Milwaukee Bucks: 2010s All-Decade team by position
SF: Khris Middleton, 2013 – Current
The trade between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Detroit Pistons in July of 2013 was supposed to be a point guard swap of Brandon Jennings for Brandon Knight. A late-drafted developmental wing named Khris Middleton was deemed simply a throw-in. Instead, Jennings and Knight are basically out of the league, while Middleton has become an All-Star on one of the league’s best teams.
Although few expected him to be an impact player, Middleton proved himself in training camp for the Bucks and earned a spot in the rotation from day one, soon forcing his way into the starting lineup, a place he wouldn’t relinquish. He became an ideal 3-and-D player, then continued to add to his game until he is a legitimate second option for Milwaukee offensively.
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In total Middleton has appeared in 454 games (and counting) for the Bucks, second only to Giannis Antetokounmpo over the past decade. While he has become a solid player he is not the unequivocally excellent force that some other Bucks players have been.
Whether due to lineups or the role he is cast into advanced metrics are somewhat lukewarm towards him. What cannot be argued with are the wins, or his All-Star appearance last season as the second-best offensive player on a 60-win team.
The competition for this position on the All-Decade team was incredibly sparse. The only other players to consider are power forwards who played some amount of their minutes at the small forward spot; namely Antetokounmpo and Ersan Ilyasova.
For a franchise bereft of impact wings over the past decade, in a league largely lacking in that department, Middleton’s contributions are magnified due to positional value. Far from a perfect player, his value to this team cannot be discounted, in the past, and for the future.