The Milwaukee Bucks are preparing to attempt to bounce back after a 119-104 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night. While disappointing, it was the second game of a back-to-back and snapped what had been a seven-game winning streak.
Bouncing back from the loss will not be easy, however. They take on the defending NBA Champions, the Boston Celtics, who are 18-4 on the season. Given Milwaukee’s recent struggles against Boston, especially in the NBA Playoffs, it is natural for fans to feel somewhat pessimistic about their chances of winning.
However, the Bucks do have a great deal going for them heading into the game, including the return of one of their most important players.
Khris Middleton Will Return for the Milwaukee Bucks vs the Boston Celtics
For the first time in the 2024-25 NBA regular season, three-time All-Star Khris Middleton will be active for the Bucks. The franchise’s all-time three-pointers made leader missed the start of the season due to his recovery from offseason surgery on both of his ankles.
Middleton’s absence was pointed to as one of the main reasons why Milwaukee struggled to start the season. After winning on Opening Night, the Bucks proceeded to go on a six-game losing streak and started the year just 2-8.
It was truly a low point for many fans, though the national media seemed to relish the Bucks’ struggles. For years, many NBA writers and analysts have placed seeds of doubt that two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo would want to stay in Milwaukee for the long-term, despite the fact that he has signed contract extension after contract extension to do just that.
Due to their early season skid, there were many rumors floating around that Giannis would ask for a trade. Apparently, NBA content creators were not the only ones who believed the Greek Freak would end up being available via trade.
Milwaukee Bucks General Manager Never Made Giannis Antetokounmpo Available for Trade
Giannis, who leads the NBA in scoring with 32.6 points per game, while also averaging 11.6 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game, would certainly fetch one of the largest hauls in league history if he were to be traded.
However, many have pointed to such trade suggestions as mere fantasy, agendas pushed by media members who wish one of the NBA’s biggest and brightest stars played in a bigger market.
And this truth, that Milwaukee would never trade Giannis in any rational universe, apparently needed to be told to other NBA general managers who called Bucks general manager Jon Horst about his star’s availability.
According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, Horst told his peers that they were living in an alternate universe if they thought he was making Giannis available via trade:
“By the time the Bucks fell to 2-8 on Nov. 10, all those teams that would love for Antetokounmpo to ask for a trade started wondering if the panic that would preempt that sort of superstar move might set in a whole lot sooner than expected.
Yet while league sources say the Bucks have continued to tell interested teams, in essence, that they’re living in a fantasy world with these sorts of superstar desires, that didn’t keep the league-wide chatter from growing louder by the loss. Lo and behold, winning — nine times in their last 11 games, to be exact — has proven yet again to be the only real way to quiet that kind of noise.”
Interestingly, this report came out as the Bucks were preparing to take on the Celtics, who of course signed Jrue Holiday following his release from the Portland Trailblazers, which was preempted by the trade that landed Damian Lillard in Milwaukee.
Many thought that Giannis would have asked for a trade last year for being kept out of the loop regarding the trade, especially since it included one of his favorite teammates in Holiday.
Instead, he signed another contract extension.
If national analysts and other NBA teams (and their fans) are hoping that Giannis will be traded one day, it sounds like they are setting themselves up for disappointment.
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