Milwaukee Bucks: Revisiting Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 2020-21 goals

Revisiting Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 2020-21 goals with the Milwaukee Bucks: No. 2 – Improve upon 3-point shooting

In the previous two postseasons, teams had walled off the paint to prevent Antetokounmpo from storming in and getting an easy dunk. The Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat managed to defeat the Bucks by slowing down Antetokounmpo with this tactic, which is why everyone wanted to see him develop some semblance of an outside jumper.

Yet, Antetokounmpo did not enter the new season with a new and improved shot like many hoped. In fact, his average 3-point attempts shrunk from 4.7 in 2019-20 to 3.6 in 2020-21. His efficiency went down as well as it went from 30.4 percent to 30.3 percent between the two years. Instead of shooting the lights out from deep, Antetokounmpo stuck with what worked best and consistently bullied his way down low to the hoop, tallying the third-most points in the paint during the regular season at 1,016 (trailing only Zion Williamson and Nikola Jokic).

While this formula worked in the regular season, many wondered if it would spell doom for the Bucks in the postseason once again. On the surface, it could have been as Antetokounmpo shot a dreadful 18.2 percent from behind the arc in the postseason. Fans constantly pleaded for him to cease the outside shots whenever he attempted them, but there were times when he persisted and continuously let it fly. However, sticking with what worked best and doing damage close to the hoop ultimately proved to be what worked, rather than his outside shooting.

At this point in time, it seems like Antetokounmpo will never develop into a reliable threat from deep, which is fine. He did not hit the mark on this goal, but in the end, it did not matter as the Bucks managed to win the title.