Milwaukee Bucks: Looking ahead to potentially momentous NBA Awards
By Adam McGee
Defensive Player of the Year
Perhaps the most high profile award of the night that the Bucks may not end up with a winner in, Giannis Antetokounmpo still has more than a fighting chance of walking away with the Defensive Player of the Year award.
Antetokounmpo’s fellow finalists for DPOY are Paul George, and the reigning holder and favorite to retain the award, Rudy Gobert.
Antetokounmpo’s case as a focal point for the league’s best defense is a strong one, although it remains to be seen whether he’ll be unfairly punished for sharing the floor with other high caliber defenders, such as All-Defensive First Team selection Eric Bledsoe.
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Combining Antetokounmpo’s counting stats and advanced stats certainly offers up a strong case, though, as does the fact he’s a dramatically more versatile defender than Gobert and is therefore tasked with taking on a more varied range of assignments on a nightly basis.
Perhaps Giannis’ chances of an upset will be boosted if voters watched the Bucks’ games against the Jazz this season, as in those two meetings Antetokounmpo tore through Gobert to get whatever he wanted offensively, while also severely limiting the Frenchman on the other end.
If Antetokounmpo was to win, he’d become just the second Buck to take away the award, joining Sidney Moncrief, who won it twice. A potential Defensive Player of the Year and MVP double could also see Giannis join Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players to win both of those awards in the same season.