Milwaukee Bucks: 5 realistic targets with the No. 31 pick

Fresh off an NBA Championship, the Milwaukee Bucks enter the offseason right away with the 2021 NBA Draft shortly approaching on Thursday night, July 29th. Although the celebration of the organization’s first title since 1971 won’t conclude for a while, the Bucks will waste no time preparing for their quest to repeat as glorified champions next season.

Milwaukee’s committed star core of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, and Jrue Holiday will obviously be returning with key parts of the supporting cast such as Brook Lopez, Donte DiVincenzo, and Pat Connaughton set to return on contract as well.

Bobby Portis and Bryn Forbes are expected to decline their player options and become unrestricted free agents while P.J. Tucker, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, and Jeff Teague will also enter free agency. The Bucks will have many critical decisions to make this offseason, and seems highly unlikely that they’ll be able to return everyone to run it back given the team’s financial situation.

It all starts with the draft though, where Milwaukee holds the No. 31 pick.

As the Milwaukee Bucks aim to repeat as NBA Champions, let’s analyze five realistic options with the No. 31 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.

The Milwaukee Bucks swapped this year’s first-round pick with Houston’s second round pick as part of the deal that sent P.J. Tucker to the Bucks before the trade deadline, which clearly turned out to be a successful trade. As a result, the Rockets claimed the No. 24 pick while Milwaukee received No. 31.

For now, it will be the only selection that the defending world champions will hold in this draft and have no plans of trading it away as an asset. The Bucks should be prioritizing a guard or wing with this pick, but could be open to drafting another center, especially if they can’t afford to bring back Portis.

There will be plenty of options for Milwaukee, some that are unrealistic like Jared Butler, Corey Kispert, Tre Murphy III, Chris Duarte, and more who most likely won’t fall to them, but let’s examine five prospects that would be a realistic fit for the Bucks with the first pick in the second round of the 2021 NBA Draft.