Bucks' Draft

The prospects for the Bucks in this year's draft are not good, as you would expect when a team doesn't pick until #15. However it's not all doom and gloom for the Bucks draft this year.

This year's draft is not considered to be a very good class overall. There is no super talent at the top. There is no Lebron, Durant, or Howard in this years class for a really bad team to get excited about. This is more of a foundation laying draft with a bunch of players who look like they will be solid NBA players, but none that look like perennial all-stars let alone franchise changing stars.

As with most years, we will look back on this draft in 2-3 years and say how did everyone miss on that guy. That's where the Bucks prospects (albeit a long shot) don't look so bad. In a draft where 1-10 aren't that different and 11-30 are even less so the Bucks have as good a chance as any team to hit on a diamond in the rough.

It is very likely that McLemore and Noel will go 1 and 2 in some order. Neither blows you away as a sure fire #1 pick, but both showed enough flashes of talent to move into the top 2 spots. The rest of the top 10 spots in no special order will go Porter, Burke, Oladipo, Bennett, Len, Carter-Williams, Zeller and McCollum. If any of these players fell to 15 the Bucks would be lucky to get them.

After the top 10, there are a bunch of players the Bucks could take. It's hard to say who they will fall in love with.

The obvious lack of depth at guard makes that an easy position for them to take. With Monta opting out of his contract, and Reddick a free agent there are a ton of minutes available for a rookie to grab. Caldwell-Pope is the player most think the Bucks are targeting. He has more length at 6'6" than the Bucks guards last year, but it's likely he is off the board at 15.

At point guard there is Dennis Schroeder from Germany who many people seemed to have fallen in love with so much that he has been discussed as a top 10 pick. Who knows if Kohl is one of his admirers, but he could be a nice backup and eventual replacement for Jennings if the Bucks sign him and then have to trade him.

The small forward position got less interesting when Dario Saric pulled his name out of the draft. If he had stayed in I think he would have been a good pick had he made it to 15. The other small forward is Shabazz Muhammed who also may not make it to 15. He was the hot prospect coming out of high school, but there are so many weird things going on around this guy that it's hard not to think bust. From his coach at UCLA declaring him in the draft, to his Asian little league age issues (is he 18 or 22), to his crazy father this is one guy I hope is gone at 15 so the Bucks don't have to take him. It's no fun watching a kid self destruct as I think he may.

Then there's a ton of bigs that will be available for the Bucks to pick from. Adams is the most likely to be off the board before the Bucks pick as he is the only other true center (7'0" and 255lbs) than Len with 1st round potential. In today's NBA many teams don't really play a true center, but all you have to do is look at the playoff teams to understand that a true center is still a valuable position (Duncan, Hibbert, Gasol, Noah, Bogut, Chandler). The rest of the hybrid center-power forwards the Bucks will have to pick from include Olynyk, Plumlee, and Gobert who all offer some different skills.

The Bucks will likely end up with one of these 7 players if they keep the pick. The other option is trade, which Hammonds has been more than willing to do in the past.

My prediction: Gorgui Dieng. The Bucks just keep acquiring 6'11" shot blockers with limited offense, so why not continue to corner the market.

I will be disappointed if I am correct.