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Milwaukee Bucks veteran forward Khris Middleton’s struggles to stay healthy have caused him to develop an unfortunate reputation.
While speaking to Eric Nehm of The Athletic, Middleton opened up about how hard it is to ignore the critics who view him as an injury-prone player.
“I try not to read and look at that stuff, but yeah, the injury-prone stuff is frustrating because I feel like for the most part, it’s just — I don’t want to say freak accidents — but just accidents, man,” Middleton said.
Middleton was limited to 55 games last season due to an ankle sprain and other lingering issues, his second straight year appearing in less than 60 games. He hasn’t played in 70 games in a season since the 2018-19 campaign.
An NBA executive who recently spoke to Mark Medina of Sportskeeda expressed doubts about Milwaukee’s chances to compete for an NBA title because of Middleton’s lack of availability and even went as far as to suggest that he could be a trade candidate this year.
“I do not think Milwaukee is deep enough. I think they rely way too much on a perpetually unhealthy Khris Middleton,” the exec said. “I think they’re going to have to make a trade using Khris Middleton’s big salary and load up on some more reliable and younger two-way players.”
Still, the 33-year-old added that he takes exception to the “injury-prone” label because he believes it’s not indicative of how he prepares himself for the NBA season.
“And I think when you say injury-prone, that goes to how you take care of your body,” Middleton said. “And I take a lot of pride in taking care of my body since day one that I’ve been here. So, no, I don’t think I’m injury-prone at all. I’ve just had unfortunate incidents that have happened on the basketball court, which is a wrong place, bad time type of thing.”
Middleton will start trying to prove his doubters wrong when the Bucks open the 2024-24 season against the Philadelphia 76ers on Oct. 23.
