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Milwaukee Bucks And The Eastern Conference Playoff Draft

By Josh Cornelissen

Dec 21, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) drives to the basket against Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) during the first half at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 21, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) drives to the basket against Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) during the first half at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports /
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Apr 5, 2017; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas (4) drives the ball against Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) in the second half at TD Garden. The Cavaliers defeated the Celtics 114-91. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 5, 2017; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas (4) drives the ball against Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) in the second half at TD Garden. The Cavaliers defeated the Celtics 114-91. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports /

The Rules

The rules of the draft will be simple and similar to the NBA Draft in execution. Each round will have eight picks, with the top-seeded team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, picking first. Picks will proceed in order through to the team currently in eighth place as of games played Tuesday night. The Cleveland Cavaliers will then pick again at the top of the second round.

Because most teams have a number of injured players and prospects on their roster that will not see postseason minutes, this draft will only go for 10 rounds. Any players not selected will then effectively be given back to their current teams as deep bench options.

Without the gift of foresight, we will not know how well players that are currently injured will perform when they return.

For the purposes of this exercise, those players with injuries expected to return around the start of the playoffs will be treated as fully healthy and those with clear season-ending injuries are going to be treated as unavailable (sorry, Derrick Rose).

While this exercise is meant to highlight which players in the Eastern Conference are valued for their playoff ability, it’s impossible to sort every player perfectly in a vacuum. Each team will use factors such as scheme, organizational philosophy and team dynamics to help pick.

Teams will also operate with a slight preference towards their own players.

With the ground rules laid, we now move to the first round of the NBA Eastern Conference Playoff Draft 2017.

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