Taking a look at why Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo should not shoot more threes during this season despite plans to increase his attempts.
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo revealed earlier this month he plans to spend more time on the perimeter this upcoming season. Antetokounmpo told a Greek television station called Cosmote TV on December 1st that he planned to be on the perimeter more often to improve his 3-point percentage.
Why Giannis Antetokounmpo shooting more 3s would hurt the Milwaukee Bucks
But would Antetokounmpo’s desire to improve his 3-point shooting help Milwaukee? No, as he has been a dreadful 3-point shooter throughout his career. Antetokounmpo has a career shooting percentage of 28.4 percent from behind the arc on 2.1 attempts per game.
Antetokounmpo’s inability to shoot has led defenders to leave him open whenever he is behind the arc, as 99 percent of his threes have been uncontested during his career. He converted 29 percent of those field goals on 2.07 attempts per game.
Opposing defenders will continue to leave him open during this upcoming season. Antetokounmpo has failed to significantly improve his 3-point percentage over the last three seasons despite taking more attempts. He converted 30.7 percent of his threes during the 2017-18 season on 1.9 attempts per game.
Antetokounmpo increased his 3-point attempts by 47.4 percent during the 2018-19 season as he took 2.8 per game. Unfortunately, he was unable to improve his conversion rate, making 25.6 percent of those field goals.
Antetokounmpo continued to take more threes without significant success as he attempted 4.7 per game during this past season, a 67.8 percent increase from the 2018-19 season. He made 30.4 percent of those 3-pointers.
Consequently, Antetokounmpo’s track record indicates that he is unlikely to make a significant improvement in his 3-point shooting this upcoming season. Therefore, his teammates will have to deal with a help defender’s presence when he is off the ball. Unfortunately, it is terrible news for the rest of the projected starting lineup as the floor spacing will shrink, meaning it will be harder for them to get a quality shot.
How Giannis Antetokounmpo can expand his game without hurting the Milwaukee Bucks
If Antetokounmpo is serious about diversifying his basketball skills, he should ask head coach Mike Budenholzer to spend more time as a roll man. Antetokounmpo has thrived as a roll man in limited opportunities, shooting 60.5 percent from the field on 0.9 attempts per game over the last four seasons. The field goal percentage helped him generate 1.44 points per game on 1.16 possessions.
The previous success as a roll man would force his defender to pay attention to him whenever he is on the court. Consequently, it increases the likelihood that his teammates won’t have to worry about a help defender, giving them more space to move around and find a good shot..
More importantly, the transition to more of a roll man would help his teammates as Jrue Holiday and Donte DiVincenzo need the ball to be effective. Holiday’s most productive campaign came during the 2018-19 season when he drove to the basket a career-high 16.6 times per game.
He shot 52 percent during these drives on 7.7 attempts per game, which helped him create 9.7 points per game. The 9.7 points accounted for 45.7 percent of his scoring output as he averaged a career-high 21.2 points per game.
On the other hand, DiVincenzo had his most successful stretch from March 4th to the 8 averaging a career-high 48 touches per game. These touches allowed him to drive to the basket a career-high 5.0 times per game, where he shot 70.0 percent from the field on 3.3 attempts creating 5.3 points per game.
DiVincenzo’s production on drives was responsible for 30.6 percent of his scoring output as he averaged 17.3 points per game. In conclusion, Milwaukee is likely to have more team success this season if Antetokounmpo focused on being the roll man rather than shooting more threes.