Demar DeRozan credits Giannis Antetokounmpo on JJ Redick’s podcast

What did Giannis Antetokounmpo do while DeRozan was in the west?

In that three year period that DeRozan was in the West, Giannis Antetokounmpo racked up two MVP Awards, a Defensive Player of the Year Award, a championship, a Finals MVP and three unanimous First Team All-NBA selections. DeRozan was traded out of the East while Giannis was just starting to grow, when he returned, Giannis had basically assembled a Hall of Fame career in three years. Not to mention the crazy physical developments Giannis has displayed.

DeRozan described the development Giannis has made in the last three years as “incredible” and “remarkable” and credited the amount of effort that Giannis has put in to want to be great. DeRozan also credited Giannis’ dedication to improvement and remembered back to when Giannis Antetokounmpo first came into the league.

DeRozan talked about how it was easier to push around the much skinnier Giannis, before he became the Greek God of basketball he is today. JJ Redick chimed in a fair point that at that time in his career, Giannis wasn’t a great basketball player. These things are really a testament to how far Giannis has come and just the sheer magnitude of how much he has improved since being drafted in 2013.

Both DeRozan and Redick acknowledged that they knew something was there.