Milwaukee Bucks: 3 takeaways from 123-108 win over Philadelphia 76ers

Giannis can still play better

It’s easy to say that this game was Giannis’ best of the season so far. The Greek Freak notched his 10th career triple-double with 32 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists.

Despite those gaudy numbers, I still can’t shake the feeling that Antetokounmpo could play a lot better. Perhaps I’m nit-picking and not appreciating the macro view of Giannis’ season so far, but I still believe we haven’t seen Antetokounmpo fully unleashed yet.

Which is a scary thought for the rest of the NBA because the Bucks are 4-0 and Giannis is having the most productive season of his career so far. It was easily Giannis’ most efficient game, going 12-of-24 from the field and 8-of-9 from the free throw line.

However, turnovers continue to be a problem for the 23-year-old. Antetokounmpo had another five giveaways in this game, bringing his season total to 22. Obviously, Giannis having the ball in his hands is what the Bucks want, and he’s been great distributing so far, but he needs to cut down on those turnovers.

Granted, a majority of those came in the first half, as it looked like Giannis was a little more careful with the ball in the second half. Some of these turnovers are no fault of his own, in this game Giannis threw a pass to Malcolm Brogdon, who was open on the extended elbow behind the three-point line, but Brogdon inexplicably decided to cut at the last second forcing the ball to go over his head and out of bounds. That’s on Brogdon, not Antetokounmpo.

Most of the turnovers, though, are coming from drives by Giannis into the paint. There were a couple instances where he put his head down and had the ball stripped on his way to the rim. Now, these aren’t the worst turnovers because it means the Greek star is being aggressive, but he still needs to protect the ball better.

Another reason why we could see an even better version of Antetokounmpo is that he’s just 1-of-12 on the season on three-pointers. Shooting the ball from deep was a major focus for Giannis in the offseason, and all through the pre-season and early parts of the season we’ve seen that he isn’t afraid to let it fly from deep.

Unfortunately, they’re just not falling for Antetokounmpo as of yet. Most of them are good shots as well, open ones that are spot-up jumpers from teammates or simple pull-ups given to him by his defender backing off of him to prevent penetration. Those should start to go in at some point, and if Giannis can consistently knock them down at a 33-35 percent clip, that’s where his scoring ability is going to become truly scary.

Yes, Antetokounmpo is producing like crazy and putting up numbers that are going to firmly entrench him in the MVP race if the Bucks keep winning, but we still haven’t seen him at his best, or even really anywhere close to his best.