Milwaukee Bucks: Giannis Antetokounmpo Sees Major Turn Around at Free Throw Line
By Paul Bretl
Milwaukee Bucks’ star and two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo has developed into one of the most dominant players in the NBA right before our very eyes. And Antetokounmpo got to this point with a work ethic that is nearly unmatched. But over the last year and a half or so, no matter how hard or how much practice time the Greek Freak puts in at the free-throw line, he just can’t seem to find any sort of consistency.
However, it hasn’t always been that way. During the four seasons from 2014 to 2018, Antetokounmpo averaged 75.2 percent at the line, including a career-high of 77 percent in the 2016-2017 season. The following year, he backed that up by shooting 76 percent from the charity stripe.
Even during the Bucks’ run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2019, Antetokounmpo still hit almost 73 percent of his attempts that season–which is still solid. But as Jared Dubin of Last Night in Basketball points out in a recent article, there was a turning point in that series against Toronto, and Antetokounmpo hasn’t been the same since.
As Dubin mentions, Milwaukee lost Game 3 by six points, and in that game, Antetokounmpo was just 2-7 from the free-throw line. And for the rest of the series, he made just 47.2 percent of his 36 attempts.
These struggles spilled into the 2019-2020 season, as Giannis made only 63.3 percent of his attempts that year. Then in the playoffs where Milwaukee saw an early second-round exit, he would hit just 58 percent of his 48 free-throw attempts.
Unfortunately, things were even worse at the beginning of this season as Antetokounmpo made 58.4 percent of his shots at the line over the Milwaukee Bucks’ first 17 games. This also included a historically bad performance against Dallas, where Giannis went 1-10 in that game.
Following the Dallas game, when asked what he can do moving forward to try to improve his free throw shooting, we received a very Giannis-like response:
"“It’s simple,” Antetokounmpo said via ESPN. “Just go back. Shoot more. Focus on your technique. Take it step by step. Just shoot more. That’s it. The more you shoot, the more you work on it, the better you get. There’s no secret in that.”"
Well, whatever Giannis has done since then, whether it was simply shooting more or making a change to his routine or technique, it’s worked.
In Milwaukee’s last 13 games, Antetokounmpo has made 71.5 percent of his free-throw attempts and 73.5 percent over the last 10 games. This includes performances against Indiana where he went 7-8. Another against Phoenix where Giannis made 17-21 attempts. And then 10-14 against Toronto, along with going 8-10 most recently against Oklahoma City.
As I said, I’m not sure what has exactly changed, and perhaps no one outside of the organization does. But regardless, this is a welcomed sight.
When Giannis has struggled at the line, teams have used that as a way to slow him and this Bucks’ offense down. But if he is going to consistently make 7 of his 10 free throws, that strategy takes a major hit, and defenses are stressed even more so when trying to defend the Greek Freak, knowing that they can’t simply send him to the line.
Antetokounmpo maintaining this level of success at the line is going to be vital to Milwaukee’s success moving forward–especially in the playoffs. In those final minutes of a close game, the Milwaukee Bucks will need their best player doing what he does best on both ends of the court, but they’re also going to need him to put games away at the free-throw line.