Khris Middleton tied his season-high for the Milwaukee Bucks during Sunday’s 128-119 victory over the Houston Rockets. The three-time All-Star has been making waves of late following a slow start to the season as he continues to recover from offseason surgery.
It’s not just Middleton’s knee that has been holding him back. He’s also had to adjust to his demotion as the team’s third option after the summer arrival of superstar point guard Damian Lillard.
It has been a slow and steady road for Middleton, but he’s getting there.
Milwaukee Bucks Star Giannis Antetokounmpo Praises Khris Middleton’s Mindset
For Giannis Antetokounmpo, he had not doubt that Middleton would be able to make the necessary adjustments for the Bucks. Being the closer that he is, Middleton still knows when to step back when needed.
“The one thing I say about Khris: He knows how to play the game,” Antetokounmpo said, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “He’s never going to force the issue. He’s never going to say, ‘Because I’m able to score the ball in the fourth quarter, give me the ball while Dame has something going or Bobby or myself.’ And that’s maturity from his part, but yeah, Khris is amazing.”
It’s quite a luxury for Milwuakee to have a guy like Khris Middleton needing to pull himself back in crunch time in favor of the team’s superstars.
Antetokounmpo then lauded the evolution in Middleton’s game and how the latter has firmly established himself as one of the most important players on a championship team. More importantly, however, the 32-year-old is still able and willing to play whatever role he has to for the Bucks — even if it involves not having the ball in his hands.
“I feel like early in his career, 3-and-D guy, catch-and-shoot,” Antetokounmpo explained. “Obviously, always he could shoot a mid-range. I don’t know if he was shooting it early in his career in the game, but at practices, he was always capable of shooting the mid-range really well.
“Now, he can take the ball, also play-make. Early in his career — my third year, fourth year with him, so his fourth and fifth year when J-Kidd was here — he didn’t have the ball so much in his hand, but moving forward, then he had the ball more in his hand. Then in the fourth quarter, he was the the guy that was leading the group. Like, he’s touched pretty much everything.
“He knows how to play the game of basketball and now there’s going to be times that he has to do a little bit of everything. And there’s going to be sometimes that he has to just catch-and-shoot. There’s going to be sometimes that he has to play off the dribble. There’s going to be sometimes that he has to take over in the fourth quarter. He’s capable of doing all of those things because he’s done it in his career and he’s really good at it.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo is one of the most successful players in league history and it goes without saying that he would not have reached the heights that he has with the Bucks without Khris Middleton by his side.
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