Milwaukee Bucks: 3 Things to watch in Khris Middleton’s return

In a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Milwaukee Bucks All-Star Khris Middleton is planning to make his season debut tonight against the Los Angeles Lakers in Milwaukee. The Bucks and Lakers face off at 6:30 central time on ESPN, marking former assistant coach Darvin Ham’s first return to Milwaukee since taking over as head coach of the Lakers.

The Milwaukee Bucks injury report for Friday night has Khris Middleton listed as probable for the matchup against the Lakers at home, the first of just four home games the Bucks play in December.

It was originally reported on Wednesday by Shams Charania that Khris Middleton was getting close to return and could return as early as the Lakers game, this report from Wojnarowski seems to confirm that, as does the injury report. That said, let’s look at some things to keep an eye on for Middleton’s 2022-23 season debut.

What to watch for in Khris Middleton’s return to the Milwaukee Bucks: How many minutes will Khris play?

A couple weeks ago, in a matchup against the Atlanta Hawks, Jrue Holiday turned his ankle and Jrue missed a couple games and when he returned Mike Budenholzer brought him off the bench. Holiday’s first game back from injury he played 23 minutes against the 76ers. Khris Middleton, despite having gotten some practices in with the Wisconsin Herd, may need a couple games coming off the bench to get back to NBA level conditioning.

The Milwaukee Bucks play the Los Angeles Lakers tonight so throwing Middleton straight into 30+ minutes while going against LeBron James might not be the way to go. Also, the Milwaukee Bucks are 15-5, there’s no need to rush Khris straight into his normal workload.

It certainly would be great to see Khris get off to a great start on some bold predictions made back before the season started however.