Milwaukee Bucks Midseason Performance Grades: Wings

At the midpoint of the NBA season, the Milwaukee Bucks, even after not playing their best ball and battling injuries and health and safety protocols, are still in striking distance of the number one seed in the Eastern Conference.

A couple of days ago, we looked at how the guards had contributed to the team’s efforts this season. Today we go a little bigger and look at the wings. Wesley Matthews is included with this group because even though he often profiles as a shooting guard, he defends every position from point guard to power forward.

We’ll split the five Milwaukee Bucks’ wings into three categories: Khris Middleton by himself as the lone starter, Jordan Nwora and Wesley Matthews as rotation players, and Rodney Hood and Thanasis Antetokounmpo as guys a little further down the bench.

Milwaukee Bucks Starter: Khris Middleton

So here’s the thing. Khris Middleton has a perfectly legitimate All-Star case this season. We’ve all just been so spoiled by his last two absolutely masterful seasons that this one seems subpar. In a few ways, it is by his standards. His 43 percent shooting percentage is the lowest of his career, and 38.7 percent from behind the arc is a dip from 41 percent the last two seasons, but looking at this in the context of the entire league and his career, it’s really not bad at all.

Maybe we should expect a 50/40/90 season every year, and some would argue that that’s necessary to justify a max contract, but I disagree. His effective field goal percentage this year is 51.1, a drop from 57.6 and 54.6 the last two years, but you want to know what it was in his first All-Star season? 51.9! And that year, he averaged fewer points, assists, and steals per game.

I think the difference in how we’re perceiving this season, other than valuing it against the greatness of the last two, is that his bread and butter shots that are a big part of his scoring package, the midrange turnaround and inside floaters, haven’t been going down as much. On shots from 16 feet to the three-point line, mid-range, he’s shooting 40.3 percent, the worst of his career, and from 3-10 feet out, he’s shooting a terrible 30.6 percent. Everywhere else, his numbers are comparable or even better than in years past.

Middleton has always been about these tough contested looks, and so far this season, he just hasn’t been hitting them with as much consistency. His increased assist production from last year has held firm, and he’s pretty much the same on defense, but his scoring bag just hasn’t been quite as effective, and yet he’s managed to average 19.1 points per game.

Overall Season Grade: B