To me, Kevin Garnett is the best possible comparison to Giannis as a player. Both are big, mobile, uber versatile forwards who defend at the highest level and whose all around games only amplify their excellence. That being said, Giannis has already accomplished so much in the league that to me, the 8 years of Giannis that we’ve had the privilege to watch have made him a greater player than the 21 years of Garnett. 

First things first, let’s get the obvious out of the way: yes, Garnett was the better shooter out of the 2. He came into the league with a sweet midrange jumper, whereas Giannis’ has gotten better but is still not close to KG’s smooth J (Giannis over the last 5 years has hit about 36% of his midrange attempts, KG was consistently around 44-45%). Giannis however is a better shooter from 3 than KG was. It’s not like KG couldn’t hit a 3, but he never shot them as much nor made them as much as Giannis does. 

As far as accomplishments go, obviously KG has the longevity in his favor as Giannis is just now peaking as a player and has a decade or so of basketball left to play. However, where the big boy awards come in, Giannis has the edge. They both have a championship, but Giannis was the only one to walk away with the Finals MVP. They both have a DPOY award and an all star MVP, but Giannis has 2 regular season MVPs to KG’s 1.

And to me, the nail in the coffin is this: I’m going to compare the per 75 possessions stats of Giannis’ last 5 years to KG’s best career 5 year stretch (2003-2007)

Giannis 2017-2021 (per 75 poss)

28.6 PPG 11.8 RPG 5.9 APG 1.4 SPG 1.5 BPG 5.6 relative TS

Garnett 2003-2007 (per 75 poss)

23.2 PPG 13.6 RPG 5.1 APG 1.4 SPG 1.7 BPG 3.1 relative TS

Obviously, these numbers are very close. Personally, I would give the edge to Giannis but its a virtual toss up. The reason I think this table is the nail in the coffin is because Giannis’ best years still may not have happened yet, he was only really in his prime for 3 out of these 5 years, whereas in KG’s case, these 5 years were his absolute peak. Now, in no way am I trying to diminish Garnett’s all time status, to me he was the 2nd best power forward of all time behind only Timmy D… this is just how good Giannis has been.

What’d you guys think? Has Giannis already surpassed KG on the all time list in your eyes, and if not, does it just come down to time before he officially does?