Former NBA champion believed he was going to be a Milwaukee Buck on draft night

Over the past decade, the Milwaukee Bucks have not had the best luck with their picks in the NBA Draft. 

That trend is expected to change this year after they made two selections in the first round, drafting Brayden Burries from Arizona and Nate Ament from Tennessee. While the NBA season is still just a few days away, there’s already some optimism that both players will be staples for the franchise. 

Burries has quickly been one of the most dynamic players from the draft and even earned recognition as the biggest steal of the draft, being selected No. 10 overall. Ament has been seen as a project-type player with good intangibles and a promising skill set, and looks to be on the right track in terms of his development.

However, in previous drafts, Milwaukee has not been able to draft players as pillars of its organization and has often passed on players who’ve been. In 2016, for example, the Bucks drafted Thon Maker with the No. 10 overall pick and passed on Domantas Sabonis, who was selected right after. 

Maker only played three years in Milwaukee before being traded to the Detroit Pistons, and was out of the league only a few seasons later. Sabonis, on the other hand, is a three-time All-Star and rebounding champ and has been selected to the All-NBA Third Team twice in his career. 

The trend has continued for years, and recently, an NBA champion believes his personal connections were going to lead him to the Bucks. Ajay Mitchell of the Oklahoma City Thunder recently spoke on The Young Man and the Three podcast, discussing what draft night was like for him, and he explained how he was potentially going to be selected late in the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft, and Milwaukee was one of the teams that were interested in him. 

His sister also lived in Wisconsin, so he thought it was a high possibility that it was going to happen. The Bucks chose a different player with the same-sounding first name and selected AJ Johnson instead.

“My agents were like, ‘There's a chance you get picked late first. And I remember Milwaukee had like the 23rd pick or something. And I went there. They really liked me. My sister lived in Wisconsin, so I was like, "Can see that connection, and so my whole family was like, ‘This might be you in Milwaukee, and that would be great. And then the 23rd pick comes up, and Adam Silver comes up, and he's like, “With the 23rd pick, Milwaukee selects AJ, and then everyone in the room is like, "Oh my gosh, what's going on? And then they say Johnson, and it gets so awkward. Like, I'm trying to be like, oh, it's all good, but in my head I'm like, what?”

He later adds that his sister was upset, but he kept his spirits high despite not being able to play in the same state where his sister lived. Mitchell waited until the next day to hear his name called by the Thunder with the No. 38 overall and found a home in Oklahoma City.

He had a solid first season with the Thunder where he averaged 6.5 points per game on 49.5% shooting from the field and 38.3% from the 3-point line. He became an NBA champion in his rookie season and took a major step in his sophomore season last year.

Mitchell went up to 13.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists on 25.8 minutes per game, while shooting 48.5% from the field and 34.7% from the 3-point line. He finished top five in Sixth Man of the Year voting and stepped up during the playoffs.

Against the Phoenix Suns in the first round, he averaged 15 points per game, and in the second round against the Los Angeles Lakers, he averaged 22.5 points, three rebounds, six assists and 1.8 steals per game on 56.3% shooting from the field, including three straight games where he scored at least 20 points or more. 

Mitchell is another name added to the list of good contributing players that the Bucks have passed in the draft. In that same draft where they took Johnson, Kyshawn George was selected by the New York Knicks with the next pick and was traded to the Washington Wizards. 

Like Mitchell, George has also seen significant improvements in his second season and his coming off a year where he averaged 14.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game while shooting 43.8% from the field and 38.1% from the 3-point line, after shooting 37.2% from the field and 32.2% from three in his rookie season.

In the 2022 NBA Draft, they also passed on Nikola Jovic, Peyton Watson and Andrew Nembhard to select MarJon Beauchamp, who’s been on four different NBA teams since and is now playing overseas.

Mitchell potentially being a Buck is going to leave a mark on Milwaukee fans, as it’s another chapter of the franchise missing out on another good NBA player.