The Bucks do not own their first-round pick in the upcoming draft. Luckily, the 2027 draft class currently is among the least-hyped crops in recent memory, certainly at the top (and that’s not a diss, just the reality). This draft just doesn’t feature the typical high-upside players that usually populate the lottery. Heck, there might be just one legitimate “star bet” in the entire draft in Kansas-signee Tyran Stokes, and even he is no sure thing. As for the rest of the “top prospects,” the overwhelming
majority project as role players at this point. There just isn’t the typical “we likely know who the top three, four, five picks are” before the cycle truly begins this year.
“As for the [2027] outlook, it’s still pretty cloudy right now. Basketball fans have been spoiled by the star power of the 2025 and 2026 draft classes, and NBA teams have operated with the knowledge that next year’s class will present a challenge. My assessment of the incoming freshman class reflects that,” ESPN’s Jeremy Woo wrote in his early mock draft.
At the same time, the 2027 draft does look set to have some decent depth, which is at least somewhat relevant because the Bucks now have two second-round picks in it via the Caris LeVert acquisition. Funnily enough, a key part of why it has that depth is because a bunch of prospects who could have declared for this year’s draft and been taken in the late first round knew that 1. they could accept NIL deals in college and make more than a late first-round pick, and 2. knew that the 2027 draft is weaker and thus have a better chance of being taken higher if they waited a year. It’s this funny concept wherein a draft’s projected weakness is the exact thing that causes it to get marginally stronger over time.
Anyway, I say all this to reiterate that if you had to miss a draft, this year’s is the one to miss. Of course, this means the Bucks must have a first-round pick in the following draft due to the Stepien rule, which prohibits teams from trading away their own first-round draft picks in consecutive future drafts. Now, as far as I can tell, the rights to this pick have been traded to the Portland Trail Blazers and (somehow) the Washington Wizards in some convoluted three-way swap. That said, as long as Portland and Washington don’t make the playoffs in 2028—which would be the expected result as we sit here today—Milwaukee will land another lottery pick two years from now in a draft looks much better than once thought.
Now, the new flattened odds could either help or hurt the Bucks—nobody knows what tomfoolery could go down on lottery night—but the advantage of having a deeper draft is that by the time the Bucks’ pick rolls around, wherever that may be, there is a higher chance of a good player being on the board. I just mentioned that there are very few players with “star upside” in the upcoming draft; that is not the case in 2028. I watched a good amount of this year’s FIBA U17 World Cup and came away really impressed with many of the players. Not to do a full scouting report in this article of a draft that is two years away, but for those interested, the ’28 draft is currently seen to be headlined by two players: Joaquim Boumtje-Boumtje (USA) and Nikola Kusturica (Serbia), who both played together for Barcelona growing up, ironically.
Boumtje-Boumtje—whose father, Ruben, spent three years in the NBA—is a seven-foot unicorn who can legitimately handle and shoot the ball like a guard. He was awarded the MVP of the World Cup, averaging 19.6 PPG, 10.9 RPG, 2.0 APG, and a combined 3.8 stocks on a loaded American team that lapped the competition on its way to gold. As I alluded to, the 17-year-old spent the last three years playing in Barcelona despite growing up in the US. He has committed to Duke, where he will play for two seasons until he’s draft-eligible.
As for Kusturica, he’s a 6’9” forward who also handles and shoots the ball with an adeptness not usually seen from players that size. He averaged 24.6 PPG and 6.9 RPG in the World Cup, leading his Serbia team to the gold medal game against the USA, where he dropped 37 points and nine rebounds. Again, like Boumtje-Boumtje, Kusturica will spend two years in college before becoming draft-eligible; he has reportedly signed a huge NIL deal with UCLA.
Finally, it was also just announced that AJ Williams—the top-ranked player in the (college) class of 2028—will be reclassifying to the 2027 class, meaning he will be eligible for the 2028 draft now as well. Anyway, for the sake of brevity, I might discuss other prospects at a later date, but rest assured that there are talented players throughout the whole lottery. Now we as Bucks fans just need to hope that Washington or Portland don’t break into the East playoff mix over the next two seasons (or that the Blazers don’t move to the East somehow amid all this drama with their new owner).
Of course, even if the 2028 crop is strong, Jon Horst will still need to select the right player. Have your say on his drafting record below:
