Milwaukee Bucks: All-Time Greatest 15 Man Roster

Marques Johnson – Third String

Marques Johnson is in many ways the prototype for so many of the best players we see in the league today. There was a time when the diversity that guys like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Paul George bring to their game was a completely foreign concept to forwards.

Why would they worry about playmaking? Why would they want to do it all?

Then, Johnson came along. If not the original “point forward”, the role will at least be forever tied to Johnson for the way in which he claims he coined the name.

"At the start of the playoffs, Don Nelson came up with the idea to initiate the offense through me at small forward. So after we went through how we were going to make the adjustments to different plays, my response to Nellie was, ‘OK, so instead of a point guard, I’m a point forward.’ I remember his response clear as mud, like it was yesterday, saying back to me, ‘Yeah. I like that. You’re my point forward.’ Junior Bridgeman was there — you can ask him."

Paul Pressey, another Bucks great of that era may dispute the origin, and certainly held his own claim to the position in Milwaukee too, but there can be no doubting Johnson’s prowess.

Dr. J gave me the ultimate compliment, he said I was the best all-round player that he ever played against. – Marques Johnson

If you take a look at the Bucks all-time franchise stats leaders, there aren’t many names that are more of an ever-present than Johnson. The Louisiana native ranks in the top ten in all five major categories.

That is sixth in points (10,980), third in rebounds (3,923), ninth in assists (1,934), sixth in steals (697) and seventh in blocks (439). Add into the mix that he’s seventh in terms of minutes played (18,240), fourth in field goal percentage (53 percent), and that the Bucks made the playoffs in all but one of his seasons with the team and it’s tough to find a match for his impact.

If there’s any more that needs to be said, I’m going to let this tweet do it.

Next: Junior Bridgeman