Milwaukee Bucks: Revisiting Khris Middleton’s crucial 2020-21 goals

Revisiting Khris Middleton’s 2020-21 goals with the Milwaukee Bucks: No. 2 – Adjust to role changes

When the Bucks brought in Holiday, it was fair to wonder how it would impact Middleton’s game. The Bucks were bringing in a point guard and that could take the ball out of Middleton’s hands more — and it did, slightly. Although Middleton did have a bit of a role change, it wasn’t a drastic one, and Middleton flourished once again.

Middleton’s usage rate did dip slightly from a career-high mark of 26.4 percent, he still maintained a 25 percent usage, right around where he was in 2018-19 and still the third-highest usage of his career. He took the most shots per game of his entire career at 15.8 per game (15.5 was his previous career-high), and furthermore, he took slightly fewer catch-and-shoot triples last year (2.7 per game) than he did in 2019-20 (2.9), per NBA.com/stats.

What did change for Middleton was him being used as more of a facilitator than in years past. Part of the value of having Holiday is that he is also very comfortable playing off-ball, and with Middleton being the best passer and playmaker in the starting five, it made sense to give him more of that responsibility. Although Antetokounmpo and Holiday had a higher assist rate, Middleton still finished with the most assists on the team and a career-high in assists per game (5.4) and assist rate (23.2 percent).

Middleton has been showing he’s more than just a scorer in the last few seasons, and he proved it once again last year. Goal achieved.