ROUNDBALL DAILY
Home / NBA / Watch out, NBA, Giannis Antetokounmpo is even freakier this season

Watch out, NBA, Giannis Antetokounmpo is even freakier this season

Giannis Antetokounmpo has been freakier than ever this season. (AP Photo/Daniel R. Patmore)

Giannis Antetokounmpo has been freakier than ever this season. (AP Photo/Daniel R. Patmore)

He’s more unicorn-like than Porzingis, and might turn out to be a better player than him, though you’d probably never know it if he stays in Milwaukee.

NBA fans have known for years that Giannis Antetokounmpo is a freak, but this season, he’s freakier than Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis on a Friday. In the third quarter of Monday night’s game against the Raptors, Giannis went off, showcasing all of his jaw-dropping ability.

He made this ball-hawking steal:

Then backed down one of the best defenders in the league, DeMarre Carroll, and did work on him:

Then grabbed this beastly rebound, indicative of a quality NBA 4-man:

And finally drained this wonderfully smooth, silky step-back in Carroll’s eye. It was like a finely-crafted beer:

He finished with 30 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. For the season, he’s averaging 22.3 points, 8.9 boards, 5.9 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks per game. That’s ridiculous. Those are legitimate All-Star numbers, and compared to last year’s averages (16.9 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 4.3 apg), he’s a strong candidate for the Most Improved Player award.

We’ve heard for years that guys like LeBron James can “play all five positions,” but that’s never 100 percent true. LeBron would get owned by the league’s best centers.

But Antetokounmpo seriously could excel at all five spots.

He runs the point for the Bucks and serves as their primary option on offense, scoring in more ways than maybe anybody else in the NBA right now. He’s also got the passing skills of a point guard, as he displayed with a PrimeTime Dime-worthy swing pass to Jabari Parker for a three that we almost put in this montage.

He’s got the jumper of a 2-guard, the first-step quickness of a wing, the rebounding chops of a power forward, and is the longest player in the gym, meaning he can rebound and block shots like a center.

He might be the most fun player in the league to watch. And that includes Porzin-God.

The way he’s balling, it won’t belong before Giannis’ name is mentioned alongside Karl-Anthony Towns’, Anthony Davis’, Joel Embiid’s and Kristaps Porzingis’ as the player you’d most want to build a team around.

Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that he belongs in that conversation.

At just 22 years old and in his fourth year in the league, the Greek Freak is just now beginning to realize his full potential.

This year, he’s superfreaky. And it’s super fun watching him ball.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *