Milwaukee Bucks: Giannis Antetokoumpo’s Case For Most Improved Player
By Phil Watson
Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Milwaukee Bucks’ second-year wing, is making a strong case for himself as the NBA’s Most Improved Player.
Antetokounmpo, who just turned 20 on Saturday, has started 12 of Milwaukee’s last 13 games—the one he didn’t start was when he had a sprained ankle and wasn’t supposed to play, but logged 15 minutes anyway—and his numbers as a starter have merited the promotion.
Playing small forward opposite this year’s No. 2 overall pick, Jabari Parker, last year’s No. 15 overall pick is proving the Bucks made a good gamble when they reached for him in the first round.
A raw prospect still learning the game—much less the NBA game—as a rookie, Antetokoumpo flashed signs of brilliance, but that was intermixed with spans where he just got lost on the floor.
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The most telling case to make for Antetokounmpo is that while is playing time is up marginally this season, his production has skyrocketed.
In 24.6 minutes per game last season, Antetokounmpo averaged 6.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists and shot .414/.347/.683.
In 27 minutes a game thus far in 2014-15, the Greek Freak is averaging 12 points, 5.8 rebounds and two assists on a .488/.154/.724 shooting line.
He did something in the offseason few players do—he grew. Not as a player; like, literally grew. Listed at 6-foot-9 when he went through the pre-draft combine in 2013, Antetokpounmpo now measures 6-foot-11, with a wingspan of almost 7-foot-6.
Add to that his point-guard-like skills and he really is what his nickname implies—a freak, but in a good way.
The most telling way to show the marked improvement he’s made from Year 1 to Year 2 is to look at his numbers normalized over 36 minutes.
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/9/2014.
His offensive rating has jumped from 99 points per 100 possessions to 108, while his defensive rating has gone down from 110 points allowed per 100 possessions to 105.
That’s a net change of plus-14 per 100 possessions over the course of one summer.
His development is a huge reason—along with the coaching change from Weekend At Bernie’s stand-in Larry Drew to younger, more engaged Jason Kidd—why the Bucks are 11-11 through 22 games and in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff chase.
Say what you will about Kidd’s ethics—or lack thereof—when it comes to his employment, the fact is that no coach in the NBA has done more to turn around a team in 2014-15 than Kidd has to this point.
He’s even got O.J. Mayo engaged and productive and, before Tristan Thompson inadvertently rearranged his face, Ersan Ilyasova was producing at pre-Drew levels, as well.
Antetokounmpo’s player efficiency rating has also skyrocketed, from an end-of-the-rotation-esque 10.8 to an above-average 15.9 (15 is considered average for an NBA player).
Kidd won’t win Coach of the Year honors—the manner by which he deposed Drew in Milwaukee burned a lot of bridges both inside and outside the coaching profession and voters won’t reward him, at least not the season after his involvement in the tacky way Drew’s dismissal was handled.
But Antetokounmpo has to be considered one of the strongest candidates in the NBA for its Most Improved hardware.
And the scariest part of all for the rest of the NBA has to be this: He’s still figuring things out.
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