the potential of the Sports Guy experiment -- you have to be thrilled right now. Hammond has resisted overtures for quite a while now -- and it appeared he was resisting Milwaukee's as well -- and in case you don't watch basketball, he and Joe Dumars put together a decent team in Detroit for the past few years.

Maybe it's just me, but assuming that nothing else changes (which it probably will) and Hammond and Carlisle get hired (I don't see why not) but the Bucks are immediately about 10 times more respectable than they were yesterday. Or would have been if they'd let the Sports Guy run the team. It will be interesting, of course, to see how much leeway Herb Kohl will give Hammond, but you have to think that if he agreed to move to a rebuilding project of his own, he's at least getting more or less carte-b to make the Bucks decent again.

HT: JCM, Esq.