Khris Middleton must make the leap from All-Star to superstar for the Milwaukee Bucks to become championship contenders next season
With over ten minutes left in the second quarter, the team’s best player rolls his ankle and collapses to the hardwood in pain. Grimacing, he grabs his ankle and the entire franchise gasps. After team doctors look, they quickly decide the best course of action is to help the superstar back to the locker room. His night is over.
It can reasonably be assumed that the team is headed for a loss. Being down three games to none in the series, this looks like the end of the season. However, someone else on the team has other plans. There’s another All-Star on the roster and he doesn’t feel like going home yet. 36 points, eight rebounds and eight assists later, Khris Middleton has just helped the Milwaukee Bucks to an overtime win in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals to avoid elimination.
Middleton’s Game 4 performance won’t soon be forgotten by Bucks fans. However, the disappointment of losing in the second round won’t be forgotten either. This was a team with the best record in the league for the second consecutive season. They were supposed to go all the way this year. Giannis Antetokounmpo became just the third player to win league MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season.
The rumblings by fans are that Giannis doesn’t have enough help around him to compete for an NBA championship. With so many teams around the league having their own version of a dynamic duo, some believe the Greek Freak needs a better sidekick than Middleton. A closer look at the facts tells a different story. Middleton is the Robin to Antetokounmpo’s Batman. Now it’s just a matter of execution.
Prior to this season, having only two All-Stars might be seen as a disadvantage to Milwaukee’s title hopes. Back in 2012, the Miami Heat boasted three superstars in LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Their opponent in the NBA Finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder, featured Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and a Sixth Man of the Year named James Harden. All three would go on to at some point lead the league in scoring and win league MVP.
Later, the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA title featuring LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. The Golden State Warriors responded by winning back to back titles with a big four of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Kevin Durant.
However, the landscape of the NBA has changed. There is no team currently boasting a big three. This past February, no team had more than two representatives in the All-Star Game. Having the back-to-back MVP, in addition a perennial All-Star, is more than enough to compete for a title given the NBA’s current landscape.
Not only does Milwaukee have two All-Star caliber players, but their productivity level should also be the envy of other franchises. The Miami Heat, the team that eliminated Milwaukee from this year’s playoffs, boasted two All-Stars this year. Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo averaged 19.9 points per game and 15.9 points per game, respectively, this regular season.
Compare that to the 29.5 points per game average by Antetokounmpo and the 20.9 points per game averaged by Middleton, and you’ll see that Milwaukee’s dynamic duo packed more than enough punch to take the team to the highest of heights. However, it’s Miami that went on to eliminate Boston in the conference finals and advance to the NBA’s biggest stage, not Milwaukee. The question is, where did things go wrong?
Yes, Middleton’s late-game heroics and overall performance in Game 4 against Miami were impressive, but there are question marks surrounding the circumstances. Was Giannis at full strength for the entirety of the series?
There were rumblings as far back as Game 3 of their first-round series against the Orlando Magic that Antetokounmpo was being hampered by injuries. After Game 2, he was listed as probable for the next contest due to a strained calf. It’s possible that a compilation of injuries contributed to Giannis’ season-ending ankle injury in Game 4 against the Heat and his less than usual performance in the series’ first three games.
Any athlete knows that the human body compensates with added stress on other areas when another body part is hurt. If true, the results of Milwaukee’s five-game loss to Miami isn’t a fair assessment when judging how high they can fly as currently constructed.
One of the criticisms Giannis has received since the Bucks were eliminated from this year’s playoffs is that he’s not a closer. However, if Middleton’s Game 4 heroics are any indicator, he just might be the closer they’ve been looking for all along. Giannis will continue to be the team’s best player but that doesn’t mean he has to make all the key plays down the stretch.
In 2007, Tim Duncan average 20.0 points and 10.6 rebounds per game and was clearly the San Antonio Spurs’ best player. However, their second-leading scorer, Tony Parker, was often called on to take and make big shots in close games. The Spurs won the 2007 championship with Duncan as the centerpiece of the team, but Parker was the closer and walked away with the Finals MVP. The Bucks may want to try a similar model with Antetokounmpo and Middleton.
Another reason the Bucks may want to give the Antetokounmpo/Middleton combination another shot is that Middleton’s contract makes him almost impossible to move. He signed a five-year contract worth $177.5 million last summer. He’s scheduled to make over $33 million dollars next season.
The fact is there just may not be a trade available for the Bucks to move him at that price. After the 2020-21 season, Giannis himself will be a free agent. Milwaukee’s focus must be on winning now to convince Giannis to stay. Sure, a couple of minor roster changes may help, but empowering Middleton to be all he can be as a basketball player will improve the Bucks chances at a deep run more than any minor upgrade ever could.
The Milwaukee Bucks have had the best regular-season record in the NBA each of the last two seasons. Their best player just had a historically great regular season, yet they failed to reach the Eastern Conference Finals. After the loss, reports were that the two-time league MVP met with ownership to discuss improving the team.
The real answer to Milwaukee’s problems lies in empowering their second star to take the next step and become a superstar in his own right. The Bucks have just as much star power as any other contender in the east. It’s time they realized it. If they’re going to get over the hump and reach the NBA Finals, Khris Middleton must be allowed to make game-changing plays. Their championship window is closing. Procrastination will only lead to disaster. The time for Middleton to step up is now.