It doesn’t take much to understand why oddsmakers recently placed the Bucks back at the top of their sportsbooks.
Damian Lillard, a top-75 player of all time who’s coming off the best scoring and efficiency season of his career at more than 32 points per game, is now in Milwaukee. And he immediately joins forces with the most dominant teammate he’s ever had in two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, a superstar who also logged in excess of 30 points per game last season.
But if the Bucks are to get back to what they ultimately enjoyed in 2021—an NBA title—Milwaukee’s third-best player, Khris Middleton, will almost certainly need to play a significant role. And for anyone who’s been paying attention for the past three years or so, that’s far less of a commentary on Middleton’s ability than of his health.
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Middleton missed the first 20 games of last season, came back for two weeks, but shot unusually poorly in that stretch, which brought about yet another monthlong absence to make sure he was right physically. Upon his return in late January, the Bucks eased him into things, bringing him off the bench until the final month or so of the regular season. He finished the campaign with just 33 regular-season appearances. That came after a 2022 second-round playoff defeat that occurred after Middleton missed the entirety of a seven-game series with Boston due to an MCL sprain.
Given all of that—and the three-year, $102 million contract the 32-year-old signed earlier this summer to stay in Milwaukee—it was less than ideal to hear new coach Adrian Griffin using vague language this week to explain Middleton’s health status before the season even begins.
Griffin told Bucks reporters Middleton didn’t do live, 5-on-5 workouts on the court Wednesday. After divulging that, writers asked whether that meant something was wrong, given that Middleton said he was feeling good and pain free during the offseason, at Monday’s media day.
“We got time on our side. We’re just being smart, and he’s been diligently working to get back, so that’s the plan,” Griffin said. (He declined to specify what, if anything, was ailing Middleton when asked.) Asked whether Middleton should be ready to play on opening night, Griffin again was vague. “Just day by day. Taking it one day at a time right now. But he’s progressing beautifully. We’re just being smart right now,” he continued. Griffin wouldn’t divulge whether this was a regular sort of maintenance the Bucks would keep up for Middleton throughout the year.
It’s hard to imagine anything of substance would be lost if Griffin were a bit more forthcoming about Middleton’s health. If it was a mere expected day off, without live practice, the way it was with Lillard, then say that. If Middleton has a minor thing nagging at him, it’s fine to say that, too. Even if it’s potentially more serious, talking about it vaguely draws only more attention to it.
Any way you slice it, though, the answers Griffin and the Bucks give aren’t the important thing. Middleton’s actual health is. With Jrue Holiday out, and Lillard in, Milwaukee needs every bit of production it can get from Middleton as a third option. And that will require him to be healthier than he has been the better part of the past two years.
