Milwaukee Bucks 2020 NBA Draft: What is the value of the 24th overall pick?
The Milwaukee Bucks hold the 24th overall pick, but the question of whether they’ll ultimately use it looms a week away from the 2020 NBA Draft.
In exactly a week’s time, the Milwaukee Bucks are slated to be on the clock with the 24th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.
For all teams holding a selection in this year’s draft, the finish line is finally in sight after what has been the longest pre-draft process on record as a result of the coronavirus pandemic delaying draft night nearly five months after it was originally supposed to take place.
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It’s through this lens where we can have our first of many Bucks additions during this compacted offseason. That is if the Bucks don’t deal away the pick ahead of the draft once the transaction moratorium is lifted.
Just as was the case last June, the Bucks face quite the dilemma on their hands this offseason. There have already been promises made to upgrading their roster in light of their latest playoff disappointment.
With all of the urgency in the world surrounding them as superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo contemplates his long-term future in Milwaukee, the Bucks have some major holes to fill and limited trade assets at their disposal. Hence, the speculation surrounding the Bucks and whether they will use their lone pick in this year’s draft.
There’s no question that in an ideal world that the Bucks would best benefit from staying put, having a cost-controlled asset in their possession and potentially a player that could help groom in the future. But the Bucks aren’t afforded that luxury. Not when the future of the franchise is literally at stake with Antetokounmpo mulling over his supermax extension.
In a draft that’s as unpredictable as this year’s edition stands to be, the Milwaukee Bucks may be pressed to find a deal that help nets them a major upgrade.
Given all of that said, the question that has to be considered by all Bucks fans is what kind of value the 24th overall pick holds to teams around the league. Luckily for them, there is a recent track record of teams offloading the 24th pick in deals that could be in the ballpark of what the Bucks are looking for.
Just last year, the Boston Celtics dealt away the 24th overall pick as well as Aron Baynes and his expiring $5.4 million salary to the Phoenix Suns for coincidentally the 30th overall pick in this year’s draft, which was originally Milwaukee’s. Phoenix originally acquired it in the Eric Bledsoe trade a little more than three years ago.
In the 2017 NBA Draft, the Utah Jazz moved up from the 24th overall pick to the 13th overall pick to take Donovan Mitchell in exchange for Trey Lyles and the draft rights to Tyler Lydon. In my estimation, I recommend the Bucks not repeating this type of move. Not that they have the means to do it anyway.
Other recent examples center around draft picks switching hands between different parties, which the Bucks are quite low on after the next two drafts in particular. But getting mid-tier rotation players in the vein of a Baynes or Lyles doesn’t exactly bring up the hopes of Bucks fans looking for some kind of meaningful upgrade, all things considered.
Could that be done if the Bucks are able to package the 24th overall pick with someone like, say, Eric Bledsoe? It works in theory and it may have to be necessary to get the kind of backcourt upgrade they desire. Especially as Bledsoe’s trade value has unsurprisingly cratered around the league as ESPN’s Zach Lowe noted in his offseason preview last week.
All of this speaks to the precarious position the Bucks are in this offseason, given all of the plates spinning around them and how quickly all of them could come crashing down to the ground in just a year’s time.
Next. 3 biggest hurdles in potentially replacing Eric Bledsoe. dark
The answers to what the Bucks do with their pick this year will all be revealed in due time, but it’s safe to say that all options are on the table at this stage.