The Bucks shocked the NBA when they took Thon Maker 10th overall in last years draft, could the 20 year old who Kevin Garnett has called a future MVP be on a similar development path as the Greek Freak?

About a half hour before the 2016 NBA draft began, word started to spread that the Bucks were interested in Thon Maker. An extremely raw 19 year old Australian forward from South Sudan. Maker was seen as a mostly unknown prospect, and was only projected as a late 1st round pick or an early 2nd round pick by many experts within the industry. It did not really make sense at the time why the Bucks were interested in him, as they held the 10th overall pick. “No way, there’s no way Milwaukee can make that pick” an anonymous GM texted the Verticals Jonathan Givony before the draft. As the 10th overall pick came around, outside opinions did not affect the Bucks, they took Maker. “The entire NBA is in a state of shock right now,” Said Givony. The Bucks had their guy.

Ten months later and Maker is still the same mystery as he was on draft night. Averaging only ten minutes per game this year with the Bucks and four points per game, he did not set the world on fire in his rookie campaign. In Makers little playing time this season though, he showed enough of his physical tools to offer a glimpse of hope that the Bucks may have struck gold again as they did with Giannis four years ago. “He’s really mature for his age… I think he can be at this (all-star) level one day. He’s better than me when I was his age.” Said Antetokounmpo in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Just like Maker, Giannis was not spectacular in his rookie season. It was more so about the periodic flashes of what was to come, as we saw with Thon this season.

One of the things that makes Thon Maker so special is his ability as a 7’2″ center with a 7’3″ wingspan to shoot the basketball from the outside. As the NBA begins to move away from back to the basket type big-men, and more towards a spacing game due to the analytics movement of the last few years. Maker looks to be one of the rare big men in the NBA with a pure jump shot. Also, unlike most stretch bigs who can only shoot the ball. Maker can also put the ball on the floor and use his vision to create for the offense. Although he looked uncomfortable at times with his handle this season, he has the tools in place to develop this phase of his game later on as he gets older and more mature.

On the Defensive end, Maker can wreck Havoc due to his natural basketball instincts along with his quickness, shot blocking abilities, and ability to switch onto smaller players. These next three plays show just how good he can be when it comes to all four of these traits. In this first play, he recognizes Derozan is going to have to shoot with only a few seconds left in the shot clock, rotates over quickly from the other side of the paint, and gets his long arms up for the huge block.

Same thing in this next play. Maker recognizes the loose ball, gets the steal, and this time uses his ball handling skills and quickness to split two defenders (including Kyle Lowry) and escape on a fast-break. This is scary to imagine for a 20 year old seven footer.

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This third clip might be my favorite. The Bucks defensive scheme demands its bigs to sometimes switch onto smaller defenders, Maker for a seven footer does a remarkable job of this. Here he switches onto Kyle Lowry at the top of the perimeter and with his quickness sticks with him step by step to the hoop.

Off the court, Maker is a machine when it comes to working on his game. When the Bucks drafted him he was praised for his work-ethic by the organization. In an interview with NBA.com, Bucks GM John Hammond talked about director of scouting Billy McKinney’s quote on Thon after his pre-draft workout in Milwaukee. “You can be guaranteed that player is going to become the very best he can possibly become because he’s going to work that hard… He’s never going to leave anything on the table. He’s always going to give you 100 percent and give himself 100 percent and give himself the best opportunity to become a player someday in this league.” Maker in THIS bleacher report article was said to have gone to the gym so much late at night during the season that the Bucks were worried about him and told him to stop.

Makers hard work and energy towards the game is demonstrated on the court as well. In this play he uses his length to save the ball but throws it away. Instead of slowly getting back on defense, he flies down the floor with his quickness and come out of nowhere for the block to make up for his mistake.

Recently, Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett got to witness this work-ethic up close when he visited with the Bucks. “Thon Maker, he has a chance to be special… he was refreshing. Just having an appetite and being in there like, ‘I want to work on this.'” Garnett told ESPN.

Maker in a lot of ways is very comparable to Garnett in terms of body type and raw ability from when he came into the league. “When I look at Mr. Maker, the first impression you get is: This kid resembles Kevin Garnett a little bit, just in his stature and build… And then you watch him play? And you’re like, ‘Whoa.” Said veteran guard Jason Terry. While comparing Maker to a former league MVP is extremely premature, it is no surprise to find that KG thinks Thon can someday hold that title as well.

"Kevin Garnett told me that Thon Maker will be the MVP of the league one day." –@RealVinBaker saying KG said that Vin can quote him on that — SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) March 20, 2017

Although Maker has the confidence from legendary players like Garnett, he is not shy about his own self-confidence. “I’m going to be a champion. Not just one, multiple times. I’m going to be an MVP. I’m going to be Defensive Player of the Year. Not just once, multiple times.” Maker said in an interview with the Bleacher Report.

For Thon Maker its all there. The talent, the work ethic, the personality, and the self-confidence. Give it a few years and Milwaukee may have just found the biggest steal of the draft, again.

Articles used:

http://mag.bleacherreport.com/thon-maker-bucks-unicorn/

http://www.nba.com/article/2017/04/26/clock-q-and-milwaukee-bucks-general-manager-john-hammond

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/18700033/nba-great-kevin-garnett-gives-seal-approval-milwaukee-bucks-australian-nba-star-thon-maker-saying-chance-special