The Magic have moved quickly the last two days in their front office hiring process, landing two well-experienced general managers to oversee the rebuild in Orlando. After giving Raptors GM Jeff Weltman a five-year deal to become the team’s president of basketball operations on Monday, the Magic have landed Bucks GM John Hammond as their new general manager, as the team announced Tuesday.
Hammond’s deal will also be a five-year contract as well, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.
Sources: Milwaukee GM John Hammond has agreed to a five-year deal to become Orlando's GM. Hammond will work under president Jeff Weltman.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 23, 2017
Weltman was Hammond’s assistant GM in Milwaukee for years prior to going to Toronto in 2013, and now the roles will be reversed with Hammond reporting to Weltman in his role as president. The move is significant for the Magic, as they now have two tenured front office personnel in place who will be comfortable with each other and having one solid voice from the top down on what they want to do. Also, bringing Hammond in gives them a GM with a strong draft track record recently — Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo have both over-performed their draft slot — which is the one thing Weltman was not great at in Toronto.
As for the Bucks, they will replace Hammond with an in-house promotion, per Wojnarowski.
Milwaukee's ownership agreed to let Hammond make the move, which should clear the way for GM-in-waiting Justin Zanik to be promoted to GM.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 23, 2017
Staying within the Bucks’ front office for a promotion makes sense considering the success the Bucks have had recently in their rebuild and appear to be trending in the right direction. Zanik will help in keeping that vision and collaborative effort with coach Jason Kidd that has seen the Bucks become one of the East’s up-and-coming playoff contenders.
