Bucks GM John Hammond is interested in taking on the same position with the Blazers, tweets Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times. We heard a few days ago that the Blazers were eyeing Hammond for the job, so the interest appears to be mutual.
Earlier today, Ben Golliver of Blazer's Edge rounded up comments Woelfel made on 1250 AM in Milwaukee, saying that the Blazers' interest is "legitimate" and that they would double Hammond's salary. Hammond is due $2MM in the final season of his deal with the Bucks next year. With Milwaukee out of the playoffs, Hammond's job may be in jeopardy, as Woelfel reported last week. When Jason Quick of The Oregonian tweeted about the Blazers' pursuit, he noted the team has not gotten permission from the Bucks to speak with Hammond, but that could be a moot point soon.
Hammond took over the Bucks in 2008 and was Executive of the Year in 2009/10, the only season the team made the playoffs under his watch. Before that, he assisted Joe Dumars in Detroit. Other candidates for the Blazers job include Steve Kerr and Mitch Kupchak, and the team has indicated it may retain interim GM Chad Buchanan. Portland team president Larry Miller met with Kerr this weekend.
Seriously, Blazers fans have been waiting for how many months after firing PK and Cho, we have our scout Chad be the an interim General Manager only to potentially to hire another loser General Manager only b/c is he available. A spectacular case of the Portland Blazers Ownership Blindly searching for something but having no idea of how to create a World Championship team. Since losing KP the blazers front office has been completely lost, like a child trying to find his way home deep in the Amazon forest. Pathetic!