Giannis’s shot selection had a renaissance this past year. 2024-25 saw him shooting a staggering 44.2% on mid-range shots while attempting a respectable 4.2 a game. This is a far cry from him shooting below 35% his first MVP year in 2019 and draining merely 0.6 a night.
Advertisement
While surprising kids in Chicago alongside his brothers, Kostas, Thanasis, and Alex, the ‘Greek Freak’ spoke about this added element to his game. Him having a middy was always thought of as a pipe dream for idealistic ball watchers so him turning it into reality was certainly quite the spectacle.
“Once you add that element your game, you’re hard to be guarded. You gotta back off me. If I was making those shots, you have to back off me. Because, I get to the rim with defense. I shoot 70%. With defense.”
The 2x MVP is right to be proud of this accomplishment of his. Funnily enough, Giannis sold his ‘at rim’ percentage short. He shot 74.9% in the restricted area this season on a whopping 11.2 attempts a game.
Of course, Giannis cheekily also added himself to a list of bona fide mid-range masters after the year he just had. “Me, DeRozan, KD, Devin Booker,” said Antetokounmpo.
“Me, DeRozan, KD, Devin Booker….” Giannis talking about the midrange work pic.twitter.com/aUDLK2udJY
— Swish Cultures (@swishcultures_) August 10, 2025
In all fairness to guys like Kevin Durant and Book, they both shot over 50% from mid-range on attempts higher than Giannis, 4.6 and 4.3, respectively.
This increased frequency of mid-range shots didn’t come to Giannis as an epiphany one night in the middle of the season. He worked on it tirelessly for months on end during last year’s offseason.
“Guys are giving it [space to shoot] to me. I got to shoot it because it’s less toll on my body,” said Giannis this past March. “I’ve worked on it all summer long. They are Playoff shots in my opinion. And it’s a shot I believe I can make.”
A fairly astute observation from him as yes, being in your thirties and continually barreling downhill for every basket might not be sustainable. Getting those same two points with a simple 12-footer would help preserve his body and his energy.
Besides, the threat of a Giannis drive is still very much alive. He’s nowhere close to being a pure shooting threat from within the arc as defenders are puzzled on how much space to give him. Hopefully this allows this mangled Bucks squad to make some noise in the weakened Eastern Conference.
