The Milwaukee Bucks are the surprise of the NBA season, overcoming significant injuries to make the playoffs. How does the organization stack up in the major NBA awards?
The Milwaukee Bucks are in a position no one expected on day one of the regular season: They are going to make the playoffs. For Khris Middleton to suffer a severe hamstring tear prior to the season, Jabari Parker to go down with an ACL tear, and recent lottery pick Rashad Vaughn give this team absolutely nothing – and they still make the postseason? No one saw this coming.
The Bucks are not going to sneak into the postseason either, but rather have a shot at the fifth seed and are very unlikely to drop below sixth. This is a team that has claimed victories against the Eastern Conference elite, and has confidence heading past the end of the regular season.
With team success certainly comes individual success, and the end of the regular season brings the start of NBA award season. While the MVP discussion is the dominant point of interest, a number of awards are handed out – and Milwaukee deserves to be involved in a number of them.
Starting with the central award and moving down the list, who is the top candidate on the Bucks for each major award? How do they stack up against the competition? And how many of the awards do Bucks players actually deserve to win?