Bruno Caboclo is STEALING moves from Giannis. He’s not just borrowing them or using them. He’s STEALING them and he should give them back. Those are Giannis’ moves and other players aren’t allowed to execute them in games. In practice – fine. In summer pickup games – okay. But in real life NBA games? Giannis holds the copyrights, trademarks, and patents on those moves. Fancy spins, bigtime dunks, powerful drives to the basket, jumpshots that look like they were shot by a baby giraffe with muscular dystrophy, all of those are the sole domain of the Greek Freak himself. Brazilian Freaks cannot co-opt those moves for themselves.
All that said, the fact that Bruno can pull off those moves with nearly the same amount of grace as Giannis is good news for fans who never gave up on Bruno, even when it seemed like he wasn’t ever going to make it in the NBA. Their unwavering belief in the skinny Brazilian kid who repeatedly failed to stick on NBA rosters is now being validated. I can’t say that I was one of those believers (because there are a lot, like, A LOT, of players who look nice but simply aren’t NBA material), but I am now of the opinion that Bruno can, at the very least, have a decent career as a fan-favorite bench player. And his ceiling? A combination of the best attributes of Leandro Barbosa and Nene. Times two.
You know who else could a bench player in the NBA right now but isn’t? Vitor Faverani. Bring him back and give Brazilians another reason to be excited by the NBA again. Pair him with Bruno somewhere and watch jersey sales of that team go up 200% overnight.