Milwaukee Bucks 2023: Ranking the Roster - Introduction

I’ve got bad news and good news for you. The bad news—well, at least for people like me—is that here in the Upper Midwest, summer isn’t going to last all that much longer. The good news for all of us is that with fall approaching, another year of Bucks basketball grows ever closer! With that comes the return of our annual series where we all rank the Bucks roster.

This marks the tenth (!) edition of the series that began under our founder Frank Madden’s auspices back in 2014. And wouldn’t you know it, since then there has been only one person who has claimed the top spot in the yearly valuation polls: a certain forward of Greek origin and Nigerian descent who at that time just finished up his rookie season. Moving from seventh in that first exercise to setting in at second (with a brief dip to third in 2020) is Khris Middleton, the only other Buck to feature each year in the polling. So there’s usually not much drama at the top.

Over the years, the criteria moved from a straight ranking of assets, then an order of importance for future success, and now to its current stipulation: a hierarchy of the roster in terms of postseason potential, since the Bucks are yet again firmly in the mix of title contenders. To quote one of my predecessors Adam Paris, here’s your guiding mantra for the surveys coming your way in the coming weeks:

Postseason success should be paramount in your mind when considering your rankings. Regular season competency is a bonus, especially if they can help the team get to a higher seed that yields dividends in the Playoffs, but think about how you envision each individual player factoring in when postseason games arrive.

Like last year, let’s have a glance at how these rankings have gone over time for guys on the current roster:

Unlike last year, we’ll have a few more new names to consider this year of the young, new, and old (welcome back, Robin) varieties. For the third year in a row, six of the top seven players as determined by our readership returns to Milwaukee: Giannis, Middleton, Jrue Holiday, Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis, and Pat Connaughton. The only Buck from the top seven in this exercise who has left the franchise was Donte DiVincenzo, who took sixth in 2021.

Will that trend continue this year? Unless we see a trade—which I’d say for such an established group would qualify as major, no matter which of last year’s septet of top players goes—shuffle things up, it seems likely it will. But if a roster move happens, it would likely come in the middle of this series and throw a wrench into our rankings; the Bucks do have one more open two-way spot (recall that as of this season, teams now can sign three players two-way instead of the previous two) that could be filled as well. For now, though, we’ll operate with this seventeen-man group that seems reasonably likely to be the opening night roster.

As usual, every article will have a poll in each article where you’ll vote for the Least Important Buck (in terms of their ability to contribute in the postseason) among the options listed. Whoever gets the most votes will take their place on our ranking, get a writeup from one of our illustrious staff, and then we’ll repeat the poll with the remaining players as we count down to Giannis at one (obviously).

Back again this year is our Gut Check poll, which allows you to assign a confidence rating for the player we’ll discuss on each post. It’s rather straightforward: on a 1–5 scale—1 being not at all and 5 being playing heavy minutes—how confident are you that this player will be in the 2024 postseason rotation? For reference, let’s look at how those rankings shook out from last year’s polling for this year’s returning Bucks:

10. A.J. Green (score: 1.27)

9. Thanasis Antetokounmpo (score: 2.16)

8. Marjon Beauchamp (score: 2.47)

7. Grayson Allen (score: 3.81)

6. Bobby Portis (score: 4.64)

5. Brook Lopez (score: 4.64)

4. Pat Connaughton (score: 4.69)

3. Khris Middleton (score: 4.96)

2. Jrue Holiday (score: 4.98)

1. Giannis Antetokounmpo (we didn’t actually do a Gut Check poll on him, for obvious reasons)

With that, let’s begin! I’ll make this first poll a bit broader than what the next several will likely be, as we get an idea of how people regard the new rookies and free-agent acquisitions that all seem likely to be lower down the list. Check back here tomorrow for the results, a discussion of the “winner” at seventeen, and another poll for sixteen.