Milwaukee Bucks are 9-8 to start the season, and they were able to score a sloppy victory in Phoenix on Wednesday night sans Giannis Antetokounmpo due to a knee soreness. While Jason Kidd is Milwaukee Bucks Twitter and Internet’s favorite scapegoat, he deserved a ton of the blame for this whole thing with Giannis. They mismanaged his minutes through the last few games where Milwaukee played less than stellar against Dallas and Washington. Giannis played 79 minutes in those games. Kidd has to do something about minutes that him and Khris Middleton are playing at this point.

I asked Jason Kidd if Giannis' right knee soreness could be something that changes the way Kidd handles his minutes going forward. Here's his response: pic.twitter.com/HTx5lTd1me

— Matt Velazquez (@Matt_Velazquez) November 23, 2017

Antetokounmpo and Middleton are second and third in minutes thus far in the NBA season. That’s not going to work out well as the season goes on. Injuries are going to pop up, and Milwaukee is going to look worn out when they play multiple games in a week. Kidd puts the blame on the bench for the extended minutes for Giannis and Khris. While the bench hasn’t been good for Milwaukee, they need to figure out ways to get quick breathers for both of these players. You cannot keep having these guys play nearly the full games because Milwaukee isn’t good enough to punt games away with Giannis being rested with a knee problem.

Here’s the thing, I’m glad they beat Phoenix, but Milwaukee had no reason to win that game. They played like complete dogshit. Suns turned the ball over 29 times and played equally bad in the last game. Giannis will be back against Utah on Saturday night but will continue to watch how many minutes he plays in this one. Hopefully, Kidd can figure out how to handle both his top players’ minutes moving forward this season.

Charlie.