Even Without A Three-Point Shot, Giannis Antetokounmpo Has Become An Efficient Scorer
By Ti Windisch
Giannis Antetokounmpo found ways to be efficient without utilizing a three-point shot last season.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was not a skilled shooter last season. He was a skilled shooter for parts of the season, making over 30 percent of his three-point attempts in both October and November and 45.5 percent of them in April.
On the whole Antetokounmpo made just 25.7 percent of his attempts from long-range though, which is a very low number by NBA standards.
Based on those hot months for Giannis and the fact that he made 34.7 percent of his threes on the most attempts he’s ever taken in an NBA season as a rookie, it’s certainly possible that Point Giannis could end up being a capable three-point shooter.
As far as last season goes though, he was not. And somehow, even in an NBA season dominated by the best three-point shooter of all time leading the Golden State Warriors to the best regular season record of all time, Giannis Antetokounmpo defied the odds and had an efficient scoring season without using the three-ball.
Efficiency has not always been the case for Antetokounmpo.
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Generated 4/21/2016.
In that rookie year when Giannis made nearly 35 percent of his three-point attempts, he shot just 41.4 percent from the floor. One reason for the low number is that over a fourth of Antetokounmpo’s attempted field goals were threes, and only a handful of players make enough threes for that not to decrease their field goal percentage.
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Giannis was more effective from three-point range, but less so from inside of the arc. He made just 44 percent of his two-point attempts that season, which is a not great number.
In his sophomore season Antetokounmpo hardly bothered with the three-point shot, and his field goal percentage spiked to 49.1. He also improved when it came to making two-point shots, raising that percentage to 51.1 percent.
Even though he took more than double the three-point attempts this past season than he did in 2014-15, Giannis still managed to raise his field goal percentage above 50 percent for the first time in his career.
Much of that came from his efficiency within the arc, where Giannis nailed some 53.7 percent of his field goals. Antetokounmpo discovered this season that there are other efficient shots aside from threes.
Giannis scored 23.6 percent of his points on the fast break (tied for seventh among all NBA forwards), 21.9 percent of his points on free throws (21st among forwards), 23.2 percent of his points on opposing turnovers (sixth among forwards), and 61.9 percent of his points in the paint (32nd among forwards).
Getting to the line is going to be crucial for Antetokounmpo going forward. Although his field goal percentage dipped two percent since last season, seeing Giannis get to the line more than ever before per 36 minutes is a positive sign for his efficiency going forward.
As I’ve written before, free throws are the most efficient shot in basketball. Increasing his trips to the line–something Giannis did as the year went on, averaging 6.2 attempted free throws in March–will thus increase Antetokounmpo’s efficiency even more.
Even just three years into his young career, Giannis has set himself apart. Making over 50 percent of his field goals on over 1,000 attempts may have looked easy for Giannis, but the fact that only 11 players in the NBA managed to do that this season speaks to the contrary.
Giannis joins Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James, LaMarcus Aldridge, Al Horford, Karl-Anthony Towns, Andre Drummond, Brook Lopez and Nikola Vucevic as the only players to make the 50/1000 club this year.
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11 is actually a huge number of players to accomplish that feat. Last season only four players did it, and the year before had only six such seasons.
Giannis’ incredible versatility puts him in an entirely different club too. He and Draymond Green are the only players to total 600 rebounds, 300 assists, 90 steals and 110 blocks this season.
Since Draymond did not qualify for the 50/1,000 club, that means Giannis Antetokounmpo is the only player to be that efficient of a scorer and also total so many other statistics this season.
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Not bad for a player who switched positions entirely around halfway through the year. Antetokounmpo will certainly continue to distinguish himself from his NBA competition as he continues to combine efficient scoring and, well, everything else.