The Most Dominant Player in the NBA vs. the One-Man Army.
There’s no bad answer to who should be above who in Luka vs. Giannis.
Luka is like premium home delivery meal kit. You open the box and you have everything you need. The rebounds. The playmaking. The scoring. The mid-range fadeaway. The stepback 3. The drifting layup. It’s Offense-In-A-Box.
Giannis is a gigantic slab of ribs. You know what you’re getting. You know you’re going to be happy with it. No one’s going home hungry.
But if we’re going to make a case for Giannis, it’s that he doesn’t need all the bells and whistles to get to the same endpoint. He doesn’t need to dominate the ball every possession to make his presence felt. And he doesn’t come with the drawbacks that Luka does.
For obvious starters, the defensive gap cannot be wider. Giannis is an elite weakside rim protector. He’s almost never going to be targeted on switches the way Doncic is. No team is every like “You know what we want to do? Get the 7-foot pterodactyl-man into some on-ball actions.” But he also recovers so well weakside.
Giannis also competes. He doesn’t go halfway on defensive possessions, watching defenders slide by or on offensive rebound possessions. He attacks, relentlessly and aggressively, and does so without fouling too much or getting himself out of position. Giannis an All-Defensive level talent, Doncic is someone you have to protect and hide in most circumstances (with a few exceptions where he does alright).
So the question is the offensive gap.
Yes, Dončić is a better passer. He’s masterful in all sorts of ways. The jump pass two-hand overhand whip to the corner. Bounce pocket passes. Lobs. That over-the shoulder toss behind him to the corner shooter he likes.
But don’t sleep on Giannis as a playmaker. His passes aren’t as flashy or as versatile, but he knows how to get the ball to the right placement for a good shot. This gets lost often with passers; it’s not just finding the angle to complete it, it’s how well can you throw it so that the player gets a good, clean catch for the shot? Giannis is terrific at those.
Giannis averages 7.8 assists per 75 possessions this season in the minutes without Damian Lillard, compared to just six with him. He doesn’t pass more because he has someone else to do that. You can’t hold that against Giannis when he’s demonstrated not only that he can produce playmaking, but does so on a night to night basis.
Then there’s the efficiency. Dončić’s 3-pointer comes and goes; it’s a wild product of variance. Some months he’s a sharpshooter, some years he’s a volume low-efficiency chucker.
Giannis is obviously not a sharpshooter. But he is the only player in NBA history to average 30 points on 60 percent shooting from the field in back-to-back seasons. His efficiency floor is sky-high because of how many dunks he creates with his strength and athleticism.
Meanwhile, he’s actually been a sneaky good jumpshooter this season. On shots between 17-feet and the 3-point line (long mid-range J’s), Giannis is one of only nine players to attempt at least 100 attempts. He’s third among those nine players in field goal efficiency. Of players to attempt at least 50, he’s 10th .
That addition of a mid-range shot fundamentally changes how teams can guard him. He’s another beast when he can hit those. The last year he shot this well on his jumper? 2021 when the Bucks won the title.
Dončić is a generational talent that no one should ever think about trading. But the reasons he were dealt did impact his availability and while Giannis takes more games off to rest than he used to, he’s still a tank. He misses days, maybe a week at a time. Doncic misses months consistently. Those absences make a big difference when trying to build chemistry and momentum.
Overall, Giannis Antetokunpmo is a more consistent, more available, more versatile player who contributes more to his team winning by showing up, playing hard in every game he plays, and dominating the game in every facet. You can try and live with Luka Dončić. You often times can’t survive an onslaught from Giannis.
Giannis over Luka, for this year at least.
