National Basketball Association

Milwaukee Bucks: A Decade Of Bad NBA Draft Picks In The 1980s

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Despite the 1980s being the best decade of Milwaukee Bucks basketball in terms of wins and losses, the franchise took tons of Ls in their NBA Draft record over the course of the decade.

The Milwaukee Bucks had 15 first and second round picks in NBA Drafts from 1980 to 1989. Out of those 15 players taken, just one has a career box plus-minus of higher than 0.

Paul Pressey was taken by the Bucks in the 1982 NBA Draft, and was unquestionably the best Buck selected in the 80s. Pressey is a Bucks legend and still leads the Bucks in franchise assist totals.

The second-best player the Bucks picked up in the 1980s was Alton Lister. The drop there is tremendous. Lister failed to ever score ten points per game in a season with Milwaukee.

In fact, the only Buck to be drafted in the ’80s that did ever score more than ten points per game with the team besides Pressey is Fred Roberts, who did it twice after returning to the Bucks. He played his rookie season with the Spurs and didn’t make it to Milwaukee until the end of the decade.

15 first and second round draft picks. One that had a positive box plus-minus. Two that ever scored more than ten points per game with the Bucks. Two that never played in the NBA at all.

What the hell happened? A combination of things, actually. It doesn’t help that for 1980, 1987 and 1989 Milwaukee did not have a first round pick.

The Bucks success also didn’t help much. Milwaukee got a pick higher than 20 just twice in the decade–in 1983 they picked 18th and in 1988 they picked at 13th. Teams that go to the playoffs every year don’t get good draft picks–meaning that the continued success of the ’80s is at least partially responsible for the hard drop-off Milwaukee experienced in the 1990s.

Finally, the Bucks did straight-up blow a few picks. They took Jeff Grayer at 13th in 1988. Three-time All-Star Dan Majerle went one pick later, to Phoenix. In 1985 Milwaukee took Jerry Reynolds at 22nd overall–the next two picks were A.C. Green and Terry Porter.

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A combination of not having a ton of picks, not having any good picks and blowing a few chances at adding a late-round steal meant outside of Paul Pressey, the Milwaukee Bucks drafts in the 1980s were largely sad events.

The team managed to add some good young players through trades to sustain their level of play through the end of the ’80s, but the collapse in the 1990s was almost inevitable. Without a crop of young talent in Milwaukee, the team fell apart as veterans left or simply got old.

Great franchises find ways to stay great. The Spurs have had one lottery pick since 1989, and they used it on Tim Duncan. The Bucks of the 1980s were great, but they ran out of chances to add players and fell apart in the next decade.

It’s a far-off problem to worry about in Milwaukee right now, but staying a contender is even harder than becoming one. That’s why what the Spurs have done is so incredible, and why so many teams love stealing their front office talent.

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