Sixers MVP ladder: Can Joel Embiid overcome injury?

NBA MVP candidate #3: Giannis Antetokounmpo

Frankly, the general NBA fandom has underrated Giannis Antetokounmpo this season. Perhaps it’s voter fatigue. He has won two MVPs in a row, and the Bucks are in third place, not first place. That said, MVP is currently a three-horse race if we are to disqualify Embiid on the basis of games played. Giannis is one of those three horses.

The rangy 7-footer has done all the things we have come to expect from arguably the best two-way player in basketball. Giannis is (or should be) a shoo-in for first team All-Defense, he’s scoring as efficiently as ever, and he continues to improve the ancillary aspects of his game.

Antetokounmpo covers more ground defensively than just about any NBA player. He does the same offensively, galloping ahead of and around defenders in transition, or using his long strides to snake into the paint and collapse the defense. In 43 games, he is averaging 28.4 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 6.3 assists on .556/.303/.679 shooting splits. Those are MVP numbers.

The Bucks still have plenty of time to claim the No. 1 seed with a good stretch of basketball. They are one of three clear contenders in the East, and despite some uncommon inconsistencies for a regular season Mike Budenholzer team, there is no way around Antetokounmpo’s wide-ranging impact on both sides of the ball.