SACRAMENTO, CA – Hours before signing his rookie contract and a little over 24 hours from playing his first summer league game for the Milwaukee Bucks at the Golden 1 Center, Brayden Burries leaned against a wall outside the Bucks locker room July 5 and took a moment to reflect on a whirlwind two weeks.
Beginning on draft night in Brooklyn on June 23 to an introductory news conference in Milwaukee on June 25 to jetting off to California for his first road trip with the organization a week later, it could have been quite a bit to take in for the 20-year-old.
Media obligations. Contracts. Starting the process of moving to a new city. Brand responsibilities. A bit of fun?
Instead, his first thoughts went right to basketball.
Burries spoke about settling onto the practice court in Milwaukee before heading with the team to the California Classic summer league, learning his teammates and the new plays and systems being installed by head coach Taylor Jenkins and his staff.
But to Bucks assistant coach Patrick St. Andrews, who served as the team’s head coach in Sacramento, Burries did more than just settle. The rookie has already started to build a foundation.
In the Bucks’ first game on July 4, St. Andrews said, the guard jumped into a huddle to tell him what he saw Golden State was doing defensively and how the team could attack the scheme.
“I’ve never seen a rookie do that in my life,” said St. Andrews, who has been an assistant coach in the NBA since 2017.
For St. Andrews, who returned to Milwaukee this season under Jenkins after serving under Mike Budenholzer from 2018-23, it spoke to not only Burries’ confidence but the basketball IQ the coaching staff was just getting a glimpse of.
“It’s incredibly mature,” St. Andrews said. “And he’s not the loudest guy in the room, which I also appreciate. But you can feel his intelligence and how much he cares. Good teammate. That’s what stands out the most so far.”
Burries signed his rookie deal late July 5 for the maximum 120% of the rookie scale, $29.2 million over four years (the first two years are guaranteed while the final two years on all first-round contracts are team options. Then he suited up July 6 and scored 12 points in 16 minutes against Sacramento.
The performance set the table for a larger set of games as the team heads to Las Vegas for that summer league beginning July 10 against Miami.
And it has Burries excited for what’s to come with a young group of players that includes fellow 2026 lottery pick Nate Ament and 2025 second-round pick Bogoljub Marković.
“I feel like we’re heading in the right direction,” Burries said. “I feel like Coach [Jenkins] is a player’s coach it seems like. From just meeting him, I feel like he’s going to get the best out of his players. He’s going to hold you accountable, hold you to a high standard but you let you play, be you.
“He has a plan for everybody.”
That plan, of course, includes Ament.
But unlike Burries, Ament had not been able to participate in team activities until the trade of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis Jr. that brought him to Milwaukee became official July 6.
“It’s honestly been a little crazy,” Ament admitted. “Coming onto the Kings court [July 4] it kind of hit me like ‘I’m actually in the NBA now.’ A lot of it has just been like, asking questions, leaning on guys that’s been in the league a little bit, that’s played summer league before, them kind of just giving me the new things I need to learn.”
St. Andrews said that having scouted Ament and watched his college tape, the Bucks’ coaches are excited about working in the 6-foot-10-inch forward at different positions on the court – but the 19-year-old’s care factor as a teammate was the first thing to pop because Ament had been forced to only spectate due to league rules.
“[He] is somebody that wants to be part of a team, which is exciting,” St. Andrews said. “Especially as a young guy, you definitely feel his character, all of that stands out the most.”
Ament reiterated quite often he’s trying to just soak in the early experiences, but part of his information download has been like Burries’ in that he’s taking in the new systems and plays. He’s itching to get to put it into action soon.
“Just hearing [Jenkins’] message and having it echo throughout the whole staff, he’s big getting better and developing,” Ament said. “I think for any first-year player, if your head coach is big on developing that’s going to just not only help you on the court but help your confidence and your mind.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Bucks first-round rookies quickly settling into NBA life
Reporting by Jim Owczarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jim Owczarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
