NBA: Top 10 candidates for 2019-20 Defensive Player of the Year

There are things Giannis Antetokounmpo doesn’t do well on a basketball court, most notably shoot from 3-point range.

But he checks just about all of the other available boxes and defense is certainly high on that list.

Steals? Antetokounmpo averaged 1.3 per game last season. Need a shot blocked? Giannis did that 1.5 times a night last year. Defensive boards? Try 10.3 per game, a 27.3 percent rate that was eighth-best in the NBA.

Antetokounmpo is the reigning NBA MVP, but he also added a second All-Defensive selection — and his first time being on the first team — last season.

He defends every position on the court, a daunting proposition from a guy who is now 6-foot-11, up to 242 pounds and owns a 7-foot-3 wingspan.

Big, long, quick … he’s reminiscent of what was said of the old center fielder for the Philadelphia Phillies, Garry Maddox, only in a basketball sense: Three-quarters of the earth is covered by water, the rest by Giannis.

As he becomes a more experienced player, his ability to hedge and help improves and that makes him even more valuable in the scheme of things defensively for the Milwaukee Bucks.

They already have a solid rim protector in Brook Lopez and Antetokounmpo gives them another guy who can swat away shots.

But he can also shut down guys on the wing and, in a pinch, is athletic enough to make a point guard’s vision … difficult.

If he ever does master the touch from beyond the arc, he might be the closest thing to illegal the game has seen.