Following AJ Johnson’s selection with the 23rd overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft on Wednesday night, Milwaukee Bucks general manager Jon Horst sat down with reporters for 20 minutes. Horst discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the organization’s newest player, the process that led to the selection and Johnson’s future, but the Bucks’ top decision maker revealed something unexpected after answering how Johnson helped address the team’s needs this offseason.
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“This year it’s all about winning,” Horst said. “Last year and the year before, it was all about winning. It’s always like that. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you don’t, but you always have to keep in mind that you have to move forward. »
If one could still doubt the sincerity of this last sentence, Horst and the Bucks highlighted their vision of the draft by selecting another teenager on Thursday. With the 33rd pick in the 2024 NBA draft, the Bucks selected Tyler Smith, a 19-year-old forward who played for G League Ignite last season.
Smith had a solid season with the Ignite, averaging 13.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 22.2 minutes per game over 43 games. The 6-foot-10 forward made 36 percent of his 161 three-point attempts and showed off his 6-foot-10 wingspan with 3.0 blocks and 3.0 steals per game. He also performed well in the combine drills, posting a 38-inch vertical time and a 10.74-second agility time, which ranked seventh at the combine and 0.02 seconds faster than Johnson’s 10.76.
2024 NBA Draft prospect Tyler Smith has shown off his clean left-handed shot all season long for @gleagueignitebut the mobile attacker was particularly dangerous from 3-point range on pick & pop. #TylerSmithWeek pic.twitter.com/KclC3wVw8Y
— NBA G League Ignite (@gleagueignite) June 6, 2024
Even with the strong sports testing results and solid numbers with the Ignite, Bucks assistant general manager Milt Newton made it clear that the team does not expect Smith to be a significant contributor next season .
““Ultimately, he’s a talent. He’s 19 and we’re looking at the long game,” Newton said of Smith. “He’s a player that we think — and we have great coaches who are great development coaches — he’s going to be a talent for us and we’re going to be able to utilize that talent.
“We have a lot of young players, but we also have some more veteran, more mature, older guys and at some point you have to have an infusion of talent and we feel like with (MarJon Beauchamp) and the three AJs now, we feel like it’s a good infusion of talent to help them develop.
In a vacuum, there’s nothing wrong with selecting young, high-potential players who likely won’t contribute much in their first season in the late first round and early second round. For a team that currently has no other draft picks on its books ahead of a 2026 first-rounder (tied to a pick swap with the New Orleans Pelicans), these two picks could reasonably be considered the The team’s last realistic opportunity to add young talent to their roster without trading away one of their top five rotation players.
But no team operates in a vacuum devoid of context.
The Bucks are hopeful that they can contend for the NBA title next season, especially now that Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard have both had a full offseason to develop their chemistry and an experienced head coach who can lay out his vision for them before they begin their offseason work. From a salary cap perspective, the Bucks should once again be a second-tier team next season with a roster heavy on top players that will contend for a championship.
But the team still has openings in its rotation. With the seemingly inevitable departure of starting guard Malik Beasley, the Bucks will have 2,337 rotation minutes to fill in the 2024-25 season. They finished last season with Patrick Beasley as their backup point guard and defensive stopper, but he is also a free agent this offseason. Still, management selected two players they don’t expect to contribute significantly next season.
“Two 19-year-olds, we don’t think… “We might be surprised — that they’re rotation players in the near future, but it wasn’t about that; it was about adding talent to this team,” Newton said.And if you looked, especially last year and in the playoffs, the teams are younger, more dynamic, longer and more athletic. We think this is the trend in the NBA and we think we added two players who can contribute to it.
“As far as adding players that are playing now, we’ll take care of that during free agency. »
The pressure on Horst and management to find players who can contribute next season is real. They need to find some players who can contribute next season and they only have three roster spots to find those players.
Currently, the Bucks have 12 of their 15 roster spots filled for next season.
- Six of the players registered — Antetokounmpo, Lillard, Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis, Pat Connaughton — are NBA veterans who have competed at the highest level and are expected to do so again next season.
- Four of the players — Beauchamp, AJ Green, Andre Jackson Jr., Chris Livingston — are unproven players who are still on their rookie contracts, but Green and Jackson got minutes in the playoffs last season, although that could be the result of injuries elsewhere in the squad.
- Two of the players are rookies the Bucks are expected to bring in, but who won’t contribute significantly on the court next season.
The Bucks are right not to place unrealistic expectations on Johnson and Smith for next season. They were two of the 15 youngest players in this year’s draft and they have to work hard to realize their full potential, but that doesn’t change the reality of the situation in Milwaukee.
Even if young players like Green and Jackson take steps forward and earn spots in Rivers’ rotation next season, the Bucks still need to fill some rotation minutes. With only a minimum of veterans, it will be difficult to find players talented enough to fill those roles, but the Bucks will at least be able to sell potential players on the opportunity in Milwaukee. They’re looking to contend for a championship, and they have some genuine rotation minutes left open.
While the Bucks don’t need to draft a superstar player or completely overhaul their roster, few general managers will face more pressure or attempt a tougher task than Horst in the opening round. free agency on June 30 at 5 p.m. CT.
(Photo by Tyler Smith: David Becker/NBAE via Getty Images)