By Giannis Antetokounmpo/ Follow @G_ante34
Giannis Antetokounmpo returned to the USA and after a few days of individual training sessions, he made the trip to Taiwan and China together with his family. The next short period includes dedication to training and individual improvement.
Giannis continues with his round of summer posts on Eurohoops, writing about the goal of the MIP award, the Bucks’ next season and the top class bigman they need. The menu includes his famous DNP in the game against the Cavaliers and Jason Kidd who is always hard on him!
The improvement and the 7th place in the MIP
I want the work that I do every day in training to come off on the court and the most improved player award is definitely a distinction that I wanted to accomplish. It’ll be a great reward. In the season that ended there were guys that did incredible things and climbed levels. Like Butler, Green, Gobert and several more players. What counts is for me to have a visible improvement in my game every season, regardless of whether I manage to get this award at some point.
The Bucks’ next season
We want to be more competitive next season. We will definitely be better. Most players the Bucks rely on are young and will appear improved. It’s in our hands to have an even better season, compared to the last one in which we managed to compete in the playoffs.
A top class bigman
I think we need a top class bigman. We have Zaza Pachulia who really knows how to play basketball and John Henson who will keep getting better and better and some other big guys with potential. But we need an athletic, top class bigman. Who will be able to finish plays, score and play effective defense. Who will have the skills to function as the rim protector and set good screens.
Zaza Pachulia jokes around with me! He’s warning me that we are going to meet each other in… the Eurobasket. We will both be present with our national teams. I’ll be waiting for him there!
The famous DNP
I didn’t know it and I wasn’t expecting it. I really wanted to play in that game, in order to try and match up with LeBron James. I remember that in the previous meeting with Cleveland I played him well in the first half. But then he started doing his magic, what he usually does and I… lost him! (Laughs).
I really like challenges. It’s great to face the best player in the world, who plays in the same position as you. When you are facing a player who is much better than you in everything, it can only be good. It puts me in the process of getting stubborn and wanting to evolve quickly. To be able to stand my ground at the top level of the game in the NBA. At this stage, when match-ups like these come up, my goal is to try and restrict the super stars to a lesser performance than what they’re used to and at the same time to not hesitate to play offense against them.
“The coach lets me have it”
Jason Kidd has helped me a lot. No other coach from the ones I’ve had up to this point in my career has been as strict with me as coach Kidd. Something that makes me better. I always remember my coach in Filathlitikos, Takis Zivas.
He always treated me like his own kid, like the team’s youngest. He advised to me to work and even then he told me that I could play in the NBA. And I believed that when I was a kid, but I didn’t know when I would make it! Jason Kidd always lets me have it and that has a positive and constructive effect.
“It was good for me, because I got angry”
I know that it became an issue and the media was trying to find out what had happened. Maybe because I had played in many consecutive games in the starting line-up and suddenly in a game against the Cavs I never stepped on the court. But there wasn’t anything more to it than the fact that he didn’t use me. It was good for me, as it turned out.
Because, in the next game I was angry and I was anxious to play. In New York. The game turned out to be a good game for me and I made one of the best plays I’ve made this far in my career. That play came out because I was angry. That’s why right afterwards he made that stink face!