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Ranking the Milwaukee Bucks' 2015 Roster: Ennis the Menace

There has never been a more obvious pun.

By Dan Sinclair
Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

I'll be honest, and I know I speak for at least a few other members of the Brew Hoop staff: I don't really know how this happened.

Tyler Ennis was bad last year. We admonished Johnny O'Bryant for recording a ghastly 3.8 PER in his rookie season. Well, Ennis wasn't much better, notching a 7.3 mark overall and just 6.6 in his 25 games with Milwaukee. So why is it surprising to see Ennis come off the board second in our rankings of the Bucks' 2015 roster? Because there are a number of key difference that fall in Ennis' favor when we compare the two:

  • Johnny O'Bryant turned 22 this summer. Tyler Ennis turns 21...today!?!
  • Loosening up the restriction on our Basketball-Reference search of bad rookie seasons introduces a few more encouraging markers. For example, Andrew Bynum and Draymond Green both had PERs below 7.5 in their rookie seasons.
  • At a glance, Ennis has a much better pedigree than O'Bryant. He was selected 18 spots earlier in the draft, came from a marquee college program, and had generally greater projections prior to beginning his career than O'Bryant.
  • As a first-round pick, Ennis' contact is locked in for another three seasons at a low cost, and the Bucks have a great deal of say in what happens after that as well.
In short, there's a lot more ancillary stuff to like with Ennis than O'Bryant.

But, the people have spoken, and as the Bucks are suddenly flush with point guards, it's certainly plausible that Ennis won't find much playing time this season (though it would certainly be in their best interest to find some time for him over short-term players like Greivis Vasquez and Jerryd Bayless). Add some injury concerns (Ennis had shoulder surgery last spring) and overlapping weaknesses with Michael Carter-Williams (shooting, ball-handling) and things start to make a bit more sense.

But for real, whachya'll got goin' on here?

Milwaukee Bucks 2015 Roster Rankings

15. Johnny O'Bryant
14. Tyler Ennis

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Cast your vote for the next guy off Bucks Island below. Remember -- production, potential and salary all matter, though you can weigh them however much or little you like. Here's the Bucks' updated cap situation as a refresher:

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