After the city of Milwaukee earned an NBA expansion franchise, the front office quickly got to work on building an NBA champion. The Milwaukee Bucks started off strong in 1969 by choosing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (formerly known as Lew Alcindor) with their very first NBA draft pick. Two years later, the team defeated the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA Finals. More smart selections in the 1970s set the team up for success for its first two decades in the league before the franchise dropped off in the 1990s.

The Milwaukee Bucks have made plenty of great draft picks over the years, as well as far too many poor ones to count. Who are the best draft picks in Bucks history?

Note that names like Stephon Marbury and Dirk Nowitzki are not included even though they were drafted by the Bucks. Neither player ever suited up for the franchise, so how can they be considered good picks? Players like Ray Allen are also not on this list because he was originally drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Furthermore, performance in a Bucks uniform is considered above all.

10. Brandon Jennings (2009)

Bucks accolades: 2009-10 All-Rookie

The 2009 NBA Draft featured a pair of future Hall of Famers in James Harden and Steph Curry, plus All-Star Blake Griffin all within the first 10 picks. In terms of overall career performance, there are a few players the Bucks could have opted for at the tenth overall pick that year — namely Jrue Holiday and Danny Green — but Brandon Jennings was just what the franchise needed at that moment in time.

The Bucks had gone six years without a winning season, and Jennings immediately propelled them to a 46-win season and a six-seed in the East, nearly knocking off the Atlanta Hawks in the first round. Though the magic did not last, Jennings birthed the most famous phrase in Milwaukee Bucks cultural lexicon four years later: “Bucks in Six.” Though Jennings was unable to deliver on that promise and defeat future NBA Champions the Miami Heat in the playoffs, he finally parting gift to the city was being part of the trade that brought in Khris Middleton, thus cementing Jennings as a true Milwaukee icon.

9. Malcolm Brogdon (2016)

Bucks accolades: 2016-17 ROY, 2016-17 All-Rookie

The 2016 NBA Draft has produced a couple of stars, notably Jaylen Brown, Jamaal Murray, Domantas Sabonis, and Pascal Siakam, but no one could be classified as a true superstar. In terms of value, no player was more overlooked than Malcolm Brogdon. The 36th overall pick, Brogdon earned Rookie of the Year honors — the first Buck to do so since Kareem Abdul Jabbar in 1969-70 — in his debut season and only improved from there. In his third and final season with Milwaukee, Brogdon averaged 15.6 PPG, led the league by hitting 92.8% of his free throws, and shot 42.6% from three. Only a short tenure keeps him further down this list.

8. Andrew Bogut (2005)

Bucks accolades: 1x All-NBA, 2005-06 All-Rookie

The number one overall pick in the 2005 Draft, Andrew Bogut's budding career was forever altered by a gruesome elbow injury he suffered in 2010. Up until that point, Bogut had been a good, if not injury-prone, center for the Bucks, and in that 2009-10 season was averaging a career-high 15.9 points/game to go with 10.2 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per contest. Bogut ranks seventh both in career Win Shares and Value over Replacement Player amongst Bucks draft picks who spent at least three seasons with the team, putting him right at home in the seventh slot on this list as well.

7. Glenn Robinson (1994)

Bucks accolades: 2x NBA All-Star, 1994-95 All-Rookie

It is hard to fault Milwaukee for choosing Glenn Robinson as the number one overall pick in the 1994 NBA Draft. Robinson was the obvious choice after a dominant college career at Purdue, putting up 30.3 PPG and 10.1 rebounds per contest in his final season with the Boilermakers. He then proceeded to average 21.1 points per game across eight seasons with the Bucks, including a pair of All-Star Game selections. Knee injuries forced Robinson to retire early at the age of 32, but few players from the 1994 Draft were better at their peak than Big Dog. Looking back, only Jason Kidd was consistently more productive than Robinson, but the Bucks have to be happy with this pick.

6. Michael Redd (2000)

Bucks accolades: 1x NBA All-Star, 1x All-NBA

Michael Redd was a rare draft find for the Bucks during a period when the front office was getting next to nothing out of the players it selected. Redd was the 43rd overall pick in the 2000 draft, and within a few seasons grew from being a key bench scorer to becoming the go-to guy in Milwaukee. During his six-year prime, Redd averaged at least 20 PPG every year (23.5 PPG overall) while hitting 36.9% of his threes as a high-volume marksman. He holds the Buck records for most three-pointers made in a quarter (eight) as well as points scored in a game (57). Looking back at what was a largely disappointing draft, Michael Redd was arguably the best player selected that year.

5. Marques Johnson (1977)

Bucks accolades: 4x All-Star, 3x All-NBA, 1977-78 All-Rookie, #8 Jersey Retired

Much like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar almost a decade earlier, Marques Johnson was an elite scorer coming from John Wooden's pipeline at UCLA who easily transitioned to the pro ranks. By his second season, Johnson was an All-Star averaging north of 25 points per contest — the first of four All-Star nominations he earned with the Bucks — while hitting 55% of his field goal attempts. Johnson has the fourth-highest Win Shares in Bucks history, making him an easy top-five draft pick in Bucks history.

4. Bob Dandridge (1969)

Bucks accolades: NBA HOF, 3x All-Star, 1x NBA Champ, 1969-70 All-Rookie, #10 Jersey Retired

With the first pick in the 1969 NBA Draft, the Milwaukee Bucks took Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. 44 picks later, the franchise selected Bob Dandridge, a little-known forward out of Norfolk State and one of only two other Hall-of-Famers in the rest of the draft. Dandridge had an immediate impact. He averaged 18.4 PPG and 8 RPG in just his second NBA season as the Bucks won their first-ever NBA Title. He then became the go-to guy once Kareem and Oscar Robertson moved on, making him a great value for a former fourth-round pick.

3. Sidney Moncrief (1979)

Bucks accolades: NBA HOF, 5x All-Star, 5x NBA All-Defensive Team, 5x All-NBA, 2x Defensive POY, #4 Jersey Retired

1969-79 was a great period for the Bucks front office, as the team drafted three future NBA Hall-of-Famers during this stretch. Moncrief was the final selection in this great era of drafting and became a lynchpin for the Bucks during their success in the 1980s. He was an excellent scorer, averaging more than 20 PPG in four consecutive seasons, but perhaps Moncrief was more well-known for his defense. In an era with so many defensive enforcers, Moncrief earned NBA All-Defensive Team honors on five occasions and also earned back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year awards in 1983 and 1984.

2. Giannis Antetokounmpo (2013)

Bucks accolades: 2x MVP, 7x All-Star, 7x All-NBA, 5x All-Defensive Team 1x Defensive POY, 2013-14 All-Rookie, 1x NBA Champ, 1x NBA Finals MVP, 1x Most-Improved

Giannis Antetokounmpo's rise from a little-known big man out of Greece to NBA MVP and NBA Champion is one of the great underdog stories in modern sports. The scary part; he's still getting better. Giannis' scoring average has increased in eight of the last nine seasons, peaking at 31.1 PPG last year. The Greek Freak is a two-time MVP and seven-time All-Star, and will easily be a Hall-of-Famer once his career is over. It would take something pretty special to keep him out of the top spot …

1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1969)

Bucks accolades: NBA HOF, 3x MVP, 6x All-Star, 5x All-NBA, 4x All-Defensive Team, 1969-70 All-Rookie, 1969-70 ROY, 2x Scoring Champ, 1x NBA Champ, 1x NBA Finals MVP, #33 Jersey Retired

Giannis is great — a generational talent — but he cannot be compared (yet) to an athlete who is easily one of the top five players in NBA history. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar steered the Bucks to their first-ever NBA title and won MVP in three of his six seasons in Milwaukee. His scoring average with the Bucks of 30.4 PPG is higher than Giannis has achieved in every year other than 2022-23. As one of the best to ever do it, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's spot as the best Bucks draft pick of all time is well-deserved.