MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Bucks will begin training camp for the 2024-25 season with three-time All-Star forward Khris Middleton still at least partially out of action as he continues to recover from successful arthroscopic procedures to fix lingering issues in both of his ankles this offseason.
When asked for a timeline for Middleton’s availability, Bucks coach Doc Rivers told reporters that Middleton will start training camp in Irvine, Calif., on Monday as a slightly limited participant.
“During the season, we haven’t decided yet, we’ll get to that,” Rivers said Monday when asked if the Bucks had a plan for Middleton’s playing time to start the regular season. “But through camp, he’ll participate in camp. We won’t have him doing a lot of live action, coming off the surgery and all that, but all our skeleton work, all our transition work, our transition D, our conditioning work, he’ll be on the floor with us.
When asked if the team had laid out a plan for his playing time to start this upcoming season, Middleton confirmed one had not yet been discussed.
“I actually haven’t had one conversation about that yet,” Middleton said. “Right now, it’s just getting to training camp and getting to 5-on-5 like Doc mentioned earlier. I think those are the first steps I want to take first, and then we’ll get to that whenever it comes.”
Middleton confirmed the clean-up procedure on his left ankle was to correct issues directly related to the ankle sprain he suffered last Feb. 6 when he fell on Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant’s foot after attempting a jump shot. That injury forced Middleton to miss 16 games. He returned at the end of the regular season and played in the Bucks’ first-round playoff defeat against the Indiana Pacers, during which he averaged 24.7 points, 9.2 rebounds and 4.7 assists in 38.3 minutes per game.
In that series, Middleton suffered a right ankle sprain in Game 2 on Apr. 23, but played through the pain for the rest of the six-game series. On Monday, Middleton confirmed the right ankle sprain against the Pacers related directly to the issues he needed to get cleaned up.
“After I took some weeks off, I just realized they weren’t healing the way I thought they should,” Middleton said. “(I) went to get it checked and just realized it needed the clean-up process to get ready for this coming season.”
While sharing the stage with Rivers at media day, Bucks general manager Jon Horst expressed optimism about Middleton’s health.
“Khris is doing really well,” Horst said. “It’s just a normal offseason clean-up procedure. He literally is on the court right now as we’re talking. He’ll be a very active participant in camp, so Khris is also healthy.”
Last season, the Bucks brought Middleton along slowly to start the season after the veteran forward underwent an offseason clean-up procedure on his right knee. Middleton did not play in the Bucks’ first five back-to-backs of the 2023-24 season, sitting out either the first or second game, and averaged only 19.3 minutes per game in his first 10 appearances of the season. His first game of playing more than 30 minutes occurred on Dec. 11.
Following Monday’s media day sessions in Milwaukee, the Bucks are making their way to the University of California-Irvine for the first five days of training camp before heading to Detroit for their Oct. 6 preseason opener against the Pistons.
“He looks great. He’s in the gym right now as we speak working out,” Rivers said of Middleton. “He’s had a terrific summer overall. Physically, he’s fit and that’s probably something he hasn’t been able to say in a while and feels great. So we want to keep it that way.”
(Photo: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
