The Milwaukee Bucks wrapped up their NBA Summer League schedule Saturday afternoon with an exciting 96-94 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. Milwaukee compiled a 2-3 record in Las Vegas but won its final two games to finish the summer session on a positive note.Despite picking up just two wins, the Bucks were one of the event’s biggest winners because of the spectacular play of their first top-10 pick in a decade.With the Bucks’ summer-league schedule now complete, let’s take a closer look at their three biggest on-court storylines from Vegas hoops.Brayden Burries breaks outThis year’s 10th pick of the NBA Draft was one of the standout stars in Las Vegas. Burries’ final game in Las Vegas was his best performance of the bunch. In Milwaukee’s win over the 76ers, the 6-foot-4 guard put up 27 points, four rebounds and five assists and made the game-winning bucket — an off-balance double-clutching, lefty lay-in through contact — with 1.5 seconds remaining.No. 10 pick Brayden Burries drives for game winner just ahead of buzzerEntering the draft, the Bucks found themselves at the end of the tier where analysts expected a group of five point guards — Darius Acuff Jr., Mikel Brown Jr., Burries, Kingston Flemings and Keaton Wagler — to be selected. When it was time for the Bucks to pick, Burries was the only one of those five point guards left on the board, so the decision to select him was easy.Three weeks later, Milwaukee watched Burries average 23.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists, two steals and one block through four games, in 27.1 minutes per game. He shot 50 percent from the field, including 36.4 percent from behind the 3-point line. He committed only three turnovers to his 15 assists, all while being Milwaukee’s primary initiator offensively.Typically, when rookies put up gaudy numbers in Las Vegas, their stats are accompanied by unfortunate shooting percentages or a bevy of turnovers, but that wasn’t the case for Burries. He regularly handled defensive pressure with ease and kept his composure to put up efficient numbers.“You can see it,” Bucks assistant coach Patrick St. Andrews said of Burries’ composure after his 26-point game against the San Antonio Spurs. “Two-way player. Obviously, the offense, shot it really well, but the defense as well.“And the cool part is he wants to get better. You can feel it. He’s asking, ‘I need more individual clips. I need more, especially on the defensive end.’ For a young guy to ask, that kind of stuff is impressive. Speaking up in the locker room, you can feel his maturity for his age, which is super impressive. And then obviously, you see the talent.”Why Brayden Burries is built for the modern NBASam VecenieBecause summer-league games allow 10 personal fouls before a player is disqualified, that brand of physical basketball can bother young players. But Burries — listed at 6 feet 4 and 215 pounds — thrived against that physicality with multiple and-1s and finishes through contact.“I was blessed with a great body frame, so I kind of just have the size,” Burries told The Athletic. “But growing up, my dad helped me with using my body. And then, going to Arizona with the Big 12 helped prepare me for physicality. Then, just kind of knowing when to go for the hit or when your body is going to get hit kind of helps when you’re playing.”Throughout summer-league play, Burries created space for himself by bumping off defenders and then finishing from difficult angles, whether he made it all the way to the rim or composed himself to make a contested floater. In the pre-draft process, there was some question about whether Burries had the same level of on-ball offensive upside as this class’s other point guards, but his play in Las Vegas suggests he may have just as much star power as his peers.
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