ST. FRANCIS, Wis. -- With a high draft pick comes trade rumors, but the Milwaukee Bucks don't appear to be actively looking to move the No. 2 pick in the upcoming draft.
"I couldn't foresee us looking at something like that right now," Bucks general manager John Hammond said Wednesday. "This is where we want to be, to be honest with you. We want to be in a position where we can start building this, and I think we need to build it through the draft.
"We're really encouraged by the thoughts of our new ownership. They see that vision. The thought of building through this draft process is exactly what we need to be thinking."
New owners Wesley Edens and Marc Lasry attended the draft lottery Tuesday night and made their first public comments on the job status of Hammond since officially taking over late last week. Edens told reporters at the lottery that the ownership group will work with Hammond and his staff over the coming weeks leading up to the draft.
While it wasn't an official vote of confidence moving forward, Hammond appreciated Edens clearing the air a bit.
"They've been great," Hammond said. "I think it was Wes that said, 'Hey look, we've been on the job three days.' They've been very fair and gracious with us. I appreciate the respect they've had toward us, and we feel the same toward them.
"This is a real opportunity. This pick, I don't think it can be any better timing right now for the new owners to come in and have a top pick like this that we really feel can be a building-block piece for the future of this organization."
By holding the second pick in the draft, two of the consensus top three players -- Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and Joel Embiid -- will be available.
Which of the two are left on the board at No. 2 obviously depends on what the Cleveland Cavaliers do at No. 1. A couple of reports Wednesday speculated that the Cavaliers had Embiid at the top of their draft board, while other mock drafts had Cleveland taking Parker or Wiggins.
The back and forth will continue until the draft on June 26, as the Cavaliers could even trade back from the top spot.
"We really haven't started that yet," Hammond said of putting together his draft board. "We've been doing our draft groupings all year. The real draft work starts after the lottery."
The Bucks traditionally hold numerous draft workouts at the Cousins Center, but this year may be a bit of a different process than when Milwaukee has drafted in the middle of the first round. Projected at such high picks, the top prospects may choose not work out in each individual city.
"We'll see how it goes," Hammond said. "That takes care of itself. We'll probably be doing a little bit of both. We'll go to them, they'll come to us. We've been watching these guys, especially knowing where we'd be in the draft as the season progressed, we've been out with these guys all year watching them practice and play."
The Bucks were unable to meet with Wiggins, Parker or Embiid this past week at the draft combine because all three decided to skip the event. Milwaukee did sit down with the top two prospects that were at the combine, Australian point guard Dante Exum and Kentucky forward Julius Randle.
Rumors have spread that Exum and other top players would be picky about where they want to play, but Hammond said he received no such message about Milwaukee from any prospective draft pick.
"The players that don't show up to the combine, that's their prerogative, that's their agent's prerogative," Hammond said. "No player has come out and said at this point, 'I don't want to play at this particular place.' I think that's more Internet discussion or early posturing. Right now our discussions have been very good with everyone."
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