NBA Roundup: 3 September takeaways and 3 NBA Finals predictions

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Milwaukee Bucks Mike Budenholzer and Giannis Antetokounmpo (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

NBA September Takeaway: Giannis isn’t ready yet, and that’s okay

Since the 2020 NCAA basketball tournament was canceled, there has been a glaring lack of blind resumes to look at. So, in honor of the 2020 NCAA tournament (RIP), please enjoy this NBA version of the blind resume test comparing three of the best players in NBA history after their age 25 seasons:

Player 1: 2x NBA MVP, 1x Defensive Player of the Year, 4x All-Star, 2x 1st team All-NBA, 2x 2nd team All-NBA, zero championships, zero NBA Finals appearances

Player 2: 1x NBA MVP, 1x Defensive Player of the Year, 5x All-Star, 3x 1st team All-NBA, 1x 2nd team All-NBA, zero championships, zero NBA Finals appearances

Player 3: 2x NBA MVP, zero Defensive Player of Years, 6x All-Star, 4x 1st team All-NBA, 2x 2nd team All-NBA, zero championships, one NBA Finals appearance

If you haven’t figured out where I’m going with this yet, those three players are Giannis, Michael Jordan (age 25), and LeBron James (age 25) respectively. All of them are Hall of Fame players, all of them have similar career accolades to this point, and none of them could win a championship at age 25. You want to know why? Because (almost) no one is the best player on a championship team when they are 25 or younger.

In fact, since 1980, there has only been one player that has been the undisputed best player on a championship team before their 26th birthday. That player was Tim Duncan in 1999 when was 22, and he had a pretty great co-star in David Robinson to help him out. You could argue for Magic Johnson in 1980, 1982, and 1985, but Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was still the best Laker during those seasons in my mind. At best, Magic was the co-best player during those championships, but never the no-doubt best Laker until later in his career.

The point is that being the best player on a championship team is always hard, but history shows it’s almost impossible before you get into your late 20’s. That doesn’t mean Giannis doesn’t deserve criticism and doesn’t need to keep getting better – he does. But before we resort to wondering if he’s “more of a Pippen than an MJ” like some have speculated, let’s remember that if MJ was playing his age 25 season in 2020 we’d be wondering if he was “more of a Pippen” too.