Milwaukee Bucks: Is Giannis Antetokounmpo the MVP frontrunner?

Now established as one of the league’s biggest stars, is Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo set to enter the 2018-19 season as the MVP frontrunner?

The most important piece of silverware in the NBA is the Larry O’Brien trophy, but as the league’s most important individual award, the Maurice Podoloff trophy reserved for the Most Valuable Player is a comfortable second place in that conversation.

For the Milwaukee Bucks, although only one championship banner will hang in Fiserv Forum next season, the franchise has been lucky enough to boast three MVP wins over the years.

Unsurprisingly, all three of those belong to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who claimed the honor in 1971, 1972 and 1974, and stands out as the undisputed best player ever to suit up for the Bucks.

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Having said that, 45 years on from Milwaukee’s last MVP, the franchise finally has a player who may some day be worthy of similar reverence, and at the very least appears ready to battle for the title of the NBA’s best player right away.

As the Bucks officially opened Fiserv Forum on Sunday, Giannis Antetokounmpo sat alongside Abdul-Jabbar, and in the year to come he may have a realistic chance of emulating some of the brilliance the man known as Cap produced in his time in Milwaukee.

In recent years, debate has swirled about what exactly the criteria is or should be for an MVP winner. What exactly does it represent? How can we measure each player’s value to their team? Is it not just an award for the best player in the league?

The answers to all of those questions remain uncertain, but what’s crystal clear is that the MVP award is all about perception.

Sure, it takes a great season filled with individual brilliance and moments of team triumph to claim the accolade, but that path is paved with a wide range of arbitrary marks. It’s the fact those marks are so arbitrary that allows a narrow field of genuine contenders to emerge on an annual basis, as ultimately the minutiae of points totals, shooting percentages and team success play second fiddle to an even more intangible influence in the decision-making process.

Of course, that guiding invisible hand is narrative.

When Russell Westbrook claimed MVP honors in 2017, he didn’t necessarily win because he averaged a triple-double as much as he won because that impressive, yet still arbitrary, mark hadn’t been matched since Oscar Robertson did it in 1962.

In preparing for the 2018-19 season and the MVP race to come, that idea leaves Antetokounmpo in a position that should leave him filled with confidence. He may still be in the starting blocks, but his performances in the heats that have been the last few seasons have left him with a favorable lane draw.

James Harden picked up his MVP arguably a year too late, and on a Rockets team that may find it tough to replicate last season’s team success, the bar could be incredibly high for Harden to be viewed as doing enough to retain his trophy.

Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant both stand out as obvious contenders, but as two of the NBA’s proven superstars on a juggernaut team that’s expected to blow opponents away, their own paths to that award may well be challenging. Injuries have inhibited both in spells over recent seasons, and even when they do deliver individual brilliance, there’s always a chance that the influence of the other will get some of that credit. Adding DeMarcus Cousins to Klay Thompson and Draymond Green doesn’t make it any more likely for that trend to change.

So, who does that leave or, maybe more accurately, where are the stories?

Having failed to win the award since 2013, LeBron James is certainly long overdue. As he enters the worst situation in terms of roster and team standing that he’s experienced for a long time, funnily enough his chances are on the rise. If James can elevate the young Lakers to contention and win consistently in the stacked Western Conference while maintaining his usual level of performance, he’ll be close to impossible to look past.

Considering the dramas of the last year, Kawhi Leonard makes for another compelling contender. Returning from injury problems (and Uncle Dennis problems), Leonard will be tasked with being the catalyst to finally push one of the NBA’s most consistent “almost” franchises of recent years over the edge, while under the guidance of a first-time NBA head coach.

Anthony Davis certainly has all the credentials to factor into the discussion with his game and skill-set, but on a Pelicans team that’s less talented than it was 12 months ago, the realistic path to that narrative is certainly more challenging.

This is where Antetokounmpo comes in. Not only has the Greek been gradually building his level of individual play up to and beyond being on a par with those contemporaries, but he’s done so while being a part of an underachieving and poorly coached Bucks team.

Coming into the new season, Antetokounmpo will be equipped with the best group of teammates he’s ever played with, the best coaching staff he’s ever played under, and by all means his offseason work in the gym may lead to him coming back better than ever too.

The room for growth in Antetokounmpo’s situation is obvious and attainable, yet it should still come off a lower base of expectations than most of his NBA rivals have to deal with.

Leonard will not only have to adjust to new surroundings while delivering individual performances in line with his reputation, but he’ll be tasked with helping the Raptors to live up to their standards of high win totals too.

James hasn’t missed the playoffs since 2005, yet at almost 34 years old he’ll likely have to do more than he has for years if he’s to drag a group of Lakers misfits back to a postseason berth.

With all of that considered, the question is how far away are the Bucks from 50 wins? It may represent a six-win improvement on last season, but in reality it’s probably only a couple of games off where they could have been with adequate coaching.

Antetokounmpo has defeated the odds of jokes about the length of his name to become a household name among NBA fans, and he’ll be afforded even greater exposure than any Buck has had for a long, long time with the team scheduled for 18 national TV appearances this season.

With a fanbase energized by a positive young team heading in the right direction, and a new arena that could be rocking to Antetokounmpo’s whim on a nightly basis, the ingredients are all there for a special season.

At 23 years old, Antetokounmpo’s hard work and ability has placed him firmly in the conversation of the NBA’s best players, but he may also now have all of the other factors working in his favor to set up a genuine MVP push.

There are a number of long waits which Bucks fans are eagerly awaiting the end of, but if the wait for an MVP win was to be put behind Milwaukee, they should be well on their way to setting a number of those other landmark droughts tumbling too.