No one will ever understand why Giannis Antetokounmpo can’t shoot 3s. In a league where Aron Baynes and even Rajon Rondo can become competent behind the arc, the struggles of Antetokounmpo are too puzzling to fully comprehend. And while most sports personalities eviscerate him for his three-point shooting woes, a much more poignant question is being overlooked.
If Giannis Antetokounmpo can’t shoot 3s, why is he shooting them in the first place? Him bricking a three pointer isn’t helping the Milwaukee Bucks. He’s taken more than 700 shots from downtown over the past three seasons, and these attempts have done nothing to convince NBA defenses it’s a play they should worry about.
Michael Jordan was never an elite three-point shooter. Sure, he could hit them, but it wasn’t a strength, and he knew that. Only three times in his 13 seasons with the Chicago Bulls did Jordan average more than three, three-point attempts per game. That sentence had a lot of threes in it.
In the past two seasons, Antetokounmpo has averaged 4.7 and 3.6 three-point attempts per game respectively. And both times he shot 30 percent from downtown. Given how dominate the rest of his game is, there is really no need to be doing this. However, things get more interesting in the playoffs.
Jordan and Antetokounmpo chart similar paths when the games matter most. The former’s attempts didn’t raise dramatically from his regular season totals. Apart from 1996-97, Jordan’s three-point shooting percentage was usually better in the playoffs or at least didn’t drastically fall off from his regular season numbers.
During the previous two postseasons, Antetokounmpo had actually shot the ball better from beyond the arc than he did in the regular season. That being said, the improvement is a little more than two percent. Jordan went from average in the regular season to above average or even good in the playoffs. The Greek Freak is going from bad to below average which means the gains are hardly noticeable.
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Giannis Antetokounmpo can’t shoot 3s and MJ’s 1997-98 season
The most interesting season from Jordan, and the one Antetokounmpo probably needs to study, is the 1997-98 campaign. MJ was horrible from downtown in his last season with the Bulls, shooting a lowly 23.8 percent from three. He also changed his game and only attempted 1.5 three pointers that year, down from 3.6 in 1996-97.
He improved on both totals during the NBA Playoffs, but not drastically so. Which brings us around to the fact Giannis Antetokounmpo can’t shoot 3s. There is no reason for him to be jacking up four three pointers a game in the playoffs.
We can sit here and talk about how tough defenses are and the fact it’s difficult to score in the postseason, but that stuff shouldn’t apply when you’re one of the world’s best basketball players. If something isn’t working, hall of fame players should be able to break out something that does.
Jordan stopped taking threes and focused on his mid-range game to generate offense during 1997-98. The problem with Giannis Antetokounmpo isn’t that he can’t shoot 3s, it’s that he is allowed to shoot them in the first place. There is no logical reason for it and the Bucks won’t make it to the NBA Finals until that changes.
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