DJ Wilson Drafted 17th By Milwaukee Comment Count

Ace



[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

As first reported by the one and only Adrian Wojnarowski, the Milwaukee Bucks selected DJ Wilson with the 17th overall pick in tonight's NBA Draft. Despite missing most of the pre-draft process due to a lingering injury, Wilson rose from a fringe first-rounder to nearly making it into the lottery. He joins one of the most exciting young teams in the league; the Bucks earned the sixth seed in the East last year with a lineup featuring Giannis "The Greek Freak" Antetokuonmpo, Jabari Parker, Khris Middleton, Greg Monroe, and Malcolm Brogdon.

Milwaukee has some talented players in the frontcourt, so Wilson should be able to ease his way into the rotation—his defensive versatility and shooting are his keys to seeing the floor. Wilson is the eighth Michigan player to be drafted under John Beilein, all since 2011, and the sixth to go in the first round.

Comments

rainingmaize

June 22nd, 2017 at 10:24 PM ^

Its amazing to me that with statistics such as six first round picks since 2011, Mcdonald's All American types aren't showing much interest in Michigan (outside of Mo Bamba). It tells me that either Beilein isn't super interested in those one and done types, or that some dirty things happen on the recruiting trail. 

TrueBlue2003

June 23rd, 2017 at 2:11 AM ^

plenty of shady things happening with the McD's All-Americans, but it's still surprising we don't get more guys in the 25-75 range.

Basketball powerhouses such as Florida State, Mississippi State, Alabama, Xavier (2!!), Virginia Tech, Oregon State, Arkansas, Providence, Stanford (2!!), Auburn (2!!), Georgia, Notre Dame, LSU, USC, St. Louis, Texas A&M, Arizona State, Minnesota, Creighton, Colorado and others all signed a guy rated in that range and higher than our top guy in 2017.

Some of those might be shady (ahem, SEC), but more probably aren't.  Why half of those guys would prefer those schools to playing for Beilein is beyond me.  I actually think he's pretty selective in the 25-200 range in terms of personality, attitude, academics, late-bloomer, etc. and it seems to be working for him pretty well.

M-Dog

June 23rd, 2017 at 8:55 AM ^

It's working out well for the players.  I'm not sure how well it's working out for John Beilein.

He does not get the immediate impact players.  He gets guys he has to develop.  He does that very well, but then they leave right away.  

He only winds up getting about half a season of top-level play out of most of these guys.  Then they are gone.

If he was even able to get just a full season of top-level play and Michigan goes into the tournament as a 3 seed instead of an 8 seed, Beilein could have 2 or 3 more Final Fours under his belt. 

 

TrueBlue2003

June 23rd, 2017 at 2:18 AM ^

and I don't understand it.  Of course he got good advice.  It was straight from the scouts and GMs that are drafting him!  There is very little guesswork anymore in the NBA draft for underclassmen.  Moving the declaration deadline back and allowing these guys to participate in the combine removes a huge amount of uncertainty.

There were a whole bunch of teams wanting to take him in the second half of the first round, and they told him that, and it was true.  It wasn't even advice, as in, "you should go."  It was matter-of-fact, we "will take you at X spot" by several teams.

In reply to by Pepto Bismol

TrueBlue2003

June 23rd, 2017 at 12:36 PM ^

do you really think all of them thought they were getting drafted?

They knew exactly what they were doing.  This wasn't a matter of bad information.  They didn't want to be in school.  Simple matter of more and more guys choosing to start making a living overseas or in the NBADL, rather than go to classes they're never going to use while making no money.  There are other options for guys that aren't cut out for school.

These numbers don't disprove my point.  They just prove a shift in priorities.  This is happening in lots of professions, too.  If you can code and start a company at age 19, you're wasting your time being in school if you're not getting much out of it.  For some people, it makes a lot more sense to spend more time working towards one's chosen profession rather than waste time in an education system that may not be right for them.

A university education isn't for everybody.  It's really good for a lot of people, but it's a waste of time for others and more and more people are realizing that. 

StateStreetApostle

June 22nd, 2017 at 9:48 PM ^

from the 2015-16 wrap:

Most improved next year?

Hi Ace,

Which player on the roster do you think has the most potential to make a big improvement from what we have seen from them thus far in their career?

-UmfanChris

There are three that immediately come to mind without including Moe Wagner, who's been discussed thoroughly in this season review series. If I had to pick one, it would be DJ Wilson, who barely made a dent on the court as a redshirt freshman while continuing to learn how to play like a big man. In his limited time on the court, Wilson played both the four and the five, and if he begins to realize his prodigious athletic potential, he could become a critical part of the rotation in a similar role.

While sample size and opponent caveats abound, Wilson had ten blocks in only 158 minutes this season. Although he didn't have the strength or technique to be a plus post defender, he can develop that over time, and meanwhile he can provide the type of weakside help from the four that would go a long way towards covering for M's lack of a rim-protecting center.

That, of course, would require Wilson to show enough offensive skill to stretch the defense in Beilein's system; he has the potential to do so. Wilson played like a wing in a high school and showed some range this season, making 7/23 three-pointers—not a great mark, to be sure, but something that can be built upon. Wisconsin forward Vitto Brown was 0/0 on threes in his first two years, playing sparingly, before knocking down 40% of his 95 attempts this season. There's no guarantee Wilson can make the same leap, but it's not unprecedented, and if he does it opens up many possible situational lineups for Beilein to deploy.

StateStreetApostle

June 22nd, 2017 at 9:51 PM ^

...then again...from this season's preview:

 

I'm expecting his defense to outshine his offense as he gets 10-15 minutes per game as the backup four, and while his game will still be a work-in-progress, there will be a lot of excitement building for his redshirt junior season.

 

and from last year offseason:

 

John Beilein mentioned in his press availability today that the team will look to use DJ Wilson more on the wing—for Wilson, that would mean backing up Zak Irvin at the four—which would allow Kam Chatman to be Duncan Robinson's primary backup at the three. While that would go a long way towards alleviating M's depth concerns, both Wilson and Chatman would have to show considerable improvement for that to be an ideal solution.

DenardPeppers

June 22nd, 2017 at 9:53 PM ^

I think we have the most 1st rd picks out of the Big Ten in last 5 years right? Might be wrong but if I am We are at least 2nd. We have had Harris,Morris, Burke,Staukus, Timmy, Glenn, Mitch, Levert, Wilson. 9 players off the top of my head since Manny Harris left early.

Picktown GoBlue

June 22nd, 2017 at 9:59 PM ^

Caris.  On the other, it would still be the Nets...from the twitters:

Ohm Youngmisuk ESPN Staff Writer 

League source says the Nets had their eyes on Michigan's D.J. Wilson and wanted to move up into the top 15 but didn't have enough assets to do so. The Milwaukee Bucks selected Wilson at 17.

yoyo

June 22nd, 2017 at 10:47 PM ^

How the hell does MSU keep getting top talent and sending into the 2nd round after 4 years while we send kids into the first round after 2? At some point Izzo will retire and hopefully their team will fall into obscurity when his recruiting skills are gone.

TrueBlue2003

June 23rd, 2017 at 2:38 AM ^

MSU has recently sent guys right about where expected based on recruiting rankings or better.

Deyonte Davis was 26th in recruiting, he went 31st, which is about exactly where expected factoring in foreign players.

Amazingly, before Davis, the last player recruited with a "draft-expected" rank (top 50) was Gary Harris in the 2012 class, who was ranked 19th in recruiting and drafted....19th.

Izzo had a pretty long spell of mediocre recruiting between the Harris class and this past years class, so no, they really didn't get top level talent for a while there.  It's a testament to them that they made the Final Four in 2015 by developing Valentine, Trice and other lower rated recruits.

Interestingly, since the great 2012 class, Michigan has had three "draft-expected" recruits and none were drafted: Chatman (27th!), Irvin (29th) and Walton (44th).  That's obviously out-weighed by the overacheivements of Morris, Burke, Stauskas, Levert and now Wilson but Beilein isn't a magician, per se.  Damn good talent evaluator and developer though.

 

jblaze

June 23rd, 2017 at 8:16 AM ^

So Izzo takes players and sends them where they are supposed to go into the NBA draft after 3-4 years, while Beilein takes players and sends them to the NBA at a much higher position than projected in 2-3 years and that's comparable how? 

Bottom line is that Beilein is an awesome coach and developer of players, but not an awesome recruiter (or he's clean and doesn't recruit players with cash money).

champswest

June 23rd, 2017 at 9:55 AM ^

Izzo holds guys back or brings them along slowly. I don't know what his motivation is. Maybe he is loyal to upperclassmen, or he wants them to be better defensively or maybe he just doesn't want them to shine too early and leave the program. I think he also tries to instill a sense of player loyalty to the program and a player obligation to team success, not just for the current season, but for future seasons. Sort of a "We underachieved this season, so come back and help get us to the final four."
If I were the coach, I would have been playing Davis, Ward and Winston a lot more as freshmen that Izzo did.

TrueBlue2003

June 23rd, 2017 at 12:56 PM ^

It's like you didn't even read the facts that I can simply restate:

1) Izzo doesn't take 3-4 years to send guys where they're expected.  At least, not recently.  Harris spent two years in college and Davis just one. Those were his only recruits in a 5 year span that would have been expected to be drafted and they were drafted as expected after a short period of time.  

2) He turned Valentine into a lottery pick after being a 100+ ranked recruit.  It took four years, but that was an absolute developmental success considering the expectations.  With zero "failures", i.e. "draft-expected" recruits going undrafted in the past 6 years, he's arguably been an above average talent developer.

3) Beilein takes some players and develops them extremely well, yes.  He also has had three "failures" to get his top 50 recruits drafted in the past 5-6 years.  So, no, he doesn't absolutely, universally take players and send them to the NBA at a much higher position than projected.

But if you read my bottom line, you would have read that I believe his successes and the magnitude of those successes certainly outweighs the failures such that he is a great talent identifier and developer overall.

Frank Chuck

June 23rd, 2017 at 2:02 AM ^

- Giannia Antetokounmpo (22 years young, 4 NBA seasons)

- Jabari Parker (21 years young, 3 NBA seasons)

- Malcolm Brogdon (24 years young, 1 NBA season)

- Thon Maker (19 years young, 1 NBA season)

- John Henson (26 years young, 5 NBA seasons)

- And now DJ Wilson (21 years young)

Greg Monroe is also on the team but I doubt he'll be on the roster after the 2018 season.