12. Quinn Buckner
As much as the focus on draft picks — particularly in the upper echelons of the draft — is to find a superstar, adding a reliable role player can often be equally important for teams who already have some foundational pieces in place.
That may be a generous reading of Milwaukee’s position in 1976 following the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar trade, but with Bob Dandridge still around and the addition of young up-and-comers like Junior Bridgeman and Brian Winters, the Bucks were trying to thread the fine line between being competitive and rebuilding with the selection of Quinn Buckner.
Buckner earned Milwaukee’s seventh overall pick following a decorated career in college with Indiana, and proved to be an increasingly reliable and valuable selection as the team’s roster filled out with talent at other spots during his six-year tenure as a Buck.
Buckner was a tidy and efficient playmaker and a lockdown defender who ultimately acted as a nice complement for young stars such as Marques Johnson in their early years in the league.
The Indiana native went on to win a championship with the rival Boston Celtics following his departure from Milwaukee, and to this day remains the franchise’s all-time steals leader. If there’s one knock on his selection, it’s the fact that hall of famers Adrian Dantley and Robert Parish were picked either side of him.