Jordan Nwora, Sam Merrill, and Mamadi Diakite Moved to NBA G-League

The Milwaukee Bucks have assigned second-round rookies Jordan Nwora and Sam Merrill to the Salt Lake City Stars and Memphis Hustle, respectively. Milwaukee also plans on transferring two-way rookie Mamadi Diakite to the Lakeland Magic.

As coach Mike Budenholzer has seemed to settle on a bench rotation the last few weeks, it left the rookies picking up DNP-CDs left and right, unless the game was a blowout like Monday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers. It will give the players a chance to get some live playing time and hopefully come away looking like the best players on the court. However, it does raise some questions, since a key decision from Bucks’ ownership was not having the Wisconsin Herd compete in the G-League bubble this season. It seems as though with these assignments and transfers of their rookies, maybe it was still worth keeping around for this reason? Now, these Bucks players are outside of Milwaukee’s direct influence when it comes to coaching and development.

On the season, Nwora has played in ten games while Merrill, who had an ankle injury early, has played in nine games. Diakite has not appeared in an NBA game yet.