{"id":460674,"date":"2017-10-05T09:24:40","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T13:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=460674"},"modified":"2017-10-09T18:13:30","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T22:13:30","slug":"giannis-antetokounmpo-top-50-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/news\/nba\/giannis-antetokounmpo-top-50-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"SLAM Top 50: Giannis Antetokounmpo, No. 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Greek Freak<\/a> is 22 years old. Last season, he led his team in all five of the major categories, putting him in a group with Pippen, Cowens, LeBron, and KG. His line: 23 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists, hitting over 50 percent from the field, a steal and a half, nearly 2 blocks per game. Even more frightening, he raised his game beyond those numbers in the playoffs. A 6-11 point guard learning from Jason Kidd<\/a>. The one hole in his game: threes… for now. In a few short years, he\u2019s become an overpowering force.<\/p>\n

At a time where the NBA is becoming positionless, he\u2019s as versatile as they come. Off the court, his fish out of water tales and vignettes about manchild playfulness are legend. Giannis has crossed the line from intrigue and potential to supernova. On the court, more scrutiny will come, but Giannis looks like he\u2019s ready for the next level.<\/p>\n

In life, he\u2019s paid dues. Once a Nigerian immigrant who was selling goods in the streets of Greece, to \u201cunicorn\u201d curiosity, to full blown NBA superstar with a $100 million contract. Other guys get to the NBA, maybe they play in a big market like Los Angeles, maybe they have a shoe deal and Johnny Football levels of hype, perhaps a rap single about their little home-schooled brother\u2019s shoe. The Greek Freak has to settle for owning Milwaukee for the time being, at least for this year when his place on this top 50 list is the issue at hand. As Jabari Parker<\/a> and the rest of the Young Bucks grow with him, expect serious damage to the Eastern Conference hierarchy, sooner than you think. Giannis already took Toronto to six games, playing brilliantly but perhaps running out of gas.<\/p>\n

The upcoming season is complicated by Giannis mourning the recent passing of his father, Charles. Currently taking an indefinite leave, when The Greek Freak returns, expect him to continue the ascension up NBA\u2019s Mount Olympus (sorry). He\u2019ll be a high pick in this year\u2019s All-Star Game<\/a>, and with the way free agents keep bailing for the West, he could lead Milwaukee on a deep run, perhaps all the way to the conference finals.<\/p>\n

Previous\u00a0<\/strong>Rankings:
\n<\/strong>2016: No. 26
\n<\/strong>2015: No. 49
\n<\/strong>2014: Not Ranked
\n<\/strong>2013: Not Ranked<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Rankings are based on expected contribution in 2017-18\u2014to players\u2019 team, the NBA and the game.<\/em><\/p>\n

No. 50 \u2013 Dion Waiters<\/a>
\n<\/strong>No. 49 \u2013 Ben Simmons<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>
\nNo. 48 \u2013 Brook Lopez<\/a>
\nNo. 47 \u2014 Harrison Barnes<\/a>
\nNo. 46 \u2014 Jrue Holiday<\/a>
\n<\/strong>No. 45 \u2014 Lonzo Ball
\n<\/strong><\/a>No. 44 \u2014 Myles Turner
\n<\/strong><\/a>No. 43 \u2014 Goran Dragic<\/strong><\/a>
\nNo. 42 \u2014 Andre Drummond
\n<\/strong><\/a>No. 41 \u2014 Al Horford<\/a>
\nNo. 40 \u2014 LaMarcus Aldridge<\/a>
\nNo. 39 \u2014 Kevin Love<\/a>
\nNo. 38 \u2014 Paul Millsap<\/a>
\nNo. 37 \u2014 Hassan Whiteside<\/a>
\nNo. 36 \u2014 Andrew Wiggins<\/a>
\nNo. 35 \u2014 Marc Gasol<\/a>
\nNo. 34 \u2013 DeAndre Jordan<\/a>
\nNo. 33 \u2014 Bradley Beal<\/a>
\nNo. 32 \u2014 Kemba Walker<\/a>
\nNo. 31 \u2014 CJ McCollum<\/a>
\nNo. 30 \u2014 Devin Booker<\/a>
\nNo. 29 \u2014 Nikola Jokic<\/a>
\nNo. 28 \u2014 Joel Embiid<\/a>
\nNo. 27 \u2014 Mike Conley\u00a0<\/a>
\nNo. 26 \u2014 Kyle Lowry<\/a>
\nNo. 25 \u2014 Rudy Gobert<\/a><\/strong>
\nNo. 24 \u2014 Gordon Hayward<\/strong><\/a>
\nNo. 23 \u2014 Kristaps Porzingis<\/a>
\nNo. 22 \u2014 Carmelo Anthony<\/a>
\nNo. 21 \u2014 DeMar DeRozan<\/a>
\nNo. 20 \u2014 Blake Griffin<\/a>
\nNo. 19 \u2014 Draymond Green<\/a>
\nNo. 18 \u2014 Chris Paul<\/a>
\nNo. 17 \u2014 Klay Thompson<\/a>
\nNo. 16 \u2014 Jimmy Butler<\/a>
\nNo. 15 \u2014 Isaiah Thomas<\/a>
\nNo. 14 \u2014 Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>
\nNo. 13 \u2014 Damian Lillard<\/a>
\nNo. 12 \u2014 DeMarcus Cousins<\/a>
\nNo. 11 \u2014 Kyrie Irving<\/a>
\nNo. 10 \u2014 John Wall<\/a>
\nNo. 9 \u2014 Paul George<\/a><\/strong>
\nNo. 8 \u2014 Anthony Davis<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Giannis is a superstar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":455180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,36],"tags":[32614,10831,2625],"yst_prominent_words":[14362,14633,15710,16536,34601,15770,32813,21818,14437],"class_list":["post-460674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-slam-top-50","tag-2017-slam-top-50","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-slam-top-50"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460674"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460844,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460674\/revisions\/460844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460674"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=460674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}