Giannis Antetokounmpo
After receiving a pass from the 3-point line with 1:34 remaining in the fourth quarter of a game against the Denver Nuggets on February 27, Giannis Antetokounmpo took a moment to gather himself.
With one foot already in the paint, Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon started to sag off him as he looked toward the rim.
Before stepping inside the arc and crossing the ball between his legs, Antetokounmpo took a stride to his left. The two-time MVP pulled up from 19 feet and hit the jumper as Gordon was ready to endure a patented Antetokounmpo drive, one of the NBA’s most powerful forces. This increased the Bucks’ lead and put an end to any thoughts of a Denver comeback.
After receiving a pass from the 3-point line with 1:34 remaining in the fourth quarter of a game against the Denver Nuggets on February 27, Giannis Antetokounmpo took a moment to gather himself.
With one foot already in the paint, Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon started to sag off him as he looked toward the rim.
Before stepping inside the arc and crossing the ball between his legs, Antetokounmpo took a stride to his left. The two-time MVP pulled up from 19 feet and hit the jumper as Gordon was ready to endure a patented Antetokounmpo drive, one of the NBA’s most powerful forces. This increased the Bucks’ lead and put an end to any thoughts of a Denver comeback.
But Antetokounmpo has not completely quit taking jumpers. He has simply taken a few strides in the midrange, an area that advanced analytics typically forbids in favor of threes and dunks.
“I have put some effort into it,” Antetokounmpo said to ESPN. “I am getting it from guys. It is less taxing on my physique, thus I got to shoot it. Man, I have to shoot it.
So he has. In addition to shooting 47%, Antetokounmpo has made 102 mid-range shots this season, which is the fourth most in the NBA and more than mid-range greats like Kyrie Irving, Donovan Mitchell, and DeMar DeRozan.
Antetokounmpo stated, “I have worked on that all summer long; it is part of my game.” “I think they are playoff shots. Additionally, I think I can make the shot.
Antetokounmpo is on course to duplicate last season, when he became the first player in NBA history to average 30 points on 60% shooting, with an average of 30.8 points, 12.1 rebounds, and 5.9 assists on 60.5% shooting. It is turning out to be another very outstanding season for him.
That is why Antetokounmpo, who has the third-best odds after Shai Gilegous-Alexander of Oklahoma City and Nikola Jokic of Denver, has entered the MVP discussion. Since the Bucks have dominated since the All-Star break, going 7-1 in their first eight games after the break and rising to a season-high 11 games over.500 before two losses this weekend, the conversations have intensified. This is a dramatic change from their terrible 2-8 start to the season.
After trading for Damian Lillard ahead of the 2023–24 season, Milwaukee is beginning to rediscover the momentum it had hoped for. However, the Bucks are counting on a healthy Antetokounmpo to prevent a third straight first-round playoff exit, as his injuries wrecked the team’s last two postseason appearances. Prior to Antetokounmpo’s back injury in Game 1, which caused the Bucks to lose to the Miami Heat in five games, Milwaukee was the top seed going into the 2023 playoffs.
Antetokounmpo was averaging 42 points and 13 rebounds against Indiana last regular season, but an injured calf a few weeks before the start of the 2024 playoffs kept him out of the Bucks six-game exit against the Pacers.
The disappointment of back-to-back playoff series losses left Antetokounmpo searching for answers. For Milwaukee to make another deep playoff run, he knew he needed to be available, but he wasn’t interested in any load-managing schemes to sit out games if he was healthy.
Instead, he spent the summer working to unlock an area of his game he had long wrestled to command: his shooting. Antetokounmpo returned to Greece with a plan to master the midrange, working with a skills coach to help craft a new jump shot and, in the process, finding a way to avoid excess contact on his body.
“I’m in my thirties, obviously, [and] I believe that I have four (to) six years, still, of good basketball to give, but I got to be smarter,” Antetokounmpo said. “I got to be smarter in the way I play.”
Antetokounmpo had to take a new approach in order to help Greece earn an Olympic berth for the first time in sixteen years.
Greece faced Croatia in the 2024 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament final this past July, with a spot at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris up for grabs.
In contrast to the NBA, where the spacing is more fluid, Antetokounmpo frequently likes to joke that the international game’s regulations make it harder to play. Antetokounmpo claims that Croatia began the game by filling the paint with Ivica Zubac, Dario Saric, and Mario Hezonja in an attempt to slow him down because there is no defensive three-second rule in the international game, which allows players to camp out in the paint.
Antetokounmpo, “I had to figure out,” he said. “I have to commit to this mid-range shot or I should drive the ball and continue fighting Zubac down there.”
Prior to the summer, Antetokounmpo was aware that Bucks coach Doc Rivers intended to use him on the elbows of the paint, about 15 to 19 feet from the basket, for offensive purposes in the forthcoming NBA season. When Antetokounmpo went to Greece before the Olympics, he brought skills coach Drew Hanlen and assistant coach Vin Baker from the Bucks to his hometown gym to work out in the mid-range.
They collaborated to tweak Antetokounmpo’s shooting technique a bit. They made him concentrate on leaping straight up and letting go of the ball as he went, rather than at the top of his jumper like he used to do. It is hard to stop him because of the distinctiveness of his form. When making a 2-pointer this season, Antetokounmpo’s average wrist height is 9.29 feet, which is only less than that of 7-foot-3 Victor Wembanyama, according to ESPN research.
Antetokounmpo operated from that part of the floor for hours every day, shooting, passing, and imagining himself as an offensive nexus from the elbow.
Rivers remarked, “We did highlight that this summer,” before a game last month. “He has excellent rhythm when he steps into it and is at that elbow. Giannis put in a ton of labor, and I did nothing. He had to believe in it, play from the elbows, catch it there, and act as a facilitator.
The posture he is in on the floor is simply explosive.
It was one thing to shoot in a deserted gym, but having the opportunity to guide his nation to the Olympics versus Croatia put the new tactic to the test.
Greece prevailed.
“The game was that. I produced six of them. I received about a six out of eight [mid-range] rating. He opened his eyes and snapped his fingers, saying, “That was like…” “I am going to succeed if I try this.”
In the 80-69 victory that propelled Greece to Paris, Antetokounmpo ended with 23 points and eight rebounds. A month later, Antetokounmpo carried the Greek flag as a male during the Opening Ceremony at the Olympics.
Baker told ESPN, “To perform that at such a high level helps him confidence and rhythm.” “Giannis understands that his playing days are coming to an end. He always had access to these images, but he is becoming more astute about which ones to obtain.
In the days when arguments over Antetokounmpo’s “bag” were commonplace on social media, he never developed into the unstoppable 3-point shooter it was simple to imagine. In no season did he shoot more than 31% from three. However, as a mid-range shooter, he has opened up a new dimension, transforming an area that most organizations have advised players to avoid and labeled as ineffective into a strength that might help Milwaukee’s offense in the postseason and lessen the strain on Antetokounmpo’s body en route.
After a game in Dallas earlier this month, Antetokounmpo remarked, “I have seen a wall my whole career.” “I think I can make the 15-, 17-, and 18-footer at a high percentage now that I can get to my spot and be one step away from the rim when I am playing at the elbow.”
Antetokounmpo is also accomplishing something that no NBA player has done in almost 30 years: he is trying fewer than one 3-pointer per game while averaging over 30 points per game. The final one to do so? Karl Malone between 1989 and 1990.
“I enjoy shooting the ball, so I would love to shoot a bunch of threes,” Antetokounmpo stated, “but right now, it is not what my team needs from me.” “I am certain that I will make huge shots and big threes. But I am not really focused on that. All day long, my primary goal is to attack, facilitate, and get the 15-footers. I will take all twenty of them if I have them.
Antetokounmpo was left to think about his strategy going into this season at a press conference the day after the Bucks were eliminated from the playoffs last May.
He had not played a minute of Milwaukee’s loss to Indiana because he was less than 100% at the end of the 2023 series loss to Miami, and he needed to find a way to stay on the floor. “It is different, usually before when I had 18 points, it would probably be nine drives and five dunks,” Antetokounmpo said.
“More contact. More work.” Although he is driving the ball less this season—averaging 11.5 drives per game, down from a career-high 14.8 last season—he is still leading the NBA in paint points per game.
Antetokounmpo is averaging 12.1 made 2-pointers per game, the most in a season since Shaquille O’Neal’s peak, when he earned the MVP award with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1999-00, thanks to his efficiency in the paint and mid-range.
Before Sunday’s game in Milwaukee, Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson declared, “It is absolutely solid strategy.” It is challenging to defend the elbow. It is a really challenging area to defend on the floor. From there, it is clear that he has the drive game. How many steps is it from the [rim] with him? The free line is one step away. He is at the basket, and it is difficult to reach to help when he beats you with a single blow or sends you in the opposite direction.”
Perhaps most importantly for Milwaukee, Antetokounmpo admits that his body feels less worn out.
I used to say, ‘Oh man, my knee hurts, my back hurts,’ as I was leaving the game the previous year. “It stung all over,” he remarked. “I am like, ‘Oh, okay, cool,’ as I exit the game. I feel better.
“I have played certain games this year when I have shot the ball more than I have driven it, but there are other days where I got to drive the ball more. I am like, “Oh, okay,” after making those shots. I exited the game before ten possessions, say five to ten, without being pulled from my neck to the floor, without shoving, without contact, without being on the ground, and so on.”
Jason Kidd, the coach of the Mavericks, pointed out how Antetokounmpo’s career may benefit greatly from his increased shooting.
“His ability to make that shot simply adds longevity,” Kidd, who coached Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee from 2014 to 2018, said. “He is not subjected to the beating. Additionally, it simply makes an opponent’s job much more difficult. One-on-one, he is making that shot. You frequently have to sacrifice something.
Antetokounmpo’s game has improved, positioning him for a pivotal stretch run as the Bucks battle for postseason berths that appeared unlikely just a few months ago. Currently ranked as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, Milwaukee is vying for home court advantage in the first round against youthful, up-and-coming clubs like the Detroit Pistons and Indiana.
However, there is a straightforward secret to a lengthy postseason run in Milwaukee, and Antetokounmpo has been thinking about it for nearly a year. Antetokounmpo stated, “It is extremely, very vital that my body be preserved.” “Dude, I have to be healthy somehow.”
