Milwaukee Bucks: Meet the 2000s All-Decade Team

Milwaukee Bucks: Meet the 2000s All-Decade Team – Andrew Bogut

There was plenty of surprise when the Bucks, with 6.3 percent odds, won the 2005 NBA Draft lottery and were awarded the first overall pick. Former Bucks general manager Larry Harris recalled to Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel just how much the Bucks’ fortunes with some small ping pong balls:

"“I remember how nervous I was talking to the national TV people there,” Harris said of the ’05 lottery show. “My hands were shaking. “I didn’t expect to get the No. 1 pick and when we did, emotions came through me for the city, for the Senator (then-owner Herb Kohl), for our team, for our state. For the first time, Milwaukee got back on the map with the No. 1 pick, and I just wanted to make us proud and through the whole process we got the right pick.”"

With that pick, the Bucks tabbed the seven-foot Andrew Bogut, who had averaged double figures (20.4 points, 12.2 rebounds) as a sophomore at Utah and was named the nation’s College Player of the Year. Bogut certainly brought with him plenty of size upon coming to Milwaukee and he matched that with some skill and flair when dishing out the ball to teammates.

Bogut certainly showed that during his rookie season, where he primarily played at the 4 next to veteran big man Jamaal Magloire, and he subsequently landed on the 2005-06 All-Rookie First Team and finished third in NBA Rookie of the Year voting.

For the new dawn that getting Bogut through unlikely odds brought the Bucks, though, Bogut had two significant obstacles standing in the way of his seven-year stint: instability and injuries.

The Bucks were obviously mired by a number of coaching changes early on in the Australian’s time in Milwaukee and success far from realized as the team largely stood near the bottom of the league following Bogut’s rookie season.

And Bogut went on to suffer a number of injuries, such as when he suffered a stress fracture in his back during the 2008-09 campaign that limited him to 36 appearances. Of course, that wouldn’t compare to the career-altering injury he suffered late in the following season when he fractured his elbow and broke his right hand, essentially torpedoing the Bucks’ 46-win season that year.

Very little went right in the way of Bogut and the Bucks during the former’s time in Milwaukee, clearly. Yet for all of the pain and suffering that Bogut, the Bucks and all Bucks fans endured through, the big man certainly found the blueprint for success as a defensive-minded role player later on in his professional career.

And Bogut still stands in the record books in a couple of departments, whether it’s ranking fifth in pulling down 3,810 total rebounds or fourth with 642 total blocks.

In his 408 appearances with the Bucks, Bogut averaged 12.7 points on 52 percent shooting from the field and 57.4 percent shooting from the free throw line, 9.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.6 blocks in 32.7 minutes per game.