The Milwaukee Bucks need draft lottery luck on their side, as they're not in control of their future first-round picks until 2031 (that could change this summer with a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade). You never know what kind of results the ping pong balls will deliver. There is a chance, no matter how small, that the Pelicans would get the No. 1 pick (it'd go to the Hawks), and the Bucks would have the No. 2 selection.
Atlanta will receive the more favorable pick between Milwaukee and New Orleans, so if the Bucks were to get the No. 1 pick, they'd have to send it to the Hawks. Let's hope that doesn't happen, but instead, that the above scenario will.
Brian Windhorst, Anthony Slater, and Vincent Goodwill were laughing about it on the Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective podcast at the notion that NBA fans would claim it was all a conspiracy if Milwaukee got the No. 2 pick.
"That's when people will really scream conspiracy, if the Bucks get the first and the Pelicans get the second, so the Bucks get the second pick."
Bucks fans wouldn't care about conspriacy theories
Do you think Milwaukee fans would care about conspiracy theories if they knew they were going to walk away from the draft with Cam Boozer, AJ Dybantsa, or Darryn Peterson? Absolutely not. They'd be too busy celebrating, not just because they'd know that the organization couldn't go wrong then. Right?!
No matter what anyone said last year (and is still echoing) about Dallas trading Luka Dončić in January, only to receive the No. 1 pick after having just a 1.8% chance of doing so, that didn't change anything about the Mavericks drafting Cooper Flagg.
As Windhorst said, it'd be hard to believe that the NBA would rig the lottery in favor of the Bucks, but if that's what people would want to run with, great! It's far more plausible that Adam Silver helped gift Luka to the Lakers, promising the Mavs the top pick in return. Ha!
If the world where Milwaukee gets the No. 2 pick actually does become reality, the front office better keep it and not trade it for another veteran to pair alongside Giannis. This draft class is too talented — take the gift and use it to select your next face of the franchise, and then start to build your assets back up with an Antetokounmpo trade.