Although the Bucks have struggled at times this season, Giannis has been very consistent throughout. A stat that has been thrown around often is he is going to be the first player to have atleast 30 PPG on atleast 60% from the field, and people that don’t watch him often may wonder why someone who isn’t proficient further away from the basket can score so often, so efficiently, all the time. Some say it’s solely because he is a physical beast, which he is, although there are a lot of players over 6’11, over 245 lbs with a wingspan over 7’4.
The reason is because he is simply having one of the greatest rim finishing seasons in modern NBA history. He has completely mastered every different type of finish (except the floater which he rarely uses as he just elongates his arms past the defender instead). He can get good lift off both feet, can finish strong with a dunk, finish with contact with or without the glass, has perfected the finger roll finish. Up and under, high off the glass, he has the whole package at the rim and is definitely the best finisher the NBA has seen since a peak Lebron a decade ago.
Here are some stats to show just how great he has been with his rim finishing this season:
\[Source: [NBA\_University on X](https://twitter.com/NBA_University) and NBA.com\]
1. Giannis has 641 FGA in the restricted area this season, over 160 more than Zion in 2nd place. He is also top 2 in FG% in the restricted area (atleast 150 FGA) behind Dereck Lively, with 78.5 FG% here. Ofcourse, he also leads the NBA in FGM in the restricted area and in Points in the paint this season with 20.5 PPG, ahead of Zion, Jokic, AD and SGA.
2. Wrt Dunks, [he is top 2 in both assisted dunks (2nd to Rudy Gobert) and unassisted dunks (first with almost double the next player, Rudy Gobert)](https://twitter.com/NBA_University/status/1760715248909103220).
Therefore, [he ofcourse has the most dunk FGA and FGM this season](https://twitter.com/NBA_University/status/1760311792977248625)
3) [He has the most layup FGA and FGM, making them at an impressive 65.8%.](https://twitter.com/NBA_University/status/1759946340870541457) This is 1st amongst players who are top 10 for layup FGM and 2nd for players in the top 20 for layups behind Nikola Jokic (who makes them at an impressive 70.4% although Giannis has around 200 more layup attempts). Again, a large number of these layups are unassisted, not off of back-cuts but when the whole defense is focused on trying to stop him driving to the rim, which is impressive (ofcourse, a chunk of these layup attempts are in transition where he has excelled for almost a decade).
4) [In terms of Finger Roll layups, he is 1st in both finger roll FGA and FGM, he also has by far the highest FG% amongst the top 20 players with the most finger rolls attempted, finishing them at almost 86%!!!](https://twitter.com/NBA_University/status/1760000501469282508)
The last player who took a substantial number of unassisted FGA in the restricted area (off of drives or post ups) with atleast 78 FG%? LeBron James at the peak of his powers with a FG% of 78.3% in 2013/14, which was the best mark of his career, Giannis has (so far) eclipsed this mark this season without a consistent shot over the defence (although his midrange has been coming along, especially from the left block and top of the key) in his arsenal. Damian Lillard on-ball gravity and playmaking has definitely helped, as almost all of these numbers from Giannis this season are the career highs.
Sorry for the long post. What do you guys think?
by rasenxv
25 Comments
MVP
I’ll take sentences that sound dirty but aren’t for $400, Alex.
Hey Mods, I would like to report a positive Bucks post. Thank you for your diligence in taking these down.
He’s so good
giannis is a top 3-5 finisher all time
Not a good time for this bro, post some quote from his ASG intervews without context so the sub can shit on him. Or maybe a Luka / Jokic classy pass to give it 3k upvotes.
The freak loves finishing at the rim
This doesn’t take into account him having his best playmaking season ever, him guarding some of the best players at times throughout the season, etc. He has been great and should definitely be in the run-in for MVP
pretty much every giannis season at this point is lmao
i still think of my lifetime it’s lebron
he’s 82.5% at the rim, league average is 69.6%
lebron in 2014 was 16% above league average
2017 it was 15% above
Definitely MVP caliber season from Giannis. Again.
All the more frustrating that Dame’s play hasn’t been up to par, Giannis is playing the best ball of his career. Interested to see how the playoffs unfold.
The same could be said of OP’s mom.
Freak in the sheets
the league is lucky giannis wants to be a bucks lifer cuz this dude is putting up these numbers after playing with a perimeter threat pg for the first time in his career in dame who’s basically only good for 30% from 3 and 40% from the field at this point
giannis + another all-nba player wins 2 rings minimum and maybe 3peats
Easy game when being European gives you +2 to your euro step in this league
bro could definitely finish at the rim on anyone
Closest thing to shaq we have seen.
Have to say it’s annoying to play against, not saying he doesn’t get fouled he absolutely does but he also just jumps into defenders and gets bailed out.
Huge fan just not when he’s shooting 20+ freethrows against my team.
Giannis’ Rim Job is unbelieveable
When people say ever, they should really say this century or something like that. This kind of stats weren’t recorded before the late 90s.
If he has the ball, and he’s within 7-8 feet of the rim, that’s points every single time.
Layupdunkman good
>The last player who took a substantial number of unassisted FGA in the restricted area (off of drives or post ups) with atleast 78 FG%? LeBron James at the peak of his powers with a FG% of 78.3% in 2013/14
LeBron doing this when league average efficiency was far lower than it is now is unreal
Greatest rim finisher since sasha grey
Wait until the next guy up is allowed 5 steps. Hes gonna be breakin all the stat records
Giannis, Jokic, Embiid, SGA are/were all around 65% TS.
Crazy how hyper efficient the top players are nowadays.