Author’s note: This list takes into account draft position, team needs that season (or the season immediately following), and picks that may have been made instead. It doesn’t include players who were drafted by other teams and traded to Milwaukee, like Robert Traylor (Dallas, No. 6, 1998). Career-changing injuries also make players ineligible. It’s impossible to know what would have happened to them. Therefore, TJ Ford (No. 8, 2003) and Jabari Parker (No. 2, 2014) are also not on this list.
The Milwaukee Bucks have had great success in the past 55 drafts, selecting players including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
But like any team, their history is filled with failures.
Let’s take a look at the five worst draft picks in Bucks history.
1. J. Collis Jones, No. 17, 1971
Who? Exactly. Back then, the draft was 15 rounds and the NBA and ABA competed for players. The Bucks had the last pick of the first round due to their 1971 championship. In this situation, the Bucks acquired J. Collis Jones from Notre Dame, who was signed by the Dallas Chaparrals of the ABA. Jones chose to stay in the ABA and played four years with Dallas, Kentucky and Memphis. He averaged 8.1 points and 4.7 rebounds in his career.
The Bucks then adopted a common practice in the 1990s of drafting players on draft day and then immediately trading them to other teams (Stephon Marbury, Dirk Nowitzki, etc.), so while those players never played for Milwaukee, they at least got back the first-round picks they did play for.
So why is Jones the worst pick in franchise history? He’s the only Bucks first-round draft pick to never play a single minute in the NBA.
Read more: 50 years ago, the Milwaukee Bucks were NBA champions: An oral history of the 1970-71 season
2. Russ Lee, No. 6, 1972
The Bucks had lost in six games to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals, but of course they had a shot at another championship. They selected the 6-foot-5 Lee from Marshall with the first of their two first-round picks. If the Bucks had been looking for a young scorer to back up John McGlocklin and Wali Jones, USC’s Paul Westphal would have been a better fit. Westphal was a reserve in his first three seasons in Boston, helping the Celtics beat the Bucks in the 1974 NBA Finals before going on to become a Hall of Famer, averaging 22.1 points from 1975-1981.
Lee played two seasons with Milwaukee, appearing in 82 games and averaging about five minutes off the bench per game. The Bucks traded him to the New Orleans Jazz before the 1974 season, where he played just 15 games before his retirement.
The Bucks released Jones in January 1973, and he missed the entire 1973-74 season in a contract dispute. McGlocklin retired after the 1975-76 season.
3. Kent Benson, Issue 1, 1977
After Benson, only one other player was drafted before Marques Johnson (picked third by the Bucks), Houston native Otis Birdsong. Drafted second overall by the Kansas City Kings, the 6-foot-3 Birdsong was named to four All-Star teams and one All-NBA team during his 12-year career. In his prime from 1978-85, he averaged 19.8 points on 51 percent shooting from the field, including four games in which he averaged 20 or more points.
The Bucks had just drafted the 6-foot-3-inch Quinn Buckner and acquired the 6-foot-4-inch Brian Winters in the trade for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Winters would also be selected to the All-Star team and would be selected again in the 1977-78 season. On the surface, adding a center like Benson, who was the Final Four’s most outstanding player and a two-time All-American after leading Indiana to a national title, seemed to make perfect sense.
Benson, of course, is best known for hitting Abdul-Jabbar in the stomach with an elbow in the 1977 season opener, which resulted in Abdul-Jabbar punching Benson in the face. Benson suffered a concussion and the Lakers center broke his hand. The Bucks gave up on him at the end of Benson’s third year, trading him to Detroit for aging All-Star center Bob Lanier.
4. Yi Jianlian, No. 6, 2007
It took several months for Jianlian to sign with Milwaukee, as the center’s agent urged the Bucks not to draft the 7-foot-4 midfielder. He appeared in 66 games (8.6 points, 5.2 rebounds) in his rookie season and was quickly traded to New Jersey the following offseason for scoring forward Richard Jefferson.
Jianlian left the NBA after playing 272 games over five seasons.
Big men Brandan Wright (No. 8, Charlotte) and Joakim Noah (No. 9, Chicago) were selected just behind Zienrien.
5. Joe Alexander, Issue 8, 2008
Alexander transferred from West Virginia University and appeared in 59 games for the Bucks his rookie year but only played 12 minutes per game, injured his hamstring in his second year and was eventually dealt to Chicago in 2010 as part of a trade that brought John Salmons and a draft pick that would become Larry Sanders back to the Bucks.
Alexander left the NBA after playing just 10 games for the Bulls in 2010. He continues to play overseas.
Oddly enough, the players selected No. 2 (Michael Beasley), No. 3 (O.J. Mayo), No. 6 (Danilo Gallinari), No. 9 (D.J. Augustin), No. 10 (Brook Lopez), No. 11 (Jerryd Bayless), No. 15 (Robin Lopez), No. 24 (Serge Ibaka) and No. 26 (George Hill) all played for the Bucks at some point in their careers.
Excellence Awards (in alphabetical order)
Todd Day, No. 8, 1992 Gary Freeman, No. 16, 1970 Rashard Griffith, No. 38, 1995 Rashad Vaughn, No. 17, 2015 DJ Wilson, No. 17, 2017 The entire draft class of 1980 Note: The Bucks selected eight players in rounds 3-10, but none of them played in a regular season game.
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