2020 Milwaukee Bucks Ultimate Draft: Team Marques Johnson

The Milwaukee Bucks Ultimate Draft was held over the last couple of weeks and this team led by Marques Johnson and Michael Redd has plenty of talent.

With the NBA on hiatus and fans going crazy, the writers at Dairyland Express decided to partake in a friendly competition trying to select the best Milwaukee Bucks‘ team of all time.

The rules are simple. Each player can only be drafted once and you must select the year you want them from. For example, the 2019-20 Giannis Antetokounmpo was selected with the first overall pick. That means the general manager got that version of his skills and he can’t be picked again, no matter what year.

Each general manager/writer is responsible for filling his roster however he sees fit. He can go with all guards, all centers or anywhere in between. There are 10 rounds which means five starters and five bench players.

Each general manager has also written an article stating the thought process behind their strategy. Check them all out at Dairyland Express! We are asking you, the readers, to vote on who did the best. There is a link at the bottom of each article you can click on that will take you to the twitter page to vote.

Here are the full results. Enjoy!

My team:

Round 1, Pick 4: 1978-79 Marques Johnson

Round 2, Pick 7: 2006-07 Michael Redd

Round 3, Pick 14: 1996-97 Vin Baker

Round 4, Pick 17: 1977-78 Brian Winters

Round 5, Pick 24: 1975-76 Elmore Smith

Round 6, Pick 27: 2007-08 Mo Williams

Round 7, Pick 34: 1968-69 Jon Mcglocklin

Round 8, Pick 37: 1984-85 Alton Lister

Round 9, Pick 44: 2015-16 Greg Monroe

Round 10, Pick 47: 1985-86 Craig Hodges

My general draft strategy in this competition was to take the best player available. In a few cases, I had to pivot and fill out positions, but there will be some positionless basketball being played with my team.

In my first five picks, making up my starting five, I did not draft a traditional point guard, but there are plenty of guys to handle the ball. Marques Johnson had the distinction of “point forward” in his playing days and Michael Redd and Brian Winters can also handle the ball and initiate the offense.

My first four picks are all great scorers, especially Johnson and Redd who each averaged over 25 points per game in their best seasons. They were also very efficient. Johnson shot 55 percent from the field in the 1978-79 season and Redd shot 46.5 percent while being a perimeter player and was 38.2 percent from behind the arc which all totaled up to an effective field goal percentage of 52.2 percent. This efficient inside-outside scoring duo will be my team’s main scoring driver. Johnson also averaged 1.5 steals and 1.2 blocks that season.

My third and fourth picks will both be phenomenal second or third options on almost any team, and I’m getting them to augment our scoring behind the two stars. Both Baker and Winters were All-Stars in their respective seasons, averaging 21.0 and 19.9 points per game respectively.

Baker also gives this team some size at 6-11 and averaging 10.3 rebounds per game in the 1996-97 season and was an iron man that year averaging over 40 minutes per game.

Winters adds a facilitator to the starters, averaging 4.9 assists and some outside shooting touch. The three-point line was not yet established in 1978, but in his last four years in the league, once it was born, he was a career 36.3 percent three-point shooter.

My two centers, Elmore Smith and Alton Lister are old school big-bodied centers who patrol the paint on defense, grab boards, and do a little damage in the post. They are both seven feet tall and weighed in at 250 and 240 pounds respectively.

Smith averaged 15.6 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 3.1 blocks per game. Lister averaged 9.9 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game. Smith is a little better in every area, but they both bring similar skill sets and have the tools to contain any other center in Milwaukee Bucks history. Offense won’t be run through the post, so I don’t need big scoring out of centers just rebounding and defense. These two guys provide that perfectly.

Greg Monroe fills a similar build of my two centers and will take Vin Baker’s resting minutes. He isn’t the rim protector that Smith and Lister are, but he can defend in the post and rebound well. He can also score down low and has some mid-range touch. He also can shoot free throws, a skill most big men don’t possess, shooting 74 percent from the line in 2015-16.

Finally, my three bench guards. They all provide shooting, which is badly needed because of the many inside-oriented players on this team. Jon McGlocklin, the original Buck and first Milwaukee Bucks’ All-Star can score off the bench, seen by his 19.6 points per game in 1968-69, and was known for his shooting. Even though there was no three-point line in his era, he would excel with one and could be an even bigger threat than he was.

Mo Williams would run the second unit and be our sixth man. He averaged 17.2 points and 6.3 assists per game while shooting 38.5 percent from three-point range.

Finally, a pure three-point bomber, Craig Hodges. Hodges owns two of the top 20 three-point percentage seasons in NBA History. In this season for the Bucks, he shot 45.1 percent from long range which led the league.

The versatility and possibilities with this team are endless. There’s the possibility to slow it down and go to the post and play a pure half-court game and grind out wins. There are tons of guys that can handle the ball.

A fast-paced modern lineup can be imagined with shooters that would look something like Williams, Hodges, Redd, Johnson, and Baker. This lineup would get out on the break and get Johnson and Baker playing downhill and finding deadly shooters on the three-point line. Tons of lineups can be thought up to play any brand of basketball you could want because there’s so much versatile talent here. That is what makes this the best Milwaukee Bucks Ultimate Draft team.

*Please take the time to grade my team. You can go to the Dairyland Express Twitter link here and vote for how you think I did.