Milwaukee Bucks: 3 Huge moves for this offseason

Draft Night Splash

The Milwaukee Bucks possess the 24th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, which they got in the Malcolm Brogdon trade last summer. Unfortunately, the Pacers played very well in the placement games in the bubble, making them 45-28, finishing barely ahead of the Heat, 76ers, Rockets, Thunder, Jazz, and Mavericks. Because NBA draft order is based solely on regular-season finishes, they will pick behind all these teams even though they were swept in the first round. Had they lost a couple more games, this pick could be all the way up at 18, but they’ll have to work with pick 24.

Now, the Bucks still could find some value at 24, and there could be impact players still there. One that could be gone before 24, but some have even later in mock drafts is point guard Jahmi’us Ramsey out of Texas Tech.

He’s a score-first guard who averaged 15 points per game in his freshman season on 44 percent shooting from the field and a very impressive 42.6 percent from three.  He has a diverse scoring bag and uses every move to get himself to the rim and space to shoot from the outside – Translation: He gets buckets, and the Bucks could use a guy like that.

However, we’re not here to talk about using the 24th pick to just draft someone; we’re here to talk about all the other things to do with it that would get the league buzzing on draft night. The first thing to do would be to trade up for someone that they feel could make an impact.

Draft projections are all over the place right now, so figuring out who that could be would be a tough endeavor, but maybe they go really wild and trade way up to the middle of the lottery and take Wisconsin native Tyrese Haliburton, a 6’5″ point guard with plenty of scoring, playmaking, and defensive potential due to his size, length, and exceptional court vision.

They could also look at the possibility of trading down. A lot of the value in this draft seems to be in the middle and late first round, so maybe someone will want that 24th pick. If they did this, they’d really be looking to get a solid role player back who can be a playoff contributor right now. Maybe a guy like Seth Curry could be in play if the Mavericks wanted to come up from 31, or Nemanja Bjelica from the Kings could both give the Bucks a big shooting punch.

Milwaukee could also completely trade out of the draft and use the pick as an asset in a bigger trade. It could be used in those potential trades for Chris Paul or Jrue Holiday. The Bucks could also look elsewhere at someone like Buddy Hield and at least make a call to see where the Kings are on him, but it might be unlikely seeing as he begins the first year of a new extension in the 2020-21 season.

Finally, they could buy into the second round. They got Malcolm Brogdon in the second round a few years ago, and there are always some surprises. After all, second-round picks are still supposedly in the top 60 players available in the world. The biggest splash to make with a second-round pick would be Marquette’s own Markus Howard.

The Miami Heat series showed us all how valuable Marquette guys can be, especially when they’re not high draft picks. Jimmy Butler, Jae Crowder, and Wesley Matthews all played prominent roles in this series. Butler was the 30th pick in his class, Crowder was 34th in his year, and Matthews went undrafted. Howard got buckets better than almost anyone in the college game this season, and he could be the next underrated Marquette alum to be a big NBA contributor.

What do you think of any of these ideas? Would firing Budenholzer be the right call? Are trades for Chris Paul or Jrue Holiday too crazy? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter @DairylandXpress.