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Reply to "Bucks versus Nets - Eastern Conference Semifinals"

@Music City posted:

Giannis is not a finished product. He’s learning how. He had a short off-season when that kind of work gets done. The article shouldn’t say “isn’t”, it should say “isn’t yet”. The guy is 26 years old, ffs. When Durant was 26, he was losing a 3-1 lead to the Warriors the season before he joined them. No one was saying Durant was the best player in the NBA then.

I love how recency bias feeds the sports world… all of a sudden the shine is off the star of Giannis Antetokounmpo as if at age 26, growing up playing soccer in some ghetto in Athens was going to make him a finished product by 26. It’s fucking stupid…

I agreed with some of the points in the article (mainly that Giannis has not added anything that resembles a go-to half-court move that doesn't involve dunking the ball after an athletic drive and spin), but the paragraph below was the most ridiculous. I agree he's not close to Durant, but there is no one close to Durant that's ever lived in terms of offensive skill. Steph Curry may be a slightly better shooter, but Durant is 9 inches taller than Curry and almost as good. Giannis isn't as good as Embiid?? - a guy who just went 0 for 12 in the second half against the Atlanta Hawks to lose a close game? Jokic? LeBron James has had his moments in terms of scoring, but his titles were won in large part by Clutch Sports assembling super teams around him. LeBron is Pippen on steroids, he's not Jordan. Ray Allen and Kyrie Irving hit some of the most iconic shots in NBA history to basically win a couple of titles with LeBrons' teams. Everybody seems to forget LeBron bricking a 3 before Allen hit his step-back fadeaway 3 against the Spurs. By this criteria, LeBron really isn't that guy either.

So, yes, Giannis isn't Durant on offense, but no one else is like him either. On the dagger 3 that essentially ended the game last night to put the Nets up 4, Middleton played exceptional defense, denied him the ball until late in the shot clock, and had a hand in Durant's face only to see him hit an off-balance 27 foot 3 pointer at the shot clock buzzer.

We need to have the same conversation about Giannis. He is not that guy. He has more MVPs than Durant but he is not even close to Durant. Or LeBron James. Or Steph Curry. Or Kawhi Leonard. Or Nikola Jokic. Or Joel Embiid.

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