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Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo has been exceptional in the NBA, but which draft pick was he in 2013?
Giannis Antetokounmpo was selected 15th by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2013 NBA Draft. According to basketball references, and in what appears to be one of the most apparent assertions of all time, Giannis is the top player in his draft class based on win-shares and many other measures. Aside from Rudy Gobert, Giannis is the greatest (and that’s simply in terms of win-shares).
Giannis is an NBA Champion and Finals MVP; he also owns the record for most points scored in a closeout Finals game and is the current leader in numerous Bucks’ all-time categories. He is the 2019 and 2020 NBA MVP, a six-time All-Star, four-time first-team All-NBA selection, and two-time second-team selection (all consistently since 2017). In 2020, he was named Defensive Player of the Year to several All-Defense teams. He also won Most Improved Player in 2017 and is the NBA’s 75th Anniversary team’s youngest player. He has the same similarity score as Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady.
Giannis will be remembered as one of the Greatest Bucks of All-Time. That is not the case here. It’s about which guys the Bucks officially picked had the best careers. Despite everything Giannis has achieved in nine seasons, he still has a long way to go to catch the top players, but he’s already ahead of a couple of Hall of Famers on my list. He’s not even thirty yet, so given good health, he’ll make it.
Giannis is why many of us are enthused about Bucks basketball again. He was a club member during what was maybe the worst season in franchise history, and he has gradually developed into the dominant player he is now as the Bucks have matured with him. We are no longer the location where no one wants to be. Giannis changed all of that. ” Gone are the days when we were a laughingstock in the league (Sacramento, Charlotte, etc.) and I dubbed them the Sucks,” since Charlie Villanueva and Drew Gooden are no longer with us.
Giannis is why we’re back to having fun playing basketball as we did in the 1980s and early 2000s. Giannis salvaged this franchise by constructing Fiserv Forum. There is no denying this, and I will not criticize Giannis, but he hasn’t had the time other NBA players have had to do more.
There are still other great players ahead of Giannis, and it will be difficult for him to catch the greatest; it can be done, but it will be challenging. Giannis will pass some of them eventually, without a doubt; he simply needs more time. But when it comes to the best, that is extremely difficult to overcome. Former Buck Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, for example, is commemorated on the NBA Mount Rushmore. It took Giannis several seasons to shatter some of his Bucks’ long-standing records, and while Giannis will blow them away, it’s still outstanding. To catch Kareem, he will need to become a top three all-time player, or close to it, in my opinion.
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