Khris Middleton said that Mike Budenholzer’s firing caught him by surprise, though he admitted that a change needed to be made for the Milwaukee Bucks to reach another level.
“I think you could always feel some change can happen when you lose in the first round when you’re expected to contend for a championship … I think this time it just happened to be Bud, which kind of caught us by surprise a little bit. But I think we kind of knew something was going to happen,” said Middleton in a wide-ranging interview with ESPN.
The Bucks hired Adrian Griffin to replace Budenholzer.
Middleton also addressed the uncertainty around Giannis Antetokounmpo’s future, saying that the situation won’t affect the team.
Antetokounmpo revealed last month that he won’t sign a contract extension with the Bucks until 2024.
“I think it’s kind of business as usual either way. It doesn’t affect me personally. I don’t think it affects us as a team. I think this is something he said almost every year he’s come up in contract extension talks,” said Middleton.
Middleton added that he’s been back in the gym after struggling with injury issues and is “getting myself back together into being back to my old, natural self.”