3 Reasons to love the Milwaukee Bucks’ 2023 NBA Draft day haul

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 04 (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 04 (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images)
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Kentucky Wildcats: Chris Livingston
LEXINGTON, KY – JANUARY 28 (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

The Milwaukee Bucks got more athletic

Evidence of their age is in the stats. In regular season transition plays, the Bucks were 11th in the league in frequency (transition made up 17.6 percent of their offense), yet they scored just 1.12 points per possession on those opportunities, which was good for the 31st percentile in the league. They also ran a 14th-ranked 17.9 miles per game in the regular season, which is very telling for a team that had one of the best transition scorers in the game. (Both stats come from NBA.com/stats.)

With two picks in the second round, Milwaukee managed to snag not one but two prospects who can jump out of the gym while locking down anyone you put them on.

Jackson and Livingston, in particular, are both young, skilled wings with a lot of potential. They have the physical tools to defend multiple positions, and they’ve shown high upside as potential play-connectors with their passing. Both of them need to improve their shooting and overall offensive game, but the potential to be versatile players in the NBA is more than evident.

This is all to say that the acquisitions from draft day address key problems in this team that this writer has long been calling attention to.

It’s no secret that the Milwaukee Bucks had banked on a slew of forwards to replace defensive hound, P.J. Tucker. From Semi Ojeleye to Wesley Matthews to Jae Crowder, they just weren’t successful at recapturing that lightning in a bottle that Tucker was on the defensive end. Now they have three options to choose from in Livingston, Jackson, and Beauchamp.

They took on quite a bit of positional versatility, too, with this latest haul. Pieces like Drew Timme and Omari Moore also add playmaking and big man offense into the mix in the event that the Bucks lose core pieces like Brook Lopez and Jevon Carter in free agency.