As soon as Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo joined forces, everyone talked about how “devastating,” “unstoppable,” and “terrifying” they would be as a pick-and-roll duo.

I wasn’t any different. It was and still is pretty clear. There has never been a better pull-up shooter than Lillard. Because of this, two players will jump at him, leaving Giannis, who is like a superhero athlete, with a lot of room to rush the basket. 

I might have been wrong when I thought that people would understand that this pair’s main destructive power would come from the way their combined gravity would affect everything around them and leave rival defenses weak. 

Did people really think that Giannis would just be able to roll right up to the basket and dunk? Did Giannis come up with that?

It seems like he did in a recent Athletic story by Eric Nehm (worth reading). 

“The first couple of games, I couldn’t understand it,” Antetokounmpo told The Athletic on Nov. 20 of the constricted path he faced when Lillard left the double team. “Why the f— is it so crowded?”

And …

“This is the craziest part,” Antetokounmpo added. Going into the season, you’re thinking, ‘Oh crаp, the pick-and-roll, I’ll get so many easy looks.’ Because Dаme is being double-teamed and they’re zoning up when I receive the ball, our pick-and-roll connection benefits others more than us. So swing, and others will gain.”

And …

The crowds are too much. I traveled two or three times at the start of the year “Antetokounmpo showed where he sees opponents when he collects the ball with Lillard in the pick-and-roll. I understand, and the person is already here. Or I turn and strike a crowd when I receive it. It’s packed.”

This is strange. For nearly a decade, Giannis has stared at walls of defenders in the paint. Now he’s astonished that they’re not putting out a red carpet to the rim simply because Lillard started it?

This is typical pick-and-roll. Even Draymond Green, a worse downhill rim attacker than Giannis, faces several defenders in the paint on short rolls. A math problem. The defense loses a player after sending two to the ball handler. Giannis says it must “zone up” to stop four attacking players with three defenders. 

You can see that those three defenders will focus on stopping Giannis before he goes downhill without being a basketball genius. Again, it’s unclear why Giannis didn’t expect this. 

Lillard understands. The past decade has seen him doubling on ball screens. He understands it’s a game of inches, as Nehm explains extensively. 

The guys spacing beyond the 3-point line will get open looks when defenses sink down on Giannis. If they can consistently make those shots, defenses will naturally gravitate toward them, away from Dаme’s pull-up 3-pointers and Antetokounmpo’s rim rolls. 

Both of them can kιll you in a little area. 

Lillard and Giannis need two things to get those slivers of space. Milwaukee has lots of good shooters who must make shots. They must get the pass first. Giannis feels uncomfortable making snap judgments. Hesitating even a millisecond allows the opposition to recover and erase your advantage. 

Giannis used to have more time to look at the walls. He surveyed from the top of the key before bolting like a bull. It didn’t make for terrific offense, but it provided a wrecking ball-born playmaker time to think. Understand the terrain. Find his outlet shooters before driving. 

He must now catch and go, which changes processing time. That makes sense. Disrupting defenders with short-roll passing is harder than Draymond claims. Again, Giannis didn’t see this coming, which is confusing. 

The only way Giannis will grow better at rolling in close spaces is to do it more. Lillard seems to be telling Bucks coach Adrian Griffin to increase the frequency of these movements, something Griffin has been reluctant to do this season for feаr of jeopardizing his more inclusive motion offense. 

“… I think it just takes reps,” Lillard told The Athletic about his pick-and-rolls with Giannis. “I want more pick-and-rolls with you. Probably how you improve. So you learn each other better. We don’t play many pick-and-rolls where I handle and he sets. We haven’t focused enough on it… We don’t run it often enough to have enough repetitions versus coverages in the game. It takes time to get it down.”

The bottom line. Great players drawing numerous defenders to free up their less talented teammates is a basic basketball theory, but it’s tougher to apply. Simply said, practice makes perfect. 

Dаme doesn’t need repetitions. His role hasn’t altered. New territory for Giannis. He may be understanding. Nehm reports Giannis as saying he wants to raise the screens so he has more floor space to decide before he gets into the defense. 

Giannis is realizing that wrinkles like that may benefit him, which is encouraging. I’m still surprised he didn’t see that coming. Not a decent shot. When Giannis possesses the ball on the perimeter, defenders will drop into the paint as rollers, in isolation, or otherwise. Not very novel. 

Again, he needs more time to decide and pass. Should Griffin give everything to him, even if it’s clunky, to dial in Milwaukee’s postseason offense? Most, including Lillard, agree. It may happen in the next months.