Greek Freak Analyzed

Tag: modern

  • Is Giannis the worse 3point shooter in NBA history?

    Is Giannis the worse 3point shooter in NBA history?

    For starters, most people respond with “who cares if he can’t shoot the 3?” They could be correct, let’s look in more detail. Here are his career 3point percentages per season:

    This should very much worry everybody. Not having a good shot could not be a major problem maybe. But getting worse every year needs further analysis. Combine this with the fact that he is shooting free throws worse than ever in his career and it is extremely worrying. Much like with that analysis, the only rational conclusion is that Giannis:

    1. Is training for strength in some stupid way which affects his shooting a lot. (Here about the mid range myth.)
    2. Hasn’t got the body IQ to figure out how to control his shooting motion.
    3. Hasn’t got the business IQ to ask for help from people that know. (He famously refuses to train with other NBA stars in the summer.)

    If Giannis keeps shooting like this season he will slot in for second worse 3point shooter in NBA history after all these people you have probably never heard of.

    This isn’t even a fair comparison since Denis Johnson hardly played in the 3point era we are living. Yep, that’s right, this is “the 3point era” and Giannis thinks any team would want to trade for him when he is shooting 18%? In fact let’s look at that all time terrible 3points shooters list again and you will see that almost all of them shoot the free throw better than Giannis! And – more importantly – they had the intelligence not to attempt that many shots from 3.

    Maybe this year is a fluke, let’s look at the entire last season. Oh, no, he is still terrible, one of the worse in the league, here they are ranked by worse 3point percentage:

    So in a league that lives by the 3, Giannis should not even think about wasting a shot like that. And – worse still – the way he plays in the paint which some people admire, often ends up in free throws which he then misses. Maybe thirty years ago he could get away with it. In the modern NBA Giannis already looks like a relic. No, worse, a relic that has no idea how to improve.

  • No trade can save the Bucks

    No trade can save the Bucks

    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.

    But Giannis is the reason they never will again. Watch even a small part of this video and think about it https://youtu.be/osY0NWe4M0w?si=Tt7OAdRQ91Zk63eR

    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.

    SOURCES FOR THIS POST:

    YOUTUBE VIDEO AS PER LINK

    STATMUSE.COM