NBA DPOY Power Rankings, No. 3: Giannis Antetokoumpo, Milwaukee Bucks
Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks are playing unreal since coming back from break. Giannis is certainly making a push for MVP and could steal this award by the time it’s all said and done. Giannis might be playing the best stretch of basketball in his career and is also making a last-minute push for Defensive Player of the Year. If he can replicate his March player for the rest of the year, it’ll be hard to argue against him.
Antetokoumpo hasn’t had much drop off from last year, where he won his first Defensive Player of the Year award. Giannis is currently averaging 1.3 blocks, 1.2 steals and 11.6 rebounds per game- but it gets more impressive than that. His overall Defensive Plus-Minus is in the 96 percentile, and his Rim Defense generates a -10 percent field goal drop. This makes sense just watching the Bucks play basketball lately, with Giannis being either a primary on-ball defender or using his long wingspan to play safety in the middle of the defense.
Milwaukee, who struggled early in the season adjusting to more of a switch defense, looks like they’re finally rounding in the shape. The current starting lineup with Giannis along with Khris Middleton, Robin Lopez, Donte DiVincenzo, and Jrue Holiday is only giving up a defensive rating of 103.9. Teams are just having a miserable time scoring lately when the Greek Freak has his full supporting cast.
Giannis’ on-off stats continue to paint a picture of dominance. When he’s on the floor this season, Milwaukee has held opponents to 109.5 offensive rating (6th in the league)- when Giannis is off the floor, opponents are scoring at 115.3 rating (24th in the league).
It’s full steam ahead for Milwaukee at the moment, and Giannis might just swipe this award away from the others.