Monday Morning Media Roundup: Level Setting Khris Middleton

Milwaukee Bucks links for your perusal on August 5th, 2024

In a season that will inevitably ask a lot of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, the one guy who will determine the height of Milwaukee’s floor will be Khris Middleton. Fresh off another pair of ankle surgeries earlier this summer (they were minor, we swear!), he slowly approaches the point at which he is more machine than man. And yet it is the vestiges of his versatility that makes him an intriguing fit for another year, with injury risk an ever-present asterisk.

Let’s run through his numbers from 2023-2024:

• 55 regular season games played, 27.0 MPG, 15.1 points (.493/.381/.833), 5.3 assists, 4.7 rebounds, 2.3 turnovers, second-best TS% of his career (.595), second-best AST% (28.9%), lowest USG% since 2016-2017 (23.9%)
• 6 playoff games, 38.0 MPG, 24.7 points (.482/.355/.900), 4.7 assists, 9.2 rebounds, 2.3 turnovers

What does all this tell us? First, that his availability remains a going concern until proven otherwise. Bad injury luck is just that: bad luck. But 88 regular season games played over the past two seasons could be a sign of things to come. The upside is that when he was available last year he did an admirable job fitting in as the third fiddle. His usage dropped but his shotmaking mostly kept pace with career averages, his assist percentage was solid and indicative of his place as a glue guy with most groups, adding up to a reliable fit alongside Dame and Giannis. Interestingly, his three-point attempt rate was only higher than Bobby Portis and Giannis when it came to guys who regularly got minutes as we lament another season where one of our finest deep threats spent a solid amount of time inside the arc.

For the coming season, it’ll be about health and (to me) how he holds up on defense. 66 games and something like average minutes in the mid to high 20s would make me a happy camper assuming the 16 DNPs are rest-related. What will really count will be how capably he can hang in on defense. With Lillard unlikely to be a value-add there, Brook Lopez another year older, Gary Trent Jr. an untested commodity, and Giannis a little of a wildcard, the cohesion of the starting lineup’s defense will demand that Khris doesn’t become someone opponents can target. He has length and size to hold his own against wings. Does he have the lateral agility any longer? If he’s asked to stand firm in a post-up I’ll keep the faith; what about in open space?

As the playoffs showed, he still has enough gas in the tank to dial up the output when the moment demands it of him. Hopefully this time around he won’t have to do just that and can thrive in the third or fourth fiddle role his game is designed for.

Let’s roundup!

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Milwaukee Bucks Links

Giannis Antetokounmpo opens up on Olympic experience: ‘I cannot stop smiling’ (The Athletic)

Really nice piece with a few quotes from Giannis after Greece’s victory over Australia (which would then go on to put them through to the quarterfinals). It was his final quip about how winning in the NBA is about “[winning] the way you want,” whereas winning for your nation is “win at all costs.” While American basketball fans can rest mostly assured that their Olympic team will normally make a deep run in the competition and so don’t see it as seriously, Giannis is a nice reminder that for the rest of the world it is of utmost importance to compete well on the international stage.

Paris 2024: Men’s Quarterfinal Preview, Schedule & How to Watch Live (Olympics.com)

Ultimately an extremely enticing slate of quarterfinal games across the board. Canada v. France is a brutal matchup for those two (and they’ll play whoever wins Germany-Greece). USA and Brazil is a little more lopsided, but Brazil has had a few strong starts against tough competition in the group stage. And Serbia-Australia is a battle of a titan player v. a strong overall group. Lots to look forward to!

NBA G League president believes Milwaukee Bucks affiliate Wisconsin Herd will stay in Oshkosh (Oshkosh Northwestern)

Selfishly, a move to La Crosse means it’d be a lot closer to me and in a town I enjoy visiting. Objectively, it seems like the Herd draw a decent crowd and the arena they play in is as close to new as it gets, so it’d be a shame to vacate over dollars and cents. But, you know, dollars and cents run the world.

NBA Futures: Milwaukee Bucks Best 2024-25 Win Total Bet on DraftKings Sportsbook (DraftKings Network)

Not an endorsement of gambling by any means—still worthwhile to check in on what the “ExPeRtS” (editor’s note: this DraftKings author admits to being a “diehard Boston sports fan—specifically the Celtics”) are saying about the lines and the wins and the losses and the whatever else because they ostensibly make money having a clue how any of this works. I laughed when I opened the piece and found out that the “lock” purported around the Bucks in total is to take the UNDER of 51.5 wins. Even a skeptic like me thinks three more wins than last year with a moderately more coherent roster shouldn’t be a stretch.

Theoretical Bucks Lineup of the Week

The Victory Cigar

AJ Johnson / AJ Green / Andre Jackson Jr. / Chris Livingston / Tyler Smith

• Use Case: See title
• Strengths: Increasing comment counts on Brew Hoop articles, running around, dribbling the ball out
• Weaknesses: Everything else (just kidding…sort of)

I figured week three would be as good a time as any to kick off the furious discussion about which players should make up Milwaukee’s victory cigar lineup when the result of any given game is no longer in doubt. Some will reasonably argue that I’ve gone too heavy on full roster players; I’m committing the cardinal sin of forgetting the two-way guys. The trouble is, we have no idea which nights those guys will be active v. catching phat DNP-CDs/inactive.

So I cast my mind into the basketball-reference ether to suss out a group that can probably avoid blowing a 25 point lead in two minutes AND that’d be nominally interesting to watch play chaos ball. The result is a severely undersized group of players who still have enough talent to score a few baskets.

Player by player, here’s my case: AJ Johnson will find minutes hard to come by at all, so even three NBA minutes here or there would be a nice chance for him to test his speed and skill against low-end competition. AJ Green is the steady vet who can reliably space the floor and pick up the tougher guard assignment. AJax is the glue guy who can’t possibly rack up six fouls when the refs stop bothering to use their whistles at all (they want to go back to their hotel too). Chris Livingston made a minor leap in Summer League and can translate his reliable outlet act to blowouts. And Tyler Smith is tall.

I’d be interested in hearing from you, the reader, about who would make up your ideal Victory Cigar lineup in the comments below

The Social Media Section

Coming in third place, advancing to the knockout rounds anyhow, and then winning the whole thing out of nowhere. This is Milwaukee Bucks-Greek National Team basketball.

I’ve taken to giving my rec volleyball team this exact same pep talk before every game

Nothing more exciting than a 6’9” doing anything but finish above the rim (yes, I know he’s just goofing around)

MarJon-Paolo Banchero connection on slide two. Jon Horst, make the call.

AJ Green confirmed to be alive

Here’s hoping Dame gets executive producer credits for a 2024-2025 NBA title too

The artistic photo presentation combined with the shot of a premium-looking White Claw beverage killed me lol

Keep going

Bobby confirmed going to retire soon? Need to maximize that trade asset if so

Respect to one of the Olympic greats

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This will be the final week of Olympic basketball play regardless of how the results pan out for Greece or the US, so enjoy it while you can! The Greeks take on Germany on Tuesday, August 6th at 4:00 AM (Central) while the US faces Brazil at 2:30 PM (Central). If both teams advance, they will play on Thursday, August 8th. Should they make it that far, the bronze medal and gold medal games are scheduled for August 10th.

If not now, when? If not them, who? We find out next!

Happy Monday!