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Khris Middleton, a three-time All-Star, played a pivotal role in leading the Bucks to their 2021 NBA Championship victory.

His game has slipped since then, and this season he has played in just a dozen games while coming off surgery to both ankles during the offseason. He sat out Monday night in Toronto for "injury management," and upon his return Doc Rivers is moving him from the starting lineup to the bench,

reports Chris Haynes

.

The reason given is that Doc Rivers wants some continuity and will stick with a starting five of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, Brook Lopez, Andre Jackson, and Taurean Prince. That starting five has a +3.3 net rating, which is not terrible but not near championship level. However, if you remove Prince from the starting five and put in Middleton, that lineup has an ugly -12.6 net rating (in just 33 minutes, it's a small sample size).

Middleton missed the opening six weeks of the season and didn't make his debut until Dec. 6 (coming off the bench in that game), averaging 12.7 points, 5 assists and 4.4 rebounds a game, but he is shooting 40.4% from 3.

Middleton's name came up in some Jimmy Butler trade speculation, but that was always far-fetched. Middleton makes less than Butler (by about $17 million), and the Bucks can't aggregate salaries in a trade because they have one of the most expensive rosters in the league and are over the second tax apron. On top of that come 

rumors that the Bucks were one of the teams

 told by Butler's people not to try to trade for him and that he would not re-sign there.

Middleton likely will spend the rest of the season coming off the bench for a Bucks team trying to recapture its NBA Cup energy.