The Milwaukee Bucks have a long history as being an NBA franchise needing to build their various successful teams through the draft and shrewd moves on the trade market. Despite a solid history of drafting stars and high-quality role players, there has also been a fair share of draft busts.
Let's look at five of the biggest draft busts in the history of the Bucks.
5. Kent Benson
First up is a first himself: Indiana center Kent Benson was selected by Milwaukee with the first overall pick in the 1977 NBA Draft. What followed was an underachieving overall career and definitely underwhelming two-plus-year tenure with the Bucks.
Benson was a star for those mid-'70s Hoosiers teams—the captain for Bobby Knight's Indiana side in his senior year—who delivered a perfect season in 1975-76, winning the national title with Benson earning the NCAA tournament's Most Outstanding Player honor. Benson declared for the draft after his senior year the next year and what followed was not the kind of glory he won with the Hoosiers.
With the Bucks, Benson was supposed to be the college-star-turned-pro spiritual successor to All-Star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (who had left three years prior). Instead, Benson struggled in the pros. His best season with Milwaukee came in his sophomore campaign where he averaged 12.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per game while shooting 51.8 percent from the field. Benson made headlines in several Bucks news when he infamously fought with Abdul-Jabbar in his first NBA game, too.
The Bucks, however, did trade for Detroit Pistons center Bob Lanier using Benson (and a first-round pick) by Feb. 1980, ending his time in Milwaukee.
4. Randy Breuer
Soon after sending off Benson, the Bucks took another center in the first round of the draft, selecting Minnesota standout seven-footer Randy Breuer with the 18th overall pick. Breuer ended up spending six-plus seasons in Milwaukee, although none too productive save one particular season.
Breuer appeared in 57 games during his debut season in 1983-84, shooting under 40 percent from the field and averaging 8.3 minutes a night. The next year he played in 78 games with 13.9 minutes allotted per game. That trend continued the next season when he finally cracked a consistent role in the Bucks' rotation.
Breuer's best campaign came in 1987-88, when he averaged 12.0 points and 6.8 rebounds per contest, starting 73 games during the season.
The former Golden Gopher's case is a strange one; he spent much longer with the team than other draft busts, but Breuer was nearly uneventful or not impactful for seven years until getting traded to his home state's Timberwolves in Jan. 1990.
3. Eric Mobley
Another 18th overall selection, the next entry is Eric Mobley, who the Bucks drafted in 1994 out of Pittsburgh—but he had a much shorter tenure with Milwaukee.
The third straight center on the list, Mobley only appeared in one and a half seasons for the Bucks, playing 652 total minutes. Mobley's rookie campaign topped out at 46 appearances, averaging 3.9 points and 3.3 rebounds in 12.8 minutes per game.
Mobley was quickly traded a few games into his second year in the NBA, going to the then-Vancouver Grizzlies in Nov. 1995.
2. Marcus Haislip
The second-worst draft bust on the list is a 6-foot-10 forward that played fewer than 1,000 minutes both for the Bucks and in his total NBA career. After a breakout junior year with the Tennessee Volunteers, Marcus Haislip elected for the 2002 draft, where Milwaukee selected him at No. 13.
Haislip only appeared in 39 games during his rookie season in 2002-03, averaging 11.3 minutes per game and not getting extensive time in head coach George Karl's rotation. The next year, Haislip played fewer games and fewer minutes; by his third season in the league, the Bucks waived the forward, with the Indiana Pacers later claiming him.
Since then Haislip, today 39 years old, has made much of his career overseas. After a very short stint with Indiana, he competed in Turkish and Spanish leagues, returning stateside briefly for a half a season with the San Antonio Spurs in 2009-10. Afterward, Haislip played in China, northern Africa, and again Turkey, last appearing for Turkish club Gaziantep Basketbol.
1. Joe Alexander
Lastly, the biggest draft bust on the list is the most recent entry: West Virginia small forward Joe Alexander. The Bucks took Alexander with the eighth overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft. At 6-foot-8, Alexander leapfrogged any draft stock in his junior season with the Mountaineers, earning 2007-08 All-Big East honors with 16.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.
With the Bucks, Alexander only appeared in 59 games in his first season in the NBA. The next year, Alexander toiled in the then-D-League, later finding himself traded to the Chicago Bulls and competing in their own D-League organization.
Alexander only appeared in two separate seasons in the NBA, later playing professionally overseas in Russia, Italy, Turkey, France, and most recently and most tenured in Israeli, where he possesses dual citizenship.
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