In a terrifying development for the league, Giannis Antetokounmpo keeps knocking down threes for Milwaukee Bucks

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If you have spent any time at all watching a Milwaukee Bucks game over the past few seasons you've heard it.

Try as they might, it's proven to be physically impossible for basketball analysts to avoid the temptation. 

"If Giannis ever gets a consistent jumpshot, it's over!"

Well, in a terrifying development for the league, the reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo is taking and making more threes than he has at any point in his career, though, if you've been paying attention, this isn't a totally new development.

Last season, Antetokounmpo went 40-for-125 from beyond the arc after the turn of the new year. Those numbers equated to a very respectable 32 percent on 3.1 attempts per game.

Those numbers may have been all the indication we needed that Antetokounmpo was going to take steps towards becoming a legitimately respectable shooter from deep in 2019-20, and the early returns suggest it could be the case.

Antetokounmpo poured in 26 points in Milwaukee's 102-83 win over the Indiana Pacers, adding 13 rebounds and six assists, while burying three of his six shots from deep.

The three made triples continued what is the first legitimate volume hot streak of outside shooting for Antetokounmpo, as he is now 12-for-27 (44 percent) over his last five games on an incredible 5.4 attempts a night.

Since the day Milwaukee hired Mike Budenholzer as the coach of the franchise, Antetokounmpo and everyone involved with the Bucks have preached confidence in the MVP's outside shot, and it's clearly paid dividends, with the often witnessed hesitation from the outside during the Jason Kidd era evaportating with each appearance.

An illustration of this came at the end of the first quarter against the Pacers, with the Bucks holding possession with just 5.3 seconds left. George Hill inbounded the ball to Antetokounmpo, who then casually strolled up the court, as if oblivious of the clock winding down. Pacers big man Jakarr Sampson cautiously back peddled as Antetokounmpo approached, clearly hesitant to overplay and allow him to euro-step his way to the rack.

Antetokounmpo seized advantage of the seperation, cooly pulling up and draining a long range bomb. 

This play was meaningful, because for years we have watched Antetokounmpo go the length of the floor with reckless abandon at the end of quarters, often finishing with a miraculous lay-up or dunk the defies belief. Now, he doesn't feel he needs to go to extraordinary lengths to get Milwaukee a bucket towards the end of a quarter, and it's hard to put into words how monumental this development would be for Milwaukee if it becomes the norm.

Perhaps the most interesting point of note with Antetokounmpo's improving three-ball is the shot location.

Antetokounmpo has attempted just one three from the corner, with his other 49 attempts coming from above the break. Last season, just nine of his 200 outside attempts came from the corner, a curious data point when you consider most developing outside shooters start in the corners and work out, though, one that makes sense in this case, when you consider the Milwaukee offence generally begins and ends with the ball in his hands as he threatens to go down hill for his latest poster dunk.

On current pace, Antetokounmpo is projected to knock down 91 triples on the season if he were to play 70 games, which would eviscerate his previous season-high of 52 in 2018-19.

Antetokounmpo currently holds a three-point percentage higher than teammates, Brook Lopez, Wes Matthews, Ersan Ilyasova, Pat Connaughton and Eric Bledsoe.

It's still too soon to declare Giannis Antetokounmpo a consistent shooter from three-point territory, and there will be cold stretches in the future. Though, that time appears to be definitively approaching, perhaps quickly, and should we really be surprised? All Antetokounmpo has done since entering the league is improve and this may well be the latest string to his bow.

If it is, then what? Are those analysts right? Is it indeed over?