The NBA Draft took place on Thursday and the Milwaukee Bucks have made their first round selection. After reports surfaced that the Bucks had planned to be aggressive in the draft and potentially trade up, the team decided to stay put at pick 24. At pick 24, the Bucks selected MarJon Beauchamp from the NBA’s G League Ignite.
Reactions to the Milwaukee Bucks selecting MarJon Beauchamp in the first round of the 2022 NBA Draft
The selection of Beauchamp is certainly a head scratcher, considering there were others available that I much rather the team had taken, such as Ohio State’s E.J. Liddell. However, we can only on focus on what did happen, rather than focusing on the what-ifs.
In my opinion, Beauchamp fills a need that Milwaukee has been striving to fill since the controversial departure of P.J. Tucker last offseason. I’m not trying to tell you that he will be as impactful as Tucker was, but it’s a start in finally being able to find somebody to fill his role. Beauchamp is an athletic wing that will be able to guard much larger offensive players due to his wingspan being over 7 feet. His length will allow him to get into passing lanes and contest shots.
The concern with Beauchamp is that his outside shooting ability isn’t quite where you’d like it to be with him playing on a team with Giannis Antetokounmpo. During the 2021-2022 season with G League Ignite, Beauchamp shot the three at 24.2 percent. With Antetokounmpo’s game being centered around attacking the basket and finding open teammates on the perimeter, you’d like to see those numbers improve.
The good news for Bucks fans is that we have seen players come to Milwaukee and develop their outside shot. The most impressive example is Robin Lopez, who attempted more threes in his individual season with the Bucks than every other season of his career combined. Lopez shot the three at a 33.3 percent clip in his year with the Bucks, which is pretty impressive for somebody who had only attempted 51 threes in his entire career prior to that season.
In Mike Budenholzer’s offense, Beauchamp doesn’t really have much of a choice other than to develop an outside shot. The Bucks offense centers around a mentality of letting it fly from the outside, so he will certainly be getting some reps in throughout training camp and into his first NBA season.
Beauchamp definitely has the tools to develop into a great role player for the Bucks with some fine-tuning to his offensive game, given his athleticism and defensive ability. Beauchamp is very good going downhill, but if he’s able to begin knocking down shots from the outside, he can become a key piece of Milwaukee’s future.
If he’s willing to work as hard on his game as he does on the defensive end, then this will be a great pick for the Bucks. For the Bucks, this is certainly a pick they made hoping that he can achieve his ceiling offensively.
Stay tuned to see what Milwaukee will do with Beauchamp and the rest of their roster this offseason.