WE take him and it’s going to turn the draft upside down.”
They did, and they did.
The Milwaukee Bucks released a brief but entertaining behind-the-scenes look at how they decided to draft Thon Maker with the No. 10 pick in last month’s NBA Draft.
In the 2:54 clip, various voices from the Bucks organisation can be heard chiming in on Maker, and the tremendous upside of the (officially) 19-year-old.
We can assume that if there were naysayers in Milwaukee’s war room they were edited out, but it’s still rare for NBA teams to release such footage.
"We take him…and it's gonna turn the draft upside down."https://t.co/yvHYUdPdDr
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) July 13, 2016
Two other interesting quotes from the video:
“Everything’s unknown about him because there is no body of work.”
“I don’t think guys like this come along all that often.”
Maker was the draft’s big unknown. Pundits were all over the board predicting where he would be selected. But the Bucks, who struck gold with budding star Giannis Antetokounmpo with the 15th pick of the 2014 draft, saw similar attributes in Maker. Both are lengthy players who can handle the ball and play multiple positions.
Mark Cuban on Thon Maker: "For a 40-year-old, he can still play!" https://t.co/WYU8kt0OcY
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) July 14, 2016
Maker, born in war-torn South Sudan, played at multiple high schools in multiple countries — the lack of thorough documentation has prompted some whispers about his age — and received permission from the NBA to forego college after playing a post-prep year.
The video starts with Maker’s pre-draft workout with the Bucks and includes a congratulatory call from Bucks GM John Hammond.
