His dropstep is becoming a signature move, but so too is his spin move away from the help yielding fruit. He takes enormous steps, able to cover more ground in the post than virtually anyone. For as long and strong as NBA players are, feet are truly the only way to actually move around the court, and Antetokounmpo’s footwork has improved. His lower body is so strong that he can’t be bumped off his line, and he can take contact and push through in exactly the same direction he was moving before. He’s been incredibly flexible with his core, leveraging space not with his length but with his legs. He rarely turns it over against single coverage, which hasn’t been true previously. This season he is holding his post-ups an extra beat, getting deeper, drawing help further into the paint. In previous years, he would occasionally give up the ball too early, without drawing enough of an advantage, and ask his teammates to create on their own for the remainder of the possession. (Some of them - we’ll get to the ones that do result in resets in a moment.) His turnovers are down. How? Because his post-ups are more threatening, ending more possessions rather than resulting in resets. He’s attempting the second-highest rate of shots per post-up of his career, but he’s also averaging the highest rate of passes per post-up since 2018-19. He has also improved his own abilities with his back to the basket. When Lillard enters the ball to Antetokounmpo in the post from the strong side, it doesn’t take much to create an open shot.īut the improvement hasn’t just been in the context surrounding Antetokounmpo. Milwaukee is mostly limiting the play to such beneficial situations. Antetkounmpo has never played alongside such talented shooters furthermore, more than three-quarters of his post-ups have come with those two on the floor beside him. And he also plays more than half of his possessions next to both Malik Beasley, one of the most accurate shooters in the league this year, and Damian Lillard, whose shooting needs no introduction. Outside of Antetokounmpo himself, there is no player with whom he plays that does not shoot triples. The context around Antetokounmpo has shifted. Still, possessions on which he posts up are statistically yielding more points than ones on which De’Aaron Fox is driving, or Tyrese Maxey is running a pick and roll. He’s once again at 10th, albeit on a slightly lower points per chance. His previous best efficiency - including possessions that aren’t just ended in the post, but feature a post-up at any point - came in that 2019-20 season, when he ranked 10th in the league among players with at least 50 post-ups. Perhaps the most significant point is that Antetokounmpo remains one of the best post scorers in the league. So what has changed this season? And is his post-up game a weapon this year that will change the texture of Milwaukee’s playoff outlook? And this year, he’s posting up less frequently than he has since 2016-17. His highest rate of post-up frequency came in 2019-20, when he ranked 15th in frequency across the league. But Antetokounmpo has long been a lower-usage post player among star bigs. Sure, the game is going away from the post - at least when mismatches aren’t involved. And it worked.įor being perhaps the game’s most dominant big man since Shaquille O’Neal, Antetokounmpo has never been a premier post-up player. He made mistakes, was even sloppy at points, but was ultimately so overpowering that he engaged nearly Houston’s entire defense. James’ recent NBA Finals performance likely helped improve his rating +1 from his rating in 2K20, where he, Antetokounmpo, and Harden all tied for being rated the highest players in the game at 97 OVR.That moment was a perfect encapsulation of Antetokounmpo’s entire post game. Who has the Highest Rating in NBA 2K21?Ģ020 NBA Finals MVP, 4-time champ, and 17-year vet, LeBron James has highest player rating in NBA 2K21 at 98 OVR, barely beating out 2020 NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is one below at 97 OVR. All NBA 2K21 ratings will go in effect and be updated for both Next-Gen and Current-Gen systems on November 10. Several NBA 2K21 Next-Gen Ratings have been released by 2K recently.
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