How impressive is giannis' ring/season?

[Infinite Llamas]

Well, his team won the last two games in the ECF without him so that should be a clue about the overall level of competition he faced.

Giannis had an impressive finals and people may overrate the run a bit because of game six. Solid run overall but not going to make any too 10 lists when you consider quality of opponents faced.

[DutchManDanFan]

Winning an NBA title is always impressive. You need a superstar to win (almost always), so the amount of pressure on the superstar is huge. The Bucks had some luck, which they didn't have the 2 years before. You win some, you lose some.

[KGtabake]

Lebron got robbed of finals MVP. Man should have won that trophy for dragging that team to two wins.

With or without Green in 16 the cavs win that championship stop it

Tremendous argument.
The Cavs win.... because that's what I wanted to happen and idc about your arguments

That Draymond green ONE game suspension is the lamest argument I heard in NBA history because it was only for ONE game. Why couldn’t they win game 6 and 7 when Draymond played? Argument makes no sense at all.

How is Curry 2015 ring impressive? He beat Lebron and a bunch of G league players. The sad part is that Lebron and the G league players pushed the Warriors to 6 games that year. Curry didn’t even win Finals MVP.

Spurs rings are way more impressive than that 2015 Warriors ring. Spurs rings were way more impressive, played better teams etc. Whichever Spurs you want to go with. Way more impressive than that 2015 ring. Not even close.

Convenient to say that a 3-2 lead or a 3-3 tie is the same as a 3-1 lead with the psychology completely reversed.
I'm not expecting Curry haters to admit anything. Maybe i wouldn't admit anything too if my team had been bounced by Curry's team 4 times in 5 seasons.

[Pachinko_]

FIBA doesn't favor anyone in particular.

Oh, it does, absolutely. For example, FIBA rules don't have the same defensive mobility requirements, which allows teams to pack the paint with guys who are good at pushing and blocking, but can't really move very well. Those guys are not playable in the NBA. Like the twin towers that France was playing against the US last summer, Rudy can move well enough but the other guy could not, hence he's not in the NBA, even though he's massive.

It merely favors legitimate basketball skills like being able to dribble without travelling or moving around the court without commiting offensive fouls on every possession.

"On every possession"...
So you're saying that Giannis who touches the ball about 30 times a game really commits 15 offensive fouls and 15 travels. But you are the only one who noticed, because everybody else is involved in a global conspiracy organized by the NBA commissioner who is willing to bend all rules because he is desperate to capture the massive and lucrative market of... Milwaukee?
As in: "Screw New York and California, I'm gonna artificially place the next NBA superstar in Milwaukee, because that's where the money is".
I mean I don't know, anything is possible I guess.

[Pachinko_]

By the way, Giannis in FIBA has the same amount of turnovers per 36 as he has in the NBA.
So I guess the FIBA refs agree that he doesn't travel. Unless they are also part of the NBA commissioner's conspiracy?

[KGtabake]

Well, his team won the last two games in the ECF without him so that should be a clue about the overall level of competition he faced.

Giannis had an impressive finals and people may overrate the run a bit because of game six. Solid run overall but not going to make any too 10 lists when you consider quality of opponents faced.

But the competition was good when the Hawks eliminated without HC a Sixers team with the best record in the league? Then, suddenly it became bad?
The competition was bad when the Bucks swept a heat team that one year earlier had shocked them easily?
Giannis was averaging 32ppg in the first 5 games. Game6 just took the average to 35.
Whatever. Agree to disagree.

[sdeezy]

I cant believe someone still made the "Giannis is unskilled/ Giannis has no bag" argument on a basketball forum, in the year of our lord 2022.

About the ring, its pretty damn impressive. Not quite on the same level as Dirk '11 or Lebron '16 but its probably on the tier right below that. That 50pt performance was one for the ages.

[Optms]

The least impressive ring outside of KD's rings with the Dubs. Literally all contending teams had injuries to their star players last season.

This has never happened. We had the freaking Hawks going to the ECF and the freaking Sun's in the finals. Kawhi's ring with the Raptors means more.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

Not very. He is manufactured entirely by NBA's ridiculous rules and and even more ridiculous reffing which bends those rules even further to create stars based on the whims of the commish.

Anyone who has ever watched Giannis to play FIBA knows that he cannot play basketball.

God damn, NBA. Always having a Northern Midwest bias that manufactures champions and stars in Milwaukee. Wish they would fix this in the next CBA. Really unfair.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

The least impressive ring outside of KD's rings with the Dubs. Literally all contending teams had injuries to their star players last season.

This has never happened. We had the freaking Hawks going to the ECF and the freaking Sun's in the finals. Kawhi's ring with the Raptors means more.

I think Bill Simmons did an Asterik article. You could say something about any championship.
-Lakers won after the long break. If it was played normally, I doubt they would have been rested enough/Bucks chemistry was too good before the break and never got it back in the bubble. / No fans etc
-Raptors - Lucky bounce by KL in ECSF. Played a shell of the GSW.
You can come up with anything for any year.

[Pachinko_]

Literally all contending teams had injuries to their star players last season.

Including Milwaukee.
I'd like you to please close your eyes, and imagine what this feels like:

[Nate505]

As impressive as it gets. He did it without having to resort to forming Superteams with his friends. Therefore the grime that builds up in his ring is worth far more than all of Durant's combined.

[Mauro Pedrosa]

A solid 8 out of 10. Could argue a 9

[Rodwilliams]

Tremendous argument.
The Cavs win.... because that's what I wanted to happen and idc about your arguments

That Draymond green ONE game suspension is the lamest argument I heard in NBA history because it was only for ONE game. Why couldn’t they win game 6 and 7 when Draymond played? Argument makes no sense at all.

How is Curry 2015 ring impressive? He beat Lebron and a bunch of G league players. The sad part is that Lebron and the G league players pushed the Warriors to 6 games that year. Curry didn’t even win Finals MVP.

Spurs rings are way more impressive than that 2015 Warriors ring. Spurs rings were way more impressive, played better teams etc. Whichever Spurs you want to go with. Way more impressive than that 2015 ring. Not even close.

Convenient to say that a 3-2 lead or a 3-3 tie is the same as a 3-1 lead with the psychology completely reversed.
I'm not expecting Curry haters to admit anything. Maybe i wouldn't admit anything too if my team had been bounced by Curry's team 4 times in 5 seasons.

Nice try but the fancy wordplay won’t work on me. If Warriors were truly the better team they would’ve close that series out game 6 when Draymond was back. They would’ve showed the Cavs that they only won that ONE game because Draymond wasn’t there. I won’t even get into how they choked game 7 away. They lost because Cavs were the better team.

It’s hard for you to make an argument when history isn’t on your side. No other team in NBA history has ever blown a 3-1 lead in the Finals.

Back to the 2015 argument though I put the 2004 Pistons over the 2015 Warriors. Ring was way more impressive and they were not expected to beat the Lakers in the Finals that year. Lakers had all their stars too. Spurs rings as well.

[jokeboy86]

Some Harden burners in the replies on this one for sure. Tell me you're an ignorant hater without telling me you're an ignorant hater. Anyone who uses the "no skill" argument on Giannis better have HATED prime Shaq too. If you think all Giannis does is knock people over, I have some news for you. Don't confuse dominance and an unmatchable combination of size, strength, and athleticism with a lack of skill, you clowns. Also, he's one of the most skilled and intelligent team/help defenders in NBA history, but "skill" always is limited to dribbling and shooting in these debates, for some "strange" reason.

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Love Giannis but that's a poor comparision. Shaq's footwoork on the block from a fundamental standpoint was superb plus Shaq had all the big man offensive moves you could want except jump shooting and most of the time big men his size weren't shooting jump shots that often. For people to say Giannis isn't skilled is still asinine but from a fundamental standpoint on offense he's still severely lacking which is actually scary to think about. His footwork can still get very sloppy when he's going downhill and picks up his dribble and a defender is in front of him. Still doesn't really use any great low post moves besides facing up guys and just driving around them. At times he's shown a mid-range fadeaway but what you really want is for him to train with Hakeem just one time because eventually his athleticism will leave him(by age or by injury) and then that's where his fundamentals would still keep him impactful. Imagine if Giannis had moves like Jokic.

[greekbuck34]

In Fiba wins the team with the best chemistry unless you have unlimited talent pool(USA). That's why guys like Mills, Rubio, Fournier and 40y argentinians look like supestars there. They play with the same group of guys since they were young. They get up together and the band immediately clicks and is ready for a 15 day tournament against unknown players.

Giannis sees his guys once every 3-4 years and his group is so bad they can't even qualify in the main events without him playing teams like Czech and other unknown countries. I think the last time he played was 3 or 4 years ago.

[Ron Swanson]

Oh god, this stupid FIBA narrative again? Nobody cares that some of you guys think that big, plodding Centers jacking up elbow jumpers and try-hard under-sized guards that can't make an NBA roster is the epitome of "basketball purity".

This thread oh so predictably bringing out the dolts that act like basketball didn't exist before the era of the "dribble-dribble step-back 3" superstars. Same people would be out here crying about how David Robinson, Julius Erving, and Hakeem "weren't skilled".

[CIN-C-STAR]

Giannis was so impressive last season that many argued that KD was the best player in the league because even though Giannis beat him and statistically outplayed him, KD managed to make it close.
Think about that.
A significant number of people were blown away that KD was even able to be competitive against Giannis.
Unintentional perhaps, but that's respect.

[Cavsfansince84]

I think it was good enough that he is and will continue to get talk for top 25 peak of all time based off of it unless he has an even better season in the future.

[Edrees]

Very impressive - but not any more or less impressive than other title run + finals MVP's in other years. Its on par with those.