Giannis is having a crazy season
- Thread starter Street Knowledge
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stepbackj34spud
Top 75 All-Time
You better take that up with the voters then.
Particularly in modern times, there hasn't been a whole of emphasis on defense when it comes to who gets MVP. Besides, the Bucks have a DPOY candidate [Lopez] and arguably the best defensive guard on their team, so it's not as if a narrative can be shaped that Giannis is this sole defensive pillar of the team. Whatever defensive rhetoric that is based around the Bucks success this season, is going to have Lopez at the forefront of it.
Long Live The Kane
Tyrant Titan
My favorite was in the best player thread they tried to make the argument that Giannis being like far beyond jokic and luka defensively didn’t matter to the conversation
This guy averages 30ppg while being the best defensive player on the floor nightly but somehow he’s not better than those two.
But chew on this statistic: Antetokounmpo has held shooters 15 percentage points beneath their average when he’s defending scorers within six feet of the basket, according to NBA’s tracking data. That number, on five such shot attempts per game, is neck and neck with Golden State’s Draymond Green (-15.4%) and Memphis’s Jaren Jackson Jr. (-15%) for the best rate in the league among guys defending at least four rim attempts per contest.
Players Defense Dash < 6FT | Stats | NBA.com
A table featuring defense information for each player in the league based on selected filters.
That is from a couple weeks ago, since then Giannis has actually surpassed Draymond and JJJ and is now statistically the best rim protector in the league….dropping shooters to -15.7% from their averages
The problem with this is, he's only defending 4.8 shots within 6ft of the rim - there's 81 players in the league who defend more shots in that space than he does. Whereas his teammate Lopez, defends 8.1 shots within 6ft of the rim (almost 2x as many) and holds opponents to -11.2% below their average.But chew on this statistic: Antetokounmpo has held shooters 15 percentage points beneath their average when he’s defending scorers within six feet of the basket, according to NBA’s tracking data. That number, on five such shot attempts per game, is neck and neck with Golden State’s Draymond Green (-15.4%) and Memphis’s Jaren Jackson Jr. (-15%) for the best rate in the league among guys defending at least four rim attempts per contest.
Players Defense Dash < 6FT | Stats | NBA.com
A table featuring defense information for each player in the league based on selected filters.www.nba.com
That is from a couple weeks ago, since then Giannis has actually surpassed Draymond and JJJ and is now statistically the best rim protector in the league….dropping shooters to -15.7% from their averages
Point being, Giannis isn't his team's main rim protector and he isn't defending the best offensive players on the regular.
Posters are overlooking just how good Lopez has been on defense this year and that he'd be DPOY so far if it wasn't for JJJ.
Long Live The Kane
Tyrant Titan
That’s actually not a “problem” …That’s by design and a function of his defensive versatility and the way the game is played…Giannis’ numbers fluctuate from game to game but the original cut off from that stat was 5 shots defended at the rim…Draymond is averaging basically the same at 5.2…reason being, neither are immobile centers camped at the rim all game but switchy buzz saws causing havoc all over the court….Giannis is the best in the league at the rim while at the same time basically matching Jrue at defending the 3pt line …Brook has been awesome no doubt (Giannis is actively campaigning for him for DPOY), but having Giannis allows him from getting targeted the way we see a lot of centers do
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That's downlaying how off they looked defensively last year when Brook Lopez was out of the lineup with the back injury.
Long Live The Kane
Tyrant Titan
No it’s not…Swapping out Brook for Bobby obviously makes a difference, that doesn’t take away from what Giannis does on that side and vice versa…two great defensive bigs are better than one
…especially when one is versatile enough to allow you to play them at the same time
Jokic is having another MVP season and his defensive metrics are on par this year too. Embiid gotten better as well. It's the battle of the internationals again for MVP. Giannis, Jokic, and Embiid are the MVPs
It is a problem, because you're trying to make it seem as if he's having this great defensive impact inside the paint, when really the volume is too low to take anything meaningful out of it, given Lopez is the one anchoring that space of the floor for the team (whereas the shots Giannis defends inside the paint are more when he picks and chooses). In fact, Lopez defends the most shots in the entire league at 22 per game, and Giannis isn't even in top-80 in volume (12 per game), which is an even lower rate if you take into account he averages 33 minutes.
In terms of reps/volume, responsibility and impact he's behind both Lopez and Jrue. He has the luxury of coming and going as he pleases during defensive possessions. Jrue is the one who's typically guarding the best perimeter player, anchors their PnR defense, calls out coverages and is the centerpiece to all that they do on that end; Lopez takes care of everything inside the paint and works in unison with Jrue.
Giannis has the best defensive situation of any star player: he plays alongside arguably the best defensive guard, one of the best paint protectors, and some of the best defensive role players going around.
Now, that's not say he isn't great in his own right (most notably in weakside help defense and being a deterrent), but he doesn't have as much impact as the basketball public believes. It wouldn't make sense for the Bucks to put him in a position where he's anchoring that side of the floor because they need him to conserve his energy for offense, especially this season with Middleton out. It's not too dissimilar to Kawhi's defensive reps and responsibility diluting in SA once he became their #1 option - everyone was under the impression he was shouldering a heavy defensive load too, when those ended years ago, even before the injuries.
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How am I crazy you stupid fukk? I said people don’t rate that title run up there with other people’s runs due to injuries. I said the nikka is the best in the league, you mad that I won’t suck his dikk like you? I’m having a bad morning, fukk off.You’re crazy. Giannas is already GOATED. fukk you talking about ?
Yeah he started off on a 3 year deficit basically since he started out just a scrub in the league