Milwaukee Bucks: Guards should be a focus with 2020 NBA Draft pick

As the Milwaukee Bucks look to land a valuable contributor with their 2020 NBA Draft pick, they’ll need to be mindful of their need to add some guard depth.

Having gone without a pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, the Milwaukee Bucks will be particularly eager to make the most of the selection they’ll receive courtesy of the Indiana Pacers in this year’s staging of the draft.

With our own draft coverage in full flow as my colleague Jordan Treske is busy profiling prospects in the Bucks’ range, it seems like the time has come to start to considering exactly what the Bucks should be looking for when they eventually find themselves on the clock.

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As I outlined a while back, the Bucks will certainly find themselves dealing with an added pressure of needing to make this pick count given just how challenging their salary cap outlook could be for the foreseeable future.

On that same note, though, those restrictions that the Bucks are likely to find themselves operating under may also factor into the kind of players that they’ll need to target in this year’s draft.

Looking at the shape of the Bucks’ roster at present, and also considering how things could change in free agency, Milwaukee find themselves a little light in the backcourt, and with the potential for their wing depth to be notably depleted in free agency.

With just Eric Bledsoe and George Hill in terms of traditional point guards, the Bucks could undoubtedly do with another lead guard, not just for depth but also to offer an injection of youth.

Hill will turn 34 just over a week from now, while Bledsoe is now 30 years old. More generally beyond that, the ongoing concerns over Bledsoe’s playoff performance would certainly make a point guard development project a worthwhile exercise for the Bucks in terms of hoping to hit the jackpot.

With the ability for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton to take on their share of ball-handling responsibilities, and Donte DiVincenzo‘s comfort in slotting in defensively at point guard, some may make the case that another true point guard remains somewhat unnecessary for Milwaukee.

Even in that argument, though, with Wesley Matthews, Sterling Brown, Pat Connaughton, and Kyle Korver all facing free agency in one form or another in the offseason, there is potential for notable gaps to emerge in that area of Milwaukee’s depth chart.

With that considered, perhaps the ideal for the Bucks is to find a player who would be capable of covering over both of those potential cracks.

Depending on the players on the board when it’s their turn to pick, a combo guard could prove to be the ideal for Milwaukee. At the current point in their development, fit will likely factor more prominently into the Bucks’ draft process on this occasion than it has in years past, and that would be sensible given it may not be all that easy for them to plug any holes in their rotation through other means.