“Giannis is still climbing the mountain”: Jason Kidd backs 2-time MVP to refine his skillset even more

Jason Kidd says 2-time MVP and 2021 NBA Finals MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo is yet to reach his full potential as a player.

When Giannis came over from the Greek Basket League as an 18-year-old, he was a nobody. While there were people talking about his potential, nobody knew what was to come.

Since 2013, Giannis seems to steadily have improved every single season. While he won the Most Improved Player award back in 2016-17, he could’ve won even more of them in the seasons that followed.

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He’s put in work both in the weight room and on the court, and the results are there for everyone to see. While he’s still a suspect jump shooter off the catch, it seems that he’s sorted all other skills on the basketball court.

Much of the credit for this development has to go to Jason Kidd, his former Milwaukee Bucks coach. When he was getting pigeonholed into a small forward role in his rookie and sophomore seasons, Kidd intervened and made him their primary ball-handler.

Since that turn, the Greek Freak hasn’t looked back. His assists average went up from 1.9 per game as a rookie to 5.9 in his first MVP year. He’s also become the most dominant scorer in the league today, generating basically open looks once he starts moving downhill on the drive.

How Jason Kidd views Giannis today

Jason Kidd was a guest on the All the Smoke podcast recently. The interview had a lot of gems from both the Hall of Famer’s playing career and his coaching experiences.

The last full-length question from the interview was about Giannis. Kidd, as a doting mentor, had only the best things to say about his former player:

“Unbelievable! When you talk about a young man who’d do anything you’d ask him to do, he wanted to be great. I’m excited to see him where he is today, but he again is just starting to climb the mountain. He hasn’t reached his full potential either.”

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“His work ethic is like no other. He works extremely hard during the season and off the season. So to be able to be around Giannis when he was younger – his growth – giving him the ball when I was there to help expand his game was something that we all thought would help.”