NBA AM: How Much Will Change In Milwaukee?

Pacers forward David West talks about defending home court, getting ready for the playoffs and being tested down the stretch.

Is Change Coming To Milwaukee?:  The Milwaukee Bucks announced yesterday that team owner Herb Kohl has agreed to sell the franchise to investment bankers Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens for a staggering $550 million.

As part of the announcement, Kohl pledged $100 million of that sale price to building a new world-class arena in Milwaukee. The new owners also pledged $100 million toward a new building as well.

The sale is still pending the NBA Board of Governors approval, but that is generally considered a formality given the nature of the transaction.

The Bucks are coming off a horrible 15-67 season, and while the story yesterday was about the sale and the new owners’ pledge to keep the team in Milwaukee, league insiders wonder how quickly new ownership will start to make changes to the front office and possibly the coaching staff.

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League sources say Lasry and Eden have been talking with independent basketball people for several weeks as they finalized the deal and plan to continue to evaluate the situation before making changes.

New co-owner Wesley Edens said as much during his introductory press conference.

“It’s Day 1 for us,” Edens said. “And it’s a process. We’ve had a lot of experience in investing in various businesses and successful ones are run by great organizations. We’re all about hiring the right people and having the right people in place.

“We think there are a lot of terrific people in the organization. We haven’t really spent any time assessing people in the organization in any meaningful way. We’re going to figure it out.

“Milwaukee fans deserve a winning team. This is about winning basketball games, about winning championships, about being part of the community. We look forward to all of this.”

In January of 2013, general manager John Hammond signed a three-year contract extension that was said to carry him through the 2015-16 season.

Last summer, the Bucks also signed former Indiana Pacers general manager David Morway to a three-year deal as the team’s assistant GM, while also giving head coach Larry Drew a four-year, $10 million deal to coach the team.

The Bucks ended their season with the worst record in the NBA and now have a 25 percent chance of landing the top overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.

»In Related: What Does The 2015 NBA Draft Class Look Like Today?

Danny Ainge Talks Celtics Summer:  Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge spoke with reporters yesterday on a wide range of topics, but the central theme of his comments was about how he and his staff would be approaching this summer and what the future in Boston might look like.

“Was a long season,” Ainge said. “I guess not that long, but it was a tough, tough year. I saw a lot of positive things from individuals. I thought our team gave good effort most nights. I think consistency was our biggest challenge. I don’t think the team was a great fit, great mix, but individually I like what I saw in almost every player. I just feel like we didn’t have the size inside to protect the rim. I thought that was a big factor that cost us a lot of games and we didn’t finish a lot of games down the stretch.”

The Celtics are hoping for a busy and productive off-season, but Ainge admits that as much as he’s willing to try and make a splashy move or two, it’s not entirely up to him.

“We’re hopeful,” Ainge said. “I have some ideas and some plans that I’d like to do but there’s just no guarantee that we can do it. We need to find good trading partners. We always are trying to make fireworks every summer, we try to do something that’s unique and special and we will definitely try this summer.”

»In Related: 2014 NBA Free Agent Class

One of the big questions surrounding the Celtics is whether they will entertain trades involving guard Rajon Rondo. Ainge didn’t seem like that was something he was planning to explore.

“There’s no one person that’s more important than the whole organization,” Ainge said of his point guard. “We need to be good because we all want to be good. I want my coach to stay. I want Jeff Green to want to be here. I want free agents that are out there looking at us play to want to play here. I want fans to want to come to the game. Everybody wants to win, but not just for one player, not just for one person. We all want to win and that’s what we are trying to accomplish.

“I think that Rajon will have the best year of his career next year. I think he’s sort of in a phase of his life where he’s matured, he’s just smarter; the game has slowed for him. I think he’ll be really healthy and fresher with a summer of strength. You sort of bypass the mental anguish from coming back from the knee surgery and the ACL and that’s been sort of the pattern of guys in the past. The first few, 30, 20 games whatever is an adjustment period so I’m confident he’ll have the best year of his career.”

Ainge was asked how long he thought it would take for the Celtics to get back to contending after a season that will result in a lottery pick.

“I don’t know. How does anybody know that?” asked Ainge. “What do you want me to like make a prediction or something?”

The Celtics are hopeful that they can make a move or two in free agency, but Ainge was honest that there was so much unknown associated with the 2014 free agent class that it’s hard to predict or project.

“I don’t know anything about what we can do. I’m hopeful,” Ainge said. “I’ll work my tail off to duplicate what we’ve done in the past but there are no guarantees.

“There are not very many difference makers in the free agent class right now. We also don’t know; there are a lot of players with player options and team options, so let’s wait and see who the free agent class is.”

Ainge admitted that this offseason might be more about collecting future assets, especially if the kinds of deals he wants to do don’t materialize

“That all depends,” Ainge said. “Depends on what else we can accomplish, what other options we have. I could see that possibly happening, acquiring more assets. I could see giving up our assets, our young assets and some draft picks for players as well and everywhere in between.”

The Celtics closed their season 25-57, which ended up being the fifth worst record in the NBA.

The Celtics will enter the offseason with $59.92 million in contracts, assuming all of the options years are exercised.

»In Related: Boston Celtics Team Salary Chart

Oladipo’s Rookie Season: Magic rookie Victor Oladipo reflects on his rookie season, how much he has learned in his first season and what he plans to focus on this summer.

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