It’s still early in the season but it has been abundantly clear that the Milwaukee Bucks will go as far as do-it-all unicorn Giannis Antetokounmpo takes them. Antetokounmpo has been so much of a force on the court that his teammates have developed a bad habit of letting the Greek Freak do most of the heavy lifting, and it’s that messianic attitude towards Giannias that Bucks head coach Jason Kidd would like to change, according to Nick Friedell of ESPN.
Drawing an example from last season’s playoff loss to the Toronto Raptors in the second round, Kidd said that he’s seeing the same tendency of letting Antetokounmpo go buck wild on the floor while the rest of the team turn into spectators.
“I think we watched that in the playoffs,” Kidd said. “In Game 6 [vs. the Toronto Raptors] they deferred to him. They got him the ball every time down and hoped that he bailed us out. For us we can't have that. You're going to probably see throughout the year where guys are going to defer because he is so talented, but there is going to be times where he needs help and we can't just ask him to bail us out every time.”
As of this writing, Antetokounmpo is leading the Bucks in almost every basic statistical category. Through the team’s first eight games, Antetokounmpo is averaging 31.3 points, 10.6 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.8 steals per game. Despite his heavy usage, Antetokounmpo still manages to top Milwaukee with an eye-popping 60 percent shooting from the field.
To underscore further how big of a role Antetokounmpo is playing for Milwaukee, the 6-foot-11 guard-forward hybrid has a win share of 12.4, which is 10th overall in the association.
Antetokounmpo’s supporting cast will have to step up now. Otherwise, Giannis could run out of gas late when the team needs him the most.
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