The sample sizes are small one week in, but Giannis Antetokounmpo has been huge. The Milwaukee Bucks have the early MVP frontrunner leading the way.
The Milwaukee Bucks are tied for first place in the Eastern Conference, and their leading scorer has been the reason why. Giannis Antetokounmpo has been as good as anyone could have hoped for, and is the early frontrunner for the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award.
There are plenty of other players across the league that are standing out. Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid are balling out in Philadelphia. The usual suspects in LeBron James, Stephen Curry and James Harden are putting up huge lines. Even Mike James is channeling the spirit of that other “MJ” for the Phoenix Suns.
But no player is making the impact of Antetokounmpo, who is leading his team in seemingly every category yet again. Antetokounmpo is leading the Bucks in points, rebounds, assists and steals this season — the only such player in the league to do so.
Offensively the fifth-year player is imposing his will on other teams, despite a continued reluctance to launch from long range. Just 1-for-6 from beyond the arc, Antetokounmpo is a dominant 58-for-88 (65.9 percent) inside the arc. Add in another 30 free throws and the Milwaukee forward has a 69.6 true shooting percentage, en route to a league-leading 36.8 points per game.
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While that incredible scoring average is sure to come down, Antetokounmpo’s role doesn’t have to. He’s been finishing possessions at a rate far greater than ever before, and the Bucks seem very interested in keeping it that way. His usage rate of 35.5 leads the league, and would easily be a career high.
That combination of usage and efficiency is why he leads the league in scoring despite just one triple. His points per shot attempt (PSA), which refers to how many points he would score given 100 shot attempts, leads all non-bigs at 142.7 per cleaningtheglass.
Not simply focused on his own point totals, Antetokounmpo has also been key in getting his teammates involved. He assists on 28 percent of his teammates’ made baskets while on the floor, in the 95th percentile for wings, and his 5.3 assists per game are fifth-most among non-guards.
While many players see a drop-off defensively while shouldering such a large offensive burden, Antetokounmpo has been dialed in on both ends of the court. His 2.3 steals per game ranks fifth in the league, and he ranks in the top-25 in blocks per game.
The Greek Freak also leads all wings in rebounding with 10.8 per game, and his 9.0 defensive rebounds per game ranks fifth among all players. While on the court he rebounds 22 percent of opponents’ missed baskets, which leads all wing players.
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This combination of offensive and defensive impact has translated to team success, as the Bucks are currently tied for first place in the Eastern Conference at 3-1. This is despite a difficult schedule to start, which has seen Milwaukee face four straight teams expected to make the playoffs. Their only loss was to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and otherwise they have wins over the Boston Celtics, Portland Trail Blazers and Charlotte Hornets.
There are four factors that go into any player’s MVP candidacy. His play offensively, defensively and his team’s success are all excellent. On top of those, Giannis Antetokounmpo is also capturing the narrative.
Prior to the season he was already gathering narrative points, with multiple publications serving as journalistic hype-men for the season he could have. Entering the season he was discussed as a popular “dark horse” MVP candidate, which meant voters were prepared for this possibility.
Antetokounmpo has been brilliant in important situations as well. In the Bucks’ season opener he scored 37 points, including 16 in the fourth quarter to lead his team to victory. At the end of the game he flexed his passing ability, and teammate Matthew Dellavedova drained the game-sealing 3-pointer.
In a tight game against the Portland Trail Blazers, he made huge plays on offense and defense to carry them to victory. Antetokounmpo became the first player in at least 10 years to have a steal, a block and a go-ahead field goal in the final 30 seconds of a game. He finished with a career-high 44 points on just 23 shots.
There is still plenty of basketball to be played, and other players will make their names known in the MVP discussion. Anything from injuries to cold shooting to team failures could sink Antetokounmpo’s case as well.
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But four games in it would have been nearly impossible to put together a better resume. The league’s rising superstar is showing the entire world that he is taking yet another step forward. For anyone not paying attention, he has now seized their focus. All eyes are on Giannis Antetokounmpo to see what he could possibly do next.