NBA Rumors: The red-hot Milwaukee Bucks will be adding Khris Middleton at the right time as they begin to look like a contender again.
The demise of the Milwaukee Bucks may have been greatly exaggerated. But after the first 10 games of the season, the Bucks did look like a shell of their former self. At 2-8, it was natural to jump to conclusions about what the team was or wasn't. However, over the last few weeks, the Bucks have proven not to judge a team by such a small sample size. Since that nightmarish start to the season, the Bucks are 9-2 and have made a beeline up the Eastern Conference standings.
The team continues to trend in the right direction as All-Star forward Khris Middleton prepares to make his season debut. After offseason surgery on both his ankles, Middleton missed all of training camp, pre-season, and the first 20-plus games of the regular season. However, as the Bucks begin to play some of their best basketball of the year, Middleton is set to give this team another boost forward. The Bucks are beginning to play like a contender again, and they're going to look even better with Middleton back healthy and in the lineup.
The inconsistency in the Eastern Conference
Aside from the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers in the East, there hasn't been much consistency near the top of the standings. That's why the Bucks, all of a sudden, find themselves right in the mix after their recent hot play. One more hot couple of weeks and the Bucks could find themselves sitting in the third seed of the conference. That leaves me to believe that perhaps we were too quick to bury this team.
While the Bucks still have much to prove in the way of a legitimate contender, there are some encouraging signs for the team overall. And the fact that the Bucks are finally going to get healthy, for the first time all season long, there's reason to believe that this team's best basketball is still ahead of them.
One big sign of the team's potential moving forward will revolve around how Middleton looks when he returns. There's likely going to be some rust he'll have to shake off but if he does show some flashes of his former self, the Bucks could find themselves in a very good spot heading into the midway point of the season.
After all, one thing that we must remember is that for most veteran teams, like the Bucks, the goal is to be playing their best basketball of the season when the playoffs roll around, not in November and December. That's what this veteran team has to be playing for, and that's part of the reason why it was foolish to overreact after their sluggish start to the year. Now that the Bucks are healthy, we're going to get a clearer picture of what this team could be at their peak,