Milwaukee Bucks: Giannis Antetokounmpo is the best player in the East

With LeBron James‘ move to the Lakers, Giannis Antetokounmpo is the Eastern Conference’s best player and the Milwaukee Bucks have a golden opportunity.

All it took was a surprisingly simple and understated press release to be shared on Twitter on Sunday night, and everything had changed for the Milwaukee Bucks and the rest of the Eastern Conference.

Outside of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who had lost LeBron James to the Lakers, there arguably wasn’t another Eastern Conference team whose situation changed quite so much in an instant as the Bucks, though.

The path to the Eastern Conference Finals will become easier without James, and the East’s representative in the Finals won’t include him for the first time since 2010. That certainly moves the Bucks up the pecking order, but still places them behind the Boston Celtics and likely the Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors too.

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What the Bucks have that those teams don’t, though, is the best player in the Eastern Conference. With James’ departure, Giannis Antetokounmpo can confidently carry that mantle.

Considering last season’s stats of players currently set to play in the East in the coming year, Antetokounmpo ranked first in points per game, fourth in rebounds per game, 13th in assists per game, 10th in steals per game and fifth in blocks per game. That’s an undoubtedly crude measure, but it does highlight how Antetokounmpo impacts the game on both ends of the floor. The ability to do just that was a staple of James’ dominance over the conference for the majority of the decade.

Outside of Antetokounmpo, only DeMar DeRozan has made consecutive All-NBA Teams of current Eastern Conference players too.

Antetokounmpo has already weighed in, implying his thoughts on the shift in power in the East, following up on a tweet from Skip Bayless declaring Joel Embiid had taken up James’ place in the conference.

Having placed second only to James in All-Star voting and jersey sales in the conference last season, Antetokounmpo will likely rise to the top of those rankings. The Greek’s stardom will continue to rise, but the 23-year-old’s work ethic leaves little reason to believe the level of his play won’t take a jump too.

The route to individual honors such as MVP would seem much clearer playing in a conference with significantly lesser competition, but the opportunities the shift presents the Bucks as a franchise are rare too.

To find the last time the Bucks had the best player in their conference, you’d have to go back to the teams led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the early 70s. Even that situation was arguably more fluid, though, as Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain occasionally stole control of the Western Conference in the twilight years of their career.

Of course, Antetokounmpo will have competition in the form of Embiid, Ben Simmons, Kyrie Irving, DeRozan, Victor Oladipo and John Wall, but he has the edge on those players at present. Consistency, health and contributions on both ends of the floor all favor Antetokounmpo among that group.

Even more interesting, the next generation of stars aren’t necessarily on the rise in the East either. Four of the top-five picks in last month’s NBA Draft will be playing in the West next season, joining other young stars such as Donovan Mitchell, Devin Booker and Nikola Jokic.

The Bucks could certainly be in a better position to take advantage of the opportunity they now have, but Antetokounmpo alone means the door remains wide open for them to walk through.

Milwaukee has consistently underachieved in the past couple of seasons, and the belief from within the organization appears to be that there are significant strides to be made from improved coaching and internal development under Mike Budenholzer.

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If they’re proven to be right, a path to the top of the Eastern Conference is realistically attainable for the first time since 2001. Achieving that or even dreaming of anything beyond it will take greater consistency and dramatically improved decision-making, but with LeBron’s reign in the East at an end and Giannis’ potentially just beginning; the Bucks have a golden opportunity.