Do-It-All, No.34
I’m in danger of sounding like a broken record here, but bear with me on this one: Giannis Antetokounmpo is really good.
While you recover from that nugget of groundbreaking analysis, let me elaborate on that further. Milwaukee fans may not be ready to accept this, as even the idea of this kind of player has been so foreign to the franchise in recent decades, but when I say Giannis is really good, I mean he’s so good that we’ve likely moved beyond the point where anything should be put past him.
On any given day — or dare I say in any given series — Antetokounmpo is now liable to take over and drive his team forward to victory and success.
Unlike many of the players who can be viewed as his peers in terms of star-level NBA talent, Antetokounmpo can decide a game on both ends in a way that is all the more rare. For many the MVP frontrunners are viewed as James Harden and Russell Westbrook, but it doesn’t seem unfair to question what chance their respective teams have of winning it all in the postseason.
What Antetokounmpo has is a well-rounded skill-set capable of influencing games in a fashion akin to LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard. In other words, Giannis is more interested in winning than necessarily being the one who has to drive his team to a win.
That was evident in the fourth quarter when Brogdon took over, and for all intents and purposes, Antetokounmpo was happy to let him do so.
Giannis is good enough and determined enough to take that step back when a teammate has the hot hand, yet still finish the game with a final line of 22 points, nine rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocks.
Get ready, because having this version of Giannis for a playoff run means that anything is possible.