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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAbove the official nba.com stats of mid range shots this season. In red the players with the best fg%. In green the worse, ie Giannis at any distance. Let\u2019s start with the hype. During the 2020-21 season, when the Bucks marched to the title, Giannis\u2019 mid-range jumper became a talking point. Pundits gushed over his \u201cimproved\u201d shot, pointing to regular-season games where he\u2019d knock down a few 15-footers against teams like the Wizards or Pistons<\/strong>\u2014squads that were either tanking or just plain bad. The narrative took off: Giannis had evolved, adding a new weapon to his arsenal. But here\u2019s the inconvenient truth: when the playoffs roll around and defences tighten up, that mid-range game vanishes faster than a mirage in the desert.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Take a look at the 2021 Finals against the Phoenix Suns. Giannis was phenomenal\u201450 points in the closeout Game 6 is the stuff of legend. But how many of those points came from the mid-range? A grand total of four<\/em>, all from free throws or broken plays where he muscled his way into a shot. His bread and butter was what it\u2019s always been: attacking the rim, drawing fouls, and living at the line (he shot 17-for-19 in that game). The mid-range? Non-existent when it counted<\/strong>. The Suns dared him to shoot from 10-15 feet, and he largely declined the invitation, opting instead to bulldoze his way inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This isn\u2019t a one-off. Fast forward to the 2023 playoffs against the Miami Heat. The Bucks, the No. 1 seed, got bounced in five games by an eighth-seeded Heat team that sagged off Giannis and begged him to shoot. His mid-range attempts were sporadic at best, and when he did take them, the results were ugly\u2014clanging off the rim or airballing entirely<\/strong>. Miami\u2019s defense exposed the truth: Giannis\u2019 mid-range isn\u2019t a weapon; it\u2019s a liability teams are happy to let him test.<\/strong> He finished that series with a measly 38.3% field goal percentage, a far cry from the efficiency he boasts against weaker regular-season foes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stats back this up. In the 2022-23 regular season, Giannis shot a respectable 47.3% from mid-range, per NBA.com. Sounds decent, right? Except that number drops precipitously in high-pressure playoff scenarios. Against top-tier defenses, his attempts shrink, and his makes plummet. Why? Because elite teams know he\u2019s not comfortable there. They pack the paint, give him space, and live with the occasional make\u2014because it\u2019s not consistent enough to hurt them. The know the three spots he likes and they make him move off them. And he is so dumb he usually goes to the other side where he almost always misses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So where did this myth come from? Easy: the Bucks\u2019 regular-season cakewalks.<\/strong> When you\u2019re blowing out the Hornets by 30, Giannis can take his time, set his feet, and splash a couple of jumpers. The media eats it up, clips go viral, and suddenly he\u2019s \u201cunstoppable from anywhere.\u201d But against real competition\u2014teams with playoff-level schemes and discipline\u2014that shot disappears. It\u2019s not a coincidence; it\u2019s a pattern.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The table above is the total mid range shots this season. Again in red the best (ie Kevin Durant) and in green the worse, Giannis pretty near the worse for most distances. But more importantly, let’s count how many points that is. 0.6 from 5-9ft. 0.7 from 10-14ft. 1.5 at his favourite distance. And 0.1 further out. That is a grand total of 2.9 per game. To anyone that understands basketball that is essentially nothing. That has no impact. And it falls to 2.5 per game in losses. Oh you want his best year? Sure, here is the Bucks championship run year stats for shooting during the playoffs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Giannis is a superstar, no question. But let\u2019s stop pretending he\u2019s morphed into Kevin Durant or Chris Paul from the elbow. The mid-range game is a nice story, a feel-good arc for a player who\u2019s already great. But when the chips are down, it\u2019s nowhere to be found. The Bucks\u2019 title run wasn\u2019t built on Giannis pulling up from 15 feet\u2014it was built on him bulldozing through defences and the supporting cast stepping up to shoot the lights out. The sooner we ditch this media-spun fairy tale, the sooner we can appreciate Giannis for what he truly is a run and dunk guy with less and less applicability to the modern NBA when it counts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/mid-range-stats-overall-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C380&ssl=1\")
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