Milwaukee Bucks: Left Off New List, Giannis Antetokounmpo May Well End Career as Unrecognized Best 6-11 Player Ever

Prediction: Giannis will finish his career the clearly better player, but he won’t take Duncan’s spot on the list

12 seasons in, Giannis does not yet have the needed seniority to contend for the 6-foot-11 honors. To do that, he’ll likely need most of the rest of his career.

A side-by-side of career averages, however, suggests that the Milwaukee Bucks superstar is headed in the right direction:

Averages for Giannis: 23.9 PPG, 9.9 RPG, 5.0 APG, 1.2 BPG, 55.1 FG%.

Averages for Duncan: 19.0 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 3.0 APG, 2.2 BPG, 50.6 FG%. 

In 19 seasons (1998-2016), Duncan amassed 206.4 win shares; Giannis has accumulated 120.8 and could catch him if plays long enough. Both have two MVPs. As good as Duncan was defensively, only Giannis has won Defensive Player of the Year.

Of course, a comparison of box-score stats should only serve as a rudimentary baseline. Evaluating players from different eras is a tricky business already.

That said, it is naive to dispute that players are getting better, the competition more difficult. It’s a discussion for another day, but few would win an objective argument that Duncan was the more dominant player.

What he does have on Giannis is five rings to the former’s one, which Duncan gained during the Spurs dynasty during the 2000s and 2010s. In order to impress the list-makers-that-be, Giannis will have to add more than another one to his tally. That’s just how these things work.

He’ll also have to beat out Kevin Durant, another 6-foot-11-er who, from a pure talent and ability standpoint, is already ahead of Duncan. In fact, with pardon begged of millennial Spurs fans, it’s a no-contest. The difference in resume is, once again, based on rings: five for Duncan, two for Durant. And because the latter created a “superteam” by signing with Golden State in free agency, rather than playing his part on an organic one like San Antonio’s, those two rings are considered less than by some.

In many ways, these exercises tend to be resume-rankings more than it is good-faith appraisals of all-time basketball ability. The Durant snub does not bode well for Antetokounmpo’s eventual placement.

Then again, should Bucks fans really care what national networks have to say?

In the Spurs’ five title runs, Duncan captured three Finals MVPs. Realistically, no matter how ridiculously dominant Giannis continues to be, he would likely need to win at least two more rings in his prime. Whether or not that happens will probably a poor determiner of his rightful status on all-time rankings in the future.