Spotlight or No Spotlight, Giannis Antetokounmpo Is an NBA Superstar

NEW YORK — It's early in the third quarter of the Milwaukee Bucks' 111-93 victory over the Brooklyn Nets. Sean Kilpatrick feeds Trevor Booker a bounce pass just outside the paint. Booker surveys the landscape for a tick, quickly realizing he won't establish proper position as his defender pushes up against him.

The resistance is strong enough to keep Booker off-balance but innocent enough to avoid a foul call. Booker puts the ball on the floor, gradually backing his way toward the basket. His defender separates his feet ever so slightly, trying to hold ground.

A cartoonishly long arm reaches in mid-dribble, poking the ball away from Booker. He tracks it down, only for that same lanky arm to seize possession.

Three dribbles and a Eurostep later, the new ball-handler has gone almost the entire length of the floor. He misses a contested layup. Loosely surrounded by Booker and Brook Lopez, he grabs his own rebound and then finishes what he started.

Giannis Antetokounmpo has scored again.

"He's a great player," Kilpatrick said. "Someone who's able to dribble the ball at his height and really run the point. He's one of those guys where it only takes four or five steps for him to get to the basket from the other end."

"He's tremendously long," Isaiah Whitehead added. "He's a point guard in a center's body."

These moments, the ones when he does everything, have become routine for Antetokounmpo this season, his fourth in the NBA.

Which is fitting, because that's exactly what he does and what he is to the Milwaukee Bucks: everything.

For a variety of reasons, Antetokounmpo's rise isn't talked about in these terms. He plays in Milwaukee. The Bucks aren't a bona fide contender. He doesn't shoot threes. Russell Westbrook is averaging a triple-double. LeBron James is basically right there with him. The Golden State Warriors exist.

Whitehead admits he didn't see a lot of Antetokounmpo while he was playing at Seton Hall because the Bucks didn't garner enough national attention. Not even his $100 million extension noticeably shifted perception. Teams heavily invest in unfinished products. That's not new.

And so it goes. Antetokounmpo's breakout is "coming" or "in progress," seldom "here" or "complete."

That's not true.

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Antetokounmpo is no longer a billboard for potential. His skills are not nascent, his value isn't budding, the Bucks aren't waiting on him. He has fully arrived among the incumbent stars. His game is still developing—always developing—but not unpolished.

That was the prevailing theme in Milwaukee's victory Thursday. Antetokounmpo finished with 23 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, four steals and two blocks, in under 30 minutes, without playing in the fourth quarter.

"I don't even think about it," Antetokounmpo said. "I think my game is so versatile that, without even thinking about it and just playing hard and being in the right spot, you just fill up the sheet. That's what I'm trying to do. I have the ball in my hands a lot, so no matter what happens, the stats are going to be there."

His nonchalance is infectious, and partly why the spotlight rarely seems to shine his way.

If you've watched Antetokounmpo play this season, there wasn't much special about his performance against the Nets. He dominated quietly, expectedly, in a way that many have come to take for granted or failed to acknowledge.

But Antetokounmpo won't fly under the casual fan's radar anymore. He is averaging 22.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 2.2 steals and 2.1 blocks per game—numbers with incredible historical significance, per Bleacher Report's Adam Fromal:

No one in NBA history, for the record, has matched all those benchmarks at once. Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson did it without the assists. Michael Jordan and Larry Bird did it without the blocks.

Milwaukee does not underestimate this versatility.

Antetokounmpo is posting the highest usage rate of his career (28.4) by a mile, and head coach Jason Kidd moves him around the floor without regard for positions, consistency or the concept of limitations. He is technically the Bucks' starting shooting guard, but he functions like a floor general. He is one of 23 players posting an assist rate north of 30. Twenty-one of those are point guards, and then there's Antetokounmpo and James.

At the same time, Milwaukee doesn't shy away from using its 6'11" whatchamacallit as a primary rim protector. No one on the Bucks has contested more shots around the basket, and opponents are shooting 43.7 percent against Antetokounmpo in those situations—a top-15 mark among those to challenge at least 70 point-blank looks.

The players opposing teams put on Antetokounmpo don't allow you to pigeonhole him either. The Nets threw Trevor Booker, Kilpatrick, Whitehead and, well, just about everyone else at him.

"It's definitely a challenge," Booker, a power forward by craft, said. "It's something new for me, having to guard ball screens, because they set ball screens when they pass the ball."

These are not empty platitudes or numbers. Even if those around him are numb to his accolades, the Bucks feel Antetokounmpo's presence—and, equally important, his absence:

Bucks...	Off. Rtg. (Rank)	Def. Rtg.	Net Rtg.	FG%	3P%
With Antetokounmpo	106.9 (9)	101.3 (6)	5.7 (6)	46.7	36.0
Without Antetokounmpo	96.4 (30)	105.0 (19)	-8.6 (29)	43.0	30.3

All this value from a 21-year-old who doesn't have real three-point range—for now.

It's tempting to write off Antetokounmpo's outside touch. He hit two triples against the Nets but, on a macro level, struggles to knock down even wide-open threes. Plus, he is the only player taller than 6'9" to rank in the top 35 of drives per game.

He reaches the rim at will. He doesn't need to incorporate a jumper.

And yet, he's trying to, because superstars are perfectionists.

"My main focus right now is to shoot without hesitating," he said. "I don't care whether it goes in or it goes out. I have nothing to lose. Just let it fly."

Stacy Revere/Getty Images

Antetokounmpo gets nuanced when talking about how to improve his shooting form—a harbinger of his commitment to growing. He also hinted that he might work out with Dirk Nowitzki and his shooting coach over the offseason.

Imagine that: Antetokounmpo with three-point chops. And a one-legged fadeaway. And whatever other basketball voodoo would result from those workout sessions.

All of that, though, is gravy. Antetokounmpo doesn't need to change. Nor is his story about someone who's as good as you can get without a reliable jumper.

It's about recognizing a superstar when we see one.

"We have special players that we come across," Kidd said. "LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan. And Giannis is one of those rare players we'll be able to enjoy for a long time."

Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com and accurate leading into Friday's games. All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @danfavale.