The “Greek Freak” Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jabari Parker are the best young duo in the NBA, according to ESPN (Insider required).
The ESPN story uses a ton of advanced stats to break down Antetokounmpo and Parker compared to Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. The results say the Milwaukee Bucks duo is “ever so slightly” better than Towns and Wiggins.
First and foremost, these types of projections are often garbage. Take this Bleacher Report story from 2012 that ranked the best young duos under 25 years old. Do you think any of these panned out?
- Anthony Davis/Eric Gordon
- Jrue Holiday/Evan Turner
- Brandon Knight/Greg Monroe
- Ty Lawson/Kenneth Faried
- Ricky Rubio/Kevin Love
Nope, they didn’t. Davis is a stud and Gordon is a nice bench player in Houston. Holiday is solid but Turner comes off the bench in Portland. Lawson, Monroe and Faried are all relegated to bench roles, too. And you know Rubio and Love never worked out.
From an offensive standpoint, the duos compare closely. But from a defensive standpoint, Towns and Wiggins have their work cut out for them. More on that later. Here’s how they stack up with combined per game totals.
Points
- Anteokounmpo/Parker – 42.5
- Wiggins/Towns – 44.3
Assists
- Anteokounmpo/Parker – 11.5
- Wiggins/Towns – 4.6
Rebounds
- Anteokounmpo/Parker – 14.9
- Wiggins/Towns – 15.4
Shooting percentage
- Anteokounmpo/Parker – 50.1 %
- Wiggins/Towns – 45.9 %
3-point percentage
- Anteokounmpo/Parker – 32.5 %
- Wiggins/Towns – 36.2 %
Free-throw percentage
- Anteokounmpo/Parker – 75 %
- Wiggins/Towns – 77.4 %
Milwaukee’s duo has the edge in assists and shooting percentage while Towns and Wiggins put up about two more points per game while grabbing an extra half rebound and shooting little bit better from three and at the free-throw line.
All of the numbers are neck-in-neck with the exception of assists, where Minnesota falls way behind.
Lastly, the Bucks are currently in line to make the playoffs while the Wolves have one of the worst records in the NBA.
It’s really turning into the year of the Sconnies. The Gophers can’t beat the Badgers in much of anything and the Packers and Bucks are both outperforming the Vikings and Wolves. Even the 73-win Brewers were 14 wins better than the Twins.
