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Milwaukee Bucks: Should Giannis Antetokounmpo take on a larger playmaking role again?

By Jordan Treske

MILWAUKEE, WI - FEBRUARY 25: Giannis Antetokounmpo #34 of the Milwaukee Bucks dribbles the ball in the second quarter against the New Orleans Pelicans at the Bradley Center on February 25, 2018 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
MILWAUKEE, WI - FEBRUARY 25: Giannis Antetokounmpo #34 of the Milwaukee Bucks dribbles the ball in the second quarter against the New Orleans Pelicans at the Bradley Center on February 25, 2018 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /
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Having arguably taken the biggest leap of his five-year career, will Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo revert back to taking lead playmaking reins under new head coach Mike Budenholzer?

For a player who has taken many significant leaps and bounds throughout his career, tracking the evolution of Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo clearly comes in different chapters.

No one can deny the superstar leap Antetokounmpo has enjoyed over the past two seasons, at the very minimum, as well as the value of simply having the Greek phenom on the floor and what it meant to the Bucks during that span.

But that leap can be traced back to when Antetokounmpo took on a more significant share of ball-handling duties midway through the Bucks’ heavily disappointing 2015-16 season, otherwise what may be known as the birth of “Point Giannis.”

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The idea of Giannis playing such a role dates back all the way to the start of the Jason Kidd era where the former Bucks head coach identified the seven-footer’s playmaking talents early on, even helping unleash this side of the 23-year-old’s game in his one and only Summer League trip to Las Vegas back in the summer of 2014.

However, that experiment didn’t get fully implemented until after the All-Star break of Antetokounmpo’s third season in the league and the dividends were immediate in creating the multi-faceted role that has become synonymous with the two-time All-Star’s game in the time since.

With that said, there’s an argument to be made, some of which Bucks fans have preached, that Antetokounmpo’s lead playmaking duties weren’t as front and center last season.

Of course, that point can be tied to the acquisition of veteran point guard Eric Bledsoe, who was brought in to help alleviate some of the gargantuan workload Antetokounmpo was tasked with and to help lift the team in the early part of last year.

That may sound ridiculous to some to say that someone who was as involved in the Bucks’ offense as Antetokounmpo was last year didn’t flex his playmaking muscles as much as the previous season, considering he logged the eighth-most touches per game as well as put up the seventh-highest usage percentage of players around the league, per NBA.com/stats.

Yet, there are numbers, such as his assists per game (4.8) and assist percentage (23.7), to back up that Antetokunmpo’s playmaking ability took a bit of a backseat to follow up his big breakthrough year in 2016-17.

On that note, that may be more of an indictment on the supporting cast around Antetokounmpo not capitalizing on the scoring chances he created, seeing that he tallied 9.3 potential assists per game throughout the 2017-18 campaign, per Second Spectrum’s tracking data.

Could that be precisely where the Bucks’ personnel changes this offseason, as well as the arrival of new head coach Mike Budenholzer, make the biggest impact on Antetokounmpo in his sixth season?

That’s obviously the bet the Bucks are making and the combination of having a variety of adequate floor spacers as well as a modern set of principles instituted by Coach Bud and his staff may be the recipe to help Antetokounmpo reach new heights in his playmaking.

As he detailed during his introductory press conference in late May, Budenholzer’s evaluation of how Antetokounmpo reads the game and his high IQ was one of many attributes that he’s looking forward to having at his disposal while in Milwaukee:

"“There’s a lot of reasons to be excited about coming to Milwaukee, but there’s no doubt that Giannis is one of them. He’s so important to our success, I think he embraces his leadership role and how he needs to grow, improve and get better along with all the rest of us. So the excitement is through the roof, and how we can use and implement him defensively and offensively, it started some at breakfast and it will continue into the weight room today, tomorrow and the next day.And those are conversations I look forward to having with Giannis, and listening to Giannis too. I think he’s a smart player at 23, and he has an IQ and an understanding of the game. Together, I think he and I will push each other, but I look forward to pushing him. He believes it and I believe it, but he’s going to get a lot better as we watch him over the years.”"

Antetokounmpo’s a player of many talents and the beauty in that is that there are obviously many layers to which he can be utilized on the court across different capacities. But there’s no question what the element of putting the ball in his hands does for making him such an incredibly lethal player, beyond the realm of making plays for others.

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With what hopefully comes as a reinvention with Coach Bud in the fold, the possibilities are endless to where Antetokounmpo can go with his game as well as where he ranks in terms of the top individual talents around the league.

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