With head coach Jason Kidd serving as his team’s representative, the Milwaukee Bucks secured the No. 10 overall pick in Tuesday night’s 2016 NBA Draft Lottery.
Afterward, Coach Kidd and general manager John Hammond dished on swiping a Top 10 pick, and how that sets them up to continue progressing forward as a franchise.
“Well we standed pat, and that’s better than dropping in the draft,” Hammond said. “We went in expecting 10, walked away with 10, and we’re going to get a good player with the 10th pick.”
As Hammond said, the Bucks entered the lotto as the No. 10 team in the running order, and when the ping-pong balls came up, that’s exactly where Milwaukee stood. The draft evaluation process begins immediately, as the Bucks will have players on-hand at the Orthopaedic Hospital of Wisconsin Training Center on Wednesday morning.
“We’ll start with the workouts, preparing and looking at candidates at the 10th spot,” Jason said. “We’re going to try to get the best available player there. We’ll have guys in starting tomorrow, and we’ll work the process.”
The talk all around the franchise is of improvement. Milwaukee was one of the youngest squads in the NBA, essentially without a single player over the age of 30 last season. The team took a step back in the standings as a byproduct of that youth, but Hammond is confident that through improvement, both intrinsic and extrinsic, that Milwaukee can make a leap forward in 2016-17.
“I think we can improve through this draft. I think we can improve through free agency. And I think one of the most key components is improving from within,” Hammond says. “The guys on our roster today as we stand, those guys are going to improve and get better for next year. We’re going to be better. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.”
As Jason detailed in his recent blog post, the Bucks have already begun that process of improving from within. The experience gained by the young Bucks through a trying 2015-16 season should already pay dividends. Additionally, Jason and Co. hope that they’ll have better fortunes keeping healthy through 82 games than they did last year.
“We’ve gotten older,” Jason said. “I know we talk about being one of the youngest teams in the league, but they guys who played a lot of minutes, they’ve developed. We’re happy with Giannis and Jabari and Khris Middleton and the things they did. Hopefully we can keep our health. If we can stay healthy, we’re going to be a better team.”
