By the poor shooting efficiency of the 90s a dream shake fadeaway was fine. Today I think teams give him that shot quite a bit.
I don't think Hakeem would shoot as many fadaways in today's age. Hakeem would probably play more like Anthony Davis if he played in today's game. I feel like he can just get to the rim against today's centers with a drop step
Even with efficiency in the mix, you look at Giannis' shot selection. All of his shots are dunks - high efficiency. That's great in a long season when teams can't prepare for you and you use raw athleticism and size. In the playoffs team's can have a solid plan to stop things like fast breaks or build a barrier around the rim to force Giannis into uncomfortable shots. Hakeem on the other hand was harder to plan for and could get a quality shot no matter what defense you play on him. It's incredibly important to be able to get off a quality shot when the defense has their whole attention on you. I would argue this is actually the reason Anthony Davis couldn't carry his team further than he did despite him having all of the tools in the book.
That's the plan. Strip another team of all their assets in a trade then sign back to Houston on a vet min. This man is playing for keeps.
He wants to pull a LeBron "I'm coming home" after 2 years of trying the easy way. If he wins one, he'll come back and make us trade all our draft assets for another superstar he can't work with.
Giannis has 2 lol and back to back. 2018-19 was debatable but IMO his 2019-20 MVP was unquestionable. For all the complaints people make about the MVP award being narrative driven, political and biased etc... there is ONE indisputable factor (with very few exceptions) that pretty much determines the winner every year. Best player on either the BEST or SECOND best team in a conference. In the past 31 years - The average amount of wins for an MVP is 62. In 25/31 seasons the MVP leads their team to the best record in their conference. In 29/31 seasons the MVP leads their team to a top 2 record in their conference. In 27/31 seasons the MVP leads their team to a top 2 record in the entire league. In 5 of the last 6 seasons the MVP has lead their team to the best record in the league. The only exceptions to the top 2 teams rule were 2017 Westbrook (6th) and 2005 Nash (3rd). Those two MVPs were driven by powerful narratives (KD leaving, Nash leading depleted team) historic numbers (First triple double in decades) and a team far surpassing expectations (Suns placing 3rd). Many rightly or wrongly (rightly IMO) disagree with WB or Nash's MVP win, but the point is that those were TWO very rare EXCEPTIONS/ABBERATIONS. Noone would argue that Harden did not have a statistically/historically great 2019 season, the problem however is his team simply didn't win enough to pass the first and most crucial (historically) criteria to winning the award - Your team placing 1st or 2nd. Add on to the fact that Giannis also had a great statistical/historic season AND that the Bucks had the best record in the league, its hard to blame some unprecedented bias and narrative for the result. The case for Harden being the 3rd exception and winning the MVP would've been a result out of the historical norm and NOT standard operating procedure. That possibility is certainly debatable, but lets not pretend Harden not winning was the result of some bending of narratives, bias and out of the ordinary reasoning.
