The Milwaukee Bucks made a shocking selection with the 23rd overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft by selecting guard A.J. Johnson. Johnson is only 19 years old and there were a lot of mock drafts that had him being selected in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft and not being drafted in the first round.
This was a head-scratching pick by Milwaukee Bucks general manager Jon Horst. A.J. Johnson was a four-star recruit coming out of high school, but he decided not to play college basketball last season. Johnson played in the Australian NBL’s Next Star program last season. In that league, he only averaged 2.9 points per game and only averaged 7.7 minutes per game with the Illawarra Hawks.

A.J. Johnson is 6’4″. It will be interesting to see if he is going to crack the Bucks rotation next season or not. This may have been one of the most surprising selections of the first round in the 2024 NBA Draft on Wednesday night.
NBA Analyst Lists Milwaukee Bucks Selection A.J. Johnson As a Winner On Wednesday Night During the 2024 NBA Draft

Dan Devine of Yahoo Sports listed several winners and losers on Wednesday night during the 2024 NBA Draft. One of the winners he had on his list was Johnson. Despite not being a projected first-round selection, Devine said about him:
“You don’t get invited to the green room, you show up anyway, and you get to shock the world by landing in the first round, celebrating with your family in the stands at Barclays Center, and then making your way down to the stage to dap up the commish? I’ve got to imagine it doesn’t get much better than that.”
Johnson might be a winner for attending the NBA Draft on Wednesday night in the stands and being lucky to get his name called when watching the first round of the draft from the stands. He will have a lot of work to do with the Milwaukee Bucks.
There were so many players that the Bucks could have taken instead of him. What did not help Milwaukee’s draft plans was that center Kel’el Ware from the Indiana Hoosiers was drafted 15th overall by the Miami Heat. Also, the Denver Nuggets traded with the Phoenix Suns and jumped over Milwaukee for the 22nd pick to select center Daron Holmes II from the Dayton Flyers.

Milwaukee could have taken center Kyle Filipowski from Duke with the 23rd pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. However, the selection of A.J. Johnson will have Bucks fans scratching their heads all summer.