The Milwaukee Bucks used the 47th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft on Serbian forward Bogoljub Markovic. After spending another year overseas, he’s finally set to make his NBA debut this season.
Markovic stayed busy during the year between being drafted and joining the Bucks. He played for Mega Basket in the Adriatic League, averaging 18.3 points, 9.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.
Those numbers were good enough to earn him league MVP honors, an award previously won by NBA players such as Goga Bitadze and Nikola Jokic.
Markovic parlayed that season into a nice contract with Milwaukee, signing a four-year, $9.3 million deal this summer with a team option in the final season.
Still, he remains very much a work in progress.
Markovic was up and down throughout Summer League. There are clear skills to build around, including his rebounding, ability to score at multiple levels and passing feel for a player his size.
The biggest concern is how his athletic limitations translate to the NBA.
Markovic lacks the vertical explosiveness and lateral quickness of many NBA bigs and forwards, which could make him a target defensively. Finding ways to compensate with positioning, anticipation and skill will be crucial if he wants to carve out a long-term role.
With his entire NBA career still ahead of him, there’s no reason to rush the process. Here is one realistic and one ambitious goal for Markovic’s rookie season.
Realistic goal: Improve his game and prepare for the 2027-28 NBA season
Realistically, Markovic could spend much of his rookie season glued to the bench.
Milwaukee already has Myles Turner, Kel’el Ware and Jericho Sims ahead of him at center. If the Bucks view him more as a power forward, he’ll also be competing with Kyle Kuzma, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Ousmane Dieng and Nate Ament for minutes.
That’s a difficult path to regular playing time.
Because of the depth ahead of him, Markovic’s rookie season may be more about development than production. He can use practices, individual work and whatever opportunities come his way to adjust to NBA speed, improve defensively and continue refining the skills that made him such an intriguing prospect overseas.
There’s nothing wrong with that outcome.
If Markovic can use this season to better prepare himself for a legitimate rotation opportunity in 2027-28, Milwaukee should consider his rookie campaign a productive one.
Ambitious goal: Earn a spot at the back end of the rotation by the end of the season
Achieving this goal may depend as much on Milwaukee’s circumstances as Markovic’s development.
If the Bucks are firmly in the playoff race late in the season—something they should be motivated to pursue considering they don’t control their first-round pick—it will be difficult for Jenkins to justify giving developmental minutes to a raw rookie.
If Milwaukee falls out of contention, however, the equation changes.
At that point, the Bucks could shift more attention toward developing their younger players and give Markovic meaningful NBA minutes rather than keeping him buried on the bench.
That would give him an opportunity to show whether his scoring, rebounding and feel can outweigh some of his athletic limitations against NBA competition.
Barring major injuries, Markovic probably won’t force his way into the rotation early in the season. But if he develops quickly enough to earn consistent minutes by March or April, it would be an encouraging sign that Milwaukee’s patience with its 2025 second-round pick is already starting to pay off.
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