Thanks mainly to one Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Milwaukee Bucks have reemerged as a powerhouse team in the NBA. So much so, that they have been pegged as a title contender over the past few seasons thanks to a standout depth chart led by the Greek Freak.
It appears that this current Bucks side has a legitimate shot at bringing the team back to its glory days — at a time when the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was at the helm and led the team to its one and only championship in franchise history back in 1971.
Between then and now, Milwaukee has had its fair share of some very good teams and some very good players. Today we pay homage to the playmakers that have left their mark in the franchise, as we present our Top 3 greatest point guards in Milwaukee Bucks history
3. Sidney Moncrief
Sidney Moncrief, who played for the Bucks between 1979 to 1989, is a 6-foot-3 combo guard. While he mostly spent his time as the team's starting two-guard, there were more than a few times that the Hall of Famer took the helm as the Bucks' primary playmaker, thus making him qualified for our list here.
Milwaukee selected Moncrief fifth overall in 1979 following a highly-impressive college career with Arkansas. In just his third season with the Bucks, he got his first call-up to the All-Star squad, which was succeeded by four more appearances for the next four consecutive seasons.
Moncrief was a defensive stalwart. He was a five-time All-Defensive team member and was dubbed as the league's Defensive Player of the Year on two separate occasions. As a matter of fact, Moncrief was the first-ever winner of the DPOY award, and he even defended his title the following year. To date, he is one of only four guards to have ever won this award (Alvin Robertson, Michael Jordan, and Gary Payton are the other three).
In 10 years with the Bucks, Moncrief holds career averages of 16.7 points (on 50.3 percent shooting), 5.o rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 1.3 steals per game.
2. Sam Cassell
Sam Cassell was on a lot of Bucks news in 1999 when he joined the team, he had already established himself as a top point guard in the league. The 6-foot-3 point guard arrived in Milwaukee as part of a complex three-team deal between the Bucks, the New Jersey Nets, and the Minnesota Timberwolves, which centered around a then-up-and-coming Stephon Marbury.
The Bucks arguably got Cassell in his prime, with the three-time NBA champ averaging 19.0 points (on 46.8 percent shooting), 4.0 rebounds, 7.2 assists, and 1.2 steals per game in five seasons with the team.
Playing alongside the likes of Ray Allen and Glenn Robinson, Cassell was the starting point guard for a Bucks side that came to relevance in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Milwaukee went to the playoffs in four out of the five seasons Cassell was with the team, including a memorable trip to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2001 — their first time in 15 years.
Cassell's tenure with the Bucks ended when the team traded him to the Timberwolves in 2003. Ironically, it was in his first year with the Wolves that the highly-likable point guard made his one and only All-Star Game appearance.
1. Oscar Robertson
Could there be anybody else at the top of this list? There's no denying that Oscar Robertson, more fondly known as the “Big O,” was already at the tail end of his career when he was traded by the Cincinnati Royals to the Bucks in 1970. He was already 32 when he signed with the team, and while he was already in his twilight years, Robertson still managed two All-Star appearances while with the Bucks.
In his first season with Milwaukee, Robertson averaged 19.4 points (on 49.6 percent shooting), 5.7 rebounds, and 8.2 assists (a far cry from his triple-double average days). More importantly, he helped the Bucks to the team's one and only championship in that very same year. Robertson was no longer the star player of that team, however, with a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar already dominating the league, but there's no denying that he was a huge part of that title-winning season. As a matter of fact, some might even argue that Milwaukee might not have won that chip if Robertson was not with the team.
In his Hall of Fame career, the 6-foot-5 point guard won the Rookie of the Year, made 12 All-Star Game appearances, won the All-Star Game MVP thrice, was named to the All-NBA squad 11 times, and was the winner of the 1963-94 regular season Most Valuable Player award. In 1980, Robertson received the penultimate honor in the sport when he was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
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