Milwaukee Bucks Player of the Week (Mar. 20th – Mar. 26th)
Milwaukee Bucks Player of the Week Rankings
1. ???
2. ???
3. Khris Middleton
Khash played in all five games this week and averaged 32.0 minutes, 14.4 points (on 52.6 percent shooting), 1.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 1.4 steals per game. He led the Milwaukee Bucks in steals and was second in points and assists. Additionally, he had the fourth highest plus/minus on the team for all players who played in all the games with -5.2.
Khris Middleton played okay this week. Fortunately, for him, okay was all that was needed to make it into the player of the week rankings. As usual, Middleton was a jack of all trades. He continued to play well enough on both sides of the ball.
Offensively, Middleton made over half his shots this week from the field this week, stretched the floor by shooting multiple three pointers per game, and hit 100 percent of the free throws he attempted. In no way was this an above average week for Middleton on the scoring front, but his play was solid.
When it came to getting teammates involved in the offense, only one player on the Bucks was better than Middleton this week. Khris is such a willing passer and when defenses respect him for the scorer he is, he can make them pay by finding his open teammates with ease. The Bucks are always a more competitive team when Middleton is distributing effectively, even though this week seems to be an outlier to that trend.
Defensively, Middleton did not do anything special but he was effective. As I mentioned last week, Middleton is pacing the NBA in steals per game since the All Star break. Even though his steal numbers went down somewhat this week, he did enough to still remain tops in the league in that category. He has averaged 2.5 steals per game since the break.
Khris is a master at forcing the opposing player into mistakes. He creates turnovers as well as any other NBA player. He plays the passing lanes and knows exactly what he can and cannot do when he checks offensive players and goes for steals. It is fun to watch Khris play defense.
So it wasn’t his best week. Khris did his job on a regular basis. Even though that shouldn’t get anyone too excited, doing your job was all that was necessary to get you into the player of the week rankings this week. No one on the Bucks has done their job more consistently than Middleton this season. His constant effectiveness is going to be important for the future of this team.
Next: Daddy Longlegs