According to a report from The Athletic, the Milwaukee Bucks are among the teams who have met with presumed lottery pick Deni Avdija.
All is quiet around the Milwaukee Bucks nearly two weeks out from the 2020 NBA Draft.
Considering how general manager Jon Horst has historically operated in past drafts, that suits him and the team just fine as they head into a pivotal offseason for plenty of obvious reasons. With all that said, we have our latest rumbling in the draft sphere related to the Bucks and it surely is interesting, if not a little mystifying.
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According to a report from The Athletic’s Ethan Strauss ($$), the Bucks are among the teams who have met with presumed lottery pick Deni Avdija, who’s currently based in Atlanta over this extended pre-draft process.
As Strauss noted, the Bucks being among the crop of lottery teams that have met with the Israeli forward is a little curious, given that they hold the 24th overall pick.
Given the fact that NBA teams are only 10 in-person interviews throughout the process makes it even more stranger that the Bucks met with Avdija in person, judging by the context of Strauss’ reporting.
ESPN has Avdija ranked fourth on their top-100 board while The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie ($$) has ranked Maccabi Tel Aviv product 10th on his personal Big Board.
Could the Milwaukee Bucks being linked to Avdija this close to this year’s draft be a possible smokescreen?
It’s entirely possible that is the case, given the fact that they have little by way of trade assets and/or players to make up a move in the draft order, much less that high up in the lottery where Avdija has been regularly projected over the last year. That’s not saying no meeting took place between the Bucks and Avdija, but expecting to see Avdija in a Bucks uniform based on this report isn’t exactly based in reality.
After all, this pre-draft process has been unlike any other and all teams that have a pick in this draft have had more than enough time to meet with all prospects in this class, regardless of where they will ultimately be selected on draft night.
If that sounds like I’m pouring cold water on seeing Avdija being a Bucks player a little more than two weeks from now, it’s because I am, unfortunately.
Where it gets more curious is whether this is some sort of insurance for what could be a doomsday scenario, given the uncertainty surrounding Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. Surely, that’s a reality that no Bucks fan wants to think about, but no one would blame the Bucks for doing their background on a highly valued prospect if they were forced to confront their worst nightmare of dealing away the two-time MVP in the near future.
There’s nothing like a fresh slice of draft speculation to gets us through this election day and seeing that the Bucks have met with Avdija was something I and all Bucks fans were not expecting to see. But this surely seems like a case of the Bucks’ front office doing some due diligence on their part, at least as of now.