What if the Milwaukee Bucks had been allowed to sign Jeff Teague in 2013? Would they have Khris Middleton today?
Jeff Teague #JeffTeague
It seems entirely possible that Khris Middleton’s ascension with the Milwaukee Bucks wouldn’t have happened without Milwaukee missing out on the player it really wanted —Jeff Teague.
Now Middleton’s teammate on the Bucks and a player who has seen minutes in the NBA Finals, Teague was a target in 2013 for Bucks general manager John Hammond. The Bucks signed the restricted free agent Teague to a four-year, $32 million offer sheet, signaling they were prepared to move on from their own restricted free agent, Brandon Jennings.
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But the Hawks, in a bit of a surprise move, matched the offer, and the guard returned to Atlanta. Milwaukee was forced to look at other options and, two weeks later, they swung a trade with Detroit for another point guard, Brandon Knight. It was a trade that included a second-year shooting guard named Khris Middleton.
Teague, who had just turned 25 years old, wanted to reunite with his former Hawks coach, Larry Drew, who’d been hired for his first (and, as it turned out, only) season in Milwaukee. The Hawks had moved on to a new coach … a guy you may have heard of named Mike Budenholzer.
Teague’s comments indicated that he hoped (and perhaps expected) Atlanta to decline the offer match, which would return him to his previous team as per the tenets of restricted free agency.
“I’m definitely excited at the opportunity to come back to work with Larry Drew,” Teague said at the time. “The Bucks have a good team, a young nucleus and guys that are ready to take the next step.”
Said Teague’s Indianapolis-based agent, J.R. Hensley, “I think after one call he knew this is where he wanted to be. He’s familiar with Larry already and that’s the icing on the cake. They can continue to grow together.
“It’s a new challenge. It’s just refreshing to be part of an organization that sees him as a building block for the future.”
Hensley said Teague was frustrated by the Hawks’ lack of sincere interest and phoned team president and general manager Danny Ferry to inform him he did not want to return to Atlanta.
“I’m nervous,” Teague said of the 72-hour window in which Atlanta had to make its decision. “I really want to be here. I thank Milwaukee for giving me this opportunity and taking a chance on me.”
Atlanta’s backcourt options were limited, and Ferry pulled the trigger to bring Teague back. It proved to be a shrewd move when Teague made the all-star team in 2014-15. He averaged 16 points and 6.5 assists over his next three seasons with the Hawks.
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After bouncing around to Indiana, Minnesota, Atlanta again, Boston and briefly with Orlando (under Hammond, who released Teague after acquiring him), the point guard finally signed with the Bucks this year to play for his old coach in Atlanta — just not Drew.
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Oh, and he scored 11 points in a Game 6 win in Atlanta that gave the Bucks a 4-2 series win over his old team. More on “Bucks in 6” in a moment.
With the bad news coming on July 14 that the Hawks had retained Teague, Milwaukee was back to square one with an unhappy Jennings, who had averaged 17.5 points and 6.5 assists per game the previous season.
Monta Ellis had already signed with Dallas, and backup guards J.J. Redick and Mike Dunleavy had also moved on. Milwaukee was facing a rebuild, and Hammond had previously indicated he would likely match any offer for the 23-year-old Jennings and bring him back. But would he be happy?
On July 30, Milwaukee announced it had a deal in principle with the Detroit Pistons, a sign-and-trade in which Jennings would head to Detroit for point guard Brandon Knight, center Viacheslav Kravstov and Middleton. Milwaukee signed Jennings to a three-year, $24 million deal.
It’s a deal that has worked out dramatically, but not in a way the Bucks expected.
Brandon Knight was the centerpiece 
Milwaukee was now headed into 2013 with just five holdovers: Larry Sanders, John Henson, Ersan Ilysova, Epke Udoh and Ish Smith. The team added new veterans like O.J. Mayo, Zaza Pachulia, Carlos Delfino and Luke Ridnour.
Ridnour, Knight, second-round pick Nate Wolters and Smith were now the point-guard options. Knight had been the eighth overall draft pick in 2011 and had two more seasons on his rookie-scale deal. He’d averaged 13.3 points and 4.0 assists in 75 starts the year before, with a shooting mark of 40.7%.
Knight would go on to lead the Bucks in scoring the next two seasons. But he’s not the reason the trade will be remembered.
Middleton, a second-round pick out of Texas A&M, averaged 6.1 points in 27 appearances with the Pistons as a rookie, but that was misleading. He’d torn his meniscus in his final year of college, an ailment that dropped him from a potential lottery pick to 39th overall in the 2012 second round. He did however, flash some potential with Detroit late in the season.
Middleton didn’t take long to make an impact
Middleton notably became the first NBA all-star to have played any time in the NBA G-League (D-League at the time), but that’s also a little misleading; he played in only three games for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in 2012 as a rookie.
Middleton emerged quickly as a top option for the Bucks, making 64 of 82 starts that 2013-14 season and appearing in every game. His ascension meant fewer opportunities for Racine native and veteran Caron Butler.
“Now I’m concentrating on my whole body and not just focusing on one part,” Middleton said. “I’m not thinking about it anymore. I’m over the knee phase where I just go out there and play, not worry about it.
“It was tough not playing (as a rookie). It was a reality check that I still have to put the work in and keep improving. I think it definitely helped me out to finally get that (rotation) spot at the end of the year.”
Drew even began drawing up late-game shots for Middleton. He had his foot on the 3-point line for an overtime would-be tying shot that could have forced another extra period but instead left the Bucks with a 111-110 loss to Charlotte, but the potential was there. It seems likely the Pistons would have realized what they had soon enough.
Middleton averaged 12.1 points per game in 2013-14, third on the team behind Knight and Ramon Sessions.
Though the story is still being written, it only got better from there. Jennings eventually came back to Milwaukee, too, in 2018 and re-affirmed his famous brash “Bucks in 6” prediction that has become a rallying cry for Milwaukee Bucks fans.
If Milwaukee indeed wins this NBA Finals in six (or seven, for that matter), Middleton will be a chief reason why.
JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What if the Milwaukee Bucks had been allowed to sign Jeff Teague in 2013? Would they have Khris Middleton today?