Texas Chuck wrote:Not trying to diminish anyone when they are making arguments with substance including you, but I continue to be disappointed at how much is pure narrative or pure stylistic preferences like claiming Giannis is a mediocre scorer when we have all this data that tells us he's a terrific scorer. I mean this board lost its mind over Zion this year and Giannis has 4 years of similar numbers and his team wins.
The problem is that these scoring stats are not sustainable for him in playoffs. I never call him bad scorer, he's still clearly above average even when he struggles but again - we're talking about the best players in the world.
It's not all about narratives either - Giannis posts amazing RS scoring numbers because of one thing - he's GOAT transition scorer:
2021 RS: 8.2 ppg on 63.6 FG%
2020 RS: 8.3 ppg on 60.9 FG%
These stats are untouchable even by LeBron, it's absurd to even think about it. Giannis gets 8 ppg from transition alone. It doesn't translate to playoffs unfortunately:
2021 PS: 3.7 ppg on 40.0 FG%
2020 PS: 6.3 ppg on 61.5 FG%
The drop doesn't look huge, but 2 ppg difference is a big difference. If you take away 2 ppg from transition and make Giannis slightly less efficient in halfcourt, it basically turns Giannis from elite scorer into very good one and we don't even touch his other limitations.
I wish he could shoot 3's and FT's too. But I don't ignore all the incredible stuff he does because he doesn't do that.
It's not about him shooting threes or even making FTs... Don't you think that his whole approach on offensive end in halfcourt is problematic? Bucks want him play like a point forward, but he doesn't have skills necessary for that. He doesn't fight for inside positions and he's not a good roll man. He could have huge value as a cutter and screener, but he doesn't play that way. His post game is also very simple and not reliable.
Again, we're talking about the best players in the world. It doesn't mean that Giannis can't score in halfcourt. He creates a lot of space with his driving and he's decent passer for his size (not for a point forward though). It's not easy to stop him, but it's far from impossible.
And here are his elimination series numbers:
22/11/5 on 55% TS Not as good as his RS stuff, but far from terrible. Middleton and Bledsoe really let the team down
23/14/6 on 52%TS Pretty inefficient but again Middleton and Bledsoe just dreadful
26/10/6 on 62%TS Bledsoe, Parker, Brogdon dreadful
25/10/4 on 56%TS Middleton and Brogdon dreadful
So you can see how we have this narrative of Giannis sucks in the playoffs built far less on his own performance but on his team failing and his offensive co-stars letting him down time and again.
I mean, the last two does look bad. ~22 ppg on below average efficiency is bad production for the first option in heliocentric offense. You also mention other Bucks players struggles, which is of course very important, but you miss some very nice performances from different players.
2017: This one is definitely not on Giannis, he played well and his teammates disappointed. Bucks weren't favorites to win the series though.
2018: Again, not Giannis fault but you should mention that Middleton played spectacular in this series, it wasn't all Giannis.
2019: It's terrible series from Giannis, I agree that Bledsoe was worse and Middleton was comparably bad but you should also mention that Lopez played very well (better than Giannis in my opinion, he only had one bad game) and Hill was very consistent as well.
2020: Again, Giannis played weak series until the injury and I don't agree that Middleton let them down. He played quite well actually throughout the series and his averages are down because of game 5, when Giannis didn't play. Besides, Lopez played very well again.
I agree that Bledsoe was a huge concern for them, but they don't have him anymore. Holiday is a great addition to this roster and you can't just say that he's not good enough. A lot of stars would love to play with the talent Giannis has around him.
