The Milwaukee Bucks have lost five of their last six games and are officially eliminated from the playoffs, but they have still been worth watching recently. That will continue to be the case moving forward too because of one player, and that is the Greek Freak.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is only 21 years old, but he is in his third season in the NBA and his growth from year one until now is hard to believe. Despite the Bucks' disappointing year Antetokounmpo has single-handedly given the franchise hope for the future with the season he has had.
Antetokounmpo has recently taken over as the main ballhandler for the Bucks out of necessity. All four point guards on Milwaukee's roster are either out for the season or are dealing with nagging injuries so Antetokounmpo has effectively been playing point forward with a great deal of success. The Greek Freak had a stretch during February when he racked up a triple-double in five out of six games and has posted eight triple-doubles since Feb 19.
Because of the success that Antetokounmpo has had being the primary ball handler, head coach Jason Kidd said that he will enter next season as the team's point guard. That is a strange thing for a coach to say about a player that is 6-foot-11, but Antetokounmpo is extremely versatile and can play basically any position on the floor. Coming into the season Kidd said he would use the third-year man at all positions including point guard and center. but recently he has gotten an extended look at point guard with tremendous results.
This announcement by Kidd brought into question the future of Michael Carter-Williams who is currently out for the season after undergoing hip surgery. Carter-Williams is under contract next season and is supposed to be the team's point guard of the future, but Kidd anointing Antetokounmpo as next year's point guard seemed to undermine that. Kidd has since clarified that Carter-Williams will still be the team's starting point guard technically but Antetokounmpo will do more of the ball handling. This makes sense considering Carter-Williams is more of a scorer than a passer anyway.
This news is more about Antetokounmpo wowing since taking on more point guard responsibilities than it is about anything Carter-Williams did wrong, but make no mistake about it, Kidd is not thrilled with Carter-Williams either. The injury can't be helped, but Kidd expected more out of Carter-Williams while he was healthy this season, and because of that he was involved in trade rumors at the deadline, and some believe Kidd might try to use him to acquire Ricky Rubio this offseason.
