Thon Maker
Prediction: Will play in all 82 games
Why it will happen: Last season was seen as a disappointment and regression for the young Thon Maker until the playoffs rolled around and Thon Maker became PLAYOFF THON (with necessary capitalization and everything).
With another full offseason of training and coaching under his belt, and his confidence boosted from a surprisingly effective playoff run on both offense and defense, Maker can carry that over to the 2018-19 season where he can be a useful player in the rotation.
Will he start a lot of games? Not likely. He probably won’t even play that many minutes with fellow bigs like Lopez, Ilyasova, Henson, Tyler Zeller and possibly Christian Wood on the roster.
But, Maker’s athleticism and skill-set make him an attractive center option and I expect Budenholzer to try and speed up his progression while getting valuable minutes from him with every chance he can get.
Why it won’t happen: Playoffs aside, last season was a very bad year for Maker. Pretty much across the board, Maker’s stats were worse than they were his rookie season, which is why he didn’t start half as many games as he did as a rookie.
Now, since there are other big men on the team who can do what Maker does — but you know, better — Maker is likely to be on the outside looking in when it comes to playing time.
He’s shown flashes of that gorgeous potential that made the Bucks take him with the 10th overall draft pick, but Maker has yet to consistently contribute to the Bucks, and it’s hard to see this year as the year everything finally clicks.