Well, the moment we had waited a few agonizing hours for finally arrived around 10 PM (central) as the Bucks selected USC’s Kevin Porter Jr. with the 30th overall pick in last night’s draft.
Porter Jr., who drifted across a wide spectrum of pre-draft mocks from the high lottery down into the 30s, will provide Milwaukee with an interesting scoring piece that could still improve aged just 19 years o...
Oh... wait a second. The Bucks traded that pick? Weird, there’s like an official tweet and everything: With the 30th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft the Milwaukee Bucks select Kevin Porter Jr.#BucksDraft | @JohnsonControls
Fine then, I was excited by the possibility of a youngish wing to mold, but hopefully he’ll get a fair shake with the Detroit Pistons. After all, the odds are pretty low the Bucks could’ve gotten anything else for #30 than a salary dump, right? The Cavaliers paid a big price for the right to draft Kevin Porter at No. 30: four second round picks and $5 million, league sources tell ESPN. Cleveland clearly was committed to getting Porter.
Huh. So, Jon Leuer then, eh? Jon Leuer and a waive/stretch. Okay.
While the lack of action for Milwaukee during the process of selecting players was a bit of a downer (there weren’t any rumors about a buy-in to the second-round that I saw, at least), it was to be expected after the Tony Snell trade. That move will be difficult to truly grade even with the Cavaliersfour second-round picks and cash as Milwaukee’s logic will always have been on doing anything to clear space for retaining players right now. Was Horst a bit premature? Maybe. Could there have been a better deal in the offing? Perhaps. Will the heartburn be worth it if the Bucks most important contributors return? Probably.
But enough of that draft talk; the NBA never sleeps and as soon as pick #60 was called the league was immediately onto snapping up undrafted free agents and building Summer League rosters.
News of who is going where will continue to trickle in over the coming days, but so far here’s who the Bucks have been able to scoop up:
By my count those are three players who shot 40+% from three last season and feels totally in line with how Milwaukee wants to continue to build going forward. Whether any of those players stick around in the organization probably revolves around how well they shoot it in Summer League play and whether the Bucks have an end of the bench spot or open two-way slot.
Speaking of Summer League updates, GM Jon Horst informed the gathered media last night that Sterling Brown and D.J. Wilson are probably heading back to Vegas for a third year while second-year guard Donte DiVincenzo may not make the trip:
All three decisions are interesting in their own way: I’ve no prejudice against players participating in Summer League a third year — look at it as a chance at more (slightly) competitive minutes and an opportunity to function in roles that differ from what they did a year ago. For Donte, there has to be at least a little bit of concern as to where his health is at if the Bucks are truly this cautious about his heel. Safety for safety’s sake is all fine and well, especially if the team envisions him taking on a bigger role in next season’s rotation, but this layoff due to heel bursitis feels to be bordering on excessive.
We’ll have more on the draft fallout and lead up to Summer League in the coming days (competition starts in July!). For now, get excited for new Bucks draftee... nobody. Actually, get excited about all these Jon Leuer highlights!