Why Giannis Antetokounmpo should be the 2021-22 MVP front-runner

Why Giannis Antetkounmpo should be NBA MVP front-runner: 2. He’s a force to be reckoned with

The rest of the field may be overvalued, but that doesn’t mean Giannis Antetokounmpo needs a handicap to win MVP. It’s an individual award, but it takes a village to raise an MVP trophy, and these Milwaukee Bucks have helped him there before.

Antetokounmpo’s numbers are tamped down because his Bucks are so dominant that he tends to find himself playing fewer minutes per game than many other candidates. Last season he played an average of 33.0, but two seasons ago in his second of two back-to-back MVP campaigns, he played just 30.4 minutes per game.

The Bucks are good enough that they’re almost certain to be a top two or three seed in the Eastern Conference if they take the regular season seriously at all, easily satisfying the award’s team-quality requirements. As for Antetokounmpo himself, while his team wins games by comfortable margins almost every night, whether he plays 30 minutes or 33 minutes per game, he’ll continue to put up absurd stat lines every time out.

It shouldn’t even be close, Giannis Antetokounmpo should be the clear MVP front-runner.