Bucks News

"The distance from downtown Milwaukee to the northern Illinois town of Zion is less than 50 miles. But it's safe to say the road traveled by John Hammond featured many more twists and turns before he landed in Milwaukee as the Bucks' new general manager. The 53-year-old made a mention of his Zion roots in the opening moments of his introductory news conference last month when he said of his friends and family: "We're all just a bunch of Zee-Bees," referring to the nickname of the Zion-Benton High School athletic teams. Hammond knew from a young age he wanted to be a coach and to be involved in basketball."

"Based on games played and minutes averaged, there was no better, more productive rookie second-round choice this season in the National Basketball Association than Houston Rockets forward Carl Landry. In fact, his numbers compare favorably with many players chosen ahead of him in the first round of the 2007 draft. Landry, a Milwaukee native, is listed as 6 feet 9 inches and 248 pounds. He was the first player taken in the second round of the draft last June, No. 31 overall. "

"As work continues on finalizing the contracts of their assistant coaches for next season, the Milwaukee Bucks announced Thursday that point guard Mo Williams had undergone successful surgery to repair ligament damage in his right thumb. The surgery was performed at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York by hand specialist Michelle Carlson. Williams will be sidelined for about six weeks and will then be able to resume basketball-related activities while wearing a splint. He is expected to make a full recovery in time for training camp in October."

"You can't get through a week without someone joking about the length of the playoffs in the National Basketball Association. There is a good reason for the jokes. The NBA playoffs seem to go on forever. This season the playoffs started on April 19 and the latest possible end date is June 19, two months after they started. But for whatever reasons, television viewers are watching the NBA playoffs with increased interest, compared to last season."

"On the kind of Sunday when no one should have been indoors voluntarily, the memory of our primary indoor game's good times was hazy at best. But trust us, it was seven years ago this month when the Bucks were locked into one of their best playoff series ever, which is actually saying something. You haven't heard this since, but the Bucks beat the Charlotte Hornets in the 2000-'01 Eastern Conference semifinals with defense and rebounding. That's right, with defense and rebounding. Scott Williams and Ervin Johnson had the series of their lives for a jump-shooting team, and things haven't been quite the same around here, with the exception of the jump-shooting."

"If everything goes according to plan in the next couple days, Boylan will be making more frequent visits to the Bradley Center. On Wednesday, new Bucks coach Scott Skiles confirmed that Boylan, along with Lionel Hollins, Kelvin Sampson and Joe Wolf, are the coaches he would like to have on his staff next season. Final contract details still have to be worked out but barring any last-minute snags, that is the group that will join Skiles on the Bucks' bench next season."

"Former Marquette University player Jim Boylan has emerged as the leading candidate to become the lead assistant to new Bucks coach Scott Skiles."

"National Basketball Association owners this month quietly tweaked the league's revenue-sharing plan, a move that should provide some financial assistance to small-market teams like the Milwaukee Bucks."

"Nothing was easy in the 1971 NBA Finals for the franchise that would become the Washington Wizards. The Baltimore Bullets were swept in four games by a powerful Milwaukee Bucks team built around 7-foot-2 center Lew Alcindor and marvelous guard Oscar Robertson — two of the league's all-time all-stars."

"The Bucks' hiring of John Hammond as GM and Scott Skiles as coach is the best news for what has been a rudderless franchise since Ernie Grunfeld and George Karl were the GM-coach pairing and came within one win of the 2001 Finals."

"Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian will face a stern challenge when they take the court for host China on the opening day of Olympic basketball competition Aug. 10."

"Two coaches who might be joining his staff are former Indiana University coach Kelvin Sampson and former Bucks player Joe Wolf, who has made a name for himself as coach of two teams in the NBA's Development League."

"Milwaukee has emerged as the most likely landing spot for former Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson. The Milwaukee Bucks, specifically. NBA front-office sources told ESPN.com on Thursday that Sampson and the Bucks are discussing an assistant coach's role at the urging of new Bucks coach Scott Skiles."

"Scott Skiles became the 10th head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks since owner Sen. Herb Kohl took over as owner of the franchise on March 1, 1985. The only Bucks coach who did not work for Kohl was Larry Costello. Like me, you might be tempted to say that's an extraordinary amount of turnover. And, on some level, it is. That Skiles is the fourth coach of the Bucks in the last five years does not exactly scream stability, continuity and clarity. But in National Basketball Association culture, the Bucks' level of coaching turnover is rather ordinary. "

"The Bradley Center board of directors' surprise decision to drop the idea of selling the naming rights for the arena has left it with one less potential source of new revenue. So talk on Wednesday shifted to what the next option will be for the Bradley Center and the rest of the city's sports and entertainment and convention properties. One avenue that re-emerged is the possibility of new talks on merging the operations of the tax-supported Wisconsin Center District with the Bradley Center, which has no taxing authority."

"Bogut, through his agent, David Bauman, confirmed that he would be available to play for Australia in the Beijing Olympics this summer. But Bauman also repeated that Bogut would not be available until July 9 at the earliest, the first day the 7-foot center could sign a contract extension under terms of the NBA collective bargaining agreement."

"Scott Skiles was resettling into his unadorned office Tuesday afternoon when he got another text message, this one from his good friend and predecessor Larry Krystkowiak, with whom Skiles was planning to have dinner at the Krystkowiak home."

"Earlier, Hammond appointed 43-year-old Jeff Weltman as the Bucks' assistant general manager and announced that Dave Babcock would be retained as director of player personnel. Hammond is putting a team in place to rebuild the Bucks, with an emphasis on "team.""

"In a stunning turn of events, the Bradley Center board of directors on Tuesday abruptly decided to drop plans to sell the naming rights for the facility."

"Now, more than two decades later, Skiles has come full circle. On Monday, he was introduced as the 11th coach in Bucks history but the fourth in the last five years."

"With the hiring of Scott Skiles, the former Michigan State star and erstwhile NBA point guard, as the team's latest anointed savior at the coaching position, Bucks owner/czar Sen. Herb Kohl, VP Ron Walter, CFO Mike Burr, director of player personnel Dave Babcock and VP of business operations John Steinmiller will not have to rely solely on themselves for what is sure to be one of the toughest transformations in the league next season."

"It has been said that Scott Skiles comes with an expiration date, that he has a short shelf-life as an NBA coach because he pushes his players hard and, while they experience success, they eventually tire of his demands and tune him out."

"In early June 1987, Scott Skiles had completed an unremarkable rookie season with the Milwaukee Bucks and he was in limbo. Plagued by a back injury that some speculated would end his National Basketball Association career before it really started, Skiles played in only 13 games, a total of 205 minutes. "

"Think about a tough-minded coach in the National Basketball Association, and you picture Scott Skiles. The Milwaukee Bucks' new coach, who has built a no-nonsense reputation in stops in Phoenix and Chicago, doesn't dispute the label."

"The Bulls' coaching search barely has begun, but former coach Scott Skiles -- four months since his dismissal after a 9-17 start -- already has landed his next gig. Moving with surprising speed, the Milwaukee Bucks didn't interview any other candidates before announcing the hiring of Skiles on Monday. According to NBA sources, the length of the contract is four years."

"As Bulls general manager John Paxson continued performing due diligence on a coach search that could take weeks, his new counterpart in Milwaukee, John Hammond, moved quickly to hire Scott Skiles on Monday."

"Continuing to make significant progress in their negotiations, the Milwaukee Bucks might be ready to name Scott Skiles their new coach in the next day or two."

"Scott Skiles verbally has accepted an offer from the Bucks, erasing him as a Knicks coaching candidate, according to a league source. Skiles' imminent hiring strengthens front-runner Mark Jackson's candidacy, which received another boost over the weekend with Jeff Van Gundy's endorsement. "

"A lack of communication was one of the many shortcomings for the Milwaukee Bucks this season and no one knows that better than Larry Krystkowiak."

"Michael Redd: The Bucks have tried for five years to win with Redd as their best player and it hasn't worked. He would be great in a supporting role for a superstar -- are you listening, Cleveland? -- but this season proved that Redd will never accept that role with the Bucks. He's a liability on defense and a stop sign on offense, so he needs to be replaced."

"The seeds of discontent were sown fairly early in the Milwaukee Bucks' season."

"Talk about a season to forget. Having never gone through the free-agent process, maybe Bell was unaware that signing its own restricted free agents is usually the last thing on a team's summer to-do list. Whatever the case, it took Bell way too long to get in shape mentally and physically after his adventure with free agency, and the Bucks lacked production from one of their top players from the previous season."

"As stated from the giddy-app, Billy King and Mark Jackson are the common sense choices to become GM and coach... Sources say Scott Skiles is being romanced by the Bucks and Grizzlies. . . . Rick Carlisle appears to have a clear path to the Bulls. . . . P.J. Carlesimo's future with the Sonics is real shaky; too many players aren't fond of him and none are named Latrell Sprewell. . . . Should the Raptors, losers in 13 of last 20, get bounced in the opening round, Sam Mitchell, word has it, could be in jeopardy with two years left on his deal."

"General manager John Hammond started to reshape the Milwaukee Bucks' front office Friday by naming Jeff Weltman as his assistant general manager. The 43-year-old Weltman worked with Hammond during the past season in Detroit, where Weltman was the director of basketball administration."

"Several times during his final days as coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, Larry Krystkowiak referred to his first full season on the job as an educational experience. There had been insights to be gained, lessons to be learned and mistakes to be reconsidered. And he had experienced them all. Krystkowiak was fired Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after the team's final game. Although he wasn't available afterward, he did discuss his situation in the days leading up to his dismissal. The Bucks finished this season with a 26-56 record."

"John Hammond didn't waste any time once the Milwaukee Bucks' dismal season came to a conclusion. The team's new general manager, on the job all of five days, met with coach Larry Krystkowiak on Thursday morning and fired the Montana native, an expected move after the Bucks' 26-56 finish. Before the day was done, Hammond was busy working the phones in search of a new coach."

"Bucks coach Larry Krystkowiak was fired today, sources confirmed, one day after the team finished a deeply disappointing season with a 26-56 record. Krystkowiak, who was named head coach on March 15, 2007, won 31 of 100 games with the Bucks. His final defeat came as the Bucks fell in overtime, 110-101, to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night in Minneapolis."

"It would appear that today is the day for Milwaukee Bucks coach Larry Krystkowiak. The Bucks ended the season with an eight-game losing streak and a 26-56 record after falling in overtime to the Minnesota Timberwolves, 110-101, Wednesday night at the Target Center. The Bucks returned to Milwaukee after the game and general manager John Hammond planned to meet with Krystkowiak this morning. A decision most likely will be reached on Krystkowiak's status, and he is not expected to be retained."

"A season that opened six months ago far away in Turkey and never seemed like it would end in November and December really wouldn't at Target Center on Wednesday night, when the Timberwolves went an extra five minutes to beat Milwaukee 110-101 in their season finale. Point guard Randy Foye missed that season's first three months because of a kneecap injury, but he finished it with a flourish, supplying a career-high 32 points that included 10 of the Wolves' 16 points in overtime."

"In the end, fans at Target Center gave the Timberwolves a standing ovation. Two teams bound for the NBA draft lottery closed the season Wednesday night, and the Wolves overcame a 16-point deficit and rallied for a 110-101 overtime victory over the Milwaukee Bucks at Target Center behind Randy Foye's career-high 32 points. "

"Forward Desmond Mason has no second thoughts about leaving New Orleans and signing with Milwaukee as a free agent, even though the Hornets had one of the better records in the league and the Bucks did not. "I came back to Milwaukee because I like Milwaukee," he said. "And I liked the direction of the team, even though it was a bad year. My decision to come back was because I love the city of Milwaukee and I enjoy being here."

"Rookie center Aaron Gray was satisfied with the three-game suspension the NBA gave Bucks guard Royal Ivey for punching him in the groin early in the second quarter of the Bulls' victory Monday at Milwaukee. ''I'm just glad the league took that kind of approach,'' said Gray, who had a double-double (19 points, 22 rebounds) Wednesday in the season finale against Toronto."

"For rookie Yi Jianlian, the season's end means a return to China, where he will begin training with his national team for the Summer Olympics in Beijing. The Bucks are hoping it will be a productive off-season for Yi but mostly they would like to see him get physically stronger."

"It's a change that could give Milwaukee Bucks guard Michael Redd a ticket to China this summer, playing the role of designated three-point shooter and backup to starting shooting guard Kobe Bryant."

"Should be traded: Mo Williams or Michael Redd. The Bucks can't go on with this backcourt. Too much money and too little payoff for a team that must change its perimeter-based character."

"When John Hammond was still coaching, he watched in awe of Pistons guard Joe Dumars and the way he worked — and willed himself — to become a complete player."

"How down are the Milwaukee Bucks? They are so down, TNT's Charles Barkley feels sorry for them. During an interview Tuesday, Barkley and his colleague, Reggie Miller, were asked about the Bucks' season, which concludes tonight as the team awaits moves by new general manager John Hammond."

"On a night when rookie guard Ramon Sessions set a franchise single-game record with 24 assists, the Bucks were defeated by the Chicago Bulls, 151-135, in a glorified playground game at the Bradley Center."

"Tyrus Thomas lost a contact lens during the first quarter of the Bulls' stunning 151-135 victory over the Bucks on Monday night at the Bradley Center."

"Bulls general manager John Paxson was courtside to watch his team put up All-Star-game like points in their 151-135 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday. The Bulls' total points and their 81 in the first half were the most for the organization since a 155-127 home win over Phoenix (Dec. 4, 1990)."