Giannis Antetokounmpo is a sensation. He stands 6'11", though his mantis-like limbs and slim build (he's listed at 216 pounds) make him seem even longer than that, if such a thing is possible. He can cover the length of an NBA court in five steps (possible hyperbole, but he can do it in two dribbles). But his physique and athleticism aren't the only reason we celebrate him here. He can play.The 20 year-old Milwaukee Bucks forward is the reigning NBA Eastern Conference player of the week. His performance in this weekend's Sprite Slam Dunk Contest was disappointing, but turns out to have been a one-man protest against his teammate Brandon Knight's loss in the Skills Challenge*. On the year, he's averaging 12.0 points and 6.6 boards a game, authoring a .564 true shooting percentage, as he matures physically and athletically. But in February, he's taken another (impossibly long) step.
* - wink, nod, noted
G:TB NBA expert Mark Hughes offers this scouting report on the Greek native:
"He's an actual point forward. This term is thrown around far too often but Giannis was able to develop this skill as he was always the most athletic, talented guy on the mid to low level Greek youth teams he played on. That plus European basketball's emphasis on all around skill development for all allowed him to grow into a huge, athletic point forward. He doesn't pile up huge assist numbers but he's a willing and creative passer who allows the Bucks to run Brandon Knight off screens for open jumpers."
At 20 years old, Antetokounmpo is still growing into his abilities. He's capable of insanely athletic feats, extending his legs, giraffe-like, and galloping from end line to end line before defenders can block his path. As Hughes notes, "Defensively he's still figuring out how to best use his skill set and despite that and still only playing 28 minutes a game he's basically averaging a block and a steal a game. As he continues to mature physically and mentally its not unreasonable to imagine him averaging 2.5 steals and blocks per game."
Finally, and it's no small thing, there's the matter of his name. Pronounced [ˈʝanis a(n)detoˈku(m)bo], it's one of the more fun things to say in all of professional sports. Come on, do it with me. Yannis...Ahn/De/To/Kuuuuuuuumbo!!!
Made you smile. So does Giannis. Learn to spell his last name, 'cause this certainly won't be the last time we talk about him.
Posts
86 comments:
I would pay money for Zman to do color commentary of jai alai. Road trip to Florida?
I'll be playing "Cracker Factory: Home Edition" today. Snow days suck as an adult.
me, too. and seconded re: the suckage.
We got about 3 inches of powdery snow that's easy to sweep away so I'm making crackers at the factory.
I'm in for a road trip to Florida. There was jai alai in the opening montage for Miami Vice so I guess we need to go to Miami.
After the main announcer explained that the Otterhound was bred for hunting otter, Carillo actually said "Well a lot of people don't have any otter problems ... can they still get one of these dogs?" to which the play-by-play guy replied "Hunting otter with dogs was outlawed decades ago so yes, you can own an Otterhound even if you don't hunt otter." I think she purposely asks the stupidest questions possible just to irritate the expert. And I love watching people get irritated.
otterhound? i hardly know her hound.
The Jai Alai fronton in Hialeah is one if the saddest/sketchiest places I've ever been during daytime hours.
BaconBaking has decided today's snowday is a good excuse to make homemade cinnamon rolls. booyah
kq whipped up a killer spinach and onion quiche. boomgoesthedynamite
Put Marls and me together anywhere on God's green earth and it instantly becomes one of the saddest/sketchiest places you've ever been during daytime hours.
wife is making some butternut squash soup. all the smells.
anyone got the w&m/northeastern line? daniel dixon is out for the tribe (and might be until the caa tournament). this bodes poorly for the good guys.
No line on my site....
Yesterday morning at the gym I heard a man admit to another that he saw 50 Shades of Grey with his wife this weekend, very matter-of-factly. I felt that the guy he admitted it to wanted to bust his balls but didn't know him well enough to do so. There was just this awkward, "oh...oh yeah? ummm....how was it?" gym stories.
Tribe is getting 2.
Fronton is a underutilized word.
Zman, which one of us makes it sad and which makes it sketchy? Or is it a mutual thing?
ny times has an article today on "maximalist" running shoes, namely the hoka's. just bought my second pair a couple of weeks ago.
i like the huskies, unfortunately. tribe traveled to boston a day early, so they shouldn't have any travel issues, but they tend to have a tough time at northeastern. dixon's out, which removes our third scoring option, best (by percentage) three-point shooter, and a tough defender. give the points.
big week for the tribe. we need to find a way to take at least one of our two roadies (at northeastern and at hofstra) if we want a shot at the top seed. if dixon can play in the caa tourney, the seeding doesn't matter all that much, but it'd be cool to win the regular season. that's never happened in caa play, at least not outright.
Synergy Marls, synergy.
Cool. Just needed to know where to focus my energies.
Good times in the Penn Station Acela Lounge this afternoon. My first train home was cancelled. Rebooked on a train that's currently running 3 hrs & 15 mins late.
They ran out of pretzels HOURS ago. People are getting grumpy...
USA Today now on the Tribe Hoops bandwagon
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/colonial/2015/02/17/william-and-mary-ncaa-tournament-colonial-athletic-association/23565597/
In case you're wondering...I'm now on a train heading home. Thankfully, I'm in one of the cars with both light and heat.
How'd you dig the eau du bums at Penn, Shlara?
Penn Sta was EXTRA ripe today, TR.
Lucky for me I had one last Acela Club pass in my bag, so I didn't have to spend my 4 hour delay with the riff-raff.
The train, is a whole other story...no heat in several cars, no food, bathrooms are a disaster, crying kids. And some nice young lady is walking down the aisle handing out free bottled water...similar to how volunteers hand out supplies after a disaster.
Penn Penn station is such a pleasure when the weather is causing issues with the usually Swiss timing precision of Amtrak.
TR, Shlara was in the Acela lounge...she does not mingle with the bums and disgruntled Knicks fans.
Penn Penn station, a favorite of Yo-Yo Ma and Boutros Boutros Ghali
No bums in the Acela lounge.
Several women in fur coats and old dudes in those preppy embroidered pants.
Oh, and Etan Thomas was hanging out for awhile too.
There's a d-bag behind me talking loudly on the phone about some of his old fraternity bros...
Tell Burr to hang up the phone.
Penn Penn sucks balls balls. I am there. Lot and hate it so much I flirted w/ a move to Dallas for quality of life purposes.
Well said, TR.
TR, don't do it
Dallas is worse than Penn Station
It has no soul.
For real
Married at first sight is the worst show ever. Yet zwoman continues to watch.
If I had any skills at taking photos, I'd post this crappy photo I took of the snow squalls INSIDE the train, as we barrel down the NE corridor...
Train stations always smell worst on brutally cold days because the homeless need a place to warm up. I went to Newark Penn Station once on a 5 degree day and the smell of the men's room made my eyes water and I almost puked. Worst smell ever.
Clarence got out of bed at 5pm today. (Sort of. Took a shower at some point, then went back to sleep.
Wasn't even hung over. It was just... the house was empty all day for once, I answered the emails and calls from bed, and savored a little P&Q from my king size domain. Naps, a little Apple TV, and quiet thoughts about the state of the world and my place in it. Ah...
Is that so terrible? Major vilification ensued when we went to dinner at a neighbor's. Mostly from my missus.
that's some brian wilson shit right there
I sure this is all leading up to an another epic post from Clarence.
The all day in bed day is fantastic. It is like a modern version of hibernation.
Newark Penn Station is one of the worst, which I guess can be applied to Newark in general. It has a unique smell in the summer months as well.
didn't he travel on that two dribble dunk? i don't really understand how many steps you get-- i'm going to do some research.
tonight is over-30 hoops night-- i will be covering the length of the floor with 37 shuffling strides before tossing a hook shot into the rafters.
traveling is an abstract concept only applied to mortals, dave
If I were to be up watching the Duke/UNC game, I'd be ecstatic that I could do so without Dick Vitale being involved. Sorry Dickie...nothing personal.
tribe getting 2 this evening. jmu giving 4.5. don't look now but the dukes have won 3 in a row and are looking to make things interesting in the always interesting (to Rob) CAA.
non-zero chance of a five-way tie for first in the caa this year.
My son and I, really me, are taking care of a neighbors guinea pig during this weeks school vacation. I hate guinea pigs. Is there a more useless pet?
Pet rock (barely)
Hermit crabs?
Fish?
Birds?
Do I know what rhetorical means!?
A gimp w/o élan?
Anything poisonous - scorpion, tarantula, etc.
Poisonous doesn't mean useless; it's just that its practical uses are highly sinister. And most of us would not get a pet for that.
Speak for yourself Rip Van Winkle.
Guys--if you're not watching Empire, you're missing out on some awesome teevee. and music.
Taraji P. Henson is incredible
Danimal was right. UNC-Duke sans Vitale is pretty great.
It's all about Peaky Blinders in zhome. TV-wise that is.
There's bad manners, and then there's me cursing out loud because Mom's 70th celebration means I am precluded from seeing the 'Mats in DC. Sorry, Mom.
your mom is 69? awwwwwesome.
also, i just saw one of the best small-venue wednesday night shows i've seen. if pimps of joytime come to your burg, sign up for a show.
Z, that's next on our list. BBC month for us, as we've binge watched The Fall and Luther over last two weeks.
Who are the Mats?
nats owners bought the mets. pretty big news.
9-6 ats on tribe games now. worried about saturday at hofstra without dixon.
Estimated wind chill in NJ at 7 AM on Friday is -22.
I've never been so excited for a "40 degrees and rainy forecast" like I am for this Sunday.
This is also the first time in five years we're not going anywhere warm during the winter. We're doing two long weekends in VT. That decision worked out well.
"Inconvenience for you, I'm sorry. Wrong vacation altogether, Mr. Pickford."
"These things happen...Ben."
The developments in the CAA
>pinky at side of mouth followed by evil laugh<
it was always coming down to one weekend in march, my man
oh was it now?
Teedge, do you watch Grantchester? The previews look good but we have a scheduling conflict (Girls, ugh) so we never watch it.
Agree with Shlara, we are on the Empire bandwagon.
Didn't really see that coming. Tho have always been fans of T. Howard.
What are the odds of kids going to school on Friday when they've missed whole week due to 5 inches of snow...welcome to what happens in SE VA with any weather?!
I was not aware of Grantchester, but now feel compelled to check it out.
BBC shows give zero fucks, and it's great. And I love that the "long" season of Luther was 6 episodes, while Seasons 2 and 3 were only 4 episodes each.
Jerome kersey. Dead.
Temps in the 40 still. Low projected of 31 tonight which would be a record low for the day. I'm sure none of you have sympathy for me but...holy fuck it's cold out.
getting down to 28 tonight way up north here mark! 28! Twenty. Eight.
Windy as fuck too. People can't drive in this shit.
The NBA trade deadline is nuts. I didn't see all this coming. Shit, I didn't see half of this coming.
cold has done a number on postcount. nice work, everybody.
Normally I'd be happy to get 30-40 degree weather on Sunday. But when it includes freezing rain up to an inch the 3 feet of compacted snow on my roof makes me want more snow and not rain.
I'm imagining there we will be a lot of news about all the roof collapses in the Boston area Sunday night into Monday morning.
It's going to be a shit show. I know some neighbors are camping out at roofing and contractor companies to just try to chat about potentially clearing their roof.
40 degrees is spring in New England. It's 19 here in NJ, -7 with the windchill.
Squeaky, get your kid up on the roof with a pickax and a bucket of rock salt.
I miss the Forum For 'Em
Zman, we tied a couple of salt licks to him and have been letting him roll around on the roof to help with the ice dams.
But this weekend the ice dams might be his new time-out location.
It is really amazing how thick our ice dams have gotten there in the 12" thick category. Joke in there somewhere.
it's so cold that i just tried (unsuccessfully) to wear a scarf.
Video, please
school is cancelled in my county tomorrow because of low temperatures. that's fucking bullshit.
I'll probably turn my heat on tonight for the first time since I've owned this house.
And I'm still floored by all the trades today. Every NBA trade deadline day should be like today.
really stupid new post up
Post a Comment