Giannis' Development

[Prince12]

So he's gotta get player of the week, right? Last week probably would have been close too.

Kemba..

[Ron Swanson]

I would recommend to everyone that you go back and read the original 2013 draft thread. I actually enjoyed reading a lot of the posts. And not for "I told you so" reasons (I among others would have been satisfied with a rich man's Nic Batum....). It's just incredible to see how far our perceptions of him have come in the last 3 years.

[Wonderllama]

What is your guys' list of players you'd trade Giannis for? Mine's empty.

If Giannis were traded for Steph Curry straight up before the start of this season, do the Bucks win the title? I dunno. Certainly I think Bucks make the playoffs but I don't think the rest of the roster is ready for title contention. Curry just became 28 years old. These are his prime years. Giannis might still be 7 years from reaching his prime! So any trade for Giannis should involve equally good, young talent.

For me, that's Karl Anthony Towns. I think he can be great with a capital G. An all-timer. But so could Giannis. Unless the Bucks somehow draft the next Chris Paul, they can't afford to make that trade without an elite ball handler already on the roster.

I like Anthony Davis but he is the most injury prone superstar in the league. Also, we're seeing he can't be that MVP contender he should be. It's hard to say if he can be the best player on a title team. Towns is showing more potential in his rookie year IMO.

So yeah, I can't think of too many people. If the team was a superstar away from the title, I would say Curry or KD or guys like that. Still, another 10+ years of watching Giannis sounds cool

[humanrefutation]

I would recommend to everyone that you go back and read the original 2013 draft thread. I actually enjoyed reading a lot of the posts. And not for "I told you so" reasons (I among others would have been satisfied with a rich man's Nic Batum....). It's just incredible to see how far our perceptions of him have come in the last 3 years.

Hey I know how I felt at the time - annoyed that people were talking him up and having passionate excitement about a kid they didn't really know a damn thing about. I don't think I was wrong to feel that way then.

[breakchains]

http://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/241193/Giannis-And-The-Science-Fiction-Future-Of-Basketball

Giannis And The Science Fiction Future Of Basketball
BY CHRISTOPHER REINA

MAR 14, 2016 7:00 PM


Giannis Antetokounmpo is a basketball miracle that offers you the most convincing glimpse into the seemingly improbable future of the game that may not even arrive in our lifetimes. It is a science fiction, basketball utopia in which every player can do everything with fluidity and athleticism at seven feet. You can stay up all night watching Giannis highlights and envision this new planet for the game, the inevitable endpoint for positionless basketball.

Gliding elegantly down the court off the dribble and dunking after taking the last bounce from the logo the way Stephen Curry shoots from the logo. Only Giannis also pass fakes in the middle of it before dunking one-handed. Oh and he grabbed the rebound in traffic before it all began.

With Michael Carter-Williams hurt and Greg Monroe coming off the bench, Giannis can be all over the court, playing uptempo and maximizing his physical gifts and feel for the game without being held back by the minutiae of running a halfcourt offense and have defenders try to force him into perimeter shots.

Since the All-Star break, the second best and seventh best five-man units in the NBA features Point Giannis. It defies logic for a team in the lottery to have a lineup combination that is playing better basketball than all of The Finals contenders but it will take some time for the NBA to figure out how to counter Point Giannis. During the month of March, Giannis is averaging 22.4 points on 50 percent shooting, 7.9 rebounds, 8.4 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.7 blocks per game with a PER of 26.4.

The Bucks made the playoffs last year on the strength of their offense but adding Monroe to boost their offense had the double negative effect of cratering their defense and ruining any semblance of space on offense.

Giannis still can't shoot and it makes you wonder what basketball will look like when there's a Curry level shooter inserted within the frame of Giannis. It will be impossible for our grandchildren to conceive of the game today when the best player in the world was 6’3 because they will have become extinct from the NBA. This current era is beginning the obsolescence of players who would be franchise talents in the past. Coaches are figuring out ways to play certain skill-sets off the floor completely whether it’s not defending Tony Allen or play five-out so the opponents can’t capably defend aanyone. The way teams are playing five-out basketball on offense and switch everything on defense, you may not be able to even be on the floor if you can’t shoot 40 percent from three, dribble and pass like a classic point guard while also sufficiently defending any of the five opponents on the other end.

When you think about Giannis and wonder what it will be like when someone like him can shoot like Curry, you also remember Kevin Durant still exists doing extraordinary things at nearly seven feet tall and has essentially been a 50/40/90 since 2012. Durant is in his own special circumstances category whereas it’s more probable we’ll see young players capable of following the Giannis blueprint. Not everyone like Giannis makes it, but there's no way he should have slid to 15th in a weak draft, just as Paul George and Kawhi Leonard went way too late as well.

Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Davis are bigs with some of the abilities of a guard while Giannis is a guard that gets to play in the body of a big just as Durant has functioned this whole time. As remarkable of a feel for the game Durant has and what he can unstoppably do in isolation and everything else, he’s never been the type of precise and inventive passer we see from Giannis. There is little chance of Giannis ever becoming as great of a player as Durant in a vacuum, but Giannis makes his teammates better in a direct way and not merely as a gravitational force with his own offense. Towns and Davis are the logical next step from Kevin Garnett that saw bigs also freelance with guard responsibilities.

With Durant, Dirk Nowitzki and even Channing Frye, we’ve already grown accustomed to shooters at this height, but the accompaniment of passing at this level has really been confined to Magic Johnson and LeBron James. The comeback of Shaun Livingston as a super-sub with the Warriors shows us a glimpse of the type of player he could have become without the devastating injury.

The NBA now has Giannis and will get another one next season in Ben Simmons, who is the refined second-generation prodigy to the unexplained natural that is Giannis. The problem for Simmons is Brandon Ingram will eventually be able to do everything he can and is a whole lot longer like Giannis. The luxury of having someone with a 7’3 wingspan run your offense is it gives you any number of combinations of other players to pair with him.

What makes Giannis so special and why he’s the prototype is he hasn’t played the game as long as most 21-year-olds and he’s doing this despite his own limitations. The barrier to entry to become the next Giannis is light years lower than it does for Durant, Curry, Towns, or even Jahlil Okafor. It is exceedingly more rare and difficult to develop the post game of Okafor, but what’s the point when you are more valuable as a plus-defender and shooter like Myles Turner?

Giannis is the paradox of having a high basketball IQ and doing everything well yet somehow also remaining a raw talent with so much more unfulfilled potential. It doesn’t matter if Giannis becomes an MVP talent or not. The next player to challenge our concept of who is the greatest of all-time will look and play more like Giannis than anyone else in the entire game.

I love seeing all this stuff.

Also funny to think that you were branded as a homer if you said this stuff about him even a month ago. I recall even around here, one month ago, people who watched every game would contest the notion that he is a great passer with a great feel for the game. Now, it's basically the national consensus.

[emunney]

Posted this in the PC board:

I think in general people tend to overreact to triple doubles. The players all know where they are at in regard to stats and the team always seems to tip a rebound to them, make sure they get an assist, etc. In Giannis' case I think people are completely underreacting. Its not the Pts/Rebs/Assts that are making the triple doubles special. Its that he is getting 4 stl, 2 bl, shooting insane %s, etc, IN ADDITION to his core statlines. His triple doubles are all historic.

For example,

Lets look at how many 25/10/10/3/2 on .700fg% triple doubles there have been in the history of the game.

The answer is 2. Giannis on 2/22 and Giannis on 3/13. And ALL his triple doubles have been like that:

18/16/11/4/2 - Has happened 2 times (including Giannis' - Barkley the other)
27/12/10/3/4 .706 - Once (Giannis)
28/11/14/4/2 .750 - Once (Giannis)
26/12/10/3/4 - Twice (BOTH GIANNIS in the last 3 weeks)

They gave the kid the keys to the family jalopy and he is winning the Indy 500. He has been playing basketball for 7 years. There is no limit to the upside. Would it be nice to add a shot? Of course, he would be completely unguardable. But he is almost that already with a ton of growth coming over the next 5-7 years.

I don't even think he really needs a jumpshot. Can you imagine if he can start hitting that floater regularly? He takes that from a half step in from the FT line. It'd be a signature shot, like the Sky Hook. You'd never be able to respect it because if you did, he's on top of the rim.

[drew881]

So he's gotta get player of the week, right? Last week probably would have been close too.

Kemba..

More like Mehmba

[Nightfall]

Another interesting article on Giannis regarding (mostly) his footwork :

http://thesportsquotient.com/nba/2016/3/14/footwork-and-the-freak

(Anyone else has abused the repeat button on youtube, vine and reading articles on the internet following the last games, or is it just me ? )

[freewhitemoon]

Another interesting article on Giannis regarding (mostly) his footwork :

http://thesportsquotient.com/nba/2016/3/14/footwork-and-the-freak

(Anyone else has abused the repeat button on youtube, vine and reading articles on the internet following the last games, or is it just me ? )

yep i've done that too. this past month has brought me too much vicarious pleasure. i think i watched highlights of jabari's 36 point game about 10 times. the bballbreakdown guy is releasing a vid on giannis soon

[H2tObes]

Yeah reading so much about Bucks related things makes it hard to get work done. I am generally not very productive after a good Bucks game

[Nightfall]

Yeah reading so much about Bucks related things makes it hard to get work done. I am generally not very productive after a good Bucks game

True that. For me as european, the worst thing is that I have so gotten used to waking up in the middle of the night , or staying awake late, that sometimes it happens that I wake up at around 03:00 am on days without a game , but I always check box scores on the smartphone just to be sure This amplifies by a lot after a streak of good games.

[Prez]

I have an Ochem exam in like 5 minutes and I'm reading this thread lmao. Giannis is dominating my life right now and I'm totally fine with it.

[Presence]

I propose all the Giannis fanboys (including me) to form a circle, get a lathered Giannis photo (I'm sure Magic Giannison has one for personal use) in the middle, and jerk off each other.

[pe_it72]

Yeah reading so much about Bucks related things makes it hard to get work done. I am generally not very productive after a good Bucks game

True that. For me as european, the worst thing is that I have so gotten used to waking up in the middle of the night , or staying awake late, that sometimes it happens that I wake up at around 03:00 am on days without a game , but I always check box scores on the smartphone just to be sure This amplifies by a lot after a streak of good games.

Do you guys have DVR?

[Nightfall]

Yeah reading so much about Bucks related things makes it hard to get work done. I am generally not very productive after a good Bucks game

True that. For me as european, the worst thing is that I have so gotten used to waking up in the middle of the night , or staying awake late, that sometimes it happens that I wake up at around 03:00 am on days without a game , but I always check box scores on the smartphone just to be sure This amplifies by a lot after a streak of good games.

Do you guys have DVR?

Yes of course. But where is the fun in that ?

[Nycballa2k]

I BELIEVED ALL ALONG. I TOLD YOU SO!

[greekbuck34]

This may be seen a little out of place but I have to say it anyway for all non-greeks out there.

The recent(no offense to our fellow member here but only recently became a bit viral ) Magic Giannison nick name of Giannis isn't just a play of words/names between Giannis and the legend Magic Johnson.
It's also a semi-translation!

Ioannis or Ioannes (Greek: Ιωάννης), shortened to Giannis or Yannis (Γιάννης) is a Greek given name, the origin of Johannes and John.

This should be a better answer for those who question this nickname based only on the current level of point Giannis and the level of Magic Johnson.

Anyway the "Greek Freak" is much better and unique nickname imo but I have no problem at all calling him Magic Giannison when he plays the point like he did the last 11 games.

[JimmyTheKid]

I BELIEVED ALL ALONG. I TOLD YOU SO!

There were only like two posters who DIDN'T believe in Giannis. The rest of us had unrealistic and unfair expectations after watching him glide up and down the court a few times. And somehow he managed to reach and surpass those expectations before turning 22. How f***ing crazy is that? Especially when, at 18-19 years old, we're casually tossing around the names Scottie Pippen and Magic Johnson. But "I told you so's" are typically more effective when you're just one of a few.

[LUKE23]

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=0&y1=2016&p1=antetgi01&y2=1998&p2=garneke01&p3=&p4=&p5=&p6=

Pretty crazy how close the Per 36 numbers are.

[ReasonablySober]

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=0&y1=2016&p1=antetgi01&y2=1998&p2=garneke01&p3=&p4=&p5=&p6=

Pretty crazy how close the Per 36 numbers are.

I've been posting that same Per 36 for at least a year-plus now and the numbers were always eerily similar. I hadn't looked in a while and assumed they start to diverge, but it's crazy that they're even closer now.