The Milwaukee Bucks began the 2023-24 season as the oldest in the NBA, and they got progressively older after the midseason signing of 35-year-old Danilo Gallinari and the trade for 35-year-old Patrick Beverley .
Should the Bucks keep both of their 2024 draft picks in AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith for this season, they'll have a couple of teenagers with bounds of potential to balance out a veteran-laden top six or seven.
General manager Jon Horst did not utter the phrase "two timelines" – a failed experiment with the dynastic and expensive Golden State Warriors that included Milwaukee native Jordan Poole and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee alumnus Patrick Baldwin Jr. for a brief time – but the drafting of Johnson and Smith is as close to that as Horst could get.
Particularly if you bundle them up with the drafting of then-19-year-old Chris Livingston in the second round of the 2023 draft.
And perhaps Horst tried to trade out of both of this year's picks and found nothing to his liking – but the result is that he's holding a couple of lottery tickets knowing the team won't have another first-round selection until 2026 and a second-round pick until 2031.
After all, he did acknowledge Wednesday night that he does have a responsibility to look to a more distant future than just trying to win another championship next June.
"We do have to care about this team moving forward," Horst said. "Yeah, it's all about winning this year. It's been all about winning last year and the year before. It always is. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don't. But we always have to have an eye on moving forward."
The pair of Johnson and Smith, who will each turn 20 early in the season, do have physical gifts that may be truly opened on an NBA court for quite some time.
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If Johnson brings what Horst believes is elite speed and potential three-level scoring to the future Bucks , Smith projects as more of a traditional power forward with some defensive versatility across the back line. He's 6 feet, 9 inches without shoes (so plays at 6-10) but has a 7-1 wingspan and has a 38-inch maximum vertical – the same as Johnson and early first-round picks like like Ron Holland II ( Detroit ) and Matas Buzelis ( Chicago ).
Smith also had the seventh-best lane agility time in the draft combine (10.74 seconds) and a shuttle run under 3.0 seconds that rivaled much smaller players.
He does have some scoring touch as well, as NBA.com noted he made 37.7% of the 180 catch-and-shoot three-pointers he attempted.
As it currently stands, however, he likely won't play much behind Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis .
But having a chance to earn valuable G League minutes alongside Johnson and Livingston gives the Bucks an intriguing trio of 20-year-olds to forecast beyond the contract lengths of Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and Khris Middleton .
Barring any trades (the Bucks can trade the rights to Johnson and Smith along with a veteran as long as they don't sign their rookie deals), if Smith begins the season on the 15-man roster, it means the team has just three spots for veteran free agents and perhaps is a signal to a greater faith in the development of MarJon Beauchamp , AJ Green and Andre Jackson Jr. as viable playoff rotation pieces – if not a potential starter depending on the lineup.
REACTION: Bucks Twitter reacts to selection of Tyler Smith in second round of 2024 NBA draft
Head coach Doc Rivers acknowledged after the season the team needed a more athletic edge for next season, though he and Horst were in alignment that such a requirement didn't need to be bound to the date on a birth certificate.
"I mean, it's all through the filter of our needs," Horst said Wednesday. "And we've spent an incredible amount of time, post-mortem, of going back, looking where we made mistakes, where we were successful, what we think this team needs based on what teams are doing now, based on what's best for us.
"I don't think age per se is really a factor in any of our assessments. Whether that's young, old or middle, I think it is more what I said earlier. It's the skill set, it's the size, athleticism. But you can be 22 and not athletic and 30 and crazy athletic, so I wouldn't put an age component on it."
If age isn't anything but a number for the Bucks, they are at least acknowledging that lower digits were needed in some form or fashion – even though they remain focused on winning a title this season.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks draft talented teenagers to balance a win-now roster
