Bucks’ fans like to think that everyone in the league would love Giannis on their team. Nothing could be further from the truth:
- Giannis is an incredibly inflexible player. To put it bluntly he can basically just do one thing well.
- Modern winning NBA is fast paced and extremely agile. Giannis isn’t. He can be fast but only downhill, with the ball in his hands and plenty space.
- On almost every metric, Giannis is worse than his prime MVP, DPOY and championship years. This includes not just free throws and 3pt% where he is at the bottom of the league but secondary stats like steals and such.
- Giannis has been spoilt by the Bucks for more than a decade, getting everything he asks for in and outside the court. Again people like to say he was “sad” when Jrue left or “like brothers” with Khris but of course he signed off on every trade.
- Giannis is absolutely terrible in clutch situations. Extremely low IQ and it shows. Other coaches and other players can see it even if you can’t. More than a decade in the NBA, almost every year early exits from the playoffs.
- Giannis simply cannot understand advanced plays. He started playing late in life and has no understanding of the complexities of the game.
Do some teams want him anyway? Of course they do! He is a regular season monster, especially in games that nobody cares much about with his sheer insistence and energy. But it is working less and less. Many teams can shut him down with just one defender. His moves are predictable.
But most other players don’t want to be anywhere near him. Over the years he has proved he can make everybody look bad. His lovable character bellies the fact that he is merciless in the final effect. Which is to always try to look like he is the only one on the team succeeding. Furthermore he doesn’t have social relationships with other players in the league from other teams other than his ex team mates. He doesn’t train with them in the summer, he doesn’t talk to them during the season. He has an infantile approach to the NBA (Jaylen Brown is spot on) which is a universe away from the way other players collaborate and compete.
So don’t hold your breath. Even after failing the playoffs again this year he will struggle to find a team that would want him. And even if he does move he will fail even worse than he has done in recent seasons. The worse thing is, he never understands why…
