The Milwaukee Bucks have been one of the top teams in the league for quite some time, and it all has to do with their superstar.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is set to enter his 13th season as a Buck when tipoff comes around in October. While rumors have been flying throughout the offseason about his uncertain future, there seems to be a calmness in Milwaukee despite all the noise.
Bucks GM Jon Horst has been one of the drivers in keeping Antetokounmpo around this offseason, making big deals such as signing Myles Turner and waiving and stretching Damian Lillard. Meanwhile, most of Milwaukee’s other moves have centered on creating a perfect supporting cast for Antetokounmpo. In a recent interview with The Athletic’s Eric Nehm, Horst broke down what that looks like.
“He truly is becoming a real point guard — or a real point forward, like Doc [Rivers] calls it — so I think that allows us to dive even deeper into it than we have in the past, but I think those have always been some of our most successful lineups and groups,” Horst said. “Putting him out there with a bunch of shooters and ball movers and let him just dominate. You stop him, he passes it. You don’t, he dunks it. And I feel like we’ve got a number of those guys.”
As the case has been for years now, the key to building a team around Antetokounmpo is simply letting him be himself. As one of the most versatile and dominant players the league has ever seen at his size, Antetokounmpo simply commands so much attention at all times.
Considering the Bucks had some elite 3-point shooting last season, Antetokounmpo was able to thrive with so much spacing. With Lillard out of the picture for next season, Antetokounmpo will be handling the ball more, and Horst doubled down on the importance of the 3-point shot.
“I think if we get [our 3-point attempts] into the top 10 and we stay in the top two or three percentage-wise, it’s going to have a big impact on our productivity throughout the season,” Horst said.
