Milwaukee Bucks: Top 10 NBA Draft picks in franchise history

2. Sidney Moncrief (G) – No. 5 pick in 1979 NBA Draft

Career stats (with the Bucks):  695 GP, 16.7 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 3.9 APG, 1.3 SPG, 0.3 BPG, 2.1 TOV, 50.3 FG%, 27.6 3P%, 83.2 FT%

The playoff-contending Milwaukee Bucks of the 1980s were built slowly, piece by piece until the Bucks could field a team with a shot at a title. While they never did make it back to the big game after Abdul-Jabbar was traded, they produced an entire decade of excellent basketball where they were in the hunt to win the East every season.

Moncrief is the player who drove that success, playing 10 straight seasons for the Bucks. Milwaukee made the playoffs in every single one of those seasons, reaching the conference finals three times and only once failing to win a playoff series. Sidney Moncrief never missed the postseason in his entire career.

The 6’3″ guard represented the Bucks in the All-Star Game on five different occasions, and was First or Second Team All-NBA and All-Defense those same five seasons. Moncrief showed up on MVP ballots throughout that stretch, finishing fourth in 1983. In 1981, he rated out as the top player in offensive rating.

That is to say, at the same time Sidney Moncrief was being award All-Defense honors, he was one of the league’s very best offensive players. That level of two-way play is not only what kept the Bucks in contention year after year, it pushed Moncrief to this level in the Milwaukee franchise rankings, just behind the obvious No. 1.