We Live In A World Where Somehow Giannis Has Become Massively Underrated

Gary Dineen. Getty Images.

As we inch closer and closer to the NBA season (just 57 days away!), a couple of things I always look forward to are the annual ESPN Offseason Survey and the NBA GM Survey. I find it interesting to see what those in the league circles think about the upcoming season/players because, at the end of the day, they are the ones who are supposed to know their shit. It's not the same sort of clickbait/rage bait like the Top 100 list we see from ESPN analysts or anything, but votes from people whose opinions are in theory worth putting stock into.

While we have to wait until around October for the NBA GM Survey, we are starting to get the results of the ESPN one, which as a reminder reveals what 18 NBA coaches, scouts, and executives are predicting for the 2024-25 season. Today's results covered things like MVP, the best player in the league, who is going to win the title etc

and after looking through it, I came away with one glaring conclusion.

For some reason, Giannis has become severely underrated. I'm not suggesting that solely based on KG declaring him the 4th best player in the East

which while I love KG to death, is insane. I'm not going to argue his stance on Jayson Tatum because as the current champion that's just one of the perks of currently being on the top of the mountain, but to me this is taking things a little too far. 

Then I started to think more about it and honestly, something doesn't quite add up. We already had the Bucks and Giannis getting snubbed from having a Christmas Day game which is bizarre given the fact that the Bucks are supposed to be a contender this year and Giannis/Dame is talked about as one of the best duos in the league. 

In addition to that, some of these results from ESPN's survey are just as confusing. For example, the 2024-25 MVP. Notice anyone missing?

Not a single vote for Giannis? A player who was 4th in voting last year, top 3 the previous two seasons before that, 4th in 2021-21, and then back-to-back MVPs the two seasons prior? That feels…..crazy. Giannis hasn't finished outside of the top 5 for MVP since the 2017-18 season. The only thing I can think of is the fact that you don't see Embiid either, which must mean they don't think Giannis hits the 65-game requirement (only done twice since 2020-21). I guess that's fair, but he did play 73 last year and 67 in 2021-22.

It gets weirder though. When asked a question that has no games played requirement and is an area we always saw Giannis' name be a part of, this year he's nowhere to be found

This is sort of what I mean when I say that Giannis has shifted into this underrated category. I find it a little fucked up to use the Bucks first round playoff loss against Giannis, when Giannis played a total of 0 seconds in that playoff series. Before getting hurt, Giannis had an absolute monster season that in my opinion should hold more weight in this discussion topic

Sorry, but Anthony Edwards is not a better player right now than Giannis. He just isn't. 

I don't want to come off like some sort of Giannis stan or anything like that, I just find it fascinating what's currently happening to a guy with his resume who many still consider one of the best players on the planet. I get it, he hasn't won a single playoff game since Jayson Tatum went into MIL and dropped 46 on Giannis' head in that Game 6 back in 2022 (0-5), but it's not like he's washed up. This is the middle of his NBA prime and he's putting up historic production! Meanwhile, the NBA and basketball world seem to not really give a shit. Players who have achieved much less are being propped up ahead of Giannis which seems a little silly, but maybe this is all just a fatigue thing? Are we so used to Giannis' dominant two-way production that people instead get distracted by the shiny new toy or something? But if that were the case, why isn't that happening with Jokic? It's not like his dominance is all that new.

To me, this is all part of what makes this upcoming season so intriguing. I could argue that outside of the Sixers, no team in the East/NBA has more pressure to make the Finals/win a title than the Bucks. That may sound silly since they won in 2021, but with this current group led by Dame/Giannis, their expectation when they made that trade was to contend for titles. Year 1 was a bit of a disaster even with Giannis' historic production. But now they have a healthy and acclimated Dame, they have a full offseason for Doc, and the roster is supposedly much better around the margins. 

Now you can add an underrated and slighted Giannis to the mix, so if they can't get it done now it makes you wonder if they ever will with this aging core.