2026 NBA Draft Needs: Milwaukee Bucks

The Milwaukee Bucks have been surrounded by Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors for too long. Their franchise legend will be moved, but whether that is this offseason, next year, or five years from now is unclear. What is clear is they are stuck trying to rebuild and make win-now moves to appease Giannis. This draft will serve as a memorandum on which path the Bucks are pursuing: either they are trying to rebuild, or they are trying to put a complementary piece around Giannis.

State of the Team:

Retooling & Rebuilding: Giannis stays & Giannis leaves

Positional Strengths and Weaknesses:

Guards:

The Bucks’ guard corps is Kevin Porter Jr., Ryan Rollins, and AJ Green.

Kevin Porter Jr. has been a steady all-around combo guard for the Bucks. He still needs to improve his efficiency to become an above-average starter, but he should provide consistent play. Ryan Rollins exploded onto the scene this past year. His motor and all-around play on $4 million per year make him the best contract in the NBA. AJ Green is an ultra-efficient scorer and threeball specialist. He averaged 7.9 shots a night, and 7.1 of them were three-point attempts. He was a starter, but his future should be as a sixth man to step in when outside scoring is needed. The group as a whole is in their early-to-mid-twenties and is a strong rising group.

Wings/Forwards:

The Bucks’ wing and forward corps is Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kyle Kuzma, Bobby Portis, Gary Trent Jr., Gary Harris, Taurean Prince, and Andre Jackson Jr.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is a top-five player in the world. The Bucks won a championship with him in 2021. However, Giannis has been in trade rumors for two straight years. The Bucks had the failure of the Damian Lillard trade, and they aren’t in a position to contend anytime soon. Giannis is 31, and much of his game is based around his insane athleticism. The Bucks need to trade him before his value drops and rebuild. Otherwise, they will again take half measures and trade for veterans for another “retooling” year.

Kyle Kuzma, Bobby Portis, Gary Trent Jr., Gary Harris, and Taurean Prince are all players at their peaks or regressing, all brought in to put around Giannis. None of them are more than average-to-replacement starters. Several are in the 3-and-D mold; Harris and Prince stand out. Others are scorers who are adequate to middling at providing more than that, namely Kuzma and Trent Jr. Portis is the last remaining key piece of the 2021 run still on the roster. He has his moments as the do-it-all four and small-ball five, though he is slowly but surely regressing.

Andre Jackson Jr. is the only prospect in the wing and forward group, but he’s 24 years old, entering his fourth season, and saw his minutes cut in half from 14.6 per game in 2024-25 to 8.5 per game in 2025-26. He needs to make a leap, or else he may be lumped in with the rest of the wings and forwards as expendable, short-term pieces.

Bigs:

The Bucks’ big corps is Myles Turner and Jericho Sims.

The Bucks benefit from several of their forwards being able to take on center minutes, Kuzma and Portis specifically. But Myles Turner was brought in last offseason to be their Brook Lopez replacement. Turner was great for the 2025 Pacers team that made the Finals, but his production dipped with the Bucks, and his contract no longer looks like a steal. This is also hampered by the Bucks waiving and stretching Damian Lillard’s contract in order to free up the money to sign him. Turner is still an average starting big man with a threeball and good defense, but he’s not a needle-mover.

Jericho Sims is a traditional backup big man. He can’t stretch the floor, but he can pull down rebounds and score hyper-efficiently on low volume. He should be a third-string center, and it is questionable whether he can stay on the court in the playoffs.

Draft Needs:

The Bucks are saddled with the waive-and-stretch of Damian Lillard until the end of the 2029-30 season. That’s $22.5 million per year counting against the cap until Giannis is 35. The Bucks are stuck. Giannis is the best player in the franchise’s history. Keeping him on the team so he can retire as a one-team player would be a remarkable story to add to the NBA tapestry. But like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, he will most likely retire on a different team. The Bucks need a high-ceiling player, or a deep cast of supporting players to fill out the roster post-Giannis.

Prospects That Fit:

The Bucks have the 10th overall pick

Yaxel Lendeborg (PF/Forward, Michigan)

Yaxel Lendeborg is both a developing prospect and a finished product at the same time. For a player who turns 24 in his upcoming rookie year, Lendeborg doesn't have as much basketball experience as expected. Lendeborg only saw varsity minutes in his senior year of high school, only 11 games to be precise. After that, he worked his way up through JUCO and eventually was the leading scorer for a Michigan squad that won the NCAA championship. At 6-foot-9, 240 pounds, with a 7-foot-4 wingspan, Lendeborg enters as the ultimate late bloomer.

Lendeborg has rapidly improved every year in college, and if his trajectory continues, he still has more to provide a team. He’s exactly what the Bucks need. Like Giannis, the development path is non-traditional, and having a team fully buy in and focus on harnessing his talents could pay major dividends.

But what kind of game does Lendeborg have? He is a disciplined, high-motor bulldozer on offense and defense. Despite his size, Lendeborg can switch onto wings and seems to relish contact. He consumes anything thrown in his airspace, averaging 1.1 steals and 1.2 blocks per game with only 1.7 fouls per game. He matched Aday Mara’s 6.8 rebounds per game and had the unexpected touch and finesse to lead a fast break and throw perfect cross-court passes to streaking teammates. Passing was an underrated aspect of his game. He was second on the team in assists with 3.2 per game. And when Michigan just needed a bucket, his strength provided. When he builds a full head of steam, he is hard for anybody to slow down or contest on a drive.

On top of everything else, he added a threeball to his game this past year, going from 35.7% on 1.9 attempts in 2024-25 to 37.2% on 4.5 attempts in 2025-26. This sort of development can be an outlier where he falls back to earth or could indicate legitimate range to his game. His threeball development is the difference between him being a top-tier sixth man and being a legitimate All-Star candidate.

If Giannis stays, Lendeborg can end up being what Kuzma and Turner were supposed to be: a legitimate running mate who sprints the floor, takes pressure off Giannis to be the sole driving threat, and stretches the floor. If Giannis leaves, Lendeborg’s physicality and 64.6% true shooting percentage as the number one option on a national champion wouldn’t be the worst downgrade.

Henri Veesaar (Center/Big, North Carolina)

The Bucks need more talent in the building, and one strategy to address that is to trade down in the draft and focus on acquiring a spread of skillsets instead of one singular excellent skill set. Henri Veesaar out of North Carolina fits both the Giannis-stays and Giannis-leaves timeline. At 6-foot-11, 227 pounds, with a 7-foot-2 wingspan, Veesaar is the best pure stretch big in the class and is a valuable trade-down target.

Veesaar played second fiddle to Caleb Wilson but still averaged an impressive 17 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.2 blocks on a stellar 66.4% true shooting percentage. Veesaar is a sure shooter, hitting 42.6% of the time beyond the arc on 3 attempts per game. At 22 years old, he is an older prospect, but with his improvements in his efficiency, rebounding, playmaking, and threeball, his potential ceiling hinges on making everything work in tandem.

Veesaar’s limiting factor is his average athleticism. Despite his size, he isn’t a great rim protector, and transitioning to the NBA, he could be a defensive liability. In college, his footspeed made it hard to keep up with guards or wings, and his weight was exposed when he faced bigger, stronger athletes who could knock him around. He does have good instincts and gives good effort every play, but there’s no clear development path leading to him becoming more than a serviceable defender.

If Giannis stays, Veesaar has a developed offensive game with finesse and stretch potential. He also is a willing passer looking to hit the open man. His defense is a concern, but supplemented by Giannis as a help defender, he should hold up against most other bigs. If Giannis leaves, Veesaar’s offensive skills can be polished further. He won’t be a world-shaker, but even something like transitioning him to power forward could help cover his concerns on defense. And having an offensive Swiss Army knife at the four is great on any team.