Thon Maker in NBA: Australian justifies Milwaukee Bucks draft
Making people believers
The Milwaukee Bucks shocked the NBA when they selected Australian Thon Maker with the 10th overall pick in 2016 NBA Draft, but Maker is justifying the Bucks’ belief in him.
The Daily Telegraph reports that Maker has been playing well and at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, showing the potential that the Bucks saw that made them draft him early. In four games at the Summer League, the Sudanese-born forward has averaged 14.8 points, including a 17-point performance in Friday’s 81-64 loss to Dallas. Maker also had consecutive double-double during the first two games of the tournament.
The 10-time All-Star and current Bucks Coach Jason Kidd has been impressed so far at Maker’s performance at the Summer League.
“I think Summer League has been really good for Thon,” he said. “The experience has been great and he has been playing extremely well."
Kidd also believes Maker has what it takes to become a special player as long as he continues to work hard.
Bucks General Manager John Hammond believed that Maker’s potential far outweighs the risk involved in selecting him. SB Nation reports that Hammond believes there are always risk whoever it is they picked in the 2016 Draft.
"The pick of Thon, was there risk involved? Of course, there is,” he said. “But there’s risk with a lot of picks in this draft and throughout every other draft."
The Bucks are also not planning to rush Maker into becoming a consistent contributor to the team. Hammond said that Maker needs to get stronger first before he can “any kind of real consistent minutes.” But they’re not in a hurry for the forward to achieve it as the team will try to go through the process methodically.
"We don’t want to rush the process getting him on the floor more quickly than could even be possible," Hammond said.
