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Jamal Collier
MILWAUKEE — Bucks general manager Jon Horst called trading away franchise cornerstone Khris Middleton after 12 seasons in Milwaukee “the hardest transaction” he ever made as an executive, but did so to “maximize the window” for a championship.
“It’s still the awesome responsibility to try to take this franchise and maximize the window that we have now as best we can,” Horst told a small group of reporters before Monday night’s game against the Golden State Warriors. “What we think gives us the best chance to win, and figure out how to continue winning going forward. There’s a very narrow set of opportunities that we felt that we could do that, and this was one of them.”
Milwaukee traded Middleton, rookie guard AJ Johnson and a pick swap to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Kyle Kuzma, Patrick Baldwin Jr. (who was re-routed to San Antonio) and a second-round pick before last week’s trade deadline. The Bucks also acquired center Jericho Sims from the New York Knicks as part of the deal.
Middleton, the franchise leader in 3-pointers, had been with the Bucks since the 2013-14 season and was part of the 2020-21 championship team. However, he missed the first 21 games of the 2024-25 campaign after undergoing offseason surgery on both ankles and has been slow to regain his form — he’s averaging his fewest points (12.6) since his first year with the Bucks and was playing his fewest minutes (23.2) since he was a rookie.
Horst said Middleton’s availability did not have much impact on his decision to make the move.
“Collectively, I think we’re deeper in the spots we needed to be deeper,” Horst said. “This gave us an opportunity to diversify a little bit, to kind of put money and talent and roster spots in other places where I thought we needed help.”
While the Middleton-Kuzma exchange was the headliner, Horst said he did not view the deal as a comparison of the two players, but instead a chance for the Bucks to build a more well-rounded roster.
Milwaukee was also able to acquire Sims for more frontcourt depth and added guard Kevin Porter Jr. in a separate deal. The Bucks still have an open roster spot, allowing them to be active on the buyout market for the rest of the season.
“This isn’t a Khris or a Kyle comparison, although that’s the easy thing to do,” Horst said. “It’s the team before the trade deadline and the team after the trade deadline, and to be determined with an open roster spot, that we felt like in totality we positioned ourselves to have a better run this year. That doesn’t do anything to diminish the three-time All-Star, Olympian, NBA champion, pillar in the community, everything that Khris Middleton was for this franchise for over a decade.”
As part of the move, the Bucks were able to get below the second apron of the collective bargaining agreement, which gives Milwaukee more flexibility to improve its roster going forward. Horst acknowledged that as an added perk but not the driving force behind the trade.
“We believe that this gives us a better chance to win this year,” he said. “It happens to also put us under the second apron, which gives us some benefits going forward. There’s no question. And we’ll hopefully maximize those benefits. But that wasn’t the intent.”
“This isn’t a Khris or a Kyle comparison, although that’s the easy thing to do. It’s the team before the trade deadline and the team after the trade deadline … that we felt like in totality we positioned ourselves to have a better run this year. That doesn’t do anything to diminish the three-time All-Star, Olympian, NBA champion, pillar in the community, everything that Khris Middleton was for this franchise for over a decade.”
Bucks GM Jon Horst
Even though Horst did not want to put all the focus on Kuzma, he still praised his skillset and versatility. Kuzma, 29, is averaging 15.0 points and 5.9 rebounds on 41.6% shooting. He has not been as efficient as Middleton (who was averaging a career-high 51% FG), but Horst said the Bucks valued Kuzma’s other skills as ways to elevate Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.
“Kyle’s a great ball mover, his assist numbers and box score stats may not always show his impact, but he just passes to move the ball,” Horst said.
“He’s up there with Giannis in terms of effectiveness and efficiency and frequency and transition. There’s a big gap between Giannis and the rest of our team and that statistic. … We’re at our best … playing fast. So another player that can get out and go with a ball. He still is a scorer, shooter that I think has upside. At 29 years old, I think we strongly believe that he’s in his prime.
“We can see better basketball from Kyle Kuzma than we have the last couple of years. We believe that, in our system, playing with these guys.”