Milwaukee Bucks Can Survive Stretch Without Khris Middleton

After a rough opening schedule that recently featured a four-game road trip, the Milwaukee Bucks now get to face a new, unexpected challenge with an injury to one of their most valuable starters.

News was mostly good after the Milwaukee Bucks’ most recent win against the Thunder on Sunday. That win gave the team a 3-1 record over the road trip, which included a nationally-televised win over the Kawhi-less Clippers. They could’ve had a clean sweep of the four games if not for a last second Bojan Bogdanovic buzzer-beating three in the Bucks’ personal house of horrors that is Salt Lake City.

But Milwaukee did leave Oklahoma City with one item of concern. Khris Middleton would end up leaving the game in the third quarter of the game with a leg injury and would not end up returning. Though he was able to leave the court under his own power, word came out on Monday that Middleton likely won’t be returning any time soon.

This is a pretty big blow for the Milwaukee Bucks. Middleton, who was locked up long-term with a 5-year/$177.5 million contract in the offseason, has battled a somewhat streaky start to the season. However, he sits second on the team behind Giannis Antetokounmpo in minutes (30.8), points (18.5), and rebounds (5.7) per game while sitting third in assists per game (2.9). And his 39.3 percent three-point rate leads all Bucks starters.

What does this mean for the Bucks in the short-term?

Luckily for Milwaukee their upcoming schedule isn’t terribly frightening.

Let’s say that Middleton misses the full four weeks. The Bucks play thirteen games against ten different teams over that time period. The combined record of those teams at the moment is 42-54 and only three of those games will be against teams that currently sport winning records.

On top of that, Milwaukee’s schedule becomes much less road-heavy over the next four weeks. Eight of the previously mentioned thirteen games take place at Fiserv Forum. And those three games against teams with winning records? Two of them are home games for the Bucks.

Based on that schedule, there shouldn’t be any reason to rush Middleton back from his injury. The team should be able to handle most of these teams just fine while ensuring that he is fully recovered before returning.

Who could we see step up in his absence?

Let’s be clear, there probably isn’t anyone else on the roster who could just step in and replicate Middleton’s production. And Giannis is already putting up prolific numbers and shouldn’t have to be expected to take that up yet another notch.

Increased production from the other current starters would help. Eric Bledsoe is on a decent run as of late with 20+ points in his last four games and continuing a similar run going forward would be a start. Added scoring from Brook Lopez and Wes Matthews, who are scoring 10.3 and 6.4 points per game respectively, would also ease the burden of Middleton’s loss.

Someone has to replace Middleton in the starting lineup as well, even if they don’t match his production. Sterling Brown, Kyle Korver, and Pat Connaughton are all potential candidates for the spot though none are a perfect replacement. It is likely that Coach Budenholzer will change who starts based on the night’s matchup.

Don’t forget that this isn’t the first time that Budenholzer has had to figure out how to replace a starter due to injury. Malcolm Brogdon missed the final 13 games of the season last year. The Bucks responded by going 8-5 over that stretch and clinching the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

It’s never good when a team loses arguably its second best player, but if it could have happened at the most convenient possible time, this just might be it. If the Milwaukee Bucks play their game and Middleton just focuses on getting healthy, the team will come out on the other end of this just fine.