Nick Wright Compares Giannis and Khris Middleton to Shaq and Kobe
The Milwaukee Bucks took a 2-1 lead over the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday night behind the strength of a legacy-establishing game from Khris Middleton and a quiet 33 points and 11 rebounds from Giannis Antetokounmpo. As we've seen every single time a team wins a game in this postseason, someone has to overreact to the result. This morning it was FS1's Nick Wright on First Things First explaining how the Bucks have basically rebuilt the Shaq-Kobe Lakers while they're still two wins from even making their first Finals.
Giannis is consistently putting up Shaq numbers & Middleton right now is where Kobe was for their first title.
— nick wright (@getnickwright) June 28, 2021
Obviously, Kobe took a massive leap the following year & Middleton will never be close to that player, but for this year he might not need to be. https://t.co/fnLw7iEYeA
Sure, sure, sure. A tall guy and a less tall guy scoring a lot of points. This is the first time we've seen such a combo since Shaq and Kobe. Throwing in Jrue Holiday as Derek Fisher(?) comp is really the icing on the cake. Without going back to watch the games, I would guess Ron Harper brought the ball up quite a bit that first postseason when Fisher was only playing 16 minutes a game. Glen Rice, the team's third-leading scorer that year, seems like a better comp for Middleton.
During the Lakers' second Shaq-Kobe title run, Fisher suddenly was playing 35 minutes a game, but averaging nowhere near what Holiday has this postseason. You want to compare Giannis to Shaq, fine, but past that the Lakers thing falls apart. Unless you want to compare Brook Lopez to Robert Horry.
The Bucks' model is the same as every other team's model right now. You get as many good players as possible, however you can do it. Then you let the takes roll in and hope you can win a title to justify a few of them.