Milwaukee Bucks: 6 Options for 42nd Pick in the NBA Draft
By Kenny Jilek
Point Guards
When Jrue Holiday comes off the floor, there are plenty of other guys that can still make the offense go, but having a floor general to control the tempo and get the offense set up and moving off the bench will be vital.
Tre Jones – Duke
Tre Jones fits the mold of what the Milwaukee Bucks are looking for to a T. First of all, those situations where there are other stars on the court, and he needs to get them the ball are exactly what he did in his freshman season at Duke, playing with three lottery picks in Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett, and Cam Reddish.
That season, he only averaged 9.4 points per game, but the team didn’t need him to score to be successful, and he averaged 5.3 assists per game while only turning it over 1.5 times a night, showing his skills as a facilitator. This year, in his second season, he needed to turn up the scoring, so he averaged 16.2 points per game while shooting slightly better from the field and attacking the rim a lot more, upping his free throw attempts per game from 1.7 to 4.8. A big component in that was making his three-point shot respectable. His freshman year, he shot an ugly 26.2 percent from long range, but he got that all the way up to a solid 36.1 percent this season.
That’s a jumper that’s clearly improving and a guy that’s obviously willing to put in the work to make it NBA-worthy. Jones also fits the mold of a great defender, and teams will get no breaks when Holiday is out. He made the ACC All-Defensive Team both years at Duke and this year was the Defensive Player of the Year for the conference.
He’s not a perfect player, however, and it mostly comes in his scoring efficiency. He only shot 41.3 percent from the field in college, and that needs to go up a few percentage points for him to be a viable scoring option. Still, he would be in a familiar position not needing to score and being allowed to do his thing on the defensive end while distributing on offense.
Payton Pritchard – Oregon
If you’re looking for a college floor general with some more experience that could come in and run the second unit right away with no problems, look no further than Payton Pritchard. He was a four-year starting point guard at Oregon, and he draws some parallels to Malcolm Brogdon as a guy who’s a second-round pick not because he lacks talent but because he’s a little older.
Experience is just what the Milwaukee Bucks need, though, and in a year when they’re going for a ring, Pritchard is a guy they could count on to contribute on day one and in the playoffs. They’ve shown that youth isn’t important to them right now, so why go for a draft and stash guy or a 19-year-old project player?
Pritchard had an all-around stellar senior season averaging 20.5 points, 5.5 assists, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game. He really can do it all, and he shot 41.5 percent from behind the arc on 6.8 attempts per game.
He’s a well-built guard with a really nice scoring touch, and he could be a plug-and-play backup guard on almost any team. Even though he has a relatively low ceiling, the Bucks really just need a cheap backup point guard, and Pritchard might just be better than most guys on the market in their price range.