Giannis in the paint is legendary, right? He sure takes more than anyone else in the ‘less than 5ft’ charts. There he is , first in most field goals made at less than 5ft by an enormous margin, he takes almost double the shots of anyone else in the league. 13.2 attempted, 9.4 made. If you think about it from the analytics perspective it is often a wasted effort, particularly since he misses the free throws earned like this so much. (Part 1 of this analysis here.)
In red players more efficient than him. Yeah, yeah, no big thing, right? Let’s look at the next distance, as per nba. com categories of distances. This is a ‘mid range’ shot. Right, right, Giannis has no floater….and no sky hook. Oh and he is also nowhere in the top 20:
Well let’s move out a bit more then. A very mid range shot 10-14 feet from the rim. No Giannis again.
Oh but here we are! 15-19 feet distance. Of all the ‘mid range’ distances we could be talking about, for some reason Giannis media hype just look at this. OK, let’s look, yep, he is 2nd in most made. At pretty mediocre efficiency though. In red all the players above him at the top for this season so far.
And in green above his total. A pathetic 1.6 shots. That’s 3.2 points per game. Is that worth all the fuss? Hell no, especially since as I explained here, Giannis forgets his mid range against harder defences or in the playoffs. Remember we are sorting by field goals made at that distance in order for Giannis to be No2 in the rankings. If we sort by field goal percentage at that same distance he is waaaaay down somewhere in the third page of results.
And of course he is non existent in the next mid range distance, 20-24 feet.
Giannis is also one of the worse 3point shooters in the history of the NBA (more on that here), so let’s not even go there. So where did this myth come from? Nba. com has a ‘mid range’ category elsewhere but doesn’t say what exactly they are measuring, let’s take a look.
In red all the players with high field goals made numbers with better FG% than Giannis. Almost everybody. And remember, this is Giannis in the easy first half of the season, Bucks now have the 4th hardest schedule left in their season, so expect Giannis to fall to stats similar to last year. Which is nowhere near an ‘impressive’ mid range.
Again today, in an easy match up which the Bucks won easily and Giannis had no opponent, people started talking about his mid range. It sure looked good when it went in, eh? Let’s look at the facts. (Part 2 of this here)
Against the Jazz with no Hendricks , Juzang , Cody Williams , John Collins or Walker Kessler the Bucks were basically playing around as if in their gym. Even so, I would say the picture isn’t looking good. He missed three shots next to the rim. (In the orange circle I added.) And he scored 4/6 in the ‘mid range’. Oh and he wasted a 3point attempt.
Because Giannis has no mid range. It is clear when he is actually being defended by someone. Even without Porzingis, on the 4th of December 2024 this is a more realistic look at Giannis’ mid range.
He isn’t even scoring them so well right next to the rim against shorter opponents. And just 3/8 from the ‘mid’ range. And of course the wasted 3point shot as usual. And here is Giannis against the Knicks January 12th 2024. Even worse!
This data is pretty solid. Here is the shot chart for Giannis over his career. He clearly has specific positions and can’t do anything with his left hand.
And here is playoff Giannis. Which isn’t even counting tough matchups seeing as he has only progressed in the playoffs twice in his many years in the NBA.
In the playoffs he is pretty much a one trick pony and head on down the middle. Why is this a problem? Because I am not the only one looking at this shot charts. Opponents know how to neutralise him. And they do when it counts.
So save me the talk about “Giannis mid range” becoming a threat to the league. The only thing it threatens is to further confuse the Bucks into incorrect decisions on how they should play as a team. A weapon is only a weapon when it is consistent when you need it. Not in trash time against easy teams.
As usual with BBall Index there is no explanation how the hell they figured all this out. So I look at NBA. com instead and sort Isolation plays by possession.
Nothing new, we knew that Giannis handles the ball too much. More than any other player on the Bucks which is crazy considering he isn’t a guard. Giannis handles the ball all the time, not just ISO, but because he is looking for an easy run and dunk he aims for an ISO play. Which is stupid because it wont work in tougher games.
In isolation plays he is 8th out of ten this season so far and clearly nowhere near as efficient as the others in this ranking. So I guess BBall index is as usual just click baiting with weird stats they made up themselves. Because if I take the whole season last year Giannis looks much better.
18th in possessions. Much less of a ball hog, much less ISO. Sure the Bucks have played the easier part of their season so far. But it is not a good look when Giannis is heading for the ISO, not being as effective and missing free throws. (The only stat he aced last year was the number of free throws he got out of ISO plays. But then he missed them more than anyone in the league again.)
This was his shot chart last season, a sad constant need to dunk. Distance mostly less than 80cm from the rim. No wonder I wrote that the Bucks will never win anything with him playing like that!
Bucks’ fans like to play a game called “let’s blame everyone except Giannis” which is often followed by another game called “let’s propose ludicrous trades that can’t happen”. Of course they want another championship, after all Giannis said he would “run it back” the day they won it.
That is the modern NBA. The top teams and how they play. Fast, clever basketball with constant movement and players that can think fast and execute well. Can the Bucks ever play like that? Hell no! Because Giannis can’t.
Part of Giannis’ amazing story is how he got to basketball late. He has no fundamentals, he can hardly dribble, for sure not ambidextrous and most of all, he can’t think basketball fast. He doesn’t even understand complex plays drawn out so the Bucks have to keep him out of those when necessary. It was apparent with the way coach Spanoulis tries to work around his limitations in the Paris Olympics. He kept Giannis off the floor a lot to try and get his team playing faster.
It’s not about just how fast you can get down to the other end of the floor. Giannis is great at that. And it works often in the regular season. He grabs the easy defensive rebound because his team mates clear out to let him statpad. But then the problem: instead of passing the ball to a guard, Giannis starts running the floor looking for an easy run and dunk. Any coach will tell you that this chart is ludicrous:
Giannis has the ball in his hands more than anyone by an enormous margin. Because not only does he bring the ball down, he then gets tangled in the opponents’ defence. If they are above average team even one player can confuse him and then what?
He chews up the clock looking for that easy shot by the rim (mid range is a myth – post about that coming up soon). This hurts the Bucks in multiple ways. Often it’s a turnover. Giannis is top in the NBA in turnovers most years.
When it’s not a turnover it’s a mediocre or bad pass with not much time left on the clock and not many options. So then everyone blames his team mates for missing! Giannis has always been terrible with turnovers, he has no dribble and no place holding the ball so much. At the end of last season he was the undisputed champ of the turnovers as always. Assist to turnover ratio is even worse.
The Bucks have a similar problem in defence where Giannis is slow to switch or to even understand what is going on. Again, against easy opponents in the regular season he seems awesome. But in harder match ups he really has no clue why and how they are scoring against him. People talk about his stats, blocks and such but fail to compare regular season Giannis with playoff Giannis. The drop off is enormous.
Can Giannis learn how to play modern basketball? The answer is ‘no’ or ‘absolutely impossible’. Can he find a role in a different team set up. We don’t know. He has a similar problem with the Greek national team despite a variety of different coaches trying to help him. For sure his dribbling skills are not improving. If anything the NBA officiating let’s him get away with murder most of the time and still he is near the top of the negative list of most offences for travelling, palming, 3second rules on both ends and offensive fouls. He simply can’t control his body well and he can’t think fast enough to adjust.
When Giannis won the chip he kept saying he “won it the right way” implying he was not on a superteam. I found this rather insulting to his team mates. After all they had got him to the Finals. They were losing to the Hawks with Giannis in the rotation and they got past them easily without him. Khris, Jrue and Brook got it done in every clutch situation, practically handing Giannis the Finals where things were easy.
How can we quantify those Bucks? A good way is plus minus.
No less than seven Bucks’ in the top9 for the whole league! To put that in perspective the Nuggets dominating championship year they only had 4 players in the top9.
And if somebody wants to downplay the importance of plus minus look at how even the super dominant Celtics in their championship run only feature 3 players in the top 9.
When Giannis Antetokounmpo hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy in 2021, he didn’t just celebrate a championship—he seized the moment to craft a narrative that’s since become gospel among his admirers. “I could’ve gone to a superteam,” he famously declared, “but this is the hard way to do it, and we did it.” The implication was clear: Giannis, the loyal superstar, stuck it out with the small-market Milwaukee Bucks, eschewing the easy path of joining forces with other elite players to chase a ring. It’s a compelling story—one of grit, perseverance, and doing things “the right way.” But here’s the inconvenient truth: the 2021 Bucks were a superteam, and Giannis’ repeated insistence otherwise not only undersells his teammates but smacks of ingratitude toward the exceptional roster that carried him to glory.
Defining a Superteam
First, let’s clarify what a “superteam” actually means in the modern NBA. The term typically evokes images of star-studded lineups like the Miami Heat’s Big Three (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh) or the Golden State Warriors with Kevin Durant joining Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. These teams were built through high-profile free agency moves or trades, stacking multiple top-tier talents to dominate the league. But the essence of a superteam isn’t just about how it’s assembled—it’s about the quality of the roster. A superteam is a squad with elite talent at multiple positions, capable of overwhelming opponents through sheer firepower and versatility.
By that standard, the 2021 Milwaukee Bucks absolutely qualify. Giannis, a two-time MVP and Defensive Player of the Year, was the cornerstone, no question. But he wasn’t alone. Khris Middleton, a perennial All-Star, was a clutch shot-maker and secondary creator who averaged 23.6 points per game in the Finals, often keeping the Bucks afloat when Giannis couldn’t. Jrue Holiday, another All-Star, brought elite two-way play—his defense on Chris Paul in the Finals was a masterclass, and his 27-point, 13-assist Game 5 performance was pivotal. Add in Brook Lopez, a former All-Star and one of the league’s best rim protectors, and you’ve got a starting lineup with three All-Stars and a near-All-Star big man. That’s not a scrappy underdog story—that’s a superteam, plain and simple.
The Bucks’ Talent Stacking
Critics might argue that the Bucks didn’t feel like a superteam because they weren’t a glamorous, big-market juggernaut assembled via blockbuster trades or free-agent coups. Fair enough—Milwaukee didn’t lure Giannis to South Beach or pair him with LeBron in LA. But the Bucks’ front office didn’t exactly sit on their hands, either. They traded for Jrue Holiday in November 2020, giving up a haul of picks and players to land a proven star who’d made All-Defensive teams and had playoff pedigree. Middleton had already blossomed into a borderline top-20 player by then, and Lopez’s transformation into a stretch-five anchor solidified the roster’s balance. This wasn’t a ragtag group of role players elevating Giannis—it was a carefully constructed, top-heavy team designed to win a title.
Compare that to true “non-superteam” champions. The 2004 Detroit Pistons, often cited as the gold standard for doing it “the hard way,” had no MVP-caliber star and relied on a balanced attack led by Chauncey Billups and Ben Wallace. The 2011 Dallas Mavericks leaned heavily on Dirk Nowitzki, but their supporting cast—Jason Terry, Tyson Chandler, Jason Kidd—wasn’t loaded with All-Stars in their prime. The Bucks, by contrast, had three players who’d been All-Stars within the prior three years, plus a former All-Star in Lopez. That’s not “the hard way”—that’s a roster most teams would kill for.
Giannis’ Narrative: Ungrateful or Just Naive?
So why does Giannis keep pushing this “no superteam” line? It’s possible he genuinely believes it, viewing superteams as only those formed by stars jumping ship to join forces elsewhere. He stayed loyal to Milwaukee, signing a supermax extension in 2020 when he could’ve chased rings with, say, the Heat or Mavericks. That loyalty is admirable, and it’s true he didn’t take the LeBron-to-Miami or KD-to-Golden-State route. But loyalty doesn’t erase the fact that the Bucks built a powerhouse around him—one he didn’t have to leave to find.
More troubling, though, is how his rhetoric diminishes the contributions of Middleton, Holiday, and Lopez. When Giannis says he did it “without a superteam,” he’s implicitly suggesting his teammates weren’t on that elite level—like he carried a bunch of scrubs to the promised land. That’s not just inaccurate; it’s ungrateful. Middleton’s Game 4 heroics (40 points) and Holiday’s lockdown defense were as critical to the title as Giannis’ 50-point closeout in Game 6. Stephen Jackson, a former NBA champ himself, called this out in 2021, arguing that Giannis “diminished” his teammates by rejecting the superteam label. “You have a superteam—you might not have super names, but don’t diminish your teammates,” Jackson said. He had a point.
The Right Way or Just His Way?
Giannis’ “right way” mantra also carries a whiff of moral superiority, as if winning with a homegrown core is inherently nobler than joining forces elsewhere. It’s a romantic notion, but it’s not like he turned down a barren roster to tough it out in Milwaukee. The Bucks gave him a championship-caliber supporting cast—something stars like Damian Lillard in Portland never got. Giannis didn’t do it “the hard way” out of some selfless crusade; he did it because the Bucks made it possible. Contrast that with players like Charles Barkley or Karl Malone, who toiled on good-but-not-great teams and never won. That’s the hard way. Giannis had it better than he lets on.
Give Credit Where It’s Due
The 2021 Milwaukee Bucks were a superteam—not in the flashy, headline-grabbing sense, but in the cold, hard reality of their talent and execution. Giannis was the engine, no doubt, but Middleton, Holiday, and Lopez were the gears that made it run. His insistence on framing it as a solo triumph “without a superteam” isn’t just a mischaracterization—it’s a disservice to the teammates who helped him climb the mountain. Loyalty is a virtue, and Giannis deserves praise for sticking with Milwaukee. But let’s not pretend he did it alone or “the right way” out of some unique hardship. He had a damn good team—a superteam—and it’s time he owned that instead of rewriting the story to fit a humble-brag narrative. Gratitude, not just greatness, is what champions are made of.That was a super dominant team Giannis had helping him. A super team. They shot the lights out from three breaking multiple records in the NBA. They all put their egos aside to get Giannis to the Finals which were actually an easier game than what they had got through until there.
And just for a second maybe sit and think how his team mates felt hearing him Giannis say again and again that he did it “the right way” “without a superteam”…
