The Giannis Antetokounmpo Thread

[Prez]

Tough loss, but great performance from Giannis

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYUbMc5c1Bo[/youtube]

[bondom34]

He was amazing. Just at everything, and its crazy how much he's improved. Gotta be in the MIP running I'd think.

[Prez]

He was amazing. Just at everything, and its crazy how much he's improved. Gotta be in the MIP running I'd think.

I think Drummond's gonna get it unless he falls off terribly, but yeah Giannis should be up there.

I think he's still a year away from his true breakout. He's been our best defender, our best offensive player, our best hustle player, just does everything...but there's still just so much untapped potential. He's been playing at a borderline all-star level and I still don't think he's all that close to where he could be 5-6 years from now. I think next year is when we're really gonna see where this is all going.

[bondom34]

He was amazing. Just at everything, and its crazy how much he's improved. Gotta be in the MIP running I'd think.

I think Drummond's gonna get it unless he falls off terribly, but yeah Giannis should be up there.

I think he's still a year away from his true breakout. He's been our best defender, our best offensive player, our best hustle player, just does everything...but there's still just so much untapped potential. He's been playing at a borderline all-star level and I still don't think he's all that close to where he could be 5-6 years from now. I think next year is when we're really gonna see where this is all going.

Don't know how I forgot Drummond, but man was Giannis nuts vs. Lebron. This killed me:
https://streamable.com/nt8f

[H2tObes]

Did not even turn the ball over once. He was extremely good tonight, seemed to score whenever he touched the ball.

The most intriguing part to me is that he did this with only attempting 1 outside shot the whole game, that being a 3 which he made. He is shooting nearly 85% from the free throw line this season and 31% from the 3 point line. Not sure how you go about guarding him when his quickly developing jumpshot catches up to the rest of his game.

[The-Power]

We all know about his amazing transition offense but it is great to see how assertive he is becoming in taking small defenders in the post and bigger defender off the dribble. His length, new gained strength, footwork, decent handles and quickness makes him unguardable in certain settings. Let him develop a consistent midrage jumper at least - which he should develop over time because he does not have poor shooting mechanics - and he is going to be a handful for teams on any given night.

I talked about his defense early and stick to my statements: in the current league he can very well become a DPOY-level player. He is already extremely disruptive in the lanes and understands how to bother opponents with his length, both in terms man-defense and help-defense. Occasional overplays are going to be reduced when he matures further and gains more experience. He is not at an elite level just yet but I'm convinced he will get there, he plays some absolutely elite defensive possessions every game. Especially his perimeter defense has some flaws to overcome but he has all the tools to do so - I assume him believing he has to do everything on defense leads to poor defensive results from the perimeter. Once he settles in - and the Bucks get someone he can trust in the paint - this problem is going to be alleviated at the very least.

Anyway, I don't think the Bucks have the right team around him. Disruptive perimeter defense for the transition game he excels in is there but the half court offense is a mess at times. I mean, it is not even like Kidd doesn't know how to emphasize ball movement and running plays. Actually this is one reason they are a middle-of-the-pack offensive team. But the spacing is awful and this hurts Giannis the most. When you have Parker and Giannis as the cornerstones of the franchise you better surround them with decent shooters. Middleton is such a guy but MCW is absolutely useless on offense for them (and, frankly, for most teams) - especially in his current role. Monroe is meh. Not the worst fit on offense but he does not help with the spacing problem either and the fact that he is a) someone who likes to play with the back to the basket (less spacing, slower pace - exactly what the Bucks do not need) and b) does not provide rim-protection (i.e. probably reinforcing Giannis' tendency to do too much on defense) makes him an overall poor fit.

Get a Center who plays less in the low post and can give you some rim protection, get a PG in the mold of Jrue Holiday (this means: solid shooter who can run the offense with decent success but does not dominate the ball) and play a faster brand of basketball (maybe the most important aspect right now: with a good defense, especially at the perimeter, and a transition player like Giannis you should by no means be at the bottom in pace, although not having a consistent creator on offense hurts the chances to constantly force a higher pace). Future is bright, but the Bucks need to make some more roster changes in order to build around Giannis' strengths. Hopefully they'll get it done sooner rather than later. I like this guy quite a bit.

[Magic Giannison]

Giannis is god,im telling this all the time but people do not believe me.

[Dcebucks11]

[quote="The-Power"]
Anyway, I don't think the Bucks have the right team around him. Disruptive perimeter defense for the transition game he excels in is there but the half court offense is a mess at times. I mean, it is not even like Kidd doesn't know how to emphasize ball movement and running plays. Actually this is one reason they are a middle-of-the-pack offensive team. But the spacing is awful and this hurts Giannis the most. When you have Parker and Giannis as the cornerstones of the franchise you better surround them with decent shooters. Middleton is such a guy but MCW is absolutely useless on offense for them (and, frankly, for most teams) - especially in his current role. Monroe is meh. Not the worst fit on offense but he does not help with the spacing problem either and the fact that he is a) someone who likes to play with the back to the basket (less spacing, slower pace - exactly what the Bucks do not need) and b) does not provide rim-protection (i.e. probably reinforcing Giannis' tendency to do too much on defense) makes him an overall poor fit.

Get a Center who plays less in the low post and can give you some rim protection, get a PG in the mold of Jrue Holiday (this means: solid shooter who can run the offense with decent success but does not dominate the ball) and play a faster brand of basketball (maybe the most important aspect right now: with a good defense, especially at the perimeter, and a transition player like Giannis you should by no means be at the bottom in pace, although not having a consistent creator on offense hurts the chances to constantly force a higher pace). Future is bright, but the Bucks need to make some more roster changes in order to build around Giannis' strengths. Hopefully they'll get it done sooner rather than later. I like this guy quite a bit.[/quote]

I've talked about this countless times in the Bucks thread many times, instead of building around our two cornerstones the Bucks are just trying to build a playoff team right now with a bunch of misfits. The Pace is troublesome and is because of Monroe and MCW who like to slow down the pace. We got the total opposite type of players to build around them and we are paying with garbage play this season. Monroe does nothing for this team, his defense is horrific and he's stealing Jabaris post ups.

[skones]

Anyway, I don't think the Bucks have the right team around him. Disruptive perimeter defense for the transition game he excels in is there but the half court offense is a mess at times. I mean, it is not even like Kidd doesn't know how to emphasize ball movement and running plays. Actually this is one reason they are a middle-of-the-pack offensive team. But the spacing is awful and this hurts Giannis the most. When you have Parker and Giannis as the cornerstones of the franchise you better surround them with decent shooters. Middleton is such a guy but MCW is absolutely useless on offense for them (and, frankly, for most teams) - especially in his current role. Monroe is meh. Not the worst fit on offense but he does not help with the spacing problem either and the fact that he is a) someone who likes to play with the back to the basket (less spacing, slower pace - exactly what the Bucks do not need) and b) does not provide rim-protection (i.e. probably reinforcing Giannis' tendency to do too much on defense) makes him an overall poor fit.

Get a Center who plays less in the low post and can give you some rim protection, get a PG in the mold of Jrue Holiday (this means: solid shooter who can run the offense with decent success but does not dominate the ball) and play a faster brand of basketball (maybe the most important aspect right now: with a good defense, especially at the perimeter, and a transition player like Giannis you should by no means be at the bottom in pace, although not having a consistent creator on offense hurts the chances to constantly force a higher pace). Future is bright, but the Bucks need to make some more roster changes in order to build around Giannis' strengths. Hopefully they'll get it done sooner rather than later. I like this guy quite a bit.[/quote]

I've talked about this countless times in the Bucks thread many times, instead of building around our two cornerstones the Bucks are just trying to build a playoff team right now with a bunch of misfits. The Pace is troublesome and is because of Monroe and MCW who like to slow down the pace. We got the total opposite type of players to build around them and we are paying with garbage play this season. Monroe does nothing for this team, his defense is horrific and he's stealing Jabaris post ups.

We're legitimately 12 games into a season where the oldest player in our starting lineup is 25 years old. They were never going to come storming out of the great with great chemistry. This was always going to take time. WAAAAAYYYY to soon to call it a failed experiment.

[Johnny Firpo]

Awesome post moves. He needs be that aggressive every night, not just against Lebron which no doubt motivated him. Time to go from chill mode to kill mode. The court is his, he just has to take it.

[AussieBuck]

Awesome post moves. He needs be that aggressive every night, not just against Lebron which no doubt motivated him. Time to go from chill mode to kill mode. The court is his, he just has to take it.

It's a bit odd that he does amazing things against Lebron, Melo etc, he played a quarter on Davis last season and dominated him and then you have other games where he's matched up with Kris Humphries and he's like nah I'll just hang out and watch.

[NO-KG-AI]

Awesome post moves. He needs be that aggressive every night, not just against Lebron which no doubt motivated him. Time to go from chill mode to kill mode. The court is his, he just has to take it.

It's a bit odd that he does amazing things against Lebron, Melo etc, he played a quarter on Davis last season and dominated him and then you have other games where he's matched up with Kris Humphries and he's like nah I'll just hang out and watch.

He just needs to be that aggressive, all game, every game. He won't drop 33 a night or anything, but it's clear when the stakes are high and he feels like he needs to step his game up, he does well... some guys try to do too much, but history kind of shows that he has flourished when he does more.

The biggest thing that sets apart guys like the Odom, Rasheed Wallace, Deron Williams of the world from the true top tier stars is that they are just so inconsistent (some more than others) than their superstar counterparts.

He's young, and it's a learning process for guys that develop late to figure out how much effort and aggression is too much, and how much is not enough.

You want your guys to play smart, and play hard, but you can never get too angry at a guy who makes a mistake by being overly aggressive and playing his hardest.

[AussieBuck]

When I'm being pessimistic as a Bucks fan tends to get I'm worried about him being the not so assertive team player like a AK/Batum thing where their career paths took a different turn to where it could have because they weren't going to force anything being Euro-background team guys.

[NO-KG-AI]

When I'm being pessimistic as a Bucks fan tends to get I'm worried about him being the not so assertive team player like a AK/Batum thing where their career paths took a different turn to where it could have because they weren't going to force anything being Euro-background team guys.

That would be my biggest concern as well. When promising young players are still growing and all the tools are there, the big concerns are always the one you mentioned, injuries, or the falling in love with bad shots syndrome like Rudy Gay.

I don't think he'll ever get to the point that AK has been to with shaken confidence and drop off in play.

[AussieBuck]

When I'm being pessimistic as a Bucks fan tends to get I'm worried about him being the not so assertive team player like a AK/Batum thing where their career paths took a different turn to where it could have because they weren't going to force anything being Euro-background team guys.

That would be my biggest concern as well. When promising young players are still growing and all the tools are there, the big concerns are always the one you mentioned, injuries, or the falling in love with bad shots syndrome like Rudy Gay.

I don't think he'll ever get to the point that AK has been to with shaken confidence and drop off in play.

Yeah I'm confident enough to think he's hungry and in a hurry, would love to see him given the ball.

[Serge28]

I'm not worried about that aspect of Giannis at all. He's an Alpha through and through.

[Illmatic12]

Awesome post moves. He needs be that aggressive every night, not just against Lebron which no doubt motivated him. Time to go from chill mode to kill mode. The court is his, he just has to take it.

It's a bit odd that he does amazing things against Lebron, Melo etc, he played a quarter on Davis last season and dominated him and then you have other games where he's matched up with Kris Humphries and he's like nah I'll just hang out and watch.

He just needs to be that aggressive, all game, every game. He won't drop 33 a night or anything, but it's clear when the stakes are high and he feels like he needs to step his game up, he does well... some guys try to do too much, but history kind of shows that he has flourished when he does more.

The biggest thing that sets apart guys like the Odom, Rasheed Wallace, Deron Williams of the world from the true top tier stars is that they are just so inconsistent (some more than others) than their superstar counterparts.

He's young, and it's a learning process for guys that develop late to figure out how much effort and aggression is too much, and how much is not enough.

You want your guys to play smart, and play hard, but you can never get too angry at a guy who makes a mistake by being overly aggressive and playing his hardest.

I wouldn't include Deron (he brought it every night in his healthy prime), but yeah. Guys like Odom, Wallace, Josh Howard etc all had incredible physical/skill advantages at their position and dominated elite players plenty of times. No one ever said they couldn't become dominant/elite players - talent was never the issue, just consistency & mindset.

There's nothing wrong with not being an every game, #1 scoring option - not every player wants to be THAT guy, or wants their teammates to rely on them to provide that night after night.

The question for Giannis isn't talent, it's - how comfortable will he be with having his less talented teammates look upon him to take over games? It's a mantle that you have to willing to bear whether through your successes or failures, you can't shy away from it. If Giannis doesn't want it, Parker will take it.

Most of the top scorers in the league were doing that from a young and impressionable age, whereas Giannis started playing basketball later in life and was initiated in a different role.

[skones]

I don't think Giannis has been standing around in the corner much this season in comparison to the first two years. The primary thing has been his overaggression leading to stupid fouls on both ends of the floor and him losing his rhythm.

[Prez]

Finally let him run more of the offense on-ball...and surprise surprise. Good stuff happens.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi-DlB5dEC0[/youtube]

[bondom34]

Finally let him run more of the offense on-ball...and surprise surprise. Good stuff happens.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi-DlB5dEC0[/youtube]

Congrats on the W!