In one of the more surprising moves of the 2019 Bucks season, Khris Middleton will be returning from his injury a week early. Middleton announced that he will be playing tomorrow against the Atlanta Hawks. Midds only missed two and a half weeks with his deep thigh bruise. Milwaukee projected him to be out for three or four weeks. Instead, Middleton is ready to roll for the Bucks. That’s exciting news even if he will be on minute restrictions tomorrow night in what should be a sold-out Fiserv Forum.

Khris Middleton is GOOD TO GO!!@Froedtert | #FearTheDeer pic.twitter.com/N2WXrl34lE

— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) November 26, 2019

Bucks getting Middleton back right now is a simple case of the rich getting richer. Milwaukee hasn’t needed Middleton much in his time off. They’ve won all of their games without the Bucks shooting guard. It doesn’t mean the 2018 All-Star should find a spot on the bench, rather, Milwaukee used different lineups to make them successful without him. Not to mention, the schedule has not been very strong. Utah is the first good team the Bucks have played since… Utah (Only because Indiana was missing Malcolm Brogdon and a few others). I’m interested to see what Mike Budenholzer does with his lineups tonight and moving forward.

The lineup conversation is a blog post for another day when Middleton’s minute restrictions are off. The sample sizes are still very small, but my assumption is Milwaukee will work some lineups featuring Middleton and Donte DiVencenzo on the court together. The Defensive Rating for that pairing w/ Giannis Antetokounmpo and the starters is a sky-high 131. Now on the other side, they’re scoring about that much too. Middleton has not played a lot with Sterling Brown this year, so, I wonder if he’ll be the one impacted the most. Don’t be surprised if Brown goes after his shot in this game.

Happy to have you back Midds.

Charlie.