Bucks News: Rival All-Star Slams Giannis Antetokounmpo's Big Weakness

Feb 25, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) drives with the ball as Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun (28) defends during the fourth quarter at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

The highly competitive EuroBasket tournament recent came to a close — with a Dennis Schroder-led Germany ousting Turkey in the final by a score of 88-83.

Prior to that contest, Turkey beat Greece in the semifinals by a score of 94-68. The game was never in question, and the Turkish side did a brilliant job in slowing down Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Greek Freak scored only 12 points in 29 minutes. He only took 13 shots and was a -30 for the contest.

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The score did indicate pure domination from Turkey. A smaller sub-story coming from the result was via a quote given by Houston Rockets star big man Alperen Sengun.

"He's an amazing player, you know, but he's not a great passer."

- Alperen Sengun on Giannis Antetokounmpo

(h/t @BasketNews_com )

pic.twitter.com/3q1qwTtfzC

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) September 13, 2025

In the wake of his team's victory, Sengun offered an interesting quote pertaining to Antetokounmpo and the strategy Turkey employed. While likely unintentional, there was a bit of a dig thrown towards the Bucks star.

"We just put [Ercan Osmani] on him and we help [defend] as much as we can. [Osmani] did a great job today," Sengun reflected, per BasketNews. "Giannis is one of the best players in the world, and we just tried to help [Osmani] and I think we did a good job. He's not a great passer. He's an amazing player, but he's not a great passer. We just try to help and jump to close the paint."

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Sengun likely shouldn't speak too much on the passing element. From a career standpoint, Antetokounmpo is more established than Sengun in that category specifically as the stats show below.

Stathead

However, the point also is an interesting one. Milwaukee is going into this season without a true point guard. Kevin Porter Jr. and Cole Anthony are more combo guards rather than pure facilitators. As such, there's a real world where Antetokounmpo is going to be play a point forward role as he's done in the past.

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Getting his teammates involved will be paramount for a frontcourt-heavy roster. Much of the attention understandably will be on him, and as such wing/guard teammates will get open looks.

It'll be imperative for Antetokounmpo to get them the rock when he's being hounded by the opposition — or even when the opposing team is playing off of him with the hopes that he'll settle for a perimeter shot rather than driving the ball into the paint.

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