9 Khris Middleton, Milwaukee Bucks
It's been a pretty rough start to the season for the Milwaukee Bucks. While that's not all that surprising considering they haven't been completely healthy, it's still not encouraging that this team will have an uphill battle the rest of the season. And with the way the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics have looked so far this year, there's a ton of room that the Bucks will have to make up over the next few months. But if the Bucks aren't able to bounce completely back from their slow start, a big move could be on the horizon.
Milwaukee is in an interesting position considering they can't afford to waste another season of Giannis Antetokounmpo's prime but also don't have much trade bait. In theory, even if the Bucks wanted to make a big trade ahead of the deadline, the Bucks don't have much ammo to make something happen. Unless, of course, the Bucks would be open to trading one of their core players. Considering it would be unlikely for the team to trade Damian Lillard, Khris Middleton could be the natural candidate for the team to trade if they're looking to make a big, and unlikely, splash.
Odds of a Khris Middleton trade: 10%
Even though I wouldn't say that it's likely the Bucks would be open to trading Middleton, I also don't believe it's completely out of the question. If the Bucks do get desperate enough that they have to make a significant change to their roster, Middleton is probably the big-salary player that would have to be involved. Punting on the Lillard-Giannis duo just a little more than a year into the experiment would be malpractice. Middleton is the one player who is somewhat expendable at this point.
In the end, I wouldn't say there are great odds that Middleton will be traded by the deadline but I would say there's about a 10 percent chance that it happens. Again, much of this is predicated on the idea that the Bucks continue to struggle and see no other option than to make a huge change to their roster and core group of players.