This. I just don't understand why Giannis is getting so many more votes than KAT. If you look at all the numbers, KAT is ahead. He is clearly the more developed player. I guess people think that Giannis has more potential and higher ceiling in future?
Kat has only two years of experience. Because there was a lot of hype in his rookie season and in his sophomore season he failed to fullfill these unrealistic expectations a lot of fans were dissapointed. Giannis has four years of experience even though he's only one year older than KAT. When he was in his sophomore season, or at KAT's age he was worse than KAT. On the other hand Giannis' rate of progress is atypical and kind of monstrous. So one player started off at a MUCH higher level the other player has an extraordinary level of continuing progress up till now. Kat is top 3 in offence in Centers (Jokic imo is better offensively), but his defence is very dissapointing. But as a Center defence is vital. So if / when next year KAT improves his defence to league average I wouldn't be surprised if he's the better player. If /when next year Giannis improves his 3pnt or midrange shooting to league average I wouldn't be suprised if he's the better player. My opinion is that we need at least the 3rd year of KAT to make a judgement on who will be the better player. Right now Giannis is better player but it is unfair to KAT. For most players the 3rd year in the league is where they show their most progress.
Even if KAT is going to be a slightly better player, he will still be behind the likes of AD for a while...... Antetokounmpo will only have aging Lebron in the East and can pick his opponents. This is the perfect moment to become that superstar in the East! It is there for the taking on a golden silver platter. He has the way better opportunity to shine here.
Greek Freak Beard CP3 Melo Nerlens Noel Now that's his perfect team. 3 elite shooters, 3 elite ball handlers, 3 elite defenders.
I don't see how you can say KAT is clearly more developed. Giannis is a two way player. He's a phenomenal defender capable of guarding four positions. KAT isn't even capable of guarding one. I guess all the numbers only refers to points and rebounds, because Giannis leads him in assists, steals, and blocks. He can run the offense with excellent court vision and anchor the defense with incredible athleticism and great instincts.
Antetokounmpo. I really like Towns' talent, but Antetokounmpo has the ability to be a transcendent player. He's 6'11'' and can run the point and defend every position. If he develops a solid three-point, he'll be a holy terror. I think they're similar in current value, but Towns, as good as he is (and he's a great talent) simply can't match Antetokounmpo's ceiling.
This is one of the hardest polls I've seen. But picked towns because he's only 19 and is arubably the best post up big man in the league who is already a great shooter. Giannis is great at everything besides shooting.
I agree. Towns seems to be the slightly better player for now but Ante Giannis is such a talent that can become better within 1 or 2 seasons.
What happened in the finals? Lebron is old and they only have 3 stars vs GSW's 5 so not sure what point you are trying to make. Even a poor man's Lebron is better than Kat, Lebron is the goat of this generation and unarguably top 5 best player of all time, we don't even know if Kat is gonna be better than Griffin or Davis at this point.
I meant Curry, Durant, and Thompson are all high percentage shooters. LeBron as great as he was in the finals, his style of driving and pounding the basket was exposed when the Warriors let him have all the layups he wanted but shut down outside shooting. The Warriors traded 3-pointers for LeBron's easy layups all day. That's why LeBron will be the last of his kind and unless Giannis develops his shooting touch, which I doubt at this stage of his career, he will also become ineffective against the high percentage shooting teams of the future. LeBron's skillset was great for the 90's type physical basketball, but now you need to have the shooting efficiency of Durant to win in this league.
Giannis for me. KAT is a good ball-handler and off-the-dribble shooter for a big. Giannis has the potential to be elite at just about every basketball skill without any qualifiers. Also, KAT can obviously improve on D, but it's disappointing that he's not already exhibiting more rim defense skills, even if his on-ball defense lagged.
At this stage? There's no reason why he wouldn't be able to become a solid shooter. Unless he just doesn't work on it. And lebron exposed? No it's more like gs is just too much for any team
Giannis is 22. He's the same age as some rookies. Becoming a good perimeter shooter is certainly not a given, but he's still plenty young enough that it's very much still on the table, especially as his three-point shooting percentage has been rising each of the past three years even as his number of attempts have also risen each year.
The Greek freak has no chance of being Durant. I think he is more likely to be a Clyde drexler type, honestly.
Yes, but as previously pointed out 3-point shooting percentages of... 15.9% (2014) 25.7% (2015) 27.2% (2016) ... will not cut it in the NBA. That's D-League type of improvement and efficiency. After year 4, Giannis is still a terrible shooter playing in what is now a shooter's league. His size and athleticism are the only things going for him. He's a project, not a basketball player in this shooter's era.
He was focused on becoming an actual NBA player. Which is was every kid goes through entering the league. Some make it some don't. The 4 years doesn't really matter in the sense that he improved every year to the point now that he's an actual all star and one of the better players in the league. To say he can't be a better shooter doesn't make sense when he is still at the age of a rookie in a grown mans league. When you reach your latter stages of 20, that's where you really don't see dramatic improvement within someone and where players focus on maintaining consistency over everything else. The scary thing is that he has a lot of room for improvement and is already a very good player
He's a project as a shooter, he's already one of the best players in the NBA. Consider his Offensive Ratings: 2014-15: 105 2015-16: 109 2016-17: 116 So, last season he was an extremely effective offensive player despite not being able to shoot the ball from range. For context, Harden's Offensive Ratings for the past three years are 118, 115 and 118 and Harden is an offensive superstar. Yes, this is a shooter's league, but that doesn't mean you can't provide huge value without it. It just means it's harder and you may need to be something historically unique--like a 6'11'' point forward. And that offensive excellence is on top of being one of the best defensive players in the league, who can switch to any position. Defensively, he's already the perfect player for this era (or any era, really). If he continues to improve his shot and even gets to around average (.350) let alone higher, he'll have a shot at being the player of the post-LeBron era.
