MVN - Most Valuable Network

Wisconsin’s red-headed step child

The state of Wisconsin has been the center of the sports world the past week. The Brewers made the biggest acquisition available before the trade deadline by acquiring CC Sabathia and the Packers are in constant discussion over whether or not they should welcome back Brett Favre.

While all this has been going down, GM John Hammond has been transforming the Milwaukee Bucks from perennial laughing stock to a real threat in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. Hammond served as Joe Dumars assistant in Detroit so he knows how to build a winner.

Hammond was hired after Larry Harris was fired and immediately began to clean house. Head coach Larry Krystkowiak was fired and replaced by Scott Skiles.  Hammond made his biggest splash when he traded Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons to the Nets for Richard Jefferson. Jefferson addressed Hammond’s biggest concern going into the off-season: small forward. The move also got rid of Bobby Simmons’ horrible contract. The same day that the Bucks acquired Jefferson, they drafted Joe Alexander in the draft. Alexander is a versatile and athletic player who can play either the small or power forward positions. Finally, news is out today that the Bucks have signed Andrew Bogut to a long-term extension.

Hammond is surrounding Michael Redd with the most talent of his career. Redd needs to build off of last season when he became a much better all-around player. Redd and Jefferson give the Bucks a great 1-2 punch and with Bogut improving on the defensive end, the Bucks should be a much improved defensive team.

The Bucks are definitely moving in the right direction as an organization after several years of drifting along without direction. Although they aren’t there yet, they have made several moves to ensure a successful future for the team. Unfortunately, the Bucks will never be more than third to the Packers and Brewers in the hearts of Wisconsin sports fans.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Bobby Simmons, Bango's Bunch, Andrew Bogut, Michael Redd, Yi Jianlian, Richard Jefferson, Milwaukee Bucks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.