Bucks star Khris Middleton continues to progress but his on-court return date remains cloudy

A day before their home preseason finale Monday against Chicago at Fiserv Forum, the Milwaukee Bucks practiced again without Khris Middleton being a full participant in live, five-on-five action.

It wasn’t a wholly unanticipated development – and head coach Doc Rivers said there hasn’t been a setback in Middleton’s recovery from offseason surgeries – but with less than two weeks before the start of the regular season it has cast a cloud over whether Middleton will get into game action by then.

“Probably not Chicago, so we’re hopeful of Dallas (Oct. 17) and if not we’re not that concerned by it,” Rivers said of the all-star’s availability for the remainder of the preseason.

And as for Middleton being ready to play the Oct. 23 season opener in Philadelphia, Rivers said, “I do. But, you know, I was hoping for an exhibition game so I never say 100% to any of this ‘cause all of our guys have to feel right.”

Rivers said on Oct. 10 that Middleton had been playing three-on-three and the next steps were to progress to four-on-four and then five-on-five. The coach added that progression was being determined by the team’s medical staff, and clarified on Sunday that it didn’t need to be a linear process.

“The timing is the timing,” Rivers said Sunday. “He’s doing more and more. Looks great. Our whole thing is we want him 100% and playing when he needs to play.”

Through the start of training camp and the preseason on Oct. 1 the Bucks head coach has said the team has been playing within its skeleton offense, moving with and around one another without a full book of set plays because of Middleton’s absence.

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To date, the veterans who have spoken on that slow roll out have insisted that has not been an issue in terms of learning how to play with one another.

“I think it’s good for us, honestly,” center Brook Lopez said. “We know what Khris brings to the table, we know what he’s capable of. But it’s good for us to continue to get reps and continue to work on this foundation and solidify it as much as possible. Just going through our skeleton offense the past few days there’s so many options we have in those sets without really even having plays.

"We haven’t really inserted many more than one or two plays – if we have that many – just a lot of actions, a lot of feel, a lot of flow stuff. Like I said for our defense, we’re trying to put guys in their best position to succeed. I think it’s been good for us to just have that foundation to work through.”

For his part, Middleton acknowledged on Sept. 30 that not being to play five-on-five is less than ideal – but being a part of the installations will be of benefit.

“I will be out there because that's important for us all to be out on the court together,” he said on Sept. 30. “Going through reads, talking, figuring out where our spacing is at.

"It's going to suck not being able to do at least the first part of training camp with those live reads, those full-speed, full-game reps and whatnot. But we'll be talking and I'll be on the court as much as possible during the week so we won't be playing catchup as much."

Middleton is working his way back from surgeries on both ankles in the offseason, injuries that resulted in him stepping on the feet of Phoenix Suns and Indiana Pacers players.

The 33-year-old forward has had to rehab each of the last three summers, first with a left wrist surgery in 2022 and right knee surgery in 2023.

In 2022 he missed the first 20 games of the season a brief return that led to foot and ankle issues, as well as the knee, which forced him to sit out another 18 games in the middle of the season.

Last year he played in the season opener but was on a minute restriction until early December. He then missed 16 games with his first ankle injury through parts of February and March.

He injured the other ankle in the playoffs against Indiana but finished that series with an impressive series that included four double-doubles and per-game averages of 24.7 points, 9.2 rebounds and 4.7 assists.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks star Khris Middleton continues to progress but his on-court return date remains cloudy