Antetokounmpo set to be crowned NBA MVP ahead Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid
Heading into next month’s playoffs, no player is more feared than Giannis Antetokounmpo
With Nigeria-born NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic all putting up superlative seasons, the MVP race has moved beyond Basketball Reference stat sheets and entered thornier, more abstract territory.
Jokic’s case is predicated on his historically good advanced stats; Embiid, closing in on his second consecutive scoring title, is probably due to win MVP one of these years.
The argument for Bucks superstar Antetokounmpo’s MVP case, though, is considerably simpler and more convincing: he’s the best player in the world.
While the MVP race has always been divorced from the larger “best player” discussion (otherwise, Lebron James and Michael Jordan would each have at least 10 apiece), but that doesn’t mean that the two are totally unrelated.
Heading into next month’s playoffs, no player is more feared than Giannis Antetokounmpo (besides maybe Kevin Durant, whose injuries have more or less disqualified him from the MVP discussion). He’s among the NBA’s best scorers (31.1 points per game, fifth most in the league) and most dominant defenders (tied for third-best odds to win Defensive Player of the year, according to FanDuel).
More than that, Antetokounmpo’s season fits the rough narrative contours of a “traditional” NBA MVP season. Like Jokic in 2021 and 2022, Antetokounmpo has almost single-handedly hoisted his team into contention, keeping the Milwaukee Bucks aloft even as they’ve dealt with a succession of minor injury crises.
The Bucks offense only works because of Antetokounmpo—their 118.54 offensive rating with Antetokounmpo on the court is equivalent to the NBA’s sixth-best attack; their 111.78 mark without him would rank amongst the five worst totals in the NBA.
This is value in the most important and obvious sense—whereas Jokic and Embiid benefit from playing alongside elite offensive players like James Harden, Tyrese Maxey, Tobias Harris, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., and Aaron Gordon, only two other Bucks average more than 15 points per game.
While Antetokounmpo, Jokic and Embiid have all had unassailably great offensive seasons, Antetokounmpo holds a clear edge defensively. Jokic is merely an okay defender and Embiid is a very good one, but Antetokounmpo is potentially the single best defender alive.
Having made five consecutive All-Defense teams (the most recent four of which were First Team All-Defense), Antetokounmpo is hurtling towards his sixth straight nod—even as Antetokounmpo plays alongside two other outstanding defenders in Brook Lopez and Jrue Holiday, he remains the Bucks’ most dependable and important player.
He’s equal parts safety and cornerback, equally adept at suffocating scorers on-ball as he is prowling the weakside to erase potential lobs and open threes. It’s his coiled, calculated aggression that makes Milwaukee’s entire defensive scheme sing—the other four Bucks are able to stay out of rotation and keep the defense structurally sound because Antetokounmpo can make every rotation for them.
In this sense, Antetokounmpo is flawless in ways that Jokic and Embiid are not. Unlike Jokic, Antetokounmpo is an elite scorer and defender—Antetokounmpo scores more than six points per game more than Jokic and is an incalculably better defender.
Unlike Embiid, Antetokounmpo plays for a legitimate title contender (the Milwaukee Bucks are 52-20, two games ahead of any other team) and doesn’t split the limelight with another All-NBA caliber player like James Harden.
This isn’t a difficult debate if you don’t want it to be: Giannis Antetokounmpo is the best player on the best team who doubles as the single best player in the league overall. He’s the NBA MVP.
