Minnesota Sports Forum

After the All Star Break, Jason Kidd has had the guy running the point. I was skeptical. But early returns are promising... 18 pts / 17 reb / 11 ast tonight.

He had a 27 / 12 / 10 game last Monday. Yikes. Since the switch... Giannis is averaging 17 / 12 / 7 running the show. I remember a contentious debate/thread about Giannis vs. Wiggins a few months back. This isn't an "I told you so" thread... I just think we might be seeing more hints of what types of players each promising young star could become.

And because they're so different (all-around stat stuffer vs. potential top-end scorer)... I think the debate should remain a good one for quite some time.

I was about to dig that old Wiggins for Giannis thread but was too lazy to do that. So nice that you started a new thread.

Kidd has been playing Giannis, Middleton, Mayo lineup lately and Giannis has got majority of ball handling responsibilities. They tried same lineup earlier without that much success. Greek Freak had 34 assists and 29 TOs in 11 games and they won just four games during the experiment.

But in last 8 games it has worked much better. They have won 5 of those games and Giannis has averaged 17 pts, 11 rbs, 6 asts, 1.5 stls, 2.0 blks and just 2.5 TOs. Also Middleton has had more ball handling responsibilities lately and he has averaged 21.8 pts, 5.4 asts and 2.8 stls during same period. Both Milwaukee wings are real stat stuffers.

Yeah Giannis is nuts as he can guard 1-4 and plays true point forward, on top of that you can see that he still has huge upside and probably will develop into something really really special improving across the board, and if his jumper ever improves into average one my gosh

if i am Bucks i would like him handling ball over basically anybody which would mean NO to any Rubio trade proposal, btw. did you see in yesterday game how Giannis was faster with ball than Rubio without in transition?

A smart team will defend Giannis 94 feet with a great on ball defender and that will be the end of the full time point guard experiment.

Good point Cool. I enjoyed Zach Lowes piece that cam posted about Rubio. He does some things other pgs can't do. A non conventional PG like giannis sounds like fun, but it would probably be a mess.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:A smart team will defend Giannis 94 feet with a great on ball defender and that will be the end of the full time point guard experiment.

Well, usually i like Lowes articles, but in this case i am not that sure. For example in their first game against Cavs this season Giannis was guarded by Lebron exclusively yet he dropped 33 on him with no issues at all. I mean it is easy to say, just put A great on ball defender on him and he will be done, theoretically it sounds great.

One thing about Giannis is that he dribbles really low and moves very very fast with the ball. He is also 21yo only touching his potential. We will see what will happen, i do believe though that he will be near impossible to stop by any on ball defender actually :-) .

CoolBreeze44 wrote:A smart team will defend Giannis 94 feet with a great on ball defender and that will be the end of the full time point guard experiment.

Why?

This isn't high school ball. These guys are phenomenal athletes. Extremely talented. Are there any names you can think of who could stay in front of a large, fast guy like Giannis for 94 feet with him simply dribbling? Remember, if you put a small fast guy on him... it's pretty easy for Middleton or Parker or even Miles Plumlee to dribble it into the frontcourt and just lob it into Giannis in the post.

Playing PG isn't about dribbling it uncontested to the halfcourt line. It's what you do with the ball on the other side of the court.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:A smart team will defend Giannis 94 feet with a great on ball defender and that will be the end of the full time point guard experiment.

Why?

This isn't high school ball. These guys are phenomenal athletes. Extremely talented. Are there any names you can think of who could stay in front of a large, fast guy like Giannis for 94 feet with him simply dribbling? Remember, if you put a small fast guy on him... it's pretty easy for Middleton or Parker or even Miles Plumlee to dribble it into the frontcourt and just lob it into Giannis in the post.

Playing PG isn't about dribbling it uncontested to the halfcourt line. It's what you do with the ball on the other side of the court.

Maybe you're right, I'm comparing it too much to my own experience as a coach. I've had a lot of success by using multiple man defenders on a single dominant point guard, making him work 94 feet on every possession. But I don't coach in the NBA, and don't run up against the type of athlete like the Greek Freek. But he's not Magic Johnson, and I would think the smart NBA coaches could come up with something to limit his impact as point guard.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:A smart team will defend Giannis 94 feet with a great on ball defender and that will be the end of the full time point guard experiment.

Why?

This isn't high school ball. These guys are phenomenal athletes. Extremely talented. Are there any names you can think of who could stay in front of a large, fast guy like Giannis for 94 feet with him simply dribbling? Remember, if you put a small fast guy on him... it's pretty easy for Middleton or Parker or even Miles Plumlee to dribble it into the frontcourt and just lob it into Giannis in the post.

Playing PG isn't about dribbling it uncontested to the halfcourt line. It's what you do with the ball on the other side of the court.

Maybe you're right, I'm comparing it too much to my own experience as a coach. I've had a lot of success by using multiple man defenders on a single dominant point guard, making him work 94 feet on every possession. But I don't coach in the NBA, and don't run up against the type of athlete like the Greek Freek. But he's not Magic Johnson, and I would think the smart NBA coaches could come up with something to limit his impact as point guard.

Bet Thibs would have a solution.

Camden wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:A smart team will defend Giannis 94 feet with a great on ball defender and that will be the end of the full time point guard experiment.

Why?

This isn't high school ball. These guys are phenomenal athletes. Extremely talented. Are there any names you can think of who could stay in front of a large, fast guy like Giannis for 94 feet with him simply dribbling? Remember, if you put a small fast guy on him... it's pretty easy for Middleton or Parker or even Miles Plumlee to dribble it into the frontcourt and just lob it into Giannis in the post.

Playing PG isn't about dribbling it uncontested to the halfcourt line. It's what you do with the ball on the other side of the court.

Maybe you're right, I'm comparing it too much to my own experience as a coach. I've had a lot of success by using multiple man defenders on a single dominant point guard, making him work 94 feet on every possession. But I don't coach in the NBA, and don't run up against the type of athlete like the Greek Freek. But he's not Magic Johnson, and I would think the smart NBA coaches could come up with something to limit his impact as point guard.

Bet Thibs would have a solution.

I don't doubt that. But you would have to get off his nuts long enough so he could implement it.