Milwaukee Bucks Rumors: Bucks could look to move up in draft

With the NBA Draft just a matter of hours away, the Milwaukee Bucks are said to be among a number of teams considering trading up.

The Milwaukee Bucks have been widely expected to enter Thursday’s NBA Draft holding the 17th and 48th picks, but that could yet be subject to change.

The NBA has been a blur of trade rumors in recent days, with multiple top-tier players said to be available. Unsurprisingly with the draft approaching, it seems that trade fever could spill over into proceedings in the Barclays Center on Thursday night too.

Jonathan Givony of Draft Express has noted six teams who could potentially look to move up into the lottery section of the draft, and among them was the Milwaukee Bucks.

Teams to keep an eye on potentially trying to move into the 10-14 range tonight:: LA Lakers, Atlanta, Brooklyn, Milwaukee, Portland, Houston
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) June 22, 2017

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First and foremost, in a draft with as much top-end talent as most agree this year’s has, it’s not all that surprising to hear that teams would like to move up into the front half of the order. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make actually doing so any easier.

For example, simply bundling together the 17th and 48th picks is unlikely to be enough to even help the Bucks move up just a couple of places in the order, never mind any higher.

If Milwaukee has their heart set on a player who may be selected a few spots ahead of their current selection, they’ll likely be asked to include a future first round pick or a high-potential young player for a deal to be reached.

Would the Bucks be prepared to move a player like Malcolm Brogdon or Thon Maker to move up just a few places? Only time will tell.

Regardless, if the Bucks do decide to move up, it certainly won’t be the result of a spur of the moment decision. General manager Jon Horst told the media earlier in the week that they had plans for the various options that may present themselves, including trades. As relaid by Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Horst’s quote was:

"“We’ll have a crystal clear board (Thursday), a draft plan with every draft trade-up scenario, every draft trade-down scenario, our groupings, where they break, which range we would trade to, which range we wouldn’t, who has medical red flags, who has character red flags, et cetera, et cetera.”"

Of the players who visited the Bucks for workouts, only Louisville’s Donovan Mitchell would seem highly likely to be selected before Milwaukee’s 17th pick. Saying that, that doesn’t mean the Bucks don’t have their eyes on a player who they hear might go 15th or 16th and they want to move up far enough to beat out their competition.

Next: Milwaukee Bucks: 2017 NBA Draft interview/workout list

Once again, wanting to move up is a lot easier than actually executing a trade to do so, though, and we’ll have to wait and see if the Bucks make a concerted effort or actually manage to pull it off.