Lost amid all this big three talk in the NBA free agency period is the toiling of one executive, John Hammond of the Milwaukee Bucks. Most of the teams in that sweepstakes will come away empty-handed anyway. Hammond, a former assistant GM under Joe "build without superstars" Dumars with the Detroit Pistons, has made several heady moves this off-season that put the Bucks in good position to make the playoffs again in his second year on the job.
When John Salmons opted out of his contract, I thought the Bucks were done. With Salmons they went 22-8 last year and moved up down the stretch to sure up the 6th seed in the east. But today Hammond was able to re-sign John Salmons to a 5 year, $39 million deal. Along with his other low cost, low profile moves, Hammond will give the Bucks a balanced roster, albeit short on star power, much like his former boss Dumars did in Detroit. I like the Corey Maggette trade because it gives them another proven wing scorer who will take pressure off of Salmons and Brandon Jennings. Drew Gooden gives them a solid rebounding presence and he is a decent defender, which I know from his days with the Cavs.
I would imagine their starting five will be Jennings at the point, Maggette and Salmons on the wings, Gooden at power forward, and Andrew Bogut at center. The Bucks were a pretty good defensive team under coach Scott Skiles last year, but they lacked scoring punch. Adding Maggette and a solid rebounder in Gooden should help. John Hammond has done a great job developing a team that is very complimentary with the cast-offs of other teams. I think Joe Dumars would be proud. Dumars made similar acquisitions of journeymen players, Chaucey Billups and Rasheed Wallace. He turned them into a well balanced team that contended for years, and they actually won the title in 2004.
It's hard to say how good the Bucks can be this year, especially considering that the Eastern Conference is so up in the air with the big three still out there unsigned. I think I can comfortably predict that they will again make the Playoffs, which I honestly didn't feel good about before the re-signing of Salmons. In fact, despite the "star power" of the Joe Johnson signing, I think they could conceivably leapfrog the Hawks next year in the standings.
