Milwaukee Bucks 2016-17 Season Review: Giannis Antetokounmpo

During the 2016-17 campaign, Giannis Antetokounmpo became a superstar for the Milwaukee Bucks. How great was the young do-it-all Buck?

Giannis Antetokounpo continues to improve with every single season he has been in the league. After very steady statistical increases over his first three years in the league, year four was something else.

The man known as the Greek Freak was able to take the most difficult step in an NBA player’s development, and make the jump to superstardom.

After the year he had, it is expected for Antetokounmpo to receive plenty of votes for the league’s Most Improved Player Award, and he might just win it. Giannis is the star of the Bucks and he is the engine that makes them run.

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With the way Giannis played during the regular season and the playoffs, it’s fair to now call him a top-10 player in the entire NBA. It’s scary to think that he is still just 22-years-old with further potential remaining to give him the chance of becoming the best player in the league.

This season, Giannis became the first Milwaukee Bucks player to be named an All-Star since 2004 (Michael Redd) and the first All-Star starter since 1986 (Sidney Moncrief).

Let’s take a look at how The Alphabet has progressed since his rookie year until now:

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/1/2017.

On the whole, this was an incredibly successful season for Giannis and there’s no reason to believe his game won’t just continue to grow with each season. As long as Giannis is healthy and playing as he did this year, the Bucks will be a scary team in the Eastern Conference. He is that good.

Without further introduction, let’s look deeper at Antetokounmpo’s 2016-17 season.

The Best of Antetokounmpo

To specifically narrow down all the things Giannis did well this season would be impossible. From absurd highlights to gaudy numbers, Antetokounmpo did it all for this team, and was not one to step down from the challenge during the postseason either.

The Bucks expected big things from Giannis considering his play during the second half of the 2016-17 season, but few expected as much production as this.

Giannis made strides in points per game, assists per game, rebounds per game, steals per game, blocks per game, field goal percentage, and just about every other major statistical category. In fact, he even led the Bucks in all five major statistical categories.

For the first time in NBA history, a player was able to finish the season in the top-20 league-wide in all five major statistical categories, and that player was Giannis Antetokounmpo. That just about sums up how excellent the Greek Freak was this past season.

On the floor, Giannis was a great leader and tried to push everybody to play at their very best. One moment in particular stood out from the year in trying to push rookie Thon Maker to take his open shots:

As long as Giannis is on the floor, good things tend to happen for the Bucks, and that’s because he is so great as a team player. Not only does he get his points efficiently, but he passes the ball well and is a constant threat for a highlight on both ends of the floor. Unlike plenty of 20 points per game scorers in the NBA, Giannis an elite defensive player too.

While leading the league in combined steals and blocks this year, Antetokounmpo has asserted himself as one of the best two-way players around. With his combination of length and quickness, he has the ability to guard every position on the floor, and very rarely sees a matchup that he cannot handle.

The Worst of Antetokounmpo

With his game being so well-rounded on both ends of the floor, the obvious flaw in Giannis’ game is his three-point shooting. Although he attempted 0.9 more three-pointers per game this season in compared to last, he still shot just 27.2 percent from deep.

If Giannis is able to add a consistent three-point shot of around 35.0 percent, then it will make him virtually impossible to guard.

With the work ethic he’s known to have, it would not be a major surprise to see his three-point percentage jump over the 30 percent mark next season. If he could do that, teams will have to start picking him up further from the basket, which would create more driving lanes for his teammates and allow him to beat his defender off the dribble more easily.

In the playoffs, we saw a small sample size of what life is like when Giannis makes his threes. Sure, his minutes and usage rate increased during the postseason, but he did make 4-10 attempts from distance. In doing so, he also dropped nearly 25 points per game.

Antetokounmpo’s Moments of the Year

Because of how special Giannis was all season, it would be impossible to pick just one game to be named his game of the year. With that being said, here is a rundown of some of the best moments from The Alphabet during the 2016-17 campaign.

In this snapshot of his entire season, you see everything from explosive dunks to flashy passes and stellar defensive play. Giannis garnered a tremendous amount of national respect over the past year and that was evident in the amount of All-Star votes he received.

When needing to pick one special moment from this season, the one that jumps out the most was probably his buzzer-beating jumper at Madison Square Garden. Not only was it a special moment as a fan, but it was the shot that jumpstarted the Bucks in 2017 and was their third consecutive win.

Although the Bucks were unable to secure the series victory, Giannis also had a tremendous opening series in the playoffs. He showed his superstar status on both ends of the floor to very solid numbers and even a couple of victories.

With the Greek Freak at the forefront of the Bucks’ offense and hopefully a healthy roster for a postseason run, Milwaukee could make a splash in the 2017-18 season.

Summer Focus and Final Grade

Having already mentioned Giannis’ three-point shooting woes, it’s worth noting that the Greek’s struggles with his shot don’t exclusively come from behind the arc. Antetokounmpo is also an inconsistent free throw shooter, something which really came back to bite him and the Bucks in the playoffs.

Giannis shot just 54.3 percent from the free throw line in Milwaukee’s series against the Raptors, including a costly 7-13 as the Bucks just fell short of an epic comeback in the series-closing Game 6. A notoriously hard worker, if Antetokounmpo didn’t already have the motivation necessary to iron out all of his shooting difficulties, he does now.

Even better than having motivation, is having a possible solution, though. Scott Cacciola of The New York Times reported the details of an interesting proposition that Antetokounmpo may decide to act on now that the offseason has arrived.

"“Giannis Antetokounmpo, the resident wunderkind of the Milwaukee Bucks, has an offer from Holger Geschwindner, the personal shooting coach of the Dallas Mavericks’ Dirk Nowitzki, to join him in Germany next summer for a master class in the art of the long-range shot. ‘That’s a nice invitation right there,’ Antetokounmpo said.”"

Antetokounmpo is certain to come back better than ever next season, but if he comes back with an efficient shooting stroke, Milwaukee’s timeline for contention could be drastically accelerated.

For now, Giannis can take pride in what was an outstanding season in his development process, and one where he cemented his standing as one of the NBA’s most exciting young stars.

BTBP Final Grade: A

Next: Milwaukee Bucks 2016-17 Season Review: Matthew Dellavedova

Make sure you stick with us over the coming days and weeks as we review the rest of the Bucks’ seasons individually.