Khris Middleton Thread

[higharc]

As I said in a previous post, Khris needs mismatches. They put Avery Bradley on him who played him very close. Almost hand checked every play in order to prevent Midds rising and shooting over him.
He needs help in situations like that. If you want him play iso then force a switch, or let him receive the ball at the post, or coming off screens. Besides spot up shooting of course.
When in such pressure from the defender he is bad at playmaking. Not all games should have the possessions distributed to 3 playmakers. He should have been mainly receiver in this game.

[StickeeFingaz]

As I said in a previous post, Khris needs mismatches. They put Avery Bradley on him who played him very close. Almost hand checked every play in order to prevent Midds rising and shooting over him.
He needs help in situations like that. If you want him play iso then force a switch, or let him receive the ball at the post, or coming off screens. Besides spot up shooting of course.
When in such pressure from the defender he is bad at playmaking. Not all games should have the possessions distributed to 3 playmakers. He should have been mainly receiver in this game.

Yea, with regard to the Bradley matchup last night, I was hoping Khris was going to draw a few rip through fouls on Bradley so Bradley would think about backing up a bit. It's risky because the refs may not call it and it results in a turnover but I think he should have tried once or twice, Bradley had his hands on Khris' waist all the time.

[blazza18]

I look forward to this thread going dormant for the week + stretches where Khris is good to awesome only to be resurrected by one of two people I have blocked here when he has the occasional bad game.

Probably gets bumped just as much after he has a 70% shooting top 15 player in the world night.

[Fotis St]

So what was Khris problem with Giannis? I saw a video that Khris was openly arguing with Giannis about something while they were sideways of the bench . What was that all about ? Anyone knows ?

[HKPackFan]

So what was Khris problem with Giannis? I saw a video that Khris was openly arguing with Giannis about something while they were sideways of the bench . What was that all about ? Anyone knows ?

On defense Giannis didn't rotate over just stood there and let a guy opportunity to a dunk or a layup. I can't remember which may have been a layup..

Literally next play Kris gives him an alley oop.

[HKPackFan]

I was going to make a joke about how they hate each other, going back to the kidd days.... But feeling lazy on new years day.

[Fotis St]

So what was Khris problem with Giannis? I saw a video that Khris was openly arguing with Giannis about something while they were sideways of the bench . What was that all about ? Anyone knows ?

On defense Giannis didn't rotate over just stood there and let a guy opportunity to a dunk or a layup. I can't remember which may have been a layup..

Literally next play Kris gives him an alley oop.

Khris has no business talking to Giannis about D like that. To invert it , its like Giannis telling Khris how to shoot. Especially on National TV , don't talk to a SemiGod like that Khris. Whatever you wanna say tell that in the locker room , without all this bs hand and face expressions. Reminded me of Khris backing up Kidd on the 4pt play draw.

This is evidence of lack of good Coaching ...
and lack of respect from Khris to the back2back MVP and Defensive Player of the Year.

[emunney]

So what was Khris problem with Giannis? I saw a video that Khris was openly arguing with Giannis about something while they were sideways of the bench . What was that all about ? Anyone knows ?

On defense Giannis didn't rotate over just stood there and let a guy opportunity to a dunk or a layup. I can't remember which may have been a layup..

Literally next play Kris gives him an alley oop.

Khris has no business talking to Giannis about D like that. To invert it , its like Giannis telling Khris how to shoot. Especially on National TV , don't talk to a SemiGod like that Khris. Whatever you wanna say tell that in the locker room , without all this bs hand and face expressions. Reminded me of Khris backing up Kidd on the 4pt play draw.

This is evidence of lack of good Coaching ...
and lack of respect from Khris to the back2back MVP and Defensive Player of the Year.

Giannis has told Khris what shots to take for years, haven't seen many complain about it. Quality of advice is important, not from whom it comes. Writers know you can get a good note from anywhere. Or a bad one.

[HKPackFan]

So what was Khris problem with Giannis? I saw a video that Khris was openly arguing with Giannis about something while they were sideways of the bench . What was that all about ? Anyone knows ?

On defense Giannis didn't rotate over just stood there and let a guy opportunity to a dunk or a layup. I can't remember which may have been a layup..

Literally next play Kris gives him an alley oop.

Khris has no business talking to Giannis about D like that. To invert it , its like Giannis telling Khris how to shoot. Especially on National TV , don't talk to a SemiGod like that Khris. Whatever you wanna say tell that in the locker room , without all this bs hand and face expressions. Reminded me of Khris backing up Kidd on the 4pt play draw.

This is evidence of lack of good Coaching ...
and lack of respect from Khris to the back2back MVP and Defensive Player of the Year.

Giannis was asleep on the play... Or it looked like it.

I think they have been together long enough, they can hold each other accountable.

I'm not a fan of Kris bitch face as at all. But those two guys have been together a really long time, I think they can call each other out when needed. It seemed like it wasn't a big deal when Kris threw him an alley up right after the time out.

[Prez]

On defense Giannis didn't rotate over just stood there and let a guy opportunity to a dunk or a layup. I can't remember which may have been a layup..

Literally next play Kris gives him an alley oop.

Khris has no business talking to Giannis about D like that. To invert it , its like Giannis telling Khris how to shoot. Especially on National TV , don't talk to a SemiGod like that Khris. Whatever you wanna say tell that in the locker room , without all this bs hand and face expressions. Reminded me of Khris backing up Kidd on the 4pt play draw.

This is evidence of lack of good Coaching ...
and lack of respect from Khris to the back2back MVP and Defensive Player of the Year.

Giannis was asleep on the play... Or it looked like it.

I think they have been together long enough, they can hold each other accountable.

I'm not a fan of Kris bitch face as at all. But those two guys have been together a really long time, I think they can call each other out when needed. It seemed like it wasn't a big deal when Kris threw him an alley up right after the time out.

Yeah, every good team has moments like that. This notion that Giannis is the B2B MVP so he’s infallible and shouldn’t be called out is silly and is how you build horrible team cultures like the Rockets with Harden. Giannis is a big boy and can handle criticism. The Spurs for years built a culture of everyone checking their ego at the door and everyone from Tim Duncan to Jeff Ayres can get chewed out publicly when they make bad mistakes. Who gives a **** if it’s on national TV, the objective is to get better.

If anything I would be concerned if Giannis/Khris after all these years playing together weren’t close enough to be able to hold each other accountable like this without causing issues.

[DavidDunn21]

I don't necessarily think it's any kind of deal for the reasons outlined above, except....

...we don't really get to see that kind of stuff often do we? Anybody ever seen any footage like that with Giannis yelling at Khris like that? No? What are the screaming matches that the cameras have caught?

1. Giannis and Sweeney (was it Sweeney?) whichever coach...lot of tension in a failure of a season
2. Khris and Moose in one of the failed Kidd seasons
3. Different versions of Kidd not screaming at Giannis but getting in his face after say...not intentionally missing a free throw

And that's basically it. Are there any others?

So I think it's totally fair to posit that Giannis doesn't really yell at other players. We haven't seen him yell at Khris when Khris was choking away playoff games. There's no footage of him yelling at Khris when he shriveled up in the Magic series. There's no footage of him yelling at Khris when Khris seemed fat and drunk for a good portion of 2018-19. They don't publicly have a combustible relationship.

It's probably a nothing-burger, but if you think about Korver's comments and also the fact that Giannis doesn't seem to be in great shape mentally or otherwise, it bears watching.

[Fotis St]

On top of what I said ... I saw the whole game on replay and it is clear that it wasn't Giannis fault at all ... Donte DiVincenzo fell asleep and let Avery Bradley all alone after he faked to go over the screen and he just made a back door cut behind Khris. It was a well executed fake back door cut from Avery, in fact he made one more basket exactly the same way, and DDV fell asleep again. Giannis was on the other side of the ball, guarding his man, the closest one to cover DDV was Khris but he didn't check his back , it was hard to do , not blaming him, it was DDV fault.
So yes , Khris was wrong calling out publicly Giannis , and as I said Giannis has never done that to Khris or any other scrub , so Khris better humble himself. Khris should right poems on Giannis helping him, get max money twice and have him in his prayers or smth.

[H2tObes]

So what was Khris problem with Giannis? I saw a video that Khris was openly arguing with Giannis about something while they were sideways of the bench . What was that all about ? Anyone knows ?

On defense Giannis didn't rotate over just stood there and let a guy opportunity to a dunk or a layup. I can't remember which may have been a layup..

Literally next play Kris gives him an alley oop.

Khris has no business talking to Giannis about D like that. To invert it , its like Giannis telling Khris how to shoot. Especially on National TV , don't talk to a SemiGod like that Khris. Whatever you wanna say tell that in the locker room , without all this bs hand and face expressions. Reminded me of Khris backing up Kidd on the 4pt play draw.

This is evidence of lack of good Coaching ...
and lack of respect from Khris to the back2back MVP and Defensive Player of the Year.

Love Khris and Giannis being passionate and feeling comfortable to call eachother out, this is a terrible take. Giannis is a big boy and not perfect, he can handle the criticism better than his super fans

[Shaffty]

You guys are idiots lol

Sent from my SM-N960U using RealGM mobile app

[GoldenAntlers]

On defense Giannis didn't rotate over just stood there and let a guy opportunity to a dunk or a layup. I can't remember which may have been a layup..

Literally next play Kris gives him an alley oop.

Khris has no business talking to Giannis about D like that. To invert it , its like Giannis telling Khris how to shoot. Especially on National TV , don't talk to a SemiGod like that Khris. Whatever you wanna say tell that in the locker room , without all this bs hand and face expressions. Reminded me of Khris backing up Kidd on the 4pt play draw.

This is evidence of lack of good Coaching ...
and lack of respect from Khris to the back2back MVP and Defensive Player of the Year.

Love Khris and Giannis being passionate and feeling comfortable to call eachother out, this is a terrible take. Giannis is a big boy and not perfect, he can handle the criticism better than his super fans

Yeah, no need to treat the Alpha dog like a soft baby.

[Chad34]

Read on Twitter

[blazza18]

Still would be cool if he was able to find a way to the line more than 3 times a game. That really is the separator to the elite scorers and Khris.

[DingleJerry]

Khris was as good as he's ever been last year and so far this year he has taken it up another small tick. Even the most skeptical of people on the big contract have to concede so far it's about best case results from him. The fear of his conditioning going way down once he's paid simply hasn't materialized, he's actually gone the other direction.

[Fotis St]

Khris was as good as he's ever been last year and so far this year he has taken it up another small tick. Even the most skeptical of people on the big contract have to concede so far it's about best case results from him. The fear of his conditioning going way down once he's paid simply hasn't materialized, he's actually gone the other direction.

I think his body is in the best shape of his life. He hasn't polished his body well enough to say, he should not focus on his body any more. On the contrary if he improves his body a little more, a little more strength and speed-conditioning I think it will unlock him even more, cause he could finish better at the rim. Attacking the rim could send him to the FT line more often, so that would help him alot when his shots are not falling. If he becomes a gym rat at this stage of his career and this age, I mean we could actually see him reaching his ceiling. I wish him the best, If he does that, I am sure he will play really good for at least the next 3 years for us.

[DavidDunn21]

It is frankly shocking to me that over the course of 17 pages of post game thread focused on another bad corner end of game play, whether Khris should've passed, whether we should've had more time, whether he was close to making the last shot, etc

NOBODY WANTS TO TALK ABOUT KHRIS MIDDLETON TAKING 3 SHOTS IN THE LAST MINUTE?!?!

I guarantee you this has never ever ever happened in a real game. It might've happened in some Giannis rest games against the Suns or Wizards. Of course he didn't make the last shot, but he never really does that.

What is clear is a new hierarchical shift has taken place. Little Game James Khristian, who has hidden from every big game in his life, who hid from Jimmy Butler, who hid from DeMar Derozan, who stopped shooting against the Magic, who took one shot in the 4th Quarter of Game 6 against Toronto, has possibly...

...possibly
...possibly
...possibly had it beaten into his cowardly skull that it is his job to shoot at the end of games. Five shot attempts in the last 2:47. Seven attempts in the last 5:36. When has that ever happened before? I have to credit Jrue, because he's got 7 years of continuity with Giannis and Bud is an idiot.

Now the downside of this is what we saw against the Heat. Over the course of a seven game series teams realize that you guard Khris closely and let him drive past you to miss contested runners. They realize that he can't dribble or pass in a way that scares anyone. But this is a MASSIVE SHIFT in strategy. Maybe this year he'll even feel a big Game 1 slipping away and realize it's his time to shine.

Lolz at people saying he should've passed to Giannis there. That dude has pump faked away, thrown the ball away, shot after the clock expired away more games than I can count. He got the play call. He got the ball. He shot. This is a positive development.