The Wisconsin Herd selected 11 players in the 2017 NBA G League Expansion Draft on Wednesday. Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Bucks' first-year G League affiliate, will hold their rights for two seasons, though that doesn't necessarily mean all or any of them will play for the Herd.
The Expansion Draft provides the four new G League teams – the Herd, the Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario, the Erie BayHawks and the Memphis Hustle – with a Returning Player List for the 2017-18 season. The draft allows them an opportunity to fill their empty rosters, but players can choose to sign contracts with teams overseas; if they return to the G League, the team that drafted them retains their rights.
In reality, many of the players drafted won't sign with their G League team, instead choosing a more lucrative deal abroad.
Each 2016-17 NBA G League team was able to protect the rights of up to nine players and could not lose more than two of their unprotected players. The Herd was able to select up to 11 unprotected players, and they used all of their selections.
Until Wednesday, Wisconsin's roster consisted only of its pair of two-way players, Bronson Koenig and Jalen Moore, who signed with the Bucks last month and can move back and forth from Oshkosh to Milwaukee next season.
Here is a list of the players the Herd obtained, in order of selection, in the Expansion Draft, including position, college and previous G League team:
Vince Hunter, forward, UTEP, Sioux Falls Skyforce; Gracin Bakumanya, center, Montverde Academy (HS), Northern Arizona Suns; Perry Ellis, forward, Kansas, Greensboro Swarm; Corey Walden, guard, Eastern Kentucky, Maine Red Claws; Josh Davis, forward, San Diego State, Greensboro Swarm; Michael Dunigan, center, University of Oregon, Canton Charge; Jarvis Summers, guard, Ole Miss, Rio Grande Valley Vipers; James Siakam, forward, Vanderbilt, Raptors 905; Kyle Casey, forward, Harvard, Northern Arizona Suns; Cady Lalanne, center, Massachusetts, Austin Spurs; Tyler Harvey, guard, Eastern Washington, Lakeland Magic.
The Wisconsin Herd tip-off their inaugural season in November. For information on the team or tickets, click here.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
