National Basketball Association

Milwaukee Bucks Sign Wing J.J. O'Brien For Training Camp

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Milwaukee Bucks have signed 24-year-old wing J.J. O’Brien to a training camp deal.

For those of you keeping count, the Milwaukee Bucks reportedly signed their third wing player in a little over a week on Thursday.

Wing depth has appeared to be something of a glaring need for the Bucks as they look to fill out their rotation this summer, and whether they ultimately address that need or not, the recent additions of Xavier Henry and Orlando Johnson on training camp deals suggested that it could at least be a consideration for Milwaukee.

According to the latest report from RealGM, and later confirmed by the team themselves, we can now also add former San Diego State Aztec, J.J. O’Brien into that mix now too.

As detailed by Real GM:

“J.J. O’Brien has signed a camp deal with the Milwaukee Bucks.

O’Brien averaged 14.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 36.0 minutes over 46 games last season in the D-League for the Idaho Stampede.

O’Brien went undrafted in 2015 out of San Diego State.”

Although that acts as a handy summation of who exactly O’Brien is, there is a little more to the story too.

Undrafted in last year’s draft, O’Brien did spend most of last season working on his game in the D-League with the Idaho Stampede, but did get an ever so brief taste of life at the NBA level.

O’Brien joined the Stampede affiliated Utah Jazz for a five-game stretch back in January of this year, ultimately playing a total of six minutes across two games of action.

Once his 10-day contract in Utah expired, O’Brien returned once again to the D-League. Along with the per game numbers posted above, in his time with the Stampede the California native also shot 48.7 percent from deep and 29.9 percent from three-point range.

Although there’s certainly plenty of room for improvement on that, speaking to Ridiculous Upside back in April, O’Brien spoke about the benefits he hoped to draw from his brief experience with the Jazz to be better prepared for the next time opportunity knocked.

“I was able to get a little more insight into the process of what the team does and what’s expected of you by the coaching staff. You also get to see the game up close and realize just how quick it is, and I think those things helped me realize what I needed to do and improve on. Just the fact that I got called up showed me that at least one team thinks that I can play in the NBA.”

Now it seems as if that chance will come for O’Brien with the Bucks, so there’ll be plenty of fans eager to see whether his confidence is warranted.

“I’m pretty confident in myself that I can play for an NBA team and that it’ll happen one day. I know that I can play at that level and I have faith in my ability, so it’s just a matter of when a team decides to call me up. I was only there for a little while, but it made me even hungrier to get back.”

Whether with the Bucks or elsewhere, O’Brien will now be hoping to make a big impression that earns him a long-term home in the NBA.