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Putting Khris Middleton’s Injury In Context

For any Bucks fan, hearing that Khris Middleton needed surgery to repair his hamstring was a real punch in the gut. Easily one of the most important players on the team (with the second-highest salary on the team, no less), fans were counting on Middleton to help take the Bucks far this season. But just how devastating is his injury to Milwaukee’s hopes? How unlucky was this news, and how much was it just a part of the NBA season?

Well, I’ve done some digging to answer exactly that question. I’ve gone through and compiled every single NBA team’s most expensive injured player to see how Middleton stacks up. The data is as follows:

Team  Highest-Paid Injured Player Salary Salary Position On Team Severity
Miami Heat Chris Bosh $23,741,060 1 Should Miss Whole Season
Los Angeles Clippers Chris Paul $22,868,828 1 Should Play Opener
New Orleans Pelicans Anthony Davis $22,116,750 1 Should Play Opener
Utah Jazz Gordon Hayward $16,073,140 1 Should Miss A Few Weeks
Philadelphia 76ers Jerryd Bayless $9,424,084 1 May Miss Opener
Memphis Grizzlies Chandler Parsons $22,116,750 2 May Miss Opener
Atlanta Hawks Paul Millsap $20,072,033 2 Should Play Opener
Washington Wizards John Wall $16,957,900 2 May Miss Opener
Los Angeles Lakers Timofey Mozgov $16,000,000 2 May Miss Opener
Milwaukee Bucks Khris Middleton $15,200,000 2 Should Miss 6 Months
Minnesota Timberwolves Nikola Pekovic $12,100,000 2 Should Miss Whole Season
Cleveland Cavaliers Kyrie Irving $17,683,063 3 Should Play Opener
Detroit Pistons Reggie Jackson $14,956,522 3 Should Miss A Few Weeks
Sacramento Kings Aaron Afflalo $12,500,000 3 Should Play Opener
Charlotte Hornets Marvin Williams $12,250,000 3 May Miss Opener
Portland Trail Blazers Meyers Leonard $9,213,484 4 May Miss Opener
Denver Nuggets Darrell Arthur $8,070,175 4 May Miss Opener
Toronto Raptors Terrence Ross $10,000,000 5 Should Play Opener
Oklahoma City Thunder Alex Abrines $5,994,764 5 May Miss Opener
Phoenix Suns P.J. Tucker $5,300,000 5 May Miss Opener
San Antonio Spurs Danny Green $10,000,000 6 Should Miss A Few Weeks
Houston Rockets Patrick Beverley $6,000,000 6 Should Miss A Few Weeks
Chicago Bulls Nikola Mirotic $5,782,450 6 Should Play Opener
Brooklyn Nets Greivis Vasquez $4,347,826 6 Should Play Opener
Orlando Magic Jodie Meeks $6,540,000 7 Should Miss A Few Weeks
Indiana Pacers C.J. Miles $4,583,450 7 Should Miss Opener
Dallas Mavericks J.J. Barea $4,096,950 8 May Miss Opener
Boston Celtics Marcus Smart $3,578,880 9 Should Miss A Few Weeks
Golden State Warriors Javale McGee $1,403,611 10 Should Play Opener
New York Knicks N/A N/A N/A N/A

You’ll notice many of these injuries are not a big deal at all, like Chris Paul’s, for example. Others, like Jerryd Bayless’s or Chandler Parsons’s, may cause them to miss the season opener, but little else. An injury is an injury, though, and I didn’t want to draw some arbitrary line on which ones “count”, so any player who shows up on Basketball Reference’s injury report is eligible for this list.

Anyways, at first glance, Khris Middleton’s injury does not look that unique. Five other teams are going into the season with their second-highest-paid player injured in some way or other, and five more teams are entering the season with their highest-paid player sporting some sort of injury. As I said above, though, not all injuries are created equal. A little more digging shows that Khris Middleton’s injury is easily one of the most devastating for his team going into this NBA season.

Miami’s Chris Bosh is not only the highest-paid injured player going into the season, but his injury (a blood-clotting problem which is better described as a medical issue than an injury, but whatever) is also one of the most severe on this list as he’s expected to not suit up all season, if ever again. Moving down the table, the next player with a truly severe injury is… Khris Middleton. Following just behind Middleton is Nikola Pekovic for the Timberwolves, who is Minnesota’s second-highest-paid player and, like Bosh, expected to miss the whole season.

Those three players are the only ones on this list expected to miss even a majority of the season with their current injuries, making the Heat, the Bucks and the Timberwolves much more unlucky in this sense than the rest of the NBA. Considering this, Khris Middleton’s injury is a devastatingly unlucky blow for the Bucks, much more so than most NBA teams can expect to experience.

This is not to say that the Bucks have an excuse if they underperform this season. The rest of the team will surely work hard to snatch a playoff spot, and no one should be writing off the season just yet. It is to say, however, that the Bucks have a long road ahead of them, and that only the Heat can claim a longer road in front of them. On the other hand, if these Bucks live up to all that potential on their roster this year, it will only be that much more impressive.

A few other things jump out at you when you look at this table. For one, the New York Knicks are the only team that can boast a completely healthy roster going into the season. This should help them live up to the lofty expectations they’ve set for themselves this offseason with the moves they made.

Then there’s the Golden State Warriors, whose highest-paid injured player is Javale McGee, their 10th-highest-paid player overall. This is the lowest relative salary for any team’s highest-paid injured player (I know, it’s a mouthful), and you know what that means. It means some sort of divine intervention is at play when it comes to the Warriors, and we can at very least expect them to show up in the NBA Finals once again in a few months.

Ultimately, injuries are a part of any sports season, and every NBA team can expect to be dealt a few injuries during the course of a season (or offseason). That said, Khris Middleton’s situation is an extremely tough one for the Bucks, and it will be interesting to see how the team responds. Lucky for Bucks fans, we only have to wait until Wednesday to start getting some answers.