It appears that Thanasis Antetokounmpo will be getting his wish after all. Antetokounmpo's agent said about a month ago that he has spent two years in the D-League, and it is now time for him to get an NBA contract and maybe the New York Knicks were listening. The Knicks and Antetokounmpo are reportedly finalizing a deal, according to Pro Basketball Reporter David Pick.
The reported deal being discussed would be for two years with partially guaranteed money included, and the deal could be done as soon as Thursday. Antetokounmpo will likely get his first real shot to make the Knicks after spending each of the past two seasons in the D-League.
Antetokounmpo was the Knicks' second round pick in 2014, and they drafted him with the long view in mind. At the time, Antetokounmpo was an extremely raw athlete who really needed to fine tune his game, but the Knicks took a chance on him because they saw how talented his younger brother, Giannis Antetokounmpo, was and thought maybe Thanasis could be a similar type of player. Giannis has since turned into a really good NBA player, and Thanasis can only hope to be close to as good as his younger brother.
In two full D-League seasons, the 23-year-old Greece native averaged 12.9 points and 5.2 rebounds per game while making 46 percent of his field goals. More recently, Antetokounmpo had an up-and-down summer league but finished it off with a 17-point game where he made all seven of his field goal attempts.
Antetokounmpo is by no means a finished product, but he does have a chance of potentially helping the Knicks out this season. The 6-foot-7 forward is good in the open floor and is a very solid defender, but he won't provide any outside shooting, as that part of his game has yet to fully develop. The Knicks are giving Antetokounmpo a contract with the hopes that he can continue to develop under NBA coaching and can, at the very least, provide very solid defense on the wing.
When Antetokounmpo's contract becomes official, he will be the Knicks 15th player signed after Sasha Vujacic and Kevin Seraphin both recently signed on with the team. The Knicks are likely to bring in more guys to compete in training camp, but as of right now, Antetokounmpo likely has a leg up on making the team, as the Knicks have spent a lot of time developing him.
