I was listening to the Dunc’d On podcast (not everyone’s cup of tea I realize) and Nate mentioned that Middleton being on a minutes restriction of this level he’s very far removed from being at full strength. He did look pretty spry out there for the short time but 15 minutes isn’t exactly a lot.

Obviously he’s not tapped into injury news like our beat reporters but hearing this doesn’t really inspire confidence for me. We clearly need him out there as evidence from 6ers game but really we need him more for the playoffs. However, I think we’re gonna need to at least be the 2 seed in an effort to avoid the Knicks/Cavs tier of teams so regular season wins are going to matter.

So what’s our concern level from 1-10? I think I’m about a 5 right now and somewhat agree with Nate that this isn’t a great sign but think our team can pick up the slack in his absence.