Khris Middleton doesn’t know exactly when he’ll return to the Milwaukee Bucks, but he plans on making a cameo sometime this season.
The combo wing suffered a left hamstring injury prior to the start season. Initial timetables had him returning after six months, basically meaning he would miss the entire year. And with the Bucks not profiling as a bona fide playoff team, it was easy to imagine him sitting out until the start of 2017-18.
Except that’s not the plan at all, per Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times:
Bucks officials said Middleton had torn his hamstring, but what they didn’t say was that the fifth-year pro had torn the hamstring completely off the bone.
“That’s a pretty rare injury; that’s unusual,’’ said a league official.
Several NBA officials, in conversations concerning Middleton’s injury, said they were unaware of any player, at least in recent years, who sustained a similar injury.
All of them also strongly felt Middleton’s season is over, contrary to the Bucks’ contentions that he could return late this season. At the time of Middleton’s setback, Bucks officials said Middleton would be sidelined for “approximately six months.’’
If that is indeed the case, Middleton could be available for about 13 of the Bucks’ final regular-season games as well as the playoffs, if they advanced to postseason.
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Middleton knows he has a lot of work in front of him to regain his old form and be fully healthy again. He concedes he has no clue when he’ll return to action, adding, “Nah, I don’t know. Not yet.’’
But Middleton, who was all smiles while on the court the other day with his teammates, is optimistic about playing this season – as Bucks officials have stated.
“I think I’ll be back at some point this season,’’ Middleton said. “When? I just don’t know yet.’’
Even if the Bucks don’t make a postseason push, there is value in bringing Middleton back whenever he’s ready. Milwaukee isn’t bad enough to contend for a top draft pick, so any wins he adds won’t be disingenuous to the cause, and getting some spin to end this year might help Middleton work off some rust ahead of next season.
Think along the lines of what Paul George did with the Indiana Pacers in 2014-15. He returned for a few games after his breaking his leg, then played like he hardly missed any time during the 2015-16 campaign.
There’s clearly no value in rushing Middleton back. The Bucks are under .500 now, even though they’ve played a relatively easy schedule. They aren’t competing for anything special, so they have the luxury of patience. But if Middleton is ready to rock at some point, even if it’s just five games at the end of the season, it behooves Milwaukee to see how he looks within their current setup—particularly beside the latest versions of Jabari Parker and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
