Milwaukee Bucks: Get To Know Thon Maker

Weaknesses

The most glaring issue that Maker is going to face straight off the bat as he tries to find his feet in the NBA, can be seen very clearly in the side profile image above of him shaking Adam Silver’s hand. Maker is pencil thin, and although his height dictates he plays in the front court, there’s a danger of him being out-muscled off his spot.

There have been concerns over Maker’s ability to bulk up, and considering his Dinka heritage, it certainly may not be the most natural thing for him to do with his body type. Whether he ever looks like a traditional, muscular NBA big man or not, the first priority has to be to work on building up the youngster’s strength.

With impressively broad shoulders, there is some hope that Maker can still fill out though. To do that, not only will he require time in the gym, but a lot of work on his diet too.

Although many scouts in NBA circles might have been suggesting otherwise, at his introductory press conference, the Australian Sudanese suggested that he has already begun to make inroads with his weight during his time in Canada.

Aside from getting his body more physically ready, the biggest keys for Maker are going to be testing himself and learning from where he comes up short.

So much is made of Maker’s ability to handle the ball, or the range he possesses with his shot, but until he has honed those abilities against NBA caliber opposition, it’s too soon to leave any sort of weighty expectations on those elements of his game.

If Maker had spent even a year at a major college program, you know his game would have been dissected by his coaches, and picked apart by his teammates in practice. No matter how good a player is, that’s part of the process of improvement.

The concern with Maker will be that the competition he has faced up to this point has been so varied and inconsistent in quality, that he’ll find the NBA learning curve to be a steep one.

In all likelihood, Maker will look entirely out of his depth next season, but if both he and everyone around him are patient that need not prevent a stellar career in the NBA.

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