Milwaukee Bucks: How Does Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Playoff Play Rank In Franchise History?
By Adam McGee
Doing It All
With playoff averages of 24.8 points, 9.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game, Giannis Antetokounmpo showed his ability to excel in a high pressure environment with meaningful contributions across three of the most notable traditional counting stats.
At this point, it’s not news to Bucks fans that Giannis can do a little bit of everything, but actually executing on that in a playoff series puts him in very elite company.
Only three players in franchise history have ever managed to go through a playoff campaign for the Bucks averaging over 20 points, eight rebounds and four assists per game. In passing those marks this season, Giannis joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Marques Johnson, who achieved that feat as Bucks three and two times respectively.
| Crit | Crit | Crit | Crit | Tota | Per | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | Season | Age | Tm | PTS | TRB | AST | WS | G | MP |
| 1 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 1973-74 | 26 | MIL | 32.2 | 15.8 | 4.9 | 4.7 | 16 | 47.4 |
| 2 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 1969-70 | 22 | MIL | 35.2 | 16.8 | 4.1 | 2.6 | 10 | 43.5 |
| 3 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 1971-72 | 24 | MIL | 28.7 | 18.2 | 5.1 | 1.6 | 11 | 46.4 |
| 4 | Marques Johnson | 1980-81 | 24 | MIL | 24.7 | 9.4 | 4.9 | 1.4 | 7 | 38.0 |
| 5 | Marques Johnson | 1982-83 | 26 | MIL | 22.0 | 8.0 | 4.2 | 1.1 | 9 | 42.4 |
| 6 | Giannis Antetokounmpo | 2016-17 | 22 | MIL | 24.8 | 9.7 | 4.0 | 0.7 | 6 | 40.5 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/29/2017.
It’s worth noting that Giannis’ six games was the least any Bucks who has achieved those stats has managed in a postseason, highlighting the biggest step for Antetokounmpo now being to start winning playoff series.
In the Greek’s favor, he’s the youngest player to record these numbers in the postseason for the Bucks, as Kareem turned 23 in the final days of Milwaukee’s 1970s run.