Nno one talks about Giannis Antetokounmpo for the MVP. Nikola Jokic y Joel Embiid they have monopolized the debate in recent months… I myself wrote a few lines about it. There was a time when the NBA, in its eagerness to open up the league to continue selling the product better than anyone else, decided to democratize an award like the MVP of the season and not give full value to who has been the best player of a season.
happened to LeBron James when he saw how Derrick Rose He interrupted his reign in 2011 and it could happen again to the Greek this season in which the names of Jokic or Embiid are more common to win the crown. A third MVP for Giannis Antetokounmpo in five years would be very boring, but if he deserves it, what are we going to do?
The Serb and the Franco-Cameroonian, two legitimate candidates, but who They have not had a better season than the Greek. It is what a product of such quality has, that we get spoiled very easily to them and soon we forget its true value and even we underestimate its real dimension. And something like this happens to us with an Antetokounmpo that we often ignore (“Nobody cares about us, nobody cares about us,” said the Greek last year) because we turn the extraordinary into the usual. And it shouldn’t be like that. At Marca we analyze Giannis’s more than solid candidacy for the MVP.
an unstoppable force
Antetokounmpo, a man with two MVP trophies at home, has fallen somehow to third in many of these discussions. He is averaging 31.1 points, 11.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game., the best mark of his career, and his Bucks are the best team in the league (53-21). The ‘Greek Freak’ continues to be an unstoppable force on offense and defense. He is relentless in his attacks in transition (9.5 points, best in the league) and defending can singlehandedly destroy a possession with its agility and length. Even when he’s not shooting well, he leaves his mark on the game.
A comprehensive, full version of a player who still has room to be more dominant: better. Off the track has been a serene, humble and careful leader with every detail, attentive to everything he could do to help his companions. Inside her he’s taken a giant leap, and he’s done it without having to develop the vaunted exterior shot of her. On the contrary, he has reduced his attempts (along with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the only player to average +30 points with less than a three-pointer scored per game) and has dedicated less, just enough, to directing attacks by striking from the outside and launching against the defensive walls that their rivals build.
This play defines what Giannis Antetokounmpo is:
He always tries, he always hits; play without fear of failure, without thinking about what they will say or what will happen in the next attack. play to win. And that is why he has won and, surely, he will win more in the future. Again, big. And really, when you strip everything else out and consider the basic questions of “who’s the best player in the world?” or “who is the rival you don’t want to face in the Playoffs?”, Antetokounmpo seems to be the correct answer.
Less efficiency and less defensive responsibility
Yes, Antetokounmpo is scoring a lot of points, but its efficiency has decreased compared to previous years (60.4 in TS%, the lowest in the last five years). He’s a significantly worse shooter from distance than Jokic and Embiid, and his percentage of success in free throws has fallen to 64.7%.
Antetokounmpo is critical to Milwaukee’s defensive successbut is in an ideal situation with Jrue Holiday y Jevon Carter bothering the rival point guards and Brook Lopez (DPOY favorite) annoying shots all over the court. Plus the Crowder, Bobby Portis, Middleton…Again, we shouldn’t penalize a player for having good or bad teammates. However, when it comes to differentiating them, you have to take into account the amount of liability on each end. The defensive framework of the Budenholzer is the second best in the league (109,9 en deffensive rating), behind the Cleveland Cavaliers.
There’s also a notable minute difference between Antetokounmpo and his competitors. has played 1,901 total minutes this seasonin front of the Embiid’s 2,117 and the Jokic’s 2,238. If Milwaukee rests him before the playoffs, that gap could increase.
Giannis Antetokounmpo dunking on Indiana’s defense
At the top of the cusp of NBA stardom there is a highly exclusive category restricted to a handful of privileged people.. Each era has had its own. Sometimes that peak has housed a larger number and other times it has been smaller. The conditions to be part of this club are various, but it could be summarized by emphasizing the historical significance of the playerBoth looking to the past and thinking to the future. In other words, that figure is the measure of all things in their context, the individual with whom the rest is compared and is compared. In short, the hegemonic personality of a period.
For quite some time now Giannis Antetokounmpo is the representative of his timeunseating LeBron James and Stephen Curry for the top of the league in this regard. The level of continued and sustained excellence of the Greek seems to be endless.a fact that reinforces his status as the best player in the current NBA.
