Milwaukee Bucks Double Down on Youth, Athleticism with Tyler Smith

By selecting Tyler Smith with the 33rd overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, the Milwaukee Bucks take on another developmental project.

The 2024 NBA Draft is over and done with and it’s safe to say that the Milwaukee Bucks looked towards the future with the two picks at their disposal.

Hours after making one of the more shocking selections in the first round of the draft, the Bucks went back to the well of upside and youth by tabbing the smooth stretch forward Tyler Smith with the 33rd overall pick. Smith had long been in the realm of prospects that fit the Bucks’ ethos of size, shooting and athleticism within their frontcourt — even if a couple of those traits seem more theoretical in Smith’s case at the moment. 

Smith comes to Milwaukee by way of the G League Ignite program that the NBA shuttered after last season. The Ignite’s last season was an abject failure with a 2-32 record and a .059 winning percentage that doubles as the worst mark for any team in the history of the G League. Before that, Smith signed on with Overtime Elite for two seasons. Smith’s pursuit of exploring alternative routes to the NBA rather than playing in the NCAA helped him acclimate to life as a professional before he could come into the league.

While Jon Horst has been at the helm, the Bucks have made it clear they valued prospects who have taken these alternative paths and this draft has reinforced that strategy between Smith and his new teammate, AJ Johnson. 

Whereas Johnson’s path to becoming a meaningful NBA player is shrouded in mystery, the outline is more clear with Smith. There aren’t a lot of 19-year-olds standing at 6’9” that show the range and natural shooting touch that Smith has. Hitting 36.4 percent of his triples from the NBA 3-point line is a very good starting point. During the Giannis Antetokoumpo era, the Bucks have clearly sought to put players that fit the stretch big archetype around him, successfully doing so with guys like Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis and not-so-successfully with guys like Thon Maker and Christian Wood.

Smith’s rim running and bounce also give the Bucks another dose of athleticism that they don’t have enough of beyond Giannis Antetokounmpo and Andre Jackson Jr. — when the latter sees the floor. With the ability to space the floor, shoot at a high clip and act as a springy lob threat, Smith is an offensive weapon the Bucks are ready to mold. 

But still, the questions surrounding Smith are paramount and almost exclusively lie on the defensive end. Being able to defend pick-and-rolls, guard in space and anticipate when to rotate all stand at the top of the list. He has the tools to develop into a useful defender, but is nowhere near being able to utilize those tools in a productive sense. Getting into an NBA strength and conditioning program will help and so will being around coaches that can help develop Smith, whether in Oshkosh with the Wisconsin Herd or in Milwaukee. 

No one can criticize the Bucks for not having a vision with their two selections during this draft. Smith may be closer to bringing more consistency and polished skills to the floor, but both he and Johnson are developmental projects that the Bucks are eager to dig in and explore as soon as the next few weeks. After all, Summer League is right around the corner. The patience that will be needed to turn either or both into something of value requires a dedicated plan in place and it’s on Jon Horst, Doc Rivers and the organization as a whole to make that happen. 

A greater defensive focus, attention to detail and simply maturing into his body all stand in the way of Smith finding himself earning minutes in an NBA rotation. It may be a year or two before Smith is truly in that conversation, just like Johnson. G League assignments to Oshkosh and being on the other end of poster dunks by Antetokounmpo in practice will be the kind of rookie initiation Smith will go through next season. 

The pipeline continues to grow for the base of young prospects that the Bucks have assembled and are waiting to see each one pop. Even as fans turn their attention towards free agency and project the few ways the Bucks can improve their roster, the conversation surrounding this draft class improves if the picks before Johnson and Smith can establish themselves. The likes of Jackson Jr., Chris Livingston, A.J. Green and MarJon Beauchamp have all shown flashes on an NBA floor, but only Green and occasionally Jackson have done so in Milwaukee’s system under Rivers.

The Bucks have brought on a healthy skepticism that they won’t hit on these upside swings with having as few draft hits as any NBA team has had over the last decade. Fans wouldn’t trade a list of successful draft picks for what the Bucks have done over that time. Now, it’s on the Bucks to change the tenor of this conversation.

We’re a year or two out from finding out whether Horst and co. knocked these picks out of the park, but you can’t blame them from sticking to a vision and giving it a shot.