The Bucks need help. Their starting point guard is a former small forward who stands at 6’11”, their power forward entered the league with an offensive game that was supposed to make up for his defensive shortcomings but doesn’t, and the rest of their young nucleus appears to be more promise than results. The Bucks can’t shoot, especially from three, which might’ve been okay in the 1990’s but in this day and age that just isn’t going to cut it. Three-point shooters space the floor, spread out the defenders so that they can’t clog the paint and force you to shoot shots that you’re unlikely to make. Look at what Golden State and Cleveland are doing, their crunch time lineup consists of five players that can make a three-pointer with some semblance of consistency. Even when playing their regular five, they have at least three players on the floor that you can’t leave open from three.
For the Bucks, Khris Middleton was the only player that teams would feel the need to close out on. Rashad Vaughn, the Bucks first round draft pick last year, was supposed to be able to shoot threes and keep the defense honest, but he shot less than 30% from three last year, and barely 30% from inside the arc.
Almost every draft pundit predicts the Bucks to pick Jakob Poeltl from Utah with the tenth pick, but I have to question this logic. If there is one thing the Bucks do not need it is another player clogging the paint. What will Poeltl be able to do that John Henson can’t? He is bigger, so his defense will probably benefit the Bucks and may lead to a few more easy baskets, but what does he really do for this team? The Bucks desperately need a shooter. They are too far down in the draft to grab one of the can’t miss prospects which is fine because they already have a NBA version of Ben Simmons in Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks need to pray that Jamal Murray or Buddy Hield fall to them at number ten. Though this may seem unlikely, crazier things have happened in NBA drafts. If the Bucks think that nobody worth taking will fall to them, they need to trade up. Trading down or taking a big man will do nothing for this Bucks squad, mostly because the NBA draft isn’t deep enough to be able to find good players often in the back of the draft.
No team made fewer three-pointers than the Bucks last year, and three-pointers are the present and the future. If they decide to roll the dice with the tenth pick, Wade Baldwin IV may be an option. He is certainly a boom or bust candidate, but that is the best the Bucks can hope for when they continue to be just good enough to not get a top pick but not good enough to make the playoffs.
The draft between the eighth pick and the fifteenth pick is no-man’s land, and it is where the Bucks have found themselves far too often to ever fully rebuild.
You never know, though, maybe a star will fall into our lap.
