RANKING Bucks’ Young Players

RANKING Bucks’ Young Players

so now that we’re done with the draft I’m ranking all the Bucks young players because it’s actually a decent little stockpile at this point and I’m ranking them from the ones I believe in least to the ones I like the most and we’ve got seven on the list so I don’t want to waste any time we’re starting off with Bucks draft pick from last year Chris Livingston a guy that they drafted in the second round and was seen by some as a steel because he was very highly touted coming out of high school but to me those guys seem to be the ones that almost fail the most the guys that were really highly rank to come out of high school and then are underwhelming After High School in college or wherever they go I’ve just seen too many examples of guys being seen as steals because they were super hyped up coming out of high school but then they just play usually according to how they played the year after high school whether it’s College overtime Elite G League overseas that’s usually more indicative rather um than their high school rankings because uh Chris Livingston is another one of those guys kind of like a cam reddish or um Patrick Baldwin Cliff Alexander some years back that is in that mold of a guy that was highly touted than underwhelmed and in the G League last year where he was stuck for the most part he averaged 14 a game which in the G league if you’re an NBA guy it’s not a great sign and he shot 47% from the free throw line 37 from three 47 from the field but but Wing shooting that from the free throw line is very concerning especially when you’re not dropping like 20 a game in the G League um and I just don’t really see anything that really excites me in this guy he’s athletic but he’s not really like long and super like he’s like strong athletic not really the type of guy that the NBA is really looking at now it’s more like bulky rather than linky and I’m just I could be proven wrong for sure but I just don’t see that much to be excited about in terms of Chris Livingston and I kind of feel the same way about Aj Johnson I have hopes for him he’s still 19 years old but I just can’t there’s nothing I can talk myself into with him there’s a chance he’s good because I don’t know enough but what I do know none of it is a good sign coming out of high school he was not highly talented he was 47th ranked in his class which you know in draft you’re going you’re getting going up against guys from other draft class too um out of high school other High School classes and so being ranked 47th it’s not a great sign and then you go and play on Australia and you have less than three everything per game less than one assist I think less than three rebounds less than three points and the efficiency is terrible doesn’t shoot free throws well and maybe that’s just a small sample size didn’t get a lot of opportunity there have been guys that come from professional leagues that didn’t do well um statistically over there and have played well in the NBA like kristof’s porzingis didn’t have great numbers coming into the NBA but at least with him he was 7 foot three and you knew he could shoot with AJ Johnson I just don’t know what I can hang my head on with this guy he’s a tall guard but he’s 6’4 it’s not like he’s like a 67 guard and he probably can’t really shoot from what we’ve seen all the sign show he’s not a good shooter so I just don’t see anything to really hang my head on this guy so that’s why I’ve got him down at number six uh number five is a guy that probably isn’t on a lot of Bucks fans or anybody’s radar at this point but this is a guy that I believe did coming out of um college for him and in his draft class but he kind of fell in his draft and he got drafted by a team that already had a bunch of young guys and guards and then he made his way to the Bucks and he was basically stuck in the G league but he performed great in the G League he was good in college too and in g- League he dropped 21 a game eight assists very efficient 43% from three he’s a guy that I don’t know if he’ll get opportunity with the Bucks because he’s just a really good offense guard and with Dame Chris and Giannis you’re really not looking for offensive Ben bench pieces especially when you still have Bobby poris um so I don’t know if he’s really going to get much of an opportunity with the bucks but just in terms of the level of player he is I think he’s better than the two guys I had already mentioned I like Tai Tai Washington I’d like to see him get an opportunity but I just don’t know if his skill set really fits with the Buc needs next I have Bo champ and tis side Washington might be an actual better player than Bo champ but Bo champ I’m still holding on Hope for because he should he’s like the type of player that the Bucks need and they need minutes from a guy that is athletic long can show that he could hit the three in a small sample size he hit hit 40% of his threes this past season um in the G League he played three games dropped 21 a game only 29% for three but that’s a tiny sample size um but everything in the little opportunity he’s had statistically looks good enough um like four points a game but in tiny opportunities and like I said he got to 40% from three but the thing is it test wise he doesn’t pass it for me defense defensively he should be really good like I said long athletic but sometimes you have to look past that for guys on defense sometimes we get a little too lazy and just assume if somebody is built like a Defender that they’re going to be a good Defender and he’s the type of Dude to just fall asleep off ball or just get like kind of do like the fake tough thing that like Bobby poris likes to do where you like get really into somebody on the perimeter or like get a technical for like doing some kind of dirty stuff but then you just get blown by by being over aggressive and I think that’s what Bo champ and kind of a lot of the Bucks young guys were doing when they got minutes last year they’d be coming in and try to like fix the terrible defense by being over aggressive and then things would just get worse and I don’t want to put it all on him or the other young guys that did this because Andre Jackson did it as well um but because I think they just were trying to save a terrible defense and trying too hard to do that in little minutes we trying too hard to prove themselves but from what I saw um offensively I didn’t really love his decision making when he had the ball like can transition and defensively I I just didn’t think he was very solid at all so I’ve got him down at number three or down at um number four I believe and next we’ve got Tyler Smith a guy I’ve got hopes for um he was a guy I did not want the Bucks to draft with the first pick in the first round that’s because I wanted them to draft three guys that ended up getting drafted Mei before then um Mei Cleo Weare and um donon Holmes they all were not available so getting him in the second round is a very good take um pickup he’s I’ve seen him listed at 6’9 and 6’1 so that’s a big difference wherever he actually is height wise but he’s a guy that was highly talented out of high school he was ranked eighth in his class and he had followed it up with pretty good g-league stats like you know the G League you’re playing against mostly adults and he averaged 13 a game shot 36% a little over 36% from three 48 from the field 73 from the free throw line five rebounds like his stats are good enough he got to block a game to where if you’re highly touted come highly touted coming out of high school and you have those decent level stats and you’re the type of guy that the Bucks needs and athletic tall lanky Wing um I like that I worry about whether he’s actually going to be a solid Defender like he has the potential to be kind of similar to a Bo champ but I haven’t seen him play in the NBA yet he seems like probably a more reliable three-point shooter bigger taller I like this pickup I have hopes for him um especially in the second round I actually do think that was probably the best pick John horse could have made right there so I’m not mad at that at all and number two I’ve got Andre Jackson he frustrated me in the little minutes he got during the season um doing the same thing Maran Bo champ did I was at the game where they played the Knicks in the garden on Christmas day and this guy was doing exactly that jayen Brunson was fish frying Malik Beasley and Daman Lillard at the beginning and then Adrien Griffin threw him in the game and he was just like picking him up like putting his hands on him at half court and then he was just getting easily blown by and I will I’ll give him a little um slack for that because like I said if you’re getting very few minutes you’re trying to make your impact right away and that will maybe lead you to being over aggressive plus he was a rookie getting put on one of the best scorers in the league but when we saw him in the playoffs he did bring good energy he didn’t do anything crazy but he shot the ball better than I thought he would coming out of college I didn’t really love the pick um coming out of Yukon but he shot 37% from three this year very promising um he actually hit a few threes in the playoffs too he had 73 he was uh 73% from the free throw line so they were good signs he had very little opportunity he didn’t play very many um very many many meaningful minutes but when he was out there he showed that he could be a good Defender bare minimum energy guy switchable plays with effort and if he’s passable at the three-point line he could be a rotational piece for the bucks next year so I’m putting him at number two I think he should be a rotational piece and then number one is a guy if out of any of these guys that I believe could be in the starting lineup next year and that’s AJ Green none of these guys got many of much of an opportunity especially with Doc Rivers but the opportunity did get he averaged almost Five Points a game more than any of the other guys shot 41% from three the year before he shot 42% from three you know at least he gives you that with Andre Jackson you think he gives you defense but I was a little underwhelmed at times he hasn’t proven that he could be a great defender yet consistently AJ Green he is proven he can knock down the three ball but he’s actually got a little bit more to his game The more I’ve watched him and The more I’ve um watched his pass before he got to the bucks he actually has a little bit of ability to put the ball on the floor he can actually get a little Saucy with it if you want or need him to i’ uh saw him when we were really depleted in the playoffs hit some Pull-Ups jumpers get a little shaky and bakey with it and defensively he’s actually better than you would think just based off of looking at him you would think this is a guy that teams are just going to expose defensively but he was a little frisky in the playoffs too when he was out there defensively I remember there were a couple times where seaka was trying to ISO on him and he actually did a good job sliding his feet staying front staying in front and forced a couple misses just by being solid defensively staying straight up um he talks he’s you can see him communicating he’s pointing defensively so I believe he can hold up defensively he can do a little more than shoot threes and you know if all else fails he can at least be a three-point shooter which is basically all they got Malik Beasley from from Malik Beasley last year so I think he could possibly give you that and a little bit better defense and maybe able to do a little bit more with the ball in his hands potentially so I think that if they don’t find a great free agent this guy could potentially be the starting two with Chris Dame Giannis and Brooke next season but let me know what y’all think drop a comment hit that like And subscribe please yes sir

Ranking the best young players on the Milwaukee Bucks.