Marques Bolden has played only seven NBA regular season games since going undrafted following his three Duke basketball seasons (2016-19). The most recent was in January 2021 with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
But the 6-foot-10 big man will potentially add dozens of appearances to that count this go-round, as the Milwaukee Bucks converted Bolden's Exhibit 10 training camp deal into a two-way contract on Saturday night.
Bolden's production in preseason action was hardly staggering. However, he averaged double-digit minutes off the bench, and the Bucks must have liked what they saw from the former McDonald's All-American prep out of DeSoto, Texas, regarding the 25-year-old's potential and chemistry with the team.
It was Bolden's second straight training camp with the Bucks. So, that probably helped.
The frequent fifth member of a 2018-19 Duke basketball starting lineup that featured Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish, and Tre Jones will likely spend most of the upcoming campaign with the Wisconsin Herd, the Bucks' G League affiliate. Bolden's deal allows him to play up to 50 NBA games in the regular season.
He's never given up on making it to the NBA while consistently getting invites to training camps (with the Cavaliers in 2019 and 2020, Utah Jazz in 2021, and, again, Bucks in the past two preseasons). And he's now looking to capitalize on the opportunity to carve out his place in the league.
His contract with the Bucks (he was briefly on a two-way contract with the Cavaliers in 2020-21) brings the number of Duke basketball talents currently in the NBA to exactly two dozen.
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