Report: Bucks expected to reach quick agreement with RFA Khris Middleton

The nickname Cash Money Middleton is about to be far more appropriate.

Khris Middleton will become a restricted free agent on July 1 and the Milwaukee Bucks breakout player is set to earn an appreciable raise from the $915,243 he earned last season. That's what being a contender for Most Improved Player and emerging as a potential two-way star will do for a player.

The 23-year-old isn't expected to get a major taste of free agency in his first time through it, as the expectation is that the Bucks will lock him up quickly, according to a report from Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal-Times.

Middleton has been clear that he wants to stay in Milwaukee and continue building with the Bucks core, for which he stands as an appropriate avatar. Somewhat unheralded, incredibly long, and positionally amorphous, Middleton's basic description could belong to a handful of his teammates. But he's taken greater strides than any of them and may have the most upside, particularly on the defensive end, where advanced metrics grew very fond of him in 2014-15.

His numbers in his third season were still somewhat modest – he averaged 13.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.5 steals – but his efficiency continued to improve, even as his usage increased, and he averaged 16.9 points on 46-percent shooting over his final 21 games.

The Bucks have designs on a number of free agents, particularly at center, and Middelton's eventual salary could go a long way to determining their cap flexibility. It's possible that even with an early deal agreed to, the Bucks could delay officially signing Middleton so that his cap hold, a $2.7-million amount on the books, remains rather than his new salary, at least until they've made overtures to their bigger targets.