Up to the challenge? Bucks' new GM Hammond ready to start

Milwaukee at night

     John Hammond slipped into the suite where Joe Dumars was sitting when the Detroit Pistons' general manager began rattling off ideas for the future. 

      Hammond stopped the Friday night chat when Dumars slipped up.

      "He said, 'I was looking at our team and I think we need this.' I said, 'What do you mean our team?' " recalled Hammond, introduced as the Milwaukee Bucks new GM Saturday.

      Hammond, who spent the last seven seasons in Detroit as the vice president of basketball operations, said the time was right to move to a new challenge.

      "I'm anxious, I'm real anxious, and I think that's healthy to be anxious," Hammond said. "A little fear is healthy, to say I want to do this. I want to do this in the worst way."

      Bucks owner and Sen. Herb Kohl is giving Hammond a five-year contract to turn around a team that's made just one playoff appearance in the last four seasons and one Eastern Conference final since 1986.

      "We have work to do, but we think this is a great opportunity that we can get better, we can improve," said Hammond, who is replacing Larry Harris after he left the team March 19.

      Hammond twice met with Kohl beginning Tuesday with a follow-up interview Thursday.

      "There was a quick feeling ... that this was the man for us," Kohl said. "You know it when you see it."

      After his news conference, Hammond posed for pictures.

      "I guess this is the honeymoon, huh?" he said.

      The honeymoon will quickly be over, beginning with the coaching staff.

      Hammond said he hasn't made any decisions about Larry Krystkowiak, who has a year left on his first NBA coaching contract.

      "I know Larry, I know a lot of people who know Larry," Hammond said. "There aren't better people than Larry Krystkowiak."

      But Hammond also has worked with well-known coaches like Larry Brown and Rick Carlisle during his time in Detroit and could make a move. He'll also have roster issues to deal with. First off, a majority of the Bucks are signed through 2009 and they already have more than $60 million committed in salary next season.

      "We may make a move that people might question at times, and people may not agree with or think it's the wrong thing and it might be considered unpopular," Hammond said. "Maybe we do it sooner than later."

      Hammond watched the Bucks fall to the New Jersey Nets 111-98 Saturday night in his first game on the job, Milwaukee's sixth straight loss.

      Richard Jefferson scored 24 points and Vince Carter added 21 for the Nets.

Desmond Mason led Milwaukee with 18 points, while Michael Redd, the Bucks' leading scorer, took only seven shots and finished with 12 points in 29 minutes.

      New Jersey 26 28 30 27 - 111 Milwaukee 27 26