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Friday 1 March 2019 22:52, UK
After facing each other as opposing All-Star captains, superstar duo Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James will go head to head again this weekend when the Los Angeles Lakers face the Milwaukee Bucks.
King James and his team prevailed in the All-Star match but it's back to normality for both men and their respective teams now as the countdown to the playoffs continues.
LeBron is still regarded as the best player in basketball but Antetokounmpo is certainly in the conversation - and it is he who is the one in the running to be named the NBA's Most Valuable Player this season.
The 'Greek Freak' is posting career numbers across the board (27.2 points, 12.7 rebounds, 5.9 assists) and bulldozing teams in the paint as the Milwaukee Bucks continue to sport the league's best record.
There is no doubt Mike Budenholzer's team would not be the formidable force they are without Antetokounmpo's unique skillset.
He offers superb defensive agility and is a strong rim protector as well as possessing almost superhuman levels of strength and athleticism, particularly when it comes to posterizing opponents. He also has a passing repertoire most guards would be jealous of.
Many believe the stars are aligning for Antetokounmpo, who is now in his sixth year in the league, to win the MVP award. An omen, perhaps, is that James won his first MVP in 2009, year six.
The two men have a lot in common. Both are elite NBA players who are very much the face of their franchise, both are averaging right around 27 points per game (James: 26.8, Antetokounmpo 27.2) and both are bigger men with prodigious ball-handling and playmaking skills.
But their respective situations could hardly be more contrasting.
The Bucks, after hiring Mike Budenholzer in the summer, are blowing teams away consistently and have a system they are very comfortable with, which is perfectly tailored to their star man.
The Lakers are a team in flux, struggling to find their identity and grasping for a lower seed playoff berth in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.
Although James missed significant time earlier this season, he has not transformed the Lakers single-handedly as many people expected when he made the move from the Cleveland Cavaliers.
As a result, the possibility of the playoffs happening without LeBron, who has been in the last eight NBA Finals, is now looking likelier and likelier for a multitude of reasons. Very few of them are down to the 34-year-old superstar.
While smart personnel decisions and team identity are at the core of the Bucks' success, muddled front office thinking - chiefly from president of basketball operations (and Laker legend) Earvin 'Magic' Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka - around roster construction has limited the transformative effect James has been able to have since moving to Los Angeles.
Interestingly, the Bucks' starting center Brook Lopez left the Lakers to join Milwaukee in the summer, and in many ways that move somewhat encapsulates the respective approaches of both franchises.
The Bucks brought Lopez in after the Lakers decided to let him walk for free and he has turned into a reliable threat from deep for his new team, which makes him an ideal foil for Antetokounmpo. Lopez's number of three-point attempts per game has shot up to 6.6 and he's making over 36.1 per cent of them, forcing defenses to respect his shooting.
That, in turn, drags opposing rim blockers away from the basket, which opens up the runway for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Such is the Greek Freak's effectiveness in the paint, he's posting a 58.1 field goal percentage for the season on over 17 attempts per game, with around 11 of those coming in the restricted area.
His ridiculous athleticism was demonstrated to the world once again at the recent All-Star game in Charlotte when he shot up outrageously high to catch Stephen Curry's bounce pass before throwing it down in a clip which went viral globally.
And coach Bud's decision to surround the 24-year-old with shooters means he can focus on what he does best - driving to the basket forcefully for rim-rattling dunks or dishing out dimes as the defense collapses to try and stop him.
That was also the thinking at play behind the move to acquire Nikola Mirotic before the trade deadline. Like Lopez, Mirotic is a big man who offers an outside shooting threat. Once he became available, his acquisition was a no-brainer for Milwaukee. His skillset fits perfectly in their system.
The Lakers, on the other hand, have surrounded James, a player who also traditionally thrives off having some excellent shooters around him, with a rotation full of ball-hungry playmakers and rim-protecting big men.
Their hotchpotch of veterans on cheap contracts and the core of young draft picks - namely Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart and Brandon Ingram - has created a mismatched roster unable to surround James with the consistent outside shooting threat that would open up the court for him.
Lance Stephenson, Michael Beasley (who has already been traded away to the Clippers alongside Ivica Zubac for Mike Muscala, was immediately waived and is about to restart his career China) and Rajon Rondo were signed in the summer, while Thomas Bryant, who is now starring for the Washington Wizards, was among those waived.
The lack of a big man to back up Javale McGee after Bryant and Lopez were allowed to walk led the Lakers to sign veteran center Tyson Chandler in November. Then, earlier this month, approaching the trade deadline, the Lakers traded away young guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and a second-round pick to bring in some more shooting in the form of Reggie Bullock from Detroit.
Both of those smacked of moves compensating for the ill-conceived personnel decisions previously made by the front office, of a team lacking identity and a blind faith in James' ability to overcome the problems created by the make-up of the roster around him.
For all James' excellence, that is a lot to ask. And when he missed 17 games with a groin injury, the wheels fell off, the Lakers tumbling down the Western Conference rankings, leaving them in need of a 'playoff activated' LeBron to revive their postseason hopes on his return.
But another mis-step followed. Champing at the bit to add another superstar next to James, the Lakers offered up most of their young core to acquire All-Star big man Anthony Davis from New Orleans at the trade deadline. They did not bank on the Pelicans refusal to give up their star so readily.
The failed move for Davis, and offering their young stars so freely and openly in a bid to acquire him, has created further discontent, potentially upsetting the same youngsters who once promised to be future cornerstones for them.
It's not really great for any player to know that he's readily expendable. And it's not good for team morale and chemistry if at least three or four of them know that.
A 136-94 blowout loss to the Indiana Pacers - not to mention pictures of LeBron distanced from his team-mates on the bench - suggested a divided and demotivated roster. The absence of any commitment to defense said the same.
The buzz on the street is that coach Luke Walton and James do not get on particularly well. The 15-time All-Star recently criticised his team's sense of urgency following a loss to the New Orleans Pelicans.
Walton then came out and deflected a little, suggesting that 'experience' is the best teacher for the team's young players.
While there is never a shortage of drama in Laker-land, the factors that have left them 10th in the West, a game below .500 and scrambling the eighth and final playoff place, could - injuries to James and Lonzo Ball aside - have been avoided.
Contrast that to the seamless ascension of the Bucks, a team built with parts to compliment their best player, a coach whose system has roles so clearly defined that prudent player acquisition becomes an obvious choice. For the Bucks, it's more a question of 'when' and not 'if' they make the playoffs.
Antetokounmpo has been surrounded with the support to lead his team deep into the playoffs, maybe even to an NBA title. Whatever the Lakers are able to achieve in the final quarter of the regular season will be in spite of, not because of, the pieces they placed around James.
