Why Brayden Burries was the safe and smart pick for the Milwaukee Bucks

The Milwaukee Bucks selecting Brayden Burries was met with muted celebration around the NBA world. Burries was a good pick at 10 overall in the 2026 NBA Draft in a vacuum, but the draft does not take place in a vacuum.

Burries is poised to enter the NBA and immediately be a useful contributor. More than most top prospects, Burries excelled at the role player stuff, for lack of a better term. There’s more off-ball movement, smart and capable if not flashy defense, and dive bomb transition attacking in his highlights than there is pull-up threes and pick-and-roll dimes.

NBA Draft guru Sam Vecenie wrote after the pick that he “could understand if rebuilding teams aren’t wildly enthusiastic about Burries. He strikes me more as an elite complementary player than one who will turn into a star … in Milwaukee, without Giannis Antetokounmpo and asking him to be a primary player, I’m less enthusiastic.”

This isn’t a shot at Sam by any means, as he does great work and was far from the only NBA analyst to share a flavor of this opinion on the Burries pick. It’s how I felt about Burries earlier in the draft process too, although my opinion began to change as I continued watching him.

Burries is strong and smart enough to power his way downhill in the half-court, and has the craft and shooting touch to pull up and nail jumpers too. He’s a good ball-handler if not a “true” point guard who makes good passes and takes care of the basketball. Burries has a legit floater and can defend well thanks to his strength and heft.

All of these things flashed consistently in Summer League play, where Burries has been far and away the best Buck to participate in either California or Las Vegas.

Brayden Burries is good, man. His per-36 stats across 3 summer league games:
29.8 pts, 4.3 reb, 3.7 ast, 1.6 stl, 1.1 blk, and *zero* turnovers on 64% true shooting (.462/.429/.818). pic.twitter.com/0nvflJglEs
— Frank Madden (@fmaddenNBA) July 13, 2026

Through two games in Las Vegas thus far, Burries is fifth in per game scoring average (22 points) among 2026 first round rookies with only the top four picks in the draft ahead of him. Burries is averaging more assists per game than Caleb Wilson or A.J. Dybantsa, more rebounds per game than Darryn Peterson, and fewer turnovers (zero!) than any of the 53 Summer League participants who are scoring at least 15 points per game.

While it is not surprising that Burries is playing well given the way he was perceived coming out of Arizona, the difference is he isn’t just fitting into a successful system. There is really no perceptible system on display during Bucks Summer League games, and Burries has functioned as the clear first option without ideal spacing or other scorers to open up lanes for him. And he’s continued to produce efficiently despite the mess surrounding him.

The reason I flipped on Burries – before the Bucks picked him, so it’s not entirely blatant homerism – is I don’t think a player buying into a role defines their ceiling as that role. Burries still did lead Arizona in scoring and was the team’s best player, and shouldn’t be knocked because he didn’t dominate the ball offensively the same way that Darius Acuff Jr. or Mikel Brown Jr. did in college.

Additionally, Burries’ offensive game is really well-rounded. With the way he can blitz to the rim in transition coupled with a dangerous pull-up jumper, there’s a clear pathway for Burries to be a more dynamic half-court scorer than he was in college.

There’s no guarantee Burries ever has enough on-ball juice to be the top guard on a title team, but the same is true for the guards who dribble the air out of the ball too. That’s an extremely high bar!

The upside for Burries is that he doesn’t need to be that great of a lead guard to contribute to winning. The way he operates off-ball offensively and calls out plays and coverages on both ends while playing his own role defensively is massively impactful. And the Bucks are in a position to let him grow as an on-ball player and push against that perceived ceiling, with the low-end outcome still being a quality NBA player.

Burries himself certainly believes he's more than a role player at the NBA level.

Is there a cruel irony in Burries being an ideal two-guard on a Giannis team but arriving weeks too late to ever do so? Definitely. But the idea that good players don’t have a place in Milwaukee anymore doesn’t track. The Bucks don’t control their first-round draft picks and have no real incentive to lose games. Burries will make Milwaukee immediately better, and could continue to grow as a scorer and facilitator as well.

There’s often a distinction drawn between high upside and high floor prospects, as if a player can only be one or the other. This framework does an unnecessary disservice to good basketball players.

Brayden Burries is a good basketball player now, and that doesn’t mean he won’t end up a great one. He’s certainly been great in Las Vegas thus far. Milwaukee did well drafting him with the 10th pick, and needs to prioritize his development to fully explore what Burries can become.

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