Milwaukee Bucks: Grades for Khris Middleton’s five-year, $178 million deal
By Adam McGee
Value
Where do you even begin in trying to consider Middleton’s new deal in terms of value?
In a vacuum, Middleton is not worth a deal that averages out at approximately $36 million per year. That puts him in the same pay bracket as many of the league’s true superstars, and a category of players who are considerably more decorated than him, while also boasting the potential to more realistically live up to the value of their deals.
Still, the cap is an artificial construct that means markets are always distorted. Max, or in this case near-max, contracts don’t ensure the best players get paid the most as much as they force a wider range of teams into dishing out such offers to their respective key players to avoid the slight that can be inferred from lower value deals.
That was especially true for the Bucks in this scenario as more than necessarily wanting to pay Middleton a deal of this magnitude, they found themselves in a position where they couldn’t risk souring their relationship with a supporting star who could have walked away and thrown their wider plans into turmoil.
Having said that, it doesn’t take looking too far around the NBA to find deals agreed in the last 24 hours that would indicate Middleton may actually be in an appropriate bracket for his skills, experience and importance to his team.
The most obvious point of comparison is undoubtedly Tobias Harris‘ five-year, $180 million deal to return to the 76ers. Harris fits a very similar profile to Middleton in terms of age, style of play, personality, wider status in the NBA and likely ceiling, while also having a sketchier track record as a long-range shooter in spite of a longer pro career so far.
Even the extension Jamal Murray signed with the Denver Nuggets feels instructive in analyzing Middleton’s deal. Murray may be a younger player with higher upside, but is still unproven in terms of top-end production and yet he’s now locked in to a five-year, $170 million max deal.
Murray and Harris secured their deals on Sunday based on how much they were worth to their respective teams, and Middleton was no different.