Milwaukee Bucks: 2019 NBA Draft primer and predictions

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 21: Donte DiVincenzo poses with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver after being drafted 17th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks during the 2018 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center on June 21, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 21: Donte DiVincenzo poses with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver after being drafted 17th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks during the 2018 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center on June 21, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
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MILWAUKEE, WI – JUNE 19: (Photo by Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images)
MILWAUKEE, WI – JUNE 19: (Photo by Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Milwaukee Bucks are on the cusp of presumably filling a guaranteed roster spot for the foreseeable future, by selecting a player with the 30th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft on Thursday, June 20. Who might be the pick?

In an attempt to determine what Jon Horst and the Milwaukee Bucks may do on NBA Draft night, let’s first start with a quick big picture look at the 2019 draft.

The strength of a draft is generally pretty clear at the top end. It’s the first pick (likely Zion Williamson), then the second pick, followed by the third pick and so on. Any time you can consider the probability of landing a high-impact player to be greater, you have to consider that the strong point. Of course, the higher the pick, the higher the likelihood of your prospect of choice being on the board.

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Let’s instead focus on the depth of the draft, and where the value of a pick exceeds the expected return of a player usually picked in that spot.

Fortunately for the Bucks, the range from picks 19-35 seem to have fairly interchangeable prospects who project as specialized rotation players. In past drafts, you’d be hard pressed to find such a collection of prospects well into the second round. Long story short, the Bucks appear to have a picked a good year to have the final pick of the first round.

This all must be prefaced by stating that these projections won’t actually be solidified as accurate or inaccurate until three or four years down the road. Therein lies the beauty of draft projection. While science, math, analytics, and statistics are used as evidence to help support a projection, at the end of the day, this is all just subjective opinion on future output.

So, with that in mind, let’s take our own journey down that road by examining how Thursday’s draft may play out for the Bucks.