NOBODY Is Talking About THIS… Giannis & Dame BREAKDOWN

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This is a frightening combination of Damian Lillard with the ball, and Giannis Antetokounmpo setting the high screen. As Dame goes through, you gotta stop the drive or the pull up. Which opens up this bounce pass, and Giannis on a roll like this is a death penalty for the opponents.
If you don’t wanna give him that, and you try to defend the pick and roll straight up, it’s either going to be a three point bomb like this, or another scenario would be the guard trailing behind Dame and in this 2 on 1 we got the lob, and another dunk by the greek freak.
Let me show you how the Bucks will look with Lillard and why the NBA is in trouble.
Last season Damian led the NBA in generating 12.5 points per game as the pick and roll ball handler. So points that came from his shots or assists in that action.
And this was with guys like Jusuf Nurkic or Drew Eubanks as his partners. No disrespect to them, but they are light years away from Giannis.
Speaking of him, Antetokounmpo will love the attention that Dame will draw from the opposing defense.
The Greek Freak led the NBA last season in total points in the paint, and with Lillard opening up even more space for him to operate inside, Giannis will become virtually unstoppable.
On this possession, watch how far the help comes from. Put Lillard up top and nobody is moving from the three point line. So Giannis can do his thing.
Or this type of zone defense. There is 0% chance you leave a wide open shot from downtown to a sniper like Dame. This defense would be unusable against Milwaukee next season.
Ok we know he’s a deadly shooter but you need to see 1 underrated aspect of Lillard’s game.
For a guy that needs the ball, he’s terrific at moving without it and will make the offense much more dynamic.
Dame’s great at recognizing when the defense is overplaying him and he just cuts to the basket for an easy one.
Right here we got the screen for him to curl into a handoff by Nurkic. And the defense is anticipating that, so the defender is fully behind him ready to chase him down.
But Damian just notices how the inside is completely empty so instead he cuts, gets the pass and lays it in.
This is a similar play only this time he is the screener. Again, sees the lane, cuts and finishes.
The combination of the defense being afraid of his three point shooting, combined with the lightning quick acceleration that Dame has, opens up a ton of easy layups for him as you can see in these highlights.
But he’s also not lazy to work for his shot and around the court coming off of screens in order to get open for a shot.
Right here we got him down low setting a pick for Grant before sprinting back out to get one himself, and this is a wide open look which of course he knocks it down.
Again, this works not only for Lillard, but for Giannis as well, since the focus will be on Dame running around, and Antetokounmpo can have single coverage on him. As we’ve seen time and time again- nobody can stop Giannis 1 on 1.
And that’s especially the case in transition. If Antetokounmpo gets a head of steam, he comes at you like a hurricane.
The Greek freak is the undisputed leader in transition points for each of the last 5 seasons. With that, the Bucks have been top 3 in 5 of the last 6 seasons. It was only last year that they dipped slightly to the 9th spot. But with Lillard spraying out to the three point line, it’s either going to be a knockdown shot by him, or a clear lane for Giannis to take off. So I fully expect Milwaukee to not only get back to the top 3, but be the best transition team in the league this season.
But all that aside. We know that the most obvious downgrade of this trade is not on offense but on the other end.
Defensively Lillard has always been below average, and the tracking data from Bball Index confirms that. A lot of D’s and F’s here.
It looks even worse when compared head to head to the guy that Milwaukee just lost in Jrue Holiday. But anyone that watches the Bucks already knows that. And they also know that they play team defense. It wasn’t only Jrue, but also guys like Bobby Portis, Giannis and especially Brook Lopez play a vital role defensively. I even made an entire video about Brook last season. And he finished second in the defensive player of the year voting. That’s how great of a defender he is.
What I’m trying to say is that the upside that the Bucks get from Dame on offense in terms of playmaking and shotmaking, definitely makes up for what he gives up defensively.
Plus this is a perfect match stylistically and the 2 guys seem to like to play with each other.
This is what Dame said in a GQ sports video last year.
At the same time, out of all the superstars at the All Star game last season, Antetokounmpo picked Lillard with his very first pick in the draft.
And for all this time, we haven’t even mentioned Khris Middleton. This gives a lot of breathing room for him as well.