Antetokounmpo then lauded the evolution in Middleton’s game and how the latter has firmly established himself as one of the most important players on a championship team. More importantly, however, the 32-year-old is still able and willing to play whatever role he has to for the Bucks — even if it involves not having the ball in his hands.
“I feel like early in his career, 3-and-D guy, catch-and-shoot,” Antetokounmpo explained. “Obviously, always he could shoot a mid-range. I don’t know if he was shooting it early in his career in the game, but at practices, he was always capable of shooting the mid-range really well.“Now, he can take the ball, also play-make. Early in his career — my third year, fourth year with him, so his fourth and fifth year when J-Kidd was here — he didn’t have the ball so much in his hand, but moving forward, then he had the ball more in his hand. Then in the fourth quarter, he was the the guy that was leading the group. Like, he’s touched pretty much everything.
“He knows how to play the game of basketball and now there’s going to be times that he has to do a little bit of everything. And there’s going to be sometimes that he has to just catch-and-shoot. There’s going to be sometimes that he has to play off the dribble. There’s going to be sometimes that he has to take over in the fourth quarter. He’s capable of doing all of those things because he’s done it in his career and he’s really good at it.”
