For any NBA team investing into a full rebuild, one of the most important aspects of that process is the youth that a team can accumulate. 

That much is true for the Milwaukee Bucks as well, who have dived completely into a rebuild of the franchise after bidding farewell to the Giannis Antetokounmpo era by trading Antetokounmpo away to the Miami Heat for a haul of established young players, but the Bucks have also done fairly well when it comes to drafting talent as well. 

The Bucks already had the 10th-overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, but they also acquired the Heat's 13th-overall pick in the draft in the trade for Antetokounmpo, and they've used both of those picks in one of the most talented drafts in recent memory to great effect. 

With the 10th pick they drafted Brayden Burries and with the 13th pick they drafted Nate Ament, shoring up both their backcourt and their frontcourt, which will be useful going forward as they further work to build a strong foundation for the future of the franchise.

Burries and Ament were both impressive during NBA Summer League, but the next question for the two young draftees is to see what they can do on an actual NBA court and in that regard, the Bucks need to see as much of their two prospective young stars as possible. 

To better help that, the Bucks need to make Burries and Ament starters for next season to give them the most minutes they can on the court and a chance to prove themselves as genuine contributors on the court. 

As it stands, the Bucks do have a strong backcourt, which makes starting Burries a hard argument. The projected starting guards for Milwaukee ahead of Opening Day are Ryan Rollins and Tyler Herro and while Rollins is a surefire starter for the Bucks and is being positioned as the future franchise player for the Bucks, Herro's position is more negotiable.

Herro has already been an effective sixth man in the past for the Miami Heat and while he's also had experience being a starter and has been a full-time starter in the last four seasons of his career, Herro could go back to a bench role while Burries could be elevated to starting slot. 

Ament has a clearer path to a starting spot compared to Burries. The Bucks' frontcourt stands out as the far weaker half of the rotation with Kyle Kuzma projected to start as the power forward while Jaime Jaquez Jr. is projected to start at small forward. 

Kuzma was brought in to be a force of stability for the Bucks when he was initially signed in 2024, but he has consistently underperformed in role. Ament is a natural power forward and there shouldn't be much argument between swapping Ament and Kuzma on the depth chart to make Ament the starting power forward and truly seeing if he can be the physcial replacement for Antetokounmpo that the Bucks need him to be. 

The whole point of a rebuild is for a franchise to start fresh and there's no better way to have a fresh start than to put their new talent under pressure and see if they can perform in a major role in the NBA.