Gilbert Arenas further explains his comment about Giannis Antetokounmpo / News - Basketnews.com

Gilbert Arenas expanded on his previous statements about Giannis Antetokounmpo, claiming that the Greek Freek doesn't yet understand the game within the game and doesn't play extended minutes often.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

Several weeks ago, former NBA player Gilbert Arenas made headlines with his comments about Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Gilbert Arenas

Position:PG, SGAge:40Height:193 cmWeight:98 kgBirth place:Los Angeles, United States of AmericaProfileNewsStatistics

Known as Agent Zero, Arenas questioned the physical and mental preparedness of the Greek Freek, which made Milwaukee Bucks fans and basketball experts alike raise an eyebrow.

Now, the former player decided to explain his comments in further detail in the latest episode of his podcast "No Chill with Gilbert Arenas".

"I go off more of my peers, my peers understand what I try to say sometimes compared to what comes out, " Arenas said. "When I say he hasn't developed, I'm not talking about the physical part. You get that just when you get older, going to the weight room, lifting. he's done a great job on his body."

Later on in the segment, Arenas went on to explain his thinking in more detail.

"When I say 'getting smarter, he doesn't know the game yet', right now, he's playing the game all physical. It's all a physical game for him," the former player continued. "We talk about understanding the rules, we talk about understanding time management, we talk about understanding the game within the game, the mental part of it."

"If he's ranked 1 and 2 just playing physical, what happens when he starts understanding the game within the game? Usually, people are like 'how can you say he doesn't understand the game when he's won a championship'. Ok, that's ok, I get it, he's won a championship playing physical," Arenas explained.

Besides playing physically, Arenas suggests Giannis should strive to be considered the top player in the mental part of the game.

"He's been playing the physical way, we're trying to get him to revert and understand the game how [Michael] Jordan had to. Jordan did not even have to when he did it," he continued. "My thing is this - if he's the number one or two player in the NBA,let's go to the mental side. Is he smarter than Chris Paul? Is he smarter than LeBron James? Is he smarter than [Stephen] Curry, Klay [Thompson], Draymond [Green], Kawhi Leonard, [Nikola[ Jokic, Luka [Doncic]?"

"If he doesn't rank number one in that, that's what I mean. If he ranks there at the end, think about how much he needs to understand the game to be in front of these guys. That's all," the guard concluded.

The most discussed part of the initial comment was that Giannis hasn't fully developed physically. Arenas expanded on this comment as well.

"When I said the in-shape part... If you look at his game time minutes, it would all make sense. In the last 5 years, he only played 40 minutes four times? In the playoffs, he's one-and-five playing over 40 minutes."

"He exerts so much energy that he doesn't know how to get into the whole another level of in-shape," Arenas added. "Last year, he's probably the only superstar that didn't hit 40 minutes in the regular season."

The most Giannis played during the regular season last year was during the game against the Dallas Mavericks while fighting for playoff seeding - 39 minutes and 40 seconds.

In the playoffs, his numbers went up. Antetokounmpo played over 40 minutes once during the First Round series against the Chicago Bulls, and during all four last games in the Conference Semifinal series against the Boston Celtics.

Full Gilbert Arenas segment about Giannis Antetokounmpo:

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