Is Giannis Antetokounmpo just a bulldozer for the Milwaukee Bucks?

Giannis Antetokounmpo’s style of play may be nothing new for Milwaukee Bucks fans who have been watching him since he was drafted back in 2013. However, during the playoffs when fans of other teams get to see him every few nights and don’t know how far Giannis has come to see him play using his size and strength to get to the basket and score, leading fans of other teams to say “Giannis is just a bulldozer”.

Is that true though? The short answer is no. Giannis Antetokounmpo has consistently added skills to his game that are impressive for a player his size. The longer answer is that it is frankly disrespectful to the amount of work that Giannis has put into his game and into improving himself not only as a scorer but as a ball-handler and passer as well. I want to highlight three areas to point out that Giannis Antetokounmpo is not just a bulldozer.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is not just a bulldozer: Reason one: Frame

Giannis Antetokounmpo as a rookie, long, lanky, full of potential with a great head on his shoulders weighed 190 pounds when he was drafted and was 6’9″.

Today Giannis Antetokounmpo stands 6’11” and weights 242 pounds. From his rookie season until now Giannis Antetokounmpo has gained not only two inches in height but over 50 pounds in weight! By the looks of him, it looks like all the weight Giannis has added was pure muscle. Giannis Antetokounmpo is one of the strongest players in the NBA, to which you can attribute some of his paint dominance, that does not however just mean that he is a bulldozer for using his superior strength to score, was Shaquille O’Neal just a bulldozer? No, he was just simply stronger than whoever was guarding him.

The difference in matchup problems that Giannis presents compared to Shaq is that Giannis possesses a combination of size, speed, and strength that is nearly unprecedented in the NBA. Giannis regularly beats bigger, stronger defenders off the dribble and sometimes still uses his strength to will his way to the basket, but again being stronger than your opponent doesn’t reduce your game down to being just a bulldozer.

The other thing that opposing teams have tried to do with Giannis is put a smaller defender on him to contend with his speed. The Boston Celtics did this by using Grant Williams on Giannis often despite Williams being five inches shorter than Giannis. Derrick White was switched onto Giannis a few times during the Bucks/Celtics series as well. If you were Giannis Antetokounmpo, would you not use your size and strength to your advantage with a smaller defender guarding you? What do you think Shaquille O’Neal would do with a small forward who is five inches shorter and not as strong? The answer is easy, back down, drop step and dunk the ball hard.

https://twitter.com/Bucks/status/1523045715626414081?s=20&t=H0QsM1vYZniam40Y6XeASQ

You can’t deny that this move by Giannis on Jayson Tatum doesn’t look like a signature Shaq drop step dunk. So why should Giannis Antetokounmpo not seek to exploit those mismatches in size and strength? Do opposing fans think there should be some unwritten rule that if a team matches up a player who is not as strong or as big that the offensive player is reduced to playing softer? Of course not, that would be ridiculous. What happens in those situations of smaller defenders is that they often try to draw offensive fouls, even if it means trying to sell extra contact that was not there. Here’s an example from the Milwaukee Bucks versus Boston Celtics series.

https://twitter.com/Bucks/status/1525927024455467009?s=20&t=H0QsM1vYZniam40Y6XeASQ

Grant Williams absorbs the contact from Giannis Antetokounmpo, but notice that Giannis’ body stays straight from his front leg up to his shoulder, there is no bulldozing here despite Giannis being the stronger player.

The other aspect of Giannis Antetokounmpo being stronger and faster than those guarding him is that it allows him to get in position to exploit those weaknesses of the defense, whether it be in transition or on the offensive glass, Giannis put both on full display just during the 2022 playoffs.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is not just a bulldozer: Reason two: Moves

The reason I said in the opening that it is simply disrespectful to call Giannis Antetokounmpo “just a bulldozer” is because Giannis has put a ton of work in to improve his game, you can see his work ethic in the amount of muscle he’s put on since being drafted.

Giannis has dedicated himself to never stop improving, it showed as early as 2016-2017 when Giannis won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award. Giannis Antetokounmpo has a bag of moves up his sleeve that he can employ in any situation during a basketball game. Whether it be his smooth euro step in transition that is so tough to defend because of the long strides he can take.

Giannis Antetokounmpo also has one of the best spin moves in the NBA, using it in transition or in the half-court, whether it be driving towards the center of the free throw line to set up a spin towards the basket, or using the spin to draw a double team and find an open teammate, or just using the spin to get to the basket quickly with little contention on stopping him.

One of the biggest moves Giannis has sought to add to his game is a mid-range jump shot and with that the post-up fadeaway he has developed in the past two years. During the 2021-22 season, Giannis took a career-high 19.8 percent of his shots from 3-10 feet from the basket and made 42.1 percent of them, also a career-high. Whether Giannis Antetokounmpo employs the mid-range off the dribble, or gets a post touch and converts a post-fade, it’s not hard to tell that he’s put in a tremendous amount of work into his game.

Also, Giannis Antetokounmpo just does stuff like this:

Giannis threw an off-the-glass alley-oop to himself not once, but twice during the 2022 NBA playoffs, to the amazement of his teammates.

In addition to working on his mid-range, Giannis does also recognize that the NBA is a 3-point shooting league and while Giannis does not yet convert threes at a high rate, opponents still have to respect that it is a part of Giannis’ game that he is actively working to improve and has no fear shooting them.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is not just a bulldozer: Reason three: Contact

I understand that it is easy to look at the fact that Giannis Antetokounmpo had the most offensive fouls called on him during the 2022 NBA Playoffs, looking at offensive fouls and minutes played, Karl Anthony-Towns is near Giannis for offensive fouls per minute. However, when considering that Giannis had the second-highest usage rate in the playoffs at 37.3 percent, second only to Luka Doncic at 39.6 percent, according to NBA.com/stats, and pairing that with the fact that Giannis by far drew the most fouls even adding in the Eastern and Western Conference Finals, it’s easy to deduce that Giannis plays through a ton of contact.

Giannis played 448 minutes this postseason and drew 71 fouls, in 629 minutes Jimmy Butler drew 66, and Jayson Tatum drew the third most thus far with 59 in a whopping 739 minutes. Looking at how many times a player is fouled per minute is eye-opening, Giannis is at .158 fouls per minute, Jimmy Butler at .105 fouls per minute, and Jayson Tatum is at .080 fouls per minute. It is not a far stretch of the imagination to say that Giannis Antetokounmpo plays through more contact than just about anyone in the league, especially in this most recent postseason.

Despite shooting a career-high amount of 3-to-10 feet shots this season, Giannis scored 53.2 of his points during the regular season in the paint, fast forward to the playoffs and that number jumps to 61.1 percent. Giannis recognizes that he is most effective scoring in the paint, whether it be in transition, using his dribble in the half-court, getting offensive rebounds, or posting up and looking to back down to the basket.

Giannis had several instances of being surrounded by a crowd and using his size, strength and athleticism to rise through contact and still score, whether it be corralling a rebound and going back up, or simply putting the ball emphatically through the hoop without coming down.

It is also worth noting that Giannis Antetokounmpo has some crazy length that he can use to his advantage as well to score through contact, even on a strong defender like Al Horford.

Giannis also draws tons of extra defenders, which sometimes still isn’t enough to stop him from scoring through contact. It could be a defender reaching while Giannis drives to the basket, or a defender trying to step in late trying to draw an offensive foul on Giannis, Giannis still finishes the play through the contact, whether there is a foul called or not.

Sometimes too, if you’re an opponent, you may have to just recognize that if you’re going to be too late helping on defense, it may be a better business decision to stay out of Giannis’ way.

https://twitter.com/Bucks/status/1525274628955852801?s=20&t=H0QsM1vYZniam40Y6XeASQ

In the end, people’s perception of Giannis Antetokounmpo being a bulldozer may be misguided by the fact that Giannis is just simply stronger than most defenders, faster than those of similar size, scores a lot in the paint, and plays through a lot of physical contact.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is a basketball player, not a bulldozer.